the dish

Bumu’s Rabbit Tsukune Is a Desert-Island Meatball

Hearts, necks, livers, gizzards, inner thighs, soft knee bones — ­nothing against the more intimate parts of the chicken that you find impaled on bamboo skewers and cooked over charcoal at your local yakitori joint or izakaya. But truth be told, if we had to restrict ourselves to one Japanese chicken skewer, our desert-island chicken skewer, if you will, it would undoubtedly be tsukune, or chicken meatball. And now, Bumu chef Joaquin Baca has one-upped the traditional recipe by (mostly) swapping out the chicken for rabbit. He plops these rabbit skewers alongside the customary egg yolk for dipping but adds a hearty smudge of carrot barbecue sauce because (a) he’s from Texas and (b) “I grew up watching Looney Tunes, and the idea of serving rabbit with carrots strikes me as funny.”

On the menu at Bumu; $9; 61 W. 8th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-505-2610

*This article appears in the January 6, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

Bumu’s Rabbit Tsukune Is a Desert-Island Meatball