A Queens Oasis for Japanese Snacks

choi

Ligaya Mishan, A Queens Oasis for Japanese Snacks; At 969 NYC Coffee, onigiri offers comfort without pretense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/ ... -japanese-food.html

Quote:

In a Japanese cafe "969 NYC Coffee" in Jackson Heights, Queens, the chef "Mitsumine Oda quietly makes onigiri [お握り, becaise it was shaped with a clenched hand] (rice balls) shaped like hearts. * * * Mr Oda grew up in Chiba, Japan, and came to New York nine years ago * * * last September, he opened 969 NYC Coffee, a small, informal half-grocery, half-snack shop.  About the name: 'It's my favorite number,' he said. * * * Behind the counter, Mr Oda works alone, morning to night. (Occasionally his sister stops by to lend a hand.)

The cafe serves "onigirazu," a relatively recent innovation in Japan, credited to the manga artist Ueyama Tochi and his serial 'Cooking Papa,' about a salaryman who is happiest in the kitchen. To Westerners, onigirazu is recognizable as a sandwich, albeit with layers of rice instead of bread and a broad sleeve of nori to hold it all together. Mr Oda builds his from slabs of pork or chicken, battered and fried, slaked with tonkatsu [豚カツ (English: breaded pork chop): 'ton' is Chinese pronunciation of 豚 and "katsu" is the first two syllables of 'cutlet'] sauce as sweet as barbecue and surrounded by lettuce and, improbably, cheese.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest. But click the link to see what "onigirazu" looks like, which is annotated in (c) below.

(b) "the manga artist Ueyama Tochi and his serial 'Cooking Papa' "
(i) UEYAMA Tochi  
(A) The ja.wikipedia.org says 本名 上山 敏彦 (my translation: birth name  UEYAMA Tochihiko) but his entire art name UEYAMA Tochi is written in hiragana, without kanji: うえやま とち.

However, 敏彦, a common male given name in Japan is usually pronounced as "toSHI hiko) .
彦 (pronunciation: hiko) means "boy" with an antonym 姫 (pronunciation: hime).
(B) The zh.wikipedia.org has a page for the same under 上山 栃, which is wrong. The 栃の木 (pronounced: tochi no gi) or 栃 (tochi) is Japanese horse chestnut.
(ii) Cooking Papa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_Papa
(The manga title is actually in katakana: クッキングパパ; since 1985)

(c) About onigirazu おにぎらず/ お握ぎらず.
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* nigiru 握る 【にぎる】 (v): "to clasp; to grasp; to grip; to clutch"
(ii) quotation 1 above mentions onigiri, which in Jim Breen's online Japanese dictionary is represented by kanji "お握り(P [principal]); 御握り."  The "o" is basically meaningless (actual meaning: it is an honorific, showing respect).  The "nigiri" is noun for the verb "nigiru."
(iii) The negative form (ie, can not grip) of "nigiru" is "nigiranai" where "nai" is the suffix meaning "not."  That is the plain form, spoken and written daily, whose literature form is "nigirazu."
(iv) 握らないおにぎり 'おにぎらず'が楽ちん.
https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2141025160305832601
(A) The top photo shows how to make 'onigiri," whereas the rest, "onigirazu."
(B) The subject of this Web page ("握らないおにぎり 'おにぎらず' ") says: "the onigirazu, the onigiri that can not be gripped [Japanese: onigiranai]."  

(d) "The only dish on the menu costing more than $5 is ramen, which at $8 is nearly half the price of a starter bowl at Ippudo in Manhattan. Mr Oda's tonkotsu broth is cloudy, with a creamline lushness from simmering pork bones, chicken bones and fish heads for eight hours ('at least') with kombu 昆布 and a head of garlic ('don't skin it'), and leavening contours of onion, carrot and apple."

Ippudo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ippudo
(Hakata Ippūdō 博多一風堂; section 1 History: in 1985 started in Fukuoka by Shigemi KAWAHARA [河原 成美] + name meaning)
(i) 福岡県福岡市博多区
(ii) "「ハカタ」の語源は、「土地博（ひろ）く人・物産多し」という言葉から「博多」” ja.wikipedia.org

My translation: The origin of 博多 is "wide space, abundant with people and things"