I recently read Jonathan Gold’s “Bring the Funk: Izayoi Moves to the Rhythm of the Izakaya,” a
fantastic review of an authentic, hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant. Gold’s description of the
various food items appeals to all of the senses, vicariously exposing the reader to the setting of
the restaurant.
The various scents, flavors, sights, sounds, and textures of the food, the tables, the chefs--it all
comes together to seat the reader at Gold’s side, tasting the dishes with him and experiencing the
wonder of discovery.
The endless courses of appetizer-style food, sake flowing like water, the laughter and discussions
that occur around a narrow table that fills the confines of the tiny restaurant, all blend together to
make the izakaya, a traditional Japanese restaurant-bar that combines cheap, quality appetizer-
style foods and alcoholic drinks with an extremely tightly-packed, intimate setting.
Gold gives a brief history of the chef, Junichi Shiode, a Japanese chef who originally ran the
restaurant Sushi Ryo in Los Angeles. Shiode left Los Angeles to start a small restaurant right just
outside of Tokyo. The culture and menu of an izakaya is entirely different from those of most
Western restaurants.
“Izakaya menus are typically long and hard to follow,” said Gold in LA Weekly, “with a host of
different sections unfamiliar to anyone not versed in the style, and a list of daily specials often as
long as the menu proper that seem randomly thrown onto the page. Here is the secret: Order lots
of stuff.”
Gold’s descriptions of the food allow the reader to almost taste the food as he puts it into his
mouth, despite the interesting origins of some of the flavors and ingredients. While most Western
food, especially that of America, does not involve much “exotic” seafood, Japan’s island culture
is intensely focused on fish, squid, shellfish, and other Pacific seafood.
Gold shows you the flavors and emotions that come with every bite, then reveals that the “squid”
that he just ate was, in fact, squid liver; he shares the shock of the realization that squids do have
livers and that they are in the relative size, shape, and flavor of a raw calf’s liver.
The cream cheese flavored with bonito and topped with little salty curls; the bonito flavor was
actually bonito intestines and the little salty curls were dried and grilled skate fins. While I would
never dream of eating bonito intestines, Gold shows the flavors in such a way that now I’d like to
take a bite.
Gold uses highly sensory descriptions to draw the reader into the culture and atmosphere of a
Japanese izakaya. He appeals to the senses, bringing the reader to sit with him, eating traditional
Japanese food, drinking sake, and enjoying the intimate conversations that only come from a
tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurant-bar just outside of Tokyo.
“Bring the Funk: Izayoi Moves to the Rhythm of the Izakaya” can be accessed through the
Pulitzer Prize website at Pulitzer.org, or through the LA Weekly at www.laweekly.com/bring-the-
funk/.