Thursday, November 17, 2011

Mountain View: Bushido Izakaya

Last Friday I had breakfast with my Dad, studied renal physiology, and caught up with a few people at Stanford.  Andrew and I had planned to cook dinner, but by the time we met up, got back to the apartment, looked through Mark Bittman's cookbook, and picked out a recipe, it was getting late and we had lost motivation to get groceries.  So, off to Castro Street we went, with the loosely defined goal of trying "one of the other places on the same block as Xanh."

Bushido Izakaya originally caught our eye because izakayas are traditionally low-key drinking establishments serving relatively substantive food.  Yet Bushido Izakaya seemed, even through the front windows, more "trying-to-be-cool modern Asian" than "low-key Japanese drinking establishment."  And indeed, it is as food-centric as beverage-centric, and the food is pretty good.  Below, the results of Andrew's ordering.

Grilled beef tongue:


Asparagus wrapped in bacon:


Clams in a light, gingered broth.  I would have sipped more of the broth at the end of the meal, but by that point my stomach was already quite full of warm fluids:


Udon (the specific varietal of which I don't remember and am too tired to look up):


Seafood okonomiyaki: