The night before Christmas at Kata Robata
Last night I was reading this manga, Oishii Kankei (“Delicious Relationship”), and two things there reminded me of my family: a family of three who love to eat out and explore new restaurants, and the girl who can’t cook (but she has a better sense of taste than me, it’s a story after all ;-)). I also got reminded of a ton of Japanese food, although the main plot revolves around French cuisine and a fictional restaurant in Tokyo called Petit Lapin (“Little Rabbit”). I’ve been in the mood for something comforting, and Little Mom wants to have some Japanese food that isn’t sushi, so we decided on Kata Robata for our Christmas Eve. Actually Oanh recommended this place to me just before my flight to Houston, and I trust her when it comes to the Land of the Rising Sun. My dad’s opinion today? He had to come whether he wanted to or not. That’s Beauty #27 of a family of three: odd number makes decisions come easy. 😉
Thank goodness, he liked it here. Or should I say, he *loved* the kakuni don.
The rice, wet with the runny yolk of a 60-degree soft-boiled, was aptly seasoned by the rich sauce of the sweetly soy-braised slow-cooked pork belly (kakuni). The kakuni was a tad too fatty, but the seasoning strikes home just right. Little Mom fancied the juicy shiitake, and Mai the crunchy pickled radish. A little something for everyone makes the don truly comfort food.
The cold plate. At first they hesitated (Vietnamese don’t like things raw), but the American Kobe beef carpaccio charmed The Parents at first bite. They said it’s the thinness of the slices, whose texture reminded me of salmon sashimi, but I think it’s the olive oil dressing and the yuzu juice.
The yakitori, too, was surprisingly fish-like in texture. But yakitori is yakitori, nothing you can’t make at home.
Brought forth at the same time with the yakitori was the fois gras and unagi. At first I was debating between this and the miso-crusted bone marrow, but Little Mom, an eel fan, cast her vote on the former, which also has bone marrow, in powder form. The accompanying pickled apple and the huckleberry sauce were more high school cheerleaders than Broadway stars. That big fat slab of foie gras needed some searing and slicing to pair with the delicate unagi. But the bone marrow powder was rather perfect: it had the salty richness of katsuobushi, the creamy innocence of feta cheese, and the fluffy, melting texture of snow.
The starter didn’t arrive until almost the end (it would have been the end if we didn’t also order a shoyu ramen). But it was well worth the wait. Little Mom placed this uni chawanmushi top of tonight’s dinner mainly for its yuzu egg custard and ginkgo nuts. The chicken and shrimp bits were not too necessary, but the uni was fresh.
And a bowl of noodle soup to wash everything down. The broth erred on the salty side but the charsiu pork was perfect. No menma (bamboo shoot), and the noodles were more straight than curly. It’s a hearty bowl and just fatty enough to make Dad happy. 😉
For dessert, our host tried to lure us into either a fancy chocolate roll (with coffee cream, red bean puree and lemon gel) or a liquid-nitrogened white chocolate namelaka (with green tea streusel and huckleberry curd), but I insisted on the December 24 special: black sesame panna cotta, topped with mango sorbet, candied sesame, sesame soil, and ginger foam. I’ve never had any bad sesame treats, and this springy, fragrant, sweet but mild one is another triumph. The mango sorbet is bit tart like a puffy porcupine: it’s from a real fresh mango (yes, as opposed to a fake one).
I think we’ve done pretty well covering all bases: rice, noodle, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, from street to posh, from East to West. What does this dinner have to do with Oishii Kankei? Nothing. I just wanted to mention a manga worth reading for food fans.
How many stars for this restaurant? Like Imamura-san said about Petit Lapin: One. The food is good. 🙂
Address: Kata Robata
3600 Kirby Dr. Suite H
Houston, TX 77098
(713) 526-8858
The damage: dinner for 3 – $84.44
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we communicate?
1Thanks for helping out, wonderful information. “I have witnessed the softening of the hardest of hearts by a simple smile.” by Goldie Hawn.
2Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people consider worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
3Just wanna comment on few general things, The website layout is perfect, the subject matter is rattling fantastic. “The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.” by Earl Riney.
4I likewise think thence, perfectly composed post! .
5Thank you for publishing such great post. I absolutely love your website. Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to comment on your blog post. I hope more informative publications from you in the near future.
6Many thanks for sharing this wonderful article. I truly enjoy your web page. Thanks again for allowing me to comment on your website. I would love to see more informative publications from you in the future.
7Thank you for posting this great post. I truly enjoy your website. Many thanks for allowing me to comment on your website. I hope more useful content from you in the near future.
8Many thanks for posting such wonderful content. I truly enjoy your website. Thank you for allowing me to comment on your web page. I hope more engaging articles from you in the coming days.
9Thanks so much for posting such great information. I absolutely love your web page. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your article. I hope additional interesting updates from you soon.
10Wonderful blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thanks
11I am continuously searching online for posts that can help me. Thanks!
12Hello my friend! I want to say that this post is awesome, nice written and include approximately all important infos. I would like to see more posts like this.
13I have recently started a website, the information you provide on this web site has helped me greatly. Thank you for all of your time & work.
14Hi my friend! I want to say that this article is amazing, nice written and include almost all significant infos. I would like to see more posts like this.
15I am really loving the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues? A number of my blog audience have complained about my website not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera. Do you have any advice to help fix this issue?
16hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this website, as I experienced to reload the website lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high-quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for a lot more of your respective intriguing content. Ensure that you update this again very soon..
17I got what you intend, thankyou for posting.Woh I am pleased to find this website through google.
18Great blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you recommend starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m totally confused .. Any tips? Cheers!
19Oh my goodness! an amazing article dude. Thanks Nevertheless I am experiencing challenge with ur rss . Don’t know why Unable to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting identical rss problem? Anyone who is aware of kindly respond. Thnkx
20Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo
21News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Thanks xnxx
I got what you intend,saved to bookmarks, very nice site.
22Great post. I am facing a couple of these problems.
23When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!
24I’m now not positive the place you’re getting your information, but good topic. I must spend a while studying more or figuring out more. Thank you for excellent info I was in search of this information for my mission.
25Hey I am so glad I found your webpage, I really found you by accident, while I was researching on Askjeeve for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a incredible post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the excellent work.
26I like this web site its a master peace ! Glad I observed this on google .
27wonderful post.Never knew this, thanks for letting me know.
28I think this web site has got some rattling good info for everyone. “Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.” by Francis Bacon.
29Just wanna remark that you have a very nice site, I like the design and style it actually stands out.
30Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thank you so much!
31I do love the manner in which you have framed this situation plus it does offer us a lot of fodder for consideration. On the other hand, through what precisely I have personally seen, I simply just wish when the actual feed-back pack on that people stay on point and not start upon a tirade regarding the news of the day. All the same, thank you for this exceptional piece and whilst I can not really agree with the idea in totality, I regard your point of view.
32hello!,I like your writing so much! share we communicate more about your article on AOL? I need a specialist on this area to solve my problem. May be that’s you! Looking forward to see you.
33I really appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thx again
34great post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I’m confident, you have a great readers’ base already!
35Utterly composed content, thanks for entropy.
36