So 211 poker was supposed to be at 7p last night but got changed to 9p at the last minute. I had already left though, so I didn’t get the email and I ended up in the city with two hours to kill. After having stuffed myself over Christmas, I wanted to curb my eating habits for a few days, so I had a really late lunch so that I could skip dinner altogether while we played poker. But finding myself with two hours to kill, I couldn’t think of anything better to do than eating. So even though I wasn’t in the least bit hungry, I walked over to Chiyono on 6th.

You’ll recall Chiyono is the place where Ricky treated everyone to dinner to celebrate Kathy’s birthday. I knew I liked the cooking style there and had promised myself I’d return to get deeper into the menu. This was my opportunity. I walked in and the place was completely empty. If not for the chalkboard out front, I would never have known they were open. I stood by the entrance for a minute and said hello a few times before a waiter came out from the back to seat me. I asked for a tea and a sake as I reviewed the menu and the specials for the day. I ordered a bunch of different things and the parade of dishes began…

I started with the goma-ae which in most restaurants is spinach but here was done with some kind of crisp young string beans. The sauce was peanutty and touched with the perfect hint of saltiness which may have been from soy or miso, I’m not sure which. That’s the most remarkable trait of Chiyono’s cooking, it features clean and concise flavors and is never in your face or over the top. Nothing is over-salted, over-sauced, stacked too high or garnished too ridiculously. This app was a perfect example of her skill. You tasted the green beans and the peanut sauce was not clumpy, gooey or sticky like at other places and the seasoning was spot on.

Next up was something off of the specials for the day- a yari-ika sashimi with tobiko and uni. Yari-ika is a type of squid and it was sliced into quarter inch ribbons, tossed with red tobiko and served with a tiny little mound of uni. The squid itself was a little tough but the combination with the tobiko and uni was delicious. I may be deluding myself because I like the place so much, but even the soy sauce tasted special; a little deeper in those dark flavors I love in soy sauce but lighter on the saltiness. While I was working on the sashimi, along came a bowl of the veggie miso soup. Another fine example of perfection through restraint. The soup was rich in miso and veggie flavor without being too salty and was packed with julienned veggies and konnyaku. I finished it quickly and it warmed me right up. Or maybe it was the sake, but anyway, I was definitely starting to feel pretty darn good.

Next came the soba salad. It was an enormous serving which was unusual from what I had seen of this restaurant’s dishes. It had a generous amount of soba noodles atop a bunch of salad greens including lovely watercress, a few thin slices of onion and radish and a tiny little dab of wasabi on the side of the bowl. At that point Chiyono came out from the back and I introduced myself and told her I had been there with Rick and Kat. She sat down and chatted with me while I slurped away at my soba. She asked why Ricky hadn’t come back and she seemed a bit apologetic about the food she put out for that party. She said that she didn’t get a chance to meet with Rick beforehand to select some kind of set menu that she could prepare for in advance which she said was the way she likes to serve big parties with her family-style cooking. Rick, if you’re reading this, get on back to Chiyono so she knows we actually liked the food!

After I polished off the soba salad, Chiyono headed back to the kitchen and then brought out my pork belly entree. Apologetic again, she said that it probably would be better if it could have braised for two more hours. But when I tasted it, it seemed pretty terrific to me. One hunk of fatty pork rib along with two bigger chunks of super fatty pork belly in a slightly sweet and savory sauce. The rib meat was falling off the bone and just so succulent. Then the pork belly chunks were even richer and more amazing. There was a half inch thick layer of super delicate fat but then plenty of meat along with it. With each bite, the fat would melt away on my tongue instantly and I’d be left with the soft chew of the fatty belly meat. Granted pork belly is one of those things, like foie gras and bone marrow, that is just such a wonderfully sinful ingredient that it’s pretty easy to prepare it well. But even so, I still have a real fondness and appreciation for dishes like this; homey yet indulgent.

To finish the meal, I had Chiyono’s sesame pudding. It was made from white sesame and was the consistency of soft tofu. In keeping with her style of cooking, it was delicate in flavor with just enough sweetness to be dessertlike without overwhelming the sesame flavor. It was served along with a small spoonful of vanilla ice cream, some red bean paste and garnished with slices of Asian pear and persimmon. Fantastic.