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2012-03-07
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Time for another happy cousins' gathering. My cousin's request for seafood became my excuse to try out another sushi restaurant. Between the 4 of us, we ordered crispy salmon skin hand roll, a deluxe sushi platter, mirugai sashimi, grilled unagi, deep-fried tofu, tempura softshell crab and a sukiyaki. Our friendly waiter thought we over-ordered when we said we wanted to wrap up the meal with the sukiyaki. Obviously he had no way of knowing what a bunch of locusts we were, and obviously he di
Between the 4 of us, we ordered crispy salmon skin hand roll, a deluxe sushi platter, mirugai sashimi, grilled unagi, deep-fried tofu, tempura softshell crab and a sukiyaki. Our friendly waiter thought we over-ordered when we said we wanted to wrap up the meal with the sukiyaki. Obviously he had no way of knowing what a bunch of locusts we were, and obviously he didn't observe how quickly we descended upon and devoured each dish. Despite the speed of demolition, we did manage to taste and savour each dish and they were all very good.
I love the salmon skin roll, the slightly smokey crispy skin and the salmon roe provided a nice contrast to the sweetness and stickiness of the sushi rice. The sushi platter consisted of 10 generous pieces of ultra fresh sea treasures: toro, uni, kampachi, botan shrimp, scallop, swordfