Ok, let me start by saying that the full title of this place listed on Yelp is "Edokko II - The Pocket Greenhaven." The Pocket-Greenhaven is the neighborhood but what the hell "Edokko II" means, I have absolutely no idea. The more I think about it the more confused I get.
But whatever. So on this particular night, having driven from Reno to Sacramento and appearing on Twirl Radio, I was in the mood for something lighter, specifically Teriyaki chicken. Naturally I wound up going with something entirely different - some sort of spicy Korean chicken, what it was exactly I'm not sure because Edokko II DOESN'T HAVE A FRICKIN' WEBSITE!!! COME ON, GUYS!!!
Korean Chicken A La Carte, which I pronounced as "car-tay"
I asked the waitress what the heat level was on a scale of 1-10. She said about 7. I was feeling bold so I went for it. And yeah, 7 is a fair assessment. It had a slight peanut-taste mixed into it along with a heat that lingered from start to finish. For comparison sake, Twirl Radio host Mike got the mustard chicken, which hits you with a falcon punch of heat the second you put it into your mouth and then it tapers off.
One thing I wasn't big on was the chicken-to-vegetable proportion. In the opinion of this humble blogger, the chicken should outnumber the vegetables by at least a 2-to-1 margin. Here it seemed like the other way around. Granted, the vegetables here were cooked well and had some delicious flavors and spices, but still. There's a place in the Fashion Valley mall called Sarku Japan, and you can order Teriyaki chicken or Korean chicken or whatever the hell else you want and unless you say otherwise, they'll top it with a bombardment of vegetables that feel and taste like chiseled up bricks from a construction zone. And it's that off-kilter chicken-to-vegetable distribution that makes the dish a pain in the ass to eat. I don't want two pieces of broccoli for one piece of chicken. It should be the other way around.
Some take-out Japanese places have those Styrofoam containers that have a big entree space and two smaller side spaces. They generally give you the chicken and sides of a salad and rice. THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!!!
So, in short, the chicken was good. It had heat that lingered but it wasn't ridiculously overpowering.
And here's a bonus chocolate bar from the Lone Pine Film History Museum located, surprisingly, in Lone Pine, AKA the middle of nowhere:
From the 20s-50s an endless brigade of Hollywood westerns were filmed in and around Lone Pine because of its geographic beauty and location. So out there in this tiny town, they've got this really nice museum of film memorabilia spanning the last 100 years. They don't film out there as much as they used to, but parts of big Hollywood flicks still claim Lone Pine as a shooting location, including recent juggernauts Iron Man and Gladiator.
Anyway, this was a chocolate bar with a raspberry filling and it was outstanding. If you happen to be driving up the 395 in the middle of nowhere, I'd give the museum a look-over. Well worth it.