Torishin, a Yakitori 焼鳥 Restaurant in Manhattan

choi

The lede in front page is as follows:
Chicken, Piece by Piece[:] Pete Wells reviews Torishin, a Hell's Kitchen yakitori restaurant where each bit of the bird gets its dish.

Pete Wells, Where a Chicken's Parts Are Greater Than the Sum; At Torishin, each bit of the bird offers a different pleasure. New York Times, Apr 12, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/ ... anese-yakitori.html

Note:
(a)
(i)
(A) Tori Shin  鳥心
http://torishinny.com/

Later on this restaurant review mentions "my only meal at Torishin's original location, on First Avenue in the 60s [the writer can not recall exact street number]. * * * When Torishin moved to its current address in Hell's Kitchen in 2015 * * * "  There is one restaurant called Tori Shin, then and now.
(B) MICHELIN Guide
https://www.viamichelin.com/web/ ... i_Shin-195773-41102
(Tori Shin: "One MICHELIN Star")
(ii) Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Kitchen,_Manhattan
(b) In Japanese language, tori 鳥 is bird; "niwa-tori 鶏" is chicken (niwa is Japanese pronunciation for kanji 庭). Yet "niwa-tori" is often simplified to tori 鳥. So "tori" can be a bird or a chicken, or its meat, depending on context.

(c) "Dark neck meat [is served] first, gathered in a ruffle around a bamboo skewer."
(i) ruffle (n): "a strip of fabric gathered or pleated on one edge"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruffle
(ii) This is what a ruffle looks like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffle
(iii) DeepaVee, Neck Meat [at Tori Shin]. Tripadvisor, Feb 8, 2015.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Loca ... _City_New_York.html

I do not think the neck in a bamboo skewer looks like a ruffle.

(d) "They [chicken livers] take well to a few grains of ground sansho pepper"
(i) "take to somebody/something" = like
(ii)
(A) Zanthoxylum piperitum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum_piperitum
(called Japanese pepper in English and sanshō 山椒 in Japanese; is a deciduous aromatic spiny shrub or small tree; Natural range spans from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan, southern parts of the Korean peninsula, and Chinese mainland
(B) Sichuan pepper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper

Quote: "It is derived from at least two species of the global genus Zanthoxylum, including Z simulans and Z bungeanum. The botanical name comes from the Greek xanthon xylon, meaning 'blond wood.' It refers to the brightly coloured sapwood possessed by several of the species. * * * despite its name, is not closely related to either black pepper [Piper nigrum] or the chili pepper.
(iii) Latin-English dictionary
* xanthon (n) "accusative singular of xanthos [(noun masculine): a golden-yellow precious stone]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xanthon
(iv) -xylon (n; etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xylon

choi

(e) "On the bird's back, above the tail feathers, are the oysters. At Torishin they go under their French name, sot-l'y-laisse — 'a fool leaves it.' They are grilled with their skin"
(i)
(A) oyster (fowl)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_(fowl)
(B) I search hard but failed to find its function in a fowl, nor do I know its couterpart in mammals (likely there is none). A muscle usually spans a joint, to flex or extend the joint -- not a fowl's pearl.
(ii) The "sot-l'y-laisse" is a French noun that means "oyster of a fowl."   Mr Wells, the reviewer, translates the term as "a fool leaves it." It should be "a-fool-leaves-it-there" (hyphens indicates this is a noun, not a sentence; and the French adverb "y" means "there."

French-English dictionary:
* sot (noun masculine): "fool"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sot
* laisse (v) "third-person singular present indicative of laisser [(vt) leave something behind]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laisse
* l'y is "le + y"
   ^ le (definite article, masculine): "the"
          (pronoun masculine): "(direct object) him, it"
      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/le
   ^ French personal pronouns
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_personal_pronouns
      (the first table shows direct object for him or it is "le")
* y (adv): "there"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/y
* mettez (v) : "second-person plural imperative of mettre [(vt) put]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mettez
(iii) elision (French)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision_(French)
(Mettez-l'y  Put it there)

Again, this "l'y" is "le + y."
(iii) elision (n; etymology)
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/elision

choi

(f) " The chicken is salted, brushed with a sauce called tare, which is less sweet at Torishin than at some other yakitori specialists, and grilled about an inch above long-burning sticks of binchotan, a Japanese charcoal. The cooks wave bamboo fans at the fire when it needs a boost."
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* tare 垂れ 【たれ】 (n): "(1) hanging; something hanging (ie a flap, lappet, etc); (2) (also タレ) sauce for dipping, etc. made from soy sauce, mirin, vinegar and dashi"
   (This "tare" is part of "shi-dare-zakura 枝垂桜" (whose branches hand down like those of a willow tree.)
(ii) binchōtan  備長炭
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binchōtan
(Bichū-ya Chōzaemon 備中屋 長左衛門 invented it; produced "at high temperatures (about 1000 degrees Celsius)")

Production at 1,000 degrees Celcius, ja.wikipedia.org says, rid the impurities in the wood and leaves just carbon -- hence no smoke which in turn imparts no foreign odor or flavor.

(g) "There were many skewers. None of them seemed to have been seasoned. Even the pickled cucumbers and daikon that showed up at the start of the meal seemed to be under orders not to draw any attention to themselves. * * * (I still think the pickles need more pep, though.)"
(i) The daikon is Japanese pronunciation for kanji 大根 (Chinese; 白萝卜).
(A) The en.wikipedia.org has a page titled "daikon," which states, "Originally native to Southeast or continental East Asia, daikon is harvested and consumed throughout the region (as well as in South Asia)."  Apparently few Americans -- and "daikon" might well be the English name.
(B) The ja.wikipedia.org says, "多くの品種があり、根の長さ・太さなどの形状が多様。また皮の色も白以外に赤・緑・紫・黄・黒などがあり、地域によっては白よりも普通である。日本ではほとんどが白い品種で * * *"

my translation: There are many types, in terms of the length, width, and skin color of the root, though ordinarily white. In Japan, always white * * *
(ii) pep (n; short for pepper): "brisk energy or initiative and high spirits"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pep

eg: pep talk