May 2019 Weekend Rundown

Putting that on my map. Surely I’ll be passing by there one of these days.

What’s in the little cup?

Salsa

now that is the ultimate breakfast taco

HK Milk Tea, Pineapple Buns, and Baked Pork Chop Rice at Delicious Food Corner MP

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Errand in the OC made for two meals…bang-bang style.

Stacks Pancake House (Irvine)
A Hawaiian-inspired cafe with breakfast, brunch, and lunch options. We caught the tail end of breakfast service. Ordered at the counter, meal delivered to your table.
My sister ordered the crunch macadamia French toast…crusted in both Captain Crunch cereal and crushed macadamia nuts and served with whipped butter, strawberries, and syrup. It was sweet, but not terribly saccharine sweet. I enjoyed the crunchy coating, and it was much better without syrup…syrup made it soggy. I had the loco moco with Portuguese sausage, steamed rice, gravy, and 2 over easy eggs. Runny egg yolks mixed in with the savory gravy was just perfect.

Tanakaya (Tustin)
I’ve been wanting to come here since seeing @Chowseeker1999’s epic posts. So we hopped a few streets over to Tanakaya. My sister got the Kamo Nanban with fresh soba in hot duck meat broth and green onions. The broth for these noodles is delightful…rich and deep in duck flavor while also being light…I don’t know how they do it. I got the Oh Zaru because I wanted to make sure that I would be taking cold soba home for later. It’s a double order of their soba noodles served simply with soba dipping sauce, nori, green onions, an wasabi. The chew and texture of the soba was just perfect…and like magic. I loved that these noodles were more buckwheat-y. I didn’t even finish the first layer, so was super happy to be taking home plenty of leftovers.

There are too many sweets at my house, so a trip to Cream Pan was not necessary. I still feel guilty for not stopping by.

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Nice @attran99 glad you liked Tanakaya. :slight_smile:

Although I’m surprised you didn’t get anything at Cream Pan (how could you miss out?!). :wink: Remember you can also get their Housemade Nikuman (Steamed Marinated Pork Buns), or Curry Pan if you wanted something savory. :smile:

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Also I was so full after a bang-bang…I couldn’t dream of doing another bang. I am untrained in the ways of @PorkyBelly.

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Any relation to Sepan Chicken in Glendale?

Seems unlikely but I can’t say for sure. Evidently Yelpers hate Sepen Chicken.

Takoyaki is supposed to be molten, loose, and battery inside.
The undercooked critique is common of customers in the U.S. that are not used to this texture/consistency. But I am positive that Gindaco takoyaki are not undercooked in their eyes or in the eyes of many Osakans, or other Japanese.

Gindaco’s takoyaki is not even what Osakans would call authentic takoyaki–it is a chain from Tokyo that slings takoyaki that are very (intentionally) crispy on the outside.

Also, regarding EAK’s takoyaki, I would wager that they deep fry frozen takoyaki. I would not use their takoyaki as a baseline.

Love your reports. Wanted to offer a counterpoint to your critique.

Regarding “bait and switch”

This phrase is used a lot on FTC to criticize Japanese businesses opening in the U.S. and it always irks me.

Why? It is dismissive and implies intent of the Japanese operators to deceive their customers.
I do not believe that most Japanese business owners aim to deceive their customers. Rather, they are trying their best to localize their businesses in the U.S. and train local staff.
It is very costly and difficult to have Japanese employees come from Japan and oversee the opening of businesses and stay for a prolonged amount of time–especially for fast food or casual restaurants.
They need to establish their business and train local staff quickly to be able to have any chance for long-term success.

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I can’t speak for others, but for me," bait and switch" is a significant issue not necessarily because the chef in the kitchen is different (in fact, I wish a change in chef led to no change in quality - that way cooking would be easily scalable, and places could expand the number of locations without losing quality!), but because there is a noticeable decline in the quality of the food.

A prime example for me is a place called Ramen Setagaya in the East Village in NYC. For the first year or two when they opened to long lines, they might have been my favorite ramen in NYC. The shio broth was light, yet complex - I remember tasting discrete dried scallop pieces and so many more seafood flavors infusing it. Fast forward a couple years, and the broth, to put it mildly, tasted like dish washing water. I don’t know if it’s because the Japanese chef had left (because they now had a different chef), or because they were cutting corners on ingredients, or both, but the product at that point had no resemblance to the opening product.

