Asian in Miami

I'll be heading to Miami Beach to visit some friends who moved there from Los Angeles; I can hardly wait for my trip with so many great restaurants in Miami to revisit and try (see my earlier post).

My mouth is already watering at the prospect of returning to Hiro's Yakko-San in North Miami Beach. When I asked them to take me to their favorite place, they drove to this out of the way industrial area with a hole in the wall restaurant tucked in a nondescript business park; I thought maybe my friends had lost their sense of taste or their minds (or both) until I tasted the food.

There is a reason that chefs come here after working at their own restaurants (always a great sign). Besides the fact that they are open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, they also serve authentic Japanese and Korean dishes that most non foodies or chefs would never touch, like cold kimchee tofu and grilled beef tongue steak. If you are not brave enough to try these exotic dishes, they also have familiar comfort food like kon tatsu (breaded and fried pork cutlet), shrimp chili sauce, soba and udon noodle soups. My favorites are their fresh fish selections like the hamachi sashimi with jalapeno pepper, the sea bass miso, and their Manila clam sakemushi (steamed with sake).

Maybe on I'll order something to go for the ride back, I'm sure it will be 100 times better than any food the airline will serve.