Food in Mouth

Soba Totto

Even though I really liked the vegetarian food from the last post, everyone probably suspected that it was just an anomaly. Meat would quickly find its way back on this blog. Soba Totto to the rescue! This place is owned by the same people who run Yakitori Totto therefore you know they know how to do yakitori right.

I walked into Soba Totto a little after seven, and the place was close to being packed on a weekday night. I went with an old coworker and we settled down at the bar, in front of the dude making chicken ball skewers. In addition to him, there were two other guys working the grill that night. They basically work non-stop during my meal there. And even with the close proximity to the grill, the smoke really was a non-factor.

Even though 'soba' is in the name, I decided to skip the soba because grilled meats just look more interesting. Y'all agree, right? I went straight for the funky chicken parts: soft bone, soft knee bone, heart, tail, etc. They ran out of all the cool eats though. Too bad, so sad. They still had soft knee bone, but they were out of everything else. Booo... Tip, go earlier than 7 if you want the good stuff.

One of the best skewers of the night was the chicken skin. This has to be the highest profit margin food item on the menu. Chicken skin for two fiddy. But it is great. You know when you grill chicken and some parts of the skin gets crispy and charred? The grill masters totally know how to do that without burning the skin, and since the center stays soft, there is a great texture contrast. I could eat these chicken skin skewers all night.

Another great thing is enoki mushroom wrapped in a slice of bacon. This is a great way to eat your vegetables. Wait, mushrooms are vegetables right? Sure, it is moist with bacon love, but that is what is so good about it. I really liked this skewer as well. Soba Totto should just rename itself to Yakitori Totto II. (I like names that have a 'II' at the end, and that is a clue about what I am writing next week. That is right Jere-ann, you can relax now).

The liver skewer was ok. It tasted like liver. There was a gizzard skewer too and that would get a grade of B. And then there was an organic pork with scallion & ponzu skewer. That was the most meaty of the skewers. And here was where it went sorta weird. After all those skewers, I was hungry. There was a meatball skewer left, so I kind of waited for that to come, but it did not come. Then randomly and mistakenly, a runner leaves a plat of friend chicken wings in front of me. It looked really good, and it must of belonged to another table, but hell I have no morals and was hungry so I ate it... And the reason I knew the runner made a mistake was because she came back later and tried to give us something else, which meant she had her table numbers wrong... Dear person who got my meatball and I got your chicken wings... thank you. You probably hate me though, and that is understandable.

I kind of feel bad for eating someone else's food, but but... I WAS HUNGRY. Can you forgive me? I know my mom is probably shaking her head right now thinking something in Chinese. Something along the lines of "ay-yo-way-ya" (and if you are not Chinese, I just lost you completely...)

Anyway, last week I saw my doctor and the doc said, "Dude, stop gaining weight." Not those exact words, but you get the point. And my blood pressure is teensy bit higher than normal, like 135/85? Something like that, she started to say numbers and my mind went blank. I knew this burgers and cupcakes diet would be bad for my body, but it tastes so good. It is not that high and I vow to continue eating like a maniac.

Soba Totto
211 East 43rd Street.
New York, NY 10017
212-557-8200
Map

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Posted by Danny on March 27 2008 at 7:11 am