Mai Truong/Staff

When the question “What should we eat?” crops up, my first response is usually izakaya.

Some people refer to izakaya food as Japanese tapas, but I think of tapas as “Spanish izakaya” because izakaya includes a wider range of dishes, from the small appetizers that serve as drinking snacks to the filling rice and noodle dishes to be had after drinks. Izakaya plates are also designed for sharing, which sets the perfect atmosphere for get-togethers, and the restaurants should be casual and affordable, with more emphasis on taste than artistry of the food. In the Berkeley izakaya scene, not only does Kiraku fit that bill, but it is also conveniently located on Telegraph Avenue to cater to the student community on the Southside.

In an izakaya, it’s a good idea to start off with something cold and adventurous, knowing that you can always return to the warmth of fried chicken and potstickers if all else fails. Although the fermented firefly squid, with its strong sea flavor, will not appeal to everyone (it wasn’t for me), “spicy” jellyfish and “spicy” boiled baby octopus (iidako), which looks fiery red, are not spicy at all but mildly sweet, springy and fun to eat.

Some of the starters are best enjoyed as nibblers throughout the meal. On one end of the spectrum, there’s takowasabi — raw octopus chopped and marinated in a light wasabi sauce, which appears slimy but tastes clean — to refresh your palate between heavier plates, like barbecued spare ribs and grilled beef tongue. And on the other end, there’s renkon chips, thinly sliced lotus root deep fried and sprinkled with celery salt, a light snack to be enjoyed while waiting for the seared albacore tataki, which is a whole different kind of delight dressed in ponzu and onion sauce.

The fried dishes at Kiraku are always sure bets. Corn tempura with green tea salt and kisu tempura (whiting fish) with umeboshi salt is airy enough to make you forget that it is deep-fried. Karaage (fried chicken) comes piping hot, and deep fried rock shrimp with spicy mayo is both visually inviting and texturally addicting, as the shrimp is still moist and firm inside the light, crispy batter.

After indulging in tempura, I always choose the omelet salad to give myself the illusion of healthy eating — shredded cabbage with sauteed pork belly blanketed with a thin omelet, topped with katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayo and soy sauce. The salad looks big and fluffy but not too filling, and it leaves enough room for an “after-sake” (shushoku) dish.

Actually, by the time you get to the after-sake, you’re typically a bit inebriated (izakaya are Japanese drinking establishments, and Kiraku has more than 40 choices of sake, shochu, chuhai and beer). That means your palates are either dulled or totally dead, so the shushoku just has to be filling. Kiraku’s shushoku does just that. Literally. While filling, the oyako don, rice with simmered chicken and onion omelet, was a little too mushy, and the yaki udon did not leave a strong impression despite featuring many flavors — small bits of octopus, hearty noodle and salty katsuobushi with a sweet basil pesto twist.

What the shushoku lacked, the spare ribs made up for perfectly with tender, fall-of-the-bone meat in a savory orange marmalade barbecue sauce. It’s a dish that I can always recommend, for it is not an acquired taste and would please every palate (except vegetarian ones) — just like Kiraku is the perfect middle-range restaurant that everyone would like, regardless of your preference to stay in the pork-belly zone or venture into the fermented-squid zone.

And if, by some miracle, you still have room after the shushoku (there’s always room for ice cream, right?), there’s grapefruit yogurt with fresh blueberries and green grapes. The tartness woke me right up from my food coma, a bright note that kept me smiling all the way home in the crisp air of the Berkeley night.

Kiraku is located at 2566 Telegraph Ave. Call 510-848-2758 to make reservations.

Mai Truong is the editor of Eating Berkeley. Contact her at mtruong@dailycal.org.

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Ayusa/Courtesy

The Tomodachi Summer 2013 SoftBank Leadership Program will bring 100 Japanese high school students affected by the 2011 earthquake to UC Berkeley this summer in an effort to equip them with the skills needed to help rebuild disaster areas.

But bringing fewer than half as many students as last year, the program comes in a drastically reduced form.

Tomodachi began in 2012 in the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese earthquake as a one-time arrangement aimed at teaching Japanese high school students from affected regions the skills in leadership and development needed to rebuild disaster zones.

