No plans for dinner, no reservations to be had. No need to stop at SushiStop, Nong La is a no, resist the urge to join the Tsujita crowd, annex or otherwise. There's an izakaya further down the street, but Furaibo has me fascinated, and my internal good-food divining rod was telling me to give it try.
I love this menu. The selection is overwhelming, but the plates are small and the prices are low so there's no shortage of things to try.
Starting safe with skewers, there's a tender Chicken Heart...
and a crispy Chicken Skin that I would have liked it a little more crispy.
Took a chance on the Beef Tongue, not a bad gamble at all. Chewy and juicy, slightly crude but very appetizing chunks.
The best part of winging it is the Teba-Saki chicken wings. It's their special seasoning, a crispy coating with a dry, spicy sauce that gets you hooked like crack.
From crispy to chewy to soft, sweet soy-soaked Kakuni. The belly is the most enjoyable part of the pork, and this one is a velvety pillow of meat with gristle.
Kakuni is incomplete without a Yaki Onigiri. It's just a grilled rice ball, until you add soy sauce or miso. The soy sauce seasons one well enough to eat it plain, and miso on the other grills a little bitter to add an extra bite.
The Mochi Cheese is genius. This is the only time I will ever say a Kraft single is a good idea, and the mochi is a perfect starchy, savory chew. The crisp nori takes the place of toasted bread, a Japanese iteration of your favorite all-American grilled cheese.
It's hard to try new stuff on Sawtelle. It's even harder to walk between two Tsujitas and not go in. But I don't regret skipping the best tsukemen in LA to try the crafty little dishes at Furaibo, and I do think I'll try them again some day... Maybe when the call of the ramen is not so strong...
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