Fat Tuesday: Yakitori Totto Edition
It tastes just like chicken heart
A little fat helps me get through the week. Especially when I think it's Wednesday all day and then realize it's actually still Tuesday. This week, I got my fix at Yakitori Totto, the small, upstairs midtown skewer Mecca.
You've gotta love a place where Kobe Beef Tongue is listed under VEGETABLES. For the record, it’s delicious, though a few pieces were tough.
This is a place to test your limits. As malt liquor is to teenagers, yakitori is to carnivores. For example, I have learned that I love chicken hearts, but soft knee bones—not so much.
What I love the most, though, is fat (salt is a close second, and they've got that covered as well). My date and I started with deep fried silver fish with green tea powder to sprinkle or dip into. The powder was extremely salty and, for lack of unpretentious word, umami. That is, savory and funky and delicious. It reminded me of nutritional yeast, which is great on popcorn...
But I digress. Back to the blubber: We had several forms of delectable fat, but the winners were the pork with mustard and lemon and the chicken skin. The latter is always a good way to test a yakitori place. Totto gets high marks for salty, crispy exterior and melty, slightly chewy fat inside.
I think I'll make it to the weekend after all.
Yakitori Totto
251 West 55th
(212) 245-4555
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