The three-week program was developed in partnership with the nonprofit organization Ayusa International and Japanese telecommunications firm SoftBank Corp., which has decided to fund the program for at least another summer in light of last year’s success.

Mariko Osada, a SoftBank spokesperson, said that the reduction in numbers is about making the program more efficient as well as attempting to foster better communication among participants.

“With 300 people taking part the students were not able to get to know each other,” Osada said.

Nevertheless, entrance into the program is set to be competitive. Last year more than 2,100 students applied for 300 positions. With only 100 places this year and more recognition, David Beiser, the director of grant programs at Ayusa, believes the program will become even more competitive as a result of the increase in applicants.

Hazuki Inoue, a program assistant with Tomodachi last summer, has called the program a “good cultural exchange.”

“(The program) was about the students bringing what they have learned back to their homeland to help those who have been affected by the earthquake,” Inoue said.

A SoftBank press release highlighted Haruna Shiraiwa, a former participant who has since started a sight-seeing program in Iwate with the travel agency H.I.S. in the hopes of bringing more tourism to the area.

Faculty members with the Center for Cities and Schools, the campus organization administering the program,  will be involved in educating students in areas related to housing, business, jobs, public spaces, energy and sustainability. The CC&S curriculum seeks to encourage young people to engage and help make positive changes in society, said Deborah McKoy, executive director of the CC&S.

More information on the Tomodachi program for summer 2013 will be made available at Wurster Hall at 6 p.m. on March 11 at an art opening celebrating the works of former Tomodachi participants.

Contact Eoghan Hughes at ehughes@dailycal.org.

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The Tomodachi Summer 2012 SoftBank Leadership Program, that will take place from July 21 to Aug. 10, is part of the Tomodachi Initiative, a public-private partnership spearheaded by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. The program intends to support Japan’s recovery from the devastation of the 2011 disaster while trying to develop cultural bonds and long-term economic bridges between Japan and the United States.

The program will be run through a collaborative effort by Ayusa — a San Francisco-based nonprofit created to provide educational exchange programs — and the campus’s Center for Cities and Schools, which will administer the academic component of the program.

“The goal of the program is to create effective agents of change to help them return home to rebuild their communities and country,” said David Beiser, the director of Ayusa Grant Programs.

After attending leadership courses in the mornings, the students will partake in a wide range of activities planned by Ayusa such as a community service project at Clark Kerr Campus assembling water purification kits, talks with speakers such as Kristi Yamaguchi and other events like attending an Oakland Athletics game.

Ayusa and the center have partnered over the past five years for similar programs with students who have come to Berkeley from many different countries in the world, according to Susan Hartmann, the program and operations manager at the center.

Hartmann also said the Japanese students would be providing input to the city of Berkeley Downtown Area Plan, which was passed by the Berkeley City Council in March and aims to bring new economic life to that part of the city.

“The students will be working on projects for the mayor and will help provide input to city about the (Downtown Area) plan, housing, economic development, public spaces and energy and sustainability,” Hartmann said. “This program was chosen because it is important to Berkeley and relevant to the area that the students are from.”

Hartmann said the participating students will have class in Wurster Hall and will be instructed by 12 teachers hired specifically for the program who come from all over the world due to their Japanese and English speaking capabilities. The program will be taught mostly in English with Japanese assistance, as most of the students have elementary English skills.

According to a Feb. 28 press release put out by global education and volunteer program-coordinator Intrax, the students will be on campus on full scholarships and the program will be funded by Softbank Corp., a telecommunications company whose Chairman and CEO is Masayoshi Son, a 1980 UC Berkeley graduate in Economics.

The students, all from the Tohoku region of northeast Japan and ranging from ages 15 to 18, will live in campus dorms during their stay. Ayusa is also currently outreaching to campus faculty and staff as well as other interested hosts in Northern California in order to find places for the students to stay for a weekend homestay during the first weekend of August, according to Beiser.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also made an appearance at the students’ orientation in Japan this past weekend while she was in the country for diplomatic purposes, according to Beiser.

Beiser said the program’s goal is to instill hope in the students, many of whom came from unstable living conditions and difficulties surrounding life after the natural disasters in Japan.

“One student lost everything — her entire family, parents, grandparents, house — all at 17,” Beiser said. “Some of the students are still living in temporary housing units and in tents.”

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