Kenka

I used to go to Kenka quite frequently (and have even tried writing about it a few times but various mishaps caused it not to happen!) – I love the St. Mark’s Place area for hanging out – but since I never really wrote about it, here are some pictures from a recent visit after a press event. 

My dining companion wanted a specific dish that happened to come with a salad and miso soup.  These were very standard, though notice the salad had a lot of those backyard green type things. 

At the press event I’d just come from, I’d eaten a lot of meat, cheese, and was feeling very grease-laden, so I immediately ordered a ton of carbs.  First up: mentaiko onigiri, or spicy cod roe onigiri.  Onigiri is basically a rice ball, sometimes with fillings, sometimes wrapped with seaweed. 

This one was filled with spicy cod roe, but not very evenly, and a tad too spicy for me.  I scarfed it down anyway because I wanted carbs, which is proven by what else I ordered…  So as far as onigiri go, this was alright. 

Next up was an order of croquettes, or mashed potatoes shaped into patties, breaded with panko crumbs, and deep fried.  Ummm… what’s not to love right there?  Kenka does it right, properly fried crisp exterior, while the interior is fluffy, delicious mashed potatoes.  On the side?  Bulldog katsu sauce, or what I guess you might call a Japanese BBQ sauce – salty, vinegary, yum.  Perfect. 

My dining companion wanted curry soba, and I unwisely chose not to dictate that it be udon instead.  Yeah yeah yeah, sometimes I choose to let people actually order what they want instead of making them order the “right” thing…

Don’t get me wrong – I love soba! – but when it’s drowned in so much boiling hot curry, its delicate strands tend to get lost – plus it kept cooking.  So it quickly became a hot mushy mess while we sat there stuffing our faces with all the other yummy dishes.  The flavor of the curry was nice enough though – mild, not very spicy at all. 

Ah, the dish that came with the salad & miso soup: kara age, or Japanese fried chicken.  Again, crisp, crunchy, but juicy chicken hidden within the breading… yum. 

Just because we can: an order of bacon & asparagus yakitori.  Crisp, salty bacon wrapped around tender grilled asparagus… yes, we can.  Mmm. 

What came last, surprisingly, was my last stab for more starches to absorb all the oil I’d eaten earlier: yaki onigiri, or grilled onigiri.  Rice balls that were placed onto a grill, lightly brushed with soy sauce.  I liked the slight crunch factor on the outside, but these were way too thick for the crunch layer!  I ate about half of mine – they’re quite dense, packed rice as it is – and had to quit.

Though this visit was by far not the best dishes I’ve had there, I still enjoyed myself.  Plus, they have a ton of boozy, cheap drinks – and pitchers of Japanese beer for like $5 or something?  I don’t know, but really inexpensive.  Always a good time at Kenka – lots of small plates, and the above food, plus a cocktail for me and a huge beer for my companion, came out to about $50. 

Yvo says: I love Kenka, it’s so much fun to just go through the whole huge picture menu picking out lots of cheap small dishes and drinking your way through the sweet cocktail section.  Even more fun is making your own cotton candy: with your tab comes a small cup of pink sugar (one per person), and as you exit – it was indoors on this cold day, but it’s usually outside the doors – there’s a giant cotton candy machine that you turn on and use a wooden chopstick to pull your own cotton candy.  Awesome end to a fun meal!  I can’t wait to go back for my next round of dishes…
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