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I totally agree that many restaurants–especially ramen restaurants–see declines in quality over time.

I do not see this as “bait and switch” but rather succumbing to business realities.
I think there needs to be malicious intent to “trick” the customer to qualify for “bait and switch” and I don’t see it.

If they say they are offering authentic Hakata-style ramen and you get dishwater soup, they are not baiting & switching, they are just failing to execute.

Maybe they don’t pay enough or treat employees poorly leading to high turnover and lower quality product, but that is a different problem–not bait and switch.

Denition from Merriam-Webster:

1: a sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one

2: the ploy of offering a person something desirable to gain favor (such as political support) then thwarting expectations with something less desirable

IMO, bait and switch depends entirely on when the original operators leave. If they have trained staff and continue on with high quality, no problem. but if they set up shop, don’t train staff, leave after 3 weeks - that’s a bait & switch.

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I would be happy to call that “shitty business planning and execution”

agree to disagree / not mutually exclusive

My 2 cents. Not sure who first started using the phrase (maybe it was me…) but I was certainly an early adopter.

My use of the derogatory term was specifically directed at Japanese restaurants due to their typical restaurant business model where the chef is highly visible to diners - i.e sushi bar, yakitori-yas, ramen, udon, food court takoyaki stands etc. Kitchens of most other cuisines are typically hidden away and you can’t see the chef. except maybe the fancy-schmancy chef’s counters which is a whole other discussion (3 hr tasting menus sitting in front of the chef and pretending you’re enjoying the horrible food).

So coming back to the defense of the term bait-and-switch. New famous restaurant chain hailing from Japan opens, advertising how it’s the #1 chain in Japan of of so-and-so food and during the initial few weeks or months, diners can see the skilled imported Japanese chef whipping out the specialty. Wow it’s a step up from the usual fare and I’m totally enjoying the quality and execution with cheesy humble brags proclaiming its authenticity and how this taste like so-and-so dish from my last trip to Tokyo. Spread this like wildfire to all my acquaintances that there’s a new Japanese restaurant staffed with Japanese chefs and it’s excellent. Like dining in Japan without paying for a plane ticket.

Fast forward a few months and they completely replace the kitchen staff. Gone are the Japanese masters. Instead of the skilled udon master stretching and cutting udon masterfully, there’s now a guy who’s lazily slapping things around and doing a terrible job making noodles. More often than not, once this switchover occurs, there is a marked decline in the quality to the point it no longer merits the reason why I was initially excited to dine there. My most recent experience was at Sushi Nakazawa, I was drawn like most others to the story of the lowly assistant rising through the kitchen after slogging for 10 years mastering his skill. What do I get when I dine there? A non-Japanese chef who in Japan’s rigid high-end sushi training regiment would probably have still been relegated to scaling the fish or washing the rice… Did I get a discount? Nope. Was he skilled? Nope Was the food good? nope…

I think these specialty single item/dish restaurants (not limited to Japanese cuisine) is when the switchover is most pronounced. I think it due to a deep understanding of the cuisine ingrained growing up with it in the country of origin (or training many years), your taste buds and eyes have been trained to understand what the last 5% of the dish needs for it to be authentic. Once the local chef leaves and is replaced with a staff that’s lacks this intimate understanding - the differences are noticeable. Just like @Starchtrade 's comment about the correct consistency of takoyaki interior. Can you train the new staff to understand and execute to a comparable level? YES, no doubt in my mind but like everything else it takes time and the handoff should be gradual. But alas once there’s a 100% switchover this is very unlikely…

To me the term “bait-and-switch” is appropriate in the case of Japanese restaurants stateside.

Don’t tell me the proprietors are not aware of the reason why glass displays exist to exhibit the udon/soba etc prep. Or why sushi bars are built they way they are, it’s to highlight the chef and their skill. They “bait” us in with these skilled masters when they first open and then “switch” the staff once all the professional reviews, social media, yelp *s, food boards, word of mouth has achieved sufficient positive traction to keep the crowds flowing. Tell me I’m wrong in this assessment. And yes I do agree “shitty business planning and execution” also applies.

Sorry for my Friday rant. Bad dining week…

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damn, that sucks. Glad I got in there beforehand.

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Was it Nakazawa-san’s day off? Or is he no longer working there altogether?

He’s wasn’t there during my lunch. I can appreciate Jiro’s rumored chagrin at Nakazawa coasting on his rep, many wrongs observed on that day.

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