sushi monster 11.0

LINK: sushi monster 11.0

I took Buddy H out to eat sushi at one of my fav spots. He’s one of the few friends who doesn’t have seafood/shellfish allergies and enjoys omakase. I told him it would be my treat, even though we were celebrating my birthday but in return, I would ask for him to write a post of our meal.

I’m pretty sure he enjoyed himself…

Guest writer: Buddy H (he doesn’t have a blog but he is an avid reader and writer)

If you’re like me, you’ve been imagining what an intimate & exclusive sushi dining experience as seen in Jiro Dreams of Sushi is like ever since you first watched it. You’ve also seen other similar videos following that as well, where each place shown provides extremely limited seating.

Like me, you’ve come to terms knowing that to be seated at an opportunity like that would require an unbelievable amount of access or, if that’s not available, an equally unbelievable amount of stress from advance planning to have that chance open up to you. Or just pure serendipity or alignment of stars could work, I suppose.

Now, imagine that a very similar experience is available within a leisurely drive from where you live, in a venue that only has seating for 8.

You’d think that every seating would be filled in such a highly sought-after affair.

But imagine that upon arrival, there’s only a total of 4 of you that night, and that the other party of 2 is a delightful couple celebrating a birthday and their wedding in 2 weeks.

That’s about as special of an experience one can get States-side, short of splurging for a private affair that’ll never happen to you, as if you could afford that level of an experience anyway.

Kismet never felt so effortless tonight.

After being seated, you’re provided with a generous helping of sliced pickled ginger in a small ramekin as a palate cleanser.

The host was warm & friendly. He gave brief explanations of the concept of the restaurant, as well as quick tidbits for each fish.

Toro Tartare with Kaluga Caviar
A nicely constructed dense puck of finely minced toro topped with a pinch of Kaluga caviar and scallions. The mincing seems to accomplish a couple of things: with toro’s generally tender texture, the mincing helps add variations to the texture, and the effect is almost as if it’s creating more surface area for our palates to experience. It also brings out a bit more of the underlying iron-like, metallic hint that’s characteristic of tuna, accented by the controlled salinity of the caviar.

Mochi
In the most complimentary way possible, the mochi’s plainness acts as a great counterbalance with the salinity from the caviar & ikura, and the sweetness & earthiness of the uni. It’s like a built-in palate cleanser in a way, so that instead of becoming tongue-blind from eating the other ingredients, you’re reminded just how great they are.

The ikura is impressive: not only is the overall globe of saltiness firm, so is that rather thick membrane on the outside, which happens to not be filmy. Also, never did the inner liquid contents uncontrollably spurt salty jets when bitten inside the mouth. Kinda stumped how that works.

Uni is fresh, so it’s sweet & earthy while being moderately creamy.

If you’re a fan of fine mochi, assuming mochi can be exalted in your worldview, the handmade mochi is absolutely exquisite. The texture is slightly gummy but bites absolutely cleanly with a quick give. But I wouldn’t classify this as a bounce. This isn’t boba. It has no unseeming stretch or dryness. Being made of rice, rice in the flavor you’ll taste in a mochi’s purest form here.

Cherrywood Smoked Sashimi
Outstanding presentation, and tickles several senses. Another harmonious recipe, each ingredient done well and goes well all together. The fish is luxuriously, smoothly consistent in texture. Crisp fresh white onion slices are sweet yet mellow with the sting while there’s enough delicately fried crunchy  onions bits.

Next up are the six seasonal nigiri. The meek, quiet itamae scooped a small ball of vinegared rice, dabs pasted wasabi onto it, then applies the raw scored fish. Then, he pours a little bit of soy sauce on top. Then scoring acts as channels to retain some of that soy sauce. This way, there’s no need for you to dip your nigiri in a small ramekin of soy sauce.

All pieces are extremely tender. Some are torched to amplify the extremely mild flavor of the fish, some to warm the fish enough to further tenderize it.

Chicken grunt, Isaki

Young sea bream, kasuga

Baby horse mackeral, Aji

Golden eye snapper, Kinmedai

One hiccup occurred during the kinmedai (golden eye snapper). Real quickly, the kinmedai was mild, slightly sweet, but stands out with a varying texture that ebbed and flowed from being extremely tender, to firming up, to extremely tender, etc. A fun experience.

The host wasn’t present initially, but what happened was the other party encountered a fish bone while eating it. The itamae softly responded, “Sorry”, only briefly, pausing and without sympathizing to the customer much, then carried on with his work. Shortly after this happened, the host returned, and having been unaware of what happened, explained the kinmedai and mentioned one of the highlights of the kinmedai was that it had fewer bones than usual. The other party mentioned they’d bitten into a bone.

Inevitably, eating fish, raw or otherwise, carries the inherent risk of getting stabbed by an errant fish bone. I hope the other customer took the issue in good stride, because many would contend that the itamae’s response should’ve been more intentional, more empathetic.

This also highlights a risk of extremely intimate dining experiences. The staff’s A-game needs to be dialed up to 200. Any issue happening to one customer, and the entire venue (which are usually tiny) can become aware of it, and it’s ultimately up to the staff to step up with damage control. I’m rarely one that condones coddling adults because there’s simply too much of that kind of BS happening nowadays, but these things depend on context, especially when big bucks are being shelled out. Makes me wonder if there’s a personality stress test when partnerships and hiring are considered to determine fit for the role.

The sardine, iwashi:
It’s unmistakably a sardine in flavor, but not in texture was was extremely tender surprisingly. I’m guessing that’s assisted by the itamae’s torch

Barraccuda

The texture of the tuna (Akami) was so smooth, it reminded me of firm Jello. Trademark metallic, iron hint in flavor.

Chu toro
Buttery and extremely mild, with plenty of umami.

Otoro
Literally dissolves immediately upon contact with the insides of your mouth. It was challenging to try slowing down the dissolving process, to enjoy it a little longer. Something so precious can certainly dissipate so quickly.

Hokkaido uni
A cut roll which the itamae left 1/3rd of it empty to stack a few servings of buttery, rich uni.

Miyazaki A5 wagyu
Topped with lemon zest & a generous helping of Australian truffle shavings. The experience of dissolving too quickly with the otoro also occurred with the wagyu here. I was mainly left with an intricate construct of rice kernels which were digesting much more gradually that tasted spectacularly seasoned with wagyu rendering, with a hint of truffle. Is this and the otoro a culinary poetic reminder that the best instances of life are too ephemeral & fleeting, that immortalizing moments like these is man’s arrogant exercise in futility?

Otoro hand roll
Once again, here we have otoro in finely minced form, which seems instinctively blasphemous, but we’re setting preconceptions aside and trusting our palates to be held captive by the itamae’s 20 years of expertise here. Surprisingly, there are small brunoise pieces of traditional pickled daikon radish, which provides nice acidity and sweetness that bites through the gluttonous umami & fattiness of the otoro. This is one elevated hand roll.

Dessert – coconut sherbert
The coconut flavor isn’t held back at all. A great palate finisher.

Unforgettable experience.