AOI Kitchen

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"I’d had an insatiable craving for omurice—a Japanese omelet with a soft-scrambled center—ever since I saw a video of someone slicing down the middle of a taut, smooth omelet in a swift motion, allowing its creamy interior to spill over a bed of fried rice. But when I arrived at Aoi Kitchen in New York’s East Village—where omurice is a specialty—my eyes instead landed on the ebi sando. It featured battered shrimp, cabbage, spicy mayo, and tartar sauce between two pillowy-soft slices of milk bread. Fret not: I not-so-subtly convinced my dining companion to order the omurice so that I could “try it” too. Though its presentation wasn’t accompanied by a theatrical slice, the texture was equal parts velvety and sturdy, and I was pleasantly surprised by the smokiness of the rice below it, studded with juicy bits of pork sausage." - ByElazar Sontag