Friday, March 26, 2010

Izakaya Sozai

I've been meaning to finish up this entry. I've had it on draft status since March 19th, my bad!! I actually dined at this fine little charming establishment March 18th so if you're in San Francisco, give it a try. By the way, i'm not Japanese or Korean i'm actually Chinese. I just love all foods in general but Japanese is one of my favorites (the other would be French).

An izakaya (居酒屋?) is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. The food is usually more substantial than that offered in other types of drinking establishments in Japan such as bars or snack bars.
They are popular, casual and relatively cheap places for after-work drinking.
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With that said, one of my most recent favorite places to dine at in San Francisco is "Izakaya Sozai" This tiny establishment has actually been around for a few years, but they have recently acquired new owners! I'm so glad the new owners came along because the food has improved tenfold.  The food is so good, i've gone twice in the past 2 weeks and each outing has racked a bill of over $100.
I do have to mention that I am a ramen fiend. I dont' mean the instant Maruchan crap, I mean real ramen. I'm talking NARUTO ramen, mmmkay? My quest for the best ramen in Northern California has been pretty devastating. Ramen house after ramen house have left me in dismay, especially the ones in San Francisco. Along came revamped Izakaya Sozai bringing with them thee absolute best ramen in the bay area. My favorite had been Santouka in San Jose for quite some time, but now, it is definitely the Ritsu tonkatu ramen here at Izakaya Sozai.

Tako wasabi is one of my absolute favorite dishes whenever having izakaya. If you screw this up, then i know the rest of the meal will suck. This has been perfect both times thus far. I loved every single last slimy morsel of raw, chopped octopus and fresh wasabi. Perfect balance of flavor, crunch, and kick.
hamachi carpaccio (sliced yellow fin sashimi)
hamachi kama - grilled yellowtail collar
 tako yaki - they don't skimp on the octopus in this, you get a decent chunk! 
*ahem* unlike the stand at the Cherry Blossom Festival *ahem*
spicy tuna on crispy rice - i love love love love love crispy rice. if you like spicy tuna, you should get this too. i don't even want to describe it, just fucking get it and thank me later.

 grilled chicken gizzards - mMmMm seasoned beautifully and great crunch
grilled beef tongue
grilled sea bass - so perfect in buttery flavor
gyusuji (braised beef tendon) - definitely one of the stars of the meal. cooked perfectly. reminded me of my mother because she makes a similar dish with huge chunks of stewed daikon. i would have to say this was ONE of my favorites here.
grilled tofu steak w/ mushrooms
ritsu tonkotsu ramen - the best part of the meal!!!! BEST BEST PART OF THE MEAL! I was shocked and in awe at how PERFECT this ramen was. I noted how awesome the boiled egg was. Usually ramen places have tough, over boiled eggs (you can tell when there's a gray ring around the yolk) The egg in this ramen was sooooo good, not to mention it was cured. It reminded me of Chinese tea eggs. They give you a nice sheet of fresh seaweed, a good handful of green onions and plenty of noodles. I cannot express how in love I am with the broth. Perfectly robust, full of flavor, no msg headache, didn't make me thirsty after, I couldn't get enough of it.. The noodles were also al dente.. Oh man, it was better than Hakata Shinsen Gumi in Rosemead, CA. The ramen is meant for eating AFTER sake but by then you'll probably be full so I would advise sharing with someone if you can (which is what I did with my ajusshi)
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Alright, i'm done with the food. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. I finally painted my nails, woop woop! They've been bare for over a week!! I know it's good to let your skin and nails "breathe" every now and then but seriously?? My fingers feel naked without polish on them. Hahahahaha. I did them with OPI for Sephora's "Metro Chic" I had ordered this online and it looked more purple but in real life, it comes out this murky greyish brown color. At first I really didn't like it, but it started to grow on me so I try to wear it more often. I've been more into neutral colors lately so this is definitely getting tossed into the rotation. I don't know why the fuck Blogger is uploading my pictures sideways and the pictures are not sideways when I uploaded to the computer, I rotated them first and saved. I'm frustrated.
If anybody can offer a solution to this, i'd be grateful. I am technologically challenged so I don't know why it's all funky. I didn't do anything bad, I promise! It uploaded all my food pix fine! ugh! -_-
I swear by Nail Tek and Seche Vite. I use Nail Tek as my base, put 2 coats of my polish then use the Seche Vite top coat. It truly is the fastest drying top coat out there ladies. I haven't come across anything better. The Sally Hansen & Revlon ones tend to "bubble" on my nails and take for-freaking-evaaa to dry. I usually do my nails on my lunch break at work so I need something that dries quickstyles. Check it out if you can, I believe Ulta carries it.

