The first time HG ever dined in a Japanese restaurant was in 1958. The restaurant was Suehiro, a tiny room near Columbia University. It was one of two Japanese restaurants in New York (the other was in the East 20’s). There were no sushi or ramen eateries in this very cosmopolitan city. HG’s Suehiro meal consisted of miso soup (with some tiny cubes of tofu), beef sukiyaki cooked table side in an electric pan by a kimono clad waitperson. Sliced orange for dessert. A pot of hot green tea. The check was laughably small and the satisfaction was great. HG was hooked. Never tasted sushi until the 1960’s when the first sushi bar opened in the West 40’s. First taste didn’t impress. But, subsequent visits made HG a raw fish convert. Now, of course, New York has scores of Japanese restaurants specializing in everything from fried chicken to curry to traditional Japanese pub food. The choices for sushi and ramen are limitless — from small dive joints to $800 omakase feasts at one of the city’s most exclusive sushi emporiums. HG is bemused at the fact that Japanese restaurants now vastly outnumber Jewish delicatessens (there are less than ten) in Manhattan. HG/BSK delighted in the food they consumed in Tokyo and Osaka (HG/BSK were in Japan some ten years ago for the marriage of SJ and Exquisite Maiko). SJ and EM guided HG/BSK through the vast food markets in the two cities. There were visits to a delightful sake bar and stops for grilled chicken and pork, fried balls of chopped octopus and much more. Slurped a lot of memorable ramen. One of the benefits of having a Japanese daughter-in-law (besides her production with assistance of SJ of Haru and Teru, HG/BSK’s wonderful grandkids) is cuisine. EM is HG/BSK’s favorite cook. As HG has noted in many posts, EM produces the world’s best tempura, robust stews and soups and life enhancing seafood. Her meals at SJ/EM’s Brooklyn home or in the family Prince Edward Island ocean front paradise are among life’s most joyous occasions.
Between 1961 and 1963 I went to that little place 3 or 4 times. It was in a house, like a brownstone on 29th about a block from Madison Ave. (my memory may be foggy after nearly 60 years) but I sure remember the electric fry pans….what a hoot!
I’m wondering if anyone remembers a Japanese restaurant from the early 70s that was in the lobby of a building on the west side, maybe just west of 6th Avenue somewhere in the 50s. It was a very simple homely place that I believe served mostly sashimi, in fact, mostly tuna sashimi. I think it was in the lobby of an apartment building, but it could have been a hotel. It may have been an early version of Hide — a second-floor sushi place that survived for many years in the west 50s. Trying to find someone who remembers this place has been driving me nuts for years. Sorry, I’m old.
Sorry you’re old? Hey, you are alive and thinking about Japanese food. Be grateful.