Tanuki is a tasty shape shifter

If you’re looking for something more than sushi and noodles, try Tanuki on NW 21st and Flanders. We ordered the name-your-price chef’s menu (opted for $20/person) and were excited by the various dishes brought to our table: oysters with some kind of fabulous sauce, seaweed salad, edamame, duck hearts, shiitake mushrooms, unagi, a savory steak & corn dish, a spicy kimchi veggie dish, and lychees for dessert. Washed it all down with some crisp sake.

Yet another highlight of the evening was that Melissa, one of the owners, recogized Eric. Turns out they went to Kenyon College together, and she’s a fellow Ohioan.

So if you want a culinary adventure, try Tanuki’s chef’s menu, and look for their future house specials. You’ll have a unique experience at a price that you name.

The Story of Tanuki

-from Tanuki’s web site:

“Tanuki is a Japanese raccoon dog, but also the stuff of legends…

According to Shinto folklore Tanuki is a kami, a spirit creature with powers to shift shapes at will in pursuit of women, wine, a free meal and mischief in any order they were to be found.

Often Tanuki is pictured looking inebriated, confused and holding an empty sake flask and a counterfeit promissory note or a leaf—Tanuki were famous for having the ability to trick sake shop owners into believing the leaves were money in payment—as soon as Tanuki left the money turned back into leaves.

For obvious reasons sake merchants and restaurateurs adopted Tanuki as their protective kami, often placing a statue of the fellow outside where he was a sign that good times were to be had inside…

TanTan Tanuki

No kintama wa

Kaze mo nai no ni

Bura Bura

…tsugi watashi wa no ban desu!”