This is the NYX palette that i've been using on the daily. 10 Color Eyeshadow Pallet (isn't it supposed to be spelled palette? Am I wrong? Iono, I googled this image and got it off ebay, so the seller is maybe doing a fakie?) from The Runway Collection in "Champagne & Caviar".The 2 colors circled are the ones I used in the following pictures. Bad eyeliner job, I know. I've been having a real rough time getting ready in the A.M. You know why? Because i'm a loser that's been playing Restaurant City on Facebook non-stop.Hahahahah i'm totally going to Hell but check out my restaurant hahahahhahahahhaahaha
"wha-evaaa yoo lie, we dooo pho yooo! $5 luv yoo long time!"
brows: MAC charcoal brown
eyes: MAC ricepaper under brow for highlight, 2 NYX colors from the Champagne & Caviar palette
MAC fluid line in Blacktrack, Neutragena under eye concealer
nothing but Carmex on my lips. I'll explain why in a bit >.<

So... Remember that movie "A Christmas Story" ?? The one where the little kid with the glasses wants a Red Ryder BB gun? There's a scene where his classmate gets triple dog dared to stick his tongue onto a flagpole and the kid's tongue got stuck. Who remembers that shit!?!?! Well...Guess what my dumb ass did. I made a delicious lasagna last night at Joy's house. (We made it from scratch too, I ain't no Stouffer bitch mmkay) and sat my fat ass on her couch and ate a red bean ice cream popsicle. I didn't realize how much freezer burn was on that thing my.mouth.got.stuck.on.the.damn.motherfucking.popsicle.
 
I had to ply my mouth off and tore chunks of my freaking mouth off! I didn't realize it at first since it was numb and I was wearing red lipstick yesterday (Viva Glam I). damn, i'm a dumbass.
epic failure.

11 comments:

  1. all that food looks soooo good, even though i don't eat raw octopussy, beef tongue or chicken gizzards (my mom makes a really good spicy chicken gizzard btw, or so ppl say cause i don't eat it. i'll have to take you to her house one day LOL). always gotta make me hungry like 2 hours before lunch betch!! i like your makeup and i understand the restaurant city craze; i was like that too in the beginning til my comps got shitty and it lagged sooo bad! lol. anyways your lips look hurt. i imagined worse after you said chunks were missing HAHAHA OMG EWww. jk feel better betch~

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  2. LOLOL!! OH shit the popsicle thing happened to my cousin when we were kids!! And my parents were laughing... until she started crying! hahaha.. oh the memories..

    And, I firmly stand behind Maruchan!! She's done me good over the years. I've gotten good at ignoring the styrofoam flavor that lingers :p

    Love that NYX palette and look you did ~ I remember you mentioned in your haul that it was a good travel set b/c it contains every essential color.

    And, of course the FOOD PICS got me drooooling!!! Have you been to Japan? Izakayas are the FUNNEST thing ever! Like better than clubbing and Disneyland combined!

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  3. tina if you took me to yo mama's house I wouldn't know what to do with myself. i'd have to hold myself back from robbing her of all existing banchans in her house. yes betch my freaking mouth hurts! it stings :[ I hate yooooooo just kidding. lubb you to death.

    omg sophia, it hurt so bad hahahha i was laughing pretty damn hard though so it's all good. i am a HUGE clumsy idiot so I tend to laugh at myself when these things happen. i've learned to shrug it off. i've always got bruises on my legs and shit since I ram into things ahhahahaha. noOOoO no maruchan!!! you need to have the goooood ramen :[ yah yah I love that palette!! sooo good and of course i got it at the Variety Store NYX spot ;] They had the other palettes too but that one stood out the most to me. I've never gone to Japan, it's been on my list for like a million years. I was supposed to go a few years ago but things fell through -_- I am determined to make it happen one day!

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  4. The food looks yummy, but also scary... 'cause I'm scared of raw food, although I eat sushi...... lol

    About the whole rotating pictures, try it on photobucket or imageshack! upload your photos to them first... rotate it & link it back to your post.

    is there any specific store I can get Seche Vite at? 'cause I hate ordering online. & yeah it's spelled PALETTE lol.
    & OMFG i hope your lip gets better soon! that shit is nuts... & could get infected if you dont take care of it. okay im done with my long ass comment <333

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  5. Oh child, you are suppose to check it that popsicle is actually good and not actaully not. At least your lip don't look so bad. Use vaseline and some lip cream......

    By the way, I like that nail polish, to bad the sephora where I live was all out.

    Boutzie' ^_^

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  6. man. we should've filmed it and played it back in slo-mo. i didn't think it was that bad either..lol

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  7. Did you order ALL that in one sitting or is that from different sittings?? But damn we need to go eat. LOL hahahaha ;p

    BTW... OUCH on your mouth+popsicle incident. I've done that with my tongue before.. tore away some taste buds. I learned after that that I should've poured some water or something instead of yanking it LOL.

    Hope it's not hurting you now!

    Oh & I love that nail polish... I bought an OPI one recently.. hopefully I can paint my nails tonight :]

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  8. You know what I find funny... that there are SO many Asians in the bay area, yet makeup artists here DON'T know how to put makeup on us. My sister bought me a 1 hour makeup lesson some years ago.. and it was with an Asian chick.... and she was like, "Do NOT put on heavy eyeliner". I went along with it at the time.. but I was thinking to myself why the hell not?

    And you know what else I hate.. reading magazine articles in spring time that say go for the natural, no eyeliner look. Eff that!!! And besides, to achieve that "natural" look they use like 10 billion pieces of product anyways, so may as well just stick with our normal "not-natural" routine :)

    Your comments are always hilarious btw :)

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  9. HOLY CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP I didn't know you can actually get those freeze burn shit thats amazing in a bad way DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNN i hope you'll feel better that must hurts like shit!! fuck..must be so hard for u to eat??? I hope you'll feel better...

    && if you post more food pictures next time im gonna make you fly over to NYC to bring me to food hahahahahaaahaha jk ure making me hungry girl...and i love metro chic...it was also my first sephora nail polish too hahahaha

    AND.....samething with me this stupid blogspot picture shit always make my picture side way and i have to save it side way then upload again then save it back to normal and upload it again till it works its so stupid....

    btw, i've tagged you with this blog award =D http://cydangie.blogspot.com/2010/03/kawaii-award-angeliques-giveaway.html

    xox
    Cydia!

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  10. @ Christine - I think ULTA carries it. It's a store similar to Sephora but they carry drugstore makeup as well. Does New York have those? My friend Melissa gave it to me as part of a Kris Kringle gift exchange.. I'm pretty sure she got it at Ulta because she also mentioned she bought some China Glaze polishes i think.

    @ Briana - okay I know your name is Briana but I like callin' ya Boutzie. Is that okay? hahaha my lip is doin much better. It's nearly healed but the right side is still hurting a bit. Ahh that sucks that your Sephora ran out of it!! Demand that they put it in stock, ahahhaa.

    @ Sophia - you know what I hate? When I go to a MAC counter they always always always give me GEISHA FACE. They put some super white ass foundation on me. I am convinced that MAC doesn't have a shade that matches me or something. And whenever I go to any other counter, they always do an orangish blush and purple eyeshadow. It's so annoying. HELLO I want a different look!

    @ Angelique - yup, all that food in ONE sitting. Don't worry, I had 3 other people eating with me hahahahaha.

    @ Cydia - i'm going to come back to New York one day sweetie! When I do, we should meetup and eat eat eat eat (oh and go shopping. Take me to CCO please!!!) Yea the freezer burn sucked really bad the next day. My dumb ass tried to eat an orange and it stung ahhahahahahahaha.

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  11. OMG! your blog never disappoints, Susy! I freaking LOVE you for your sharing your food finds!<3 YES! Now, my bf and I have a new place to try for ramen! There are no good places in Berkeley, and we haven't found a good place in SF either. SJ Santouka in Mitsuwa is pretty damn good for its price, definitely! Whoowhee! I can't wait to try this amazing Ritsu Tonkata Ramen that you speak of! Just looking at the pics make me want to drool! I definitely want to try that spicy tuna on crispy rice too...and that takoyaki! LMAO...i TOTALLY agree with you regarding that takoyaki stand at the Cherry Blossom Festival! Wait in line for like half and hour and all I get is dough...wtf! Wow, I would love to go on an eating adventure with you...you know all the good eats in the Bay!

    Oh my goodness, your poor lips! I hope they're somewhat healed now and doing better! The aftermath of that must've been a b*tch!

    <3 caroline

    ps. that's so cool you work in city hall! you must have a good job lol. thinking of working scares me...I've yet to find a job =/...on a brighter note, can't wait to graduate!

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