Yakitori (plus dessert)!

After having a hankering for grilled meats in an otherwise not-grill-friendly city, a couple of friends and I from college met up and had dinner at Yakitori Taisho, in the East Village several months ago. According to wikipedia, Yakitori (焼き鳥 やきとり, Yakitori), or grilled bird, is a type of skewered chicken in Japan . In other words, sinugba.

At Yakitori Taisho, they featured on their menu a variety of grilled meats and veggies, including pork, beef , liver, chicken, scallions and mushrooms. Having all met at the University of the Philippines, we've all had our share of isaw (grilled chicken or pig intestines) and atay (liver), so we ordered what was familiar to us. We got a platter that included, among others, chicken liver, chicken skin and pork belly. I think there was balon-balonan (is it gizzard?) too.

It was yummeh! Yakitori Taisho has been one of my favorite restaurants in the city since I discovered it a couple of years back, and I've been coming back every time I get a good group of people together. I'm guessing business has been good to them too, since they opened another restaurant a couple of doors down, and every time I pass by, there's almost always a line.

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After dinner, we all decided to hit the Dessert Truck, that we all passed by when we were walking towards Yakitori. This truck is a new concept here in NYC (and there's a bunch of them new ones, gastronomic concepts that is), so we just had to try them out. These aren't your run of the mill desserts, but are essentially gourmet. They sell individual desserts for $5, and servings are usually good to share. We ordered the molten chocolate cake, the vanilla creme brulee (real vanilla) and the goatcheese cheesecake. Holy cow! or goat! These were good! My personal favorite is the goatcheese cheesecake. Be warned though, goatcheese is an acquired taste!

Here's a photo of the MBB folks (all grad students at SUNY-SB, BrownU, SUNY-SB respectively) enjoying their desserts! I think I'm the only one not pursuing a PhD here, but oh well. lol.

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Yakitori Taisho is located at 5 St Mark's Place (near 3rd Ave) in NYC.
The Dessert Truck makes it's rounds of NYC, however, from 6pm onwards, it can be found at the intersection of St Mark's Place and 3rd Ave.