Had a late dinner with Marcellus, who is making these great illustrated letters to his nieces & nephew. It’s weird how I often seek Marcellus’ knowledge on Asian culture in New York, even though I’m the one who’s Asian. So here we are at this hidden Japanese restaurant downstairs in the basement of a Midtown office building. They have a lot of small dishes on the menu, similar to tapas.
The young waiter stopped me when I was taking a photo of the menu. We were confused. He said it was customary at most places that you can’t take a photo of the menu, because it’s private. From what we got is that they don’t want people stealing their menu. I confirmed this social faux pas with Yoshie, who said it was common in Japan with menus and food. Weird, since I always assumed the food photo-taking culture came from teenage girls from Asia. Perhaps it’s mainly the older expensive restaurants. The waiter didn’t seem to have a problem when I was taking twenty photos of each dish though, just the menu.
Marcellus and I shared a few small dishes. My favorite by far was the Gindara Yuan Yak (grilled cod). One of the two pieces was cooked perfectly. Just fell apart so nice. Everything else wasn’t as memorable. I should have tried a couple more, but they were relatively expensive for the size.
In their restroom, there was a bidet seat on the toilet. I’ve never used one and was really tempted. I didn’t have to go, but did press the buttons to see what it would do. Nothing happened, but maybe you have to sit on it first. And maybe that was good, because it would have just squirted my face.
BTW, you can check out their secret menu on Menupages and even on their own website.
Sakagura – 211 E 43rd St #B1 (btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave) New York 10017
Here’s Marcellus’ latest Letters From Uncle Marce —full series here
