Wolfgang Puck Taking Izakaya Global

In Honolulu, they were places to kick back, drink beer, eat delicious, sometimes very unfamiliar food. My favorite izakaya hovered on the edge of  Kaimuki — a neighborhood whose name means “the tea oven” — and I loved it partly because no one there spoke English. Not. One. Word. We’d go in, sit at the communal table and just let the servers (in kimonos, of course) pile the vittles in front of us. They started off tame — standard sushi, dumplings. But we knew we’d proven ourselves when after a few visits they finally started delivering the fish with the heads on and the fermented soybeans. Sometimes they giggled mercilessly watching us eat. I’d like to think it’s because our adventuresome palates amused them, not because they’d let the chef spit in it.

But leave it to Mega Chef Wolfgang Puck (who once told me in an interview that he never wore underwear as an apprentice because he couldn’t be bothered to wash it — an aside, yes, but kinda fun to know, right?) to go beyond fermented fish eggs with his izakaya-style menu. Puck inaugurates pan-Asian izakaya at his DC restaurant The Source starting Jan. 20th. Look for executive chef Scott Drewno’s Chinese-inspired Pork Belly Bao, Vietnamese mini bahn mi (with pate — so colonial Vietnamese), and Korean-style short ribs. All of Asia, all in one place.