Fried Chicken Cartilage (軟骨の唐揚げ, Nankotsu no Karaage)

Chicken cartilage makes some cooks pause. Good. A little pause keeps the hands honest. Nankotsu isn't strange once you know what you're eating: small pieces of chicken knee cartilage with a little meat clinging to them, fried until the outside crisps and the center keeps its firm, cheerful crunch.

The one detail that decides it is dryness. Season the cartilage briefly, drain it well, then coat it in katakuriko, potato starch, just before frying. If the pieces go into the oil wet, the coating turns heavy and the oil sulks. If they go in dry and lightly dusted, the starch tightens fast and gives the nankotsu that clean izakaya crackle people pretend is complicated.

This is not a sauced dish. We finish it with salt, pepper, and lemon because the pleasure is the cartilage itself: nothing hidden, no heavy sweetness pasted over the fry. Serve it as otsumami, a small thing for drinking, or as the loudest little plate in a meal. Leave it room on the dish. Even a bar snack deserves ma.