Our Edamame, Three Ways: Boring, Spicy, and Possibly the Best Ever

A few years ago we got some reviews saying our edamame was boring.

I still think that's funny. We have three kinds of edamame on the menu. What those guests ordered was plain salted edamame, the most common, most traditional version, the one you get everywhere.

And they were right. It is boring.

So we named it that.

Tsumaranai (Boring) Edamame

Tsumaranai means boring.

This is edamame, steamed, with salt. That's it. It's what edamame has been for a very long time and there's nothing wrong with it. Some nights that's exactly what you want next to a beer, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.

But it's on the menu next to two other options, and if you order this one and find it boring, that was a choice you made. The name is there to be honest with you about it.

Spicy Edamame

This one came from a Thai restaurant near us that closed down.

When they were shutting the kitchen, they gave us what they had left, and a lot of it was sambal oelek. I started playing around with it, trying it on different things, and it turned out that where it really belonged was on edamame.

Sambal oelek, fresh lime, Japanese sea salt. The chili heat sticks to the pods, the lime cuts it, and the salt pulls it all together. You end up eating it with your hands and getting it everywhere, which is the point.

It's also on our happy hour menu, which is the cheapest way to find out if you like it.

Garlic Edamame

Pan-seared in butter with a heap of garlic.

Not steamed and tossed, actually seared, so the pods take on some color and the garlic gets into the shell. You eat these the same way you eat the others, pulling the beans out with your teeth, except now you're also getting garlic butter off the outside of the pod.

This is the one we've become known for. If someone tells you to go to Juraku for the garlic edamame, this is what they mean.

Why We Won't Just Call It the Best

On the menu it's listed as "Possibly The Best Edamame Ever."

Plenty of guests have told us it's the best edamame they've had, and honestly, I agree with them. But I've never liked the "best slice in NYC" style of advertising. Best how? Best according to who? It doesn't tell you anything, and it puts you in a position where you're either agreeing with a stranger or arguing with a sign.

So we put "possibly" in front of it. Order it, eat it, and decide for yourself. That's more interesting to us than telling you what to think.

Try It at Juraku

All three are on the menu at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. If it's your first time, get the garlic, and if you want to understand why we named the other one what we did, get that too.

See the rest of the menu.