Eating Yakitori (grilled chicken) at a restaurant.

Grilled chicken so called "Yakitori" in Japanese is really taste good. However, I hardly take it in restaurants because it's usually eaten with alcohol. Non-drinker like me,  Yakitori looks nice but difficult food for many reasons. I heard last week that there's a good restaurant serves Yakitori nearby, and I dropped there at dinner.

Shortly after making the order, they brought a small dish. It's named "oto-shi" which is served most Izakaya, or place to drink. Regardless of your order, they gave it to customers, and more importantly, it usually costs, around 3US$ or 300yen. 'I have to pay money for something I didn't order???' One big reason why I don't go to Izakaya is this. You can refuse it or some restaurants ask whether you need it or not. Sometimes it's free of charge. So if you're interested in, it's better off asking them :)
 That night was spinach boiled for seconds, then seasoned with sesame and seaweeds.

 I also ordered a sake, or Japanese alcohol. It came with bamboo! The taste was so strong that I only had a sip :(  It cost about 6.5US$, or 630 yen for a bottle.

 Yakitori has many unique names. Thus there was a bunch of menus I've even never heard of. This is sasami with green horseradish, wasabi. It tasted rather plain to me.

 This is Kawa or a skin of chickens served with a vinegar sauce, chopped green onion, and grated Japanese radish. Since grilled skins are oily,  I guess they got together with vinegar sauce.

 And don!! You also can bring it to your home as well as eating there (6US$, or 580yen).

 What do you think they are? The left one is some kind of meatball, "tsukune".  I didn't know, but it seems we have to eat it with a raw egg. Raw egg again (last time was here, haha)! It tasted really nice by the way, meatball and raw egg, I didn't know how to stop eating it! :)
 The right side was a grilled eggplant. They got rid of its skin, and put some sauce based on soy paste on it. Definitely the mixture of the sauce and  eggplant was awesome!

 These were the last. Green one is.... what was that?! I just forgot! =) The red one is easy to remember, tomatoes bound sliced bacons. I like it! ;)
 It's not easy to order in yakitori restaurants even for Japanese. But once you eat, you'll miss it a year or two! :)