![sama sama restaurant tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-bw.jpg)
I’m kind of embarrassed I haven’t written more about the food I’ve been eating. Because I have been EATING. I want to do these places justice though, so be patient with me plz. Ok, so lets begin: one of my favorite restaurants in the town of Minamitane is Sama Sama. I have no idea what Sama Sama means, but when I hear it, I think of yakitori.
![yakitori at sama sama in tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-1.jpg)
This is a plate of mixed yakitori shio (chicken skewers seasoned with salt…somehow they taste like more than the sum of their parts). If you’ve watched “The Mind of a Chef” season one with David Chang on Netflix, you know what the first skewer on the left is: a painstakingly unraveled chicken wing. The next is chicken with green onion, then a dark meat skewer, a thin-sliced pork belly skewer, and the last is white meat with wasabi. The Japanese word for what these are is oishii (meaning delicious). Oishii is one of the first words I learned in Japanese and I use it all. the. time.
![sama sama restaurant tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-wing.jpg)
That’s Masa-san, the cook/owner grilling some yakitori on the left, and a close-up of his handiwork on the right. Are you guys seeing how atmospheric this place is? It’s cozy and feels like every piece of it has been sort of, I don’t know, collected? The fact that it’s run entirely by two people helps too.
![fried camembert at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-3.jpg)
Breaded and deep-fried Camembert cheese. Yup.
![salad at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-11.jpg)
All the salads in Japan are awesome. The national obsession with freshness is really highlighted in salads: no brown edges or soggy bits here. Sliced pork and sesame dressing on top.
![yakitori tare at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-10.jpg)
This is yakitori tare (pronounced ta-ray) – similar to the yakitori shio, but topped with a sweet, brown sauce called tare which is sort of similarish to teriyaki. I should probably look that up.
![cheese pancake at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-4.jpg)
That up there is a Korean style green onion and cheese pancake, cut into wedges. Nice and crispy on one side, cheesy on the other.
![duck at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-12.jpg)
They have these mini table grills you can order to grill your own meat over Japanese white binchotan coal. Masa-san fills them with hot coals and sets a lava stone on top to use as the grilling surface. This one’s being used on some duck.
![mackerel at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-14.jpg)
Masa-san torching some marinated mackerel, table-side.
![chicken wing dumplings at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-13.jpg)
These things are out of control. Chicken wings that have been carefully slit open and stuffed with gyoza filling.
![chicken wing at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-5.jpg)
Deep fried chicken. Wing. Gyoza.
![masa san at sama sama tanegashima](https://sweetsaltytart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sama-sama-masa.jpg)
Bottles of sake and Masa-san. This place has basically charmed my face off, and Masa san is a great cook. If you ever go to Tanegashima, head to Sama Sama and eat all the things. Actually, if you’re anywhere within a thousand-mile radius of Tanegashima it would be very much worth the trip to eat at Sama Sama. Just go, ok?