A Bigger Zen Box to Play In

ZEN BOX IZAKAYA classics, with the addition of some noodle DISH 602 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis and ramen dishes and even a curry, and 612.332.3936 a strong emphasis on their own version items $3.50-$12 of comfort food. There’s a selection of fried things (agemono) like dumplings, croquettes, and crispy popcorn chicken; Zen Box Izakaya’s bar food, a list of grilled things (yakimono) like like grilled Yaki Tofu, can salmon, short ribs, and tofu; and a bunch double as full meals of “izakaya classics” that don’t in either category. The menu standouts combine the best attributes of drinking food—spicy, salty, crunchy, and packed with e still being substantial enough to build a meal around. The Buta Kimchi tops this list. Thick, chewy, fatty slices of pork belly are sautéed and smothered with kimchi. As fermented cabbage goes, it’s on the mellow end of the spectrum, but still tangy and deep. Another pork belly dish, the Chashu Yaki, also sent chopsticks and - ing over the last bit. Rings of pork belly, almost devoid of fat, take a light hit of citrusy ponzu sauce, contrasting with a smoky charred note from the grill. And the went all the way down through the bed of grilled sweet onions, which got snatched up, too. Comfort food meets bar food—and fantastic things happen—in a plate of teba- saki. Tender, meaty chicken wings with a Pages decadently fatty layer of skin are coated in sea salt and just enough pepper. If a wing went to school to learn a little class, it might come out like these simple, subtle, and wings. Two more yakimono tempted us to or- Sasha Landskov for City Sasha Landskov der another round: Yaki Tofu is a skewer location on the east end of Washington, of grilled tofu cubes with a smoky, thick near the Guthrie, it sent little ripples of crust and a creamy-chewy center, with excitement through the gyoza-loving just enough sweet teriyaki glaze. And community. There aren’t many skyway the salmon teriyaki was cooked until the A Bigger Zen Box holes-in-the-wall that could pull that second it turned meltingly tender and no kind of expansion or get that many people more. Grilling salmon is a pretty funda- to care about it. mental thing, but when comes to the to Play In And expand they did. The new space table at just the right temperature and tex- isn’t huge—bigger and brighter than ture, you can be sure the kitchen and the THE SKYWAY FAVORITE OPENS A SECOND Moto-i, smaller and more intimate than wait have found their groove. Masu—but the menu is substantial, with The ramen dishes—miso, soy, and LOCATION FOCUSING ON JAPANESE PUB GRUB close to 100 items. Diners get a chipper kimchi, served with springy egg noodles, reminder that everything except the ramen sliced pork belly, and a soft-boiled egg— BY TRICIA CORNELL is meant for sharing, and there’s no such are deeply mysterious and alluring. The thing as a starter or a main. Maybe you’ve broth is rich and chocolaty, with the he Twin Cities long ago got the bar atmosphere and a menu that strays tried that tack before elsewhere—ordering charred of deeply browned meats memo that Japanese food isn’t pretty far from tradition. (Though, who a few small plates to share and planning and vegetables, but without any tang. T just about sushi and sashimi. knows, maybe they’d like bacon-wrapped to order more as the mood strikes—only The kimchi ramen, a satisfying meal for We have Tanpopo, a relaxing tomato skewers and tuna jerky served over to have your waiter disappear for half an a single diner that I predict will become and refreshing temple to the holy chewy tiny, smoking stoves in Tokyo.) hour before inquiring if you’d like the Zen Box’s claim to fame, is hot in a way noodle, in Lowertown. We’ve got 100 But there’s room, I believe, to bring check. Not here. that your head with warm thoughts percent authentic teishoku meals (think of both a little more breadth and a little more From the time they greet you with a and makes you focus on what you’re them as the Japanese prix at Sakura. depth to Japanese food in the Twin Cities. cheery “Irrasaimase!” (“Welcome!”— eating, not in a way that blows steam out And we’ve got the little jewel box Obento- Something a little warmer, a little more sometimes chanted in spooky unison) to your ears. ya serving just-right bento meals. casual, something that’s not about inno- the time you push aside the last If you’re coming to Zen Box more to The scene, you could say, has breadth if vation but about Japanese classics. Make plate, the at Zen Box seem to know drink than to eat, look no further than not depth. And then comes a sudden mini- room for Zen Box Izakaya. exactly when you might like, say, another the agemono. One or two of these salty, explosion in an unexpected category: Zen Box has been keeping downtown round of gyoza, a few more crispy, salty crunchy snacks will keep you reaching for the Japanese gastropub. Moto-i started it Minneapolis workers full and happy soba sticks, or just a little more room on more beer all evening. The Kani Korokke, all, three years ago, with its onsite sake for years, with takeout boxes of sticky rice, the table. Goh herself is an active presence while kind of hard to share with your brewery. (Have you heard it’s the only one gyoza, grilled meats, and other simple in the dining room, keeping everyone on drinking buddies, is among the best on outside Japan? I have, every single time things, in their tiny skyway location. track. the fried list. It’s a crab cake that wouldn’t Moto-i’s name is invoked.) They had the Owners John Ng and Lina Goh, who are be entirely unfamiliar to Marylanders, small-plates, concept to them- transplants from San Francisco, had built IZAKAYA MEANS “sake house” or “pub” except that it’s larger than a hockey puck. selves for a while. Then Masu opened last up enough of a following that when news in Japanese, and the menu Goh and Ng The thick crust supports a surprisingly spring, bringing a livelier, louder, younger broke this spring that they had found a have put together hews pretty close to the creamy middle, almost more mayonnaise citypages.com OCTOBER ¬ 26, 2011 CITY ¬ PAGES 23 than crab, and it comes with a very mild clear reminders that comfort is all Cold tofu is also low on the comfort sake menu, Zen Box has both Japanese mayonnaise dip on the side. about what you grew up with. Let’s scale for Western palates. Hiyayakko, beers—Hitachino and Asahi in addition In Japan, a glass of beer practically take sticky, stringy, ever-so-slightly chilled tofu sprinkled generously with to the more familiar Sapporo and Ki- screams for a bowl of kara-age, little stinky natto—fermented soybeans. of dried tuna, is an izakaya classic. rin—and local beers on tap. But the big- popcorn-shaped nuggets of chicken or beans themselves are still whole and Chilling the tofu to almost ice-cold adds a gest surprises came in a can and in a 22- calamari with more crust than chicken, brown with just a little bite to them and subtle layer of unexpected and tex- ounce bottle. Tokyo Black—denser and deeply salty, and about as friendly and taste far less “fermented” than you might ture. But it was hard not to wish for a little sweeter than Guinness and about as far childlike as a tater tot. In fact, if chicken expect, but they are held together with a more seasoning. The same was true of the from a Sapporo as can be—will change kara-age were to supplant tots as the next goo that is—well, let’s just say there’s no tofu salad, with cold—but not chilled— anyone’s mind about Japanese drinking ironic crazy, I would be totally down with easy way to write about natto without a tofu. Once more dishes arrived, preferences. And Crispin Cider’s - that. Add a plate of gyoza and you have snot reference. To some Japanese people, both of these were forgotten. tered Cho-tokkyu apple cider, brewed a really nice set of snacks to accompany this is as comforting as a bowl of Rice Only one dish falls truly The Mussel with sake yeast, combines the best of East your drinks. It’s hard to elevate gyoza—a Krispies and cold milk. Roll it in an omelet Butter Sakamushi got pushed sel Butter Saka- and Midwest. fairly straightforward fried dumpling— —ours would have made Julia Child mushi got pushed aside after a few game All the same, though its name may to anything beyond “Hey, pretty good,” proud—and you have the comfort equiv- attempts to identify a niggling r. mean “pub,” I don’t think Zen Box Izakaya but it is easy to mess them up, so I give alent of “this complete breakfast.” So, Though the menu hyped this as a “Must will ever be known primarily as a place to Zen Box credit for an even, crispy crust unfamiliar, yes, but the dire warning on Try!” I’m thinking sake and butter just drink. The layout is more con- and perfectly good chicken and vege- the menu—“Only for the brave!”—is don’t get along, and those poor mus- ducive to dining than drinking, and the tarian .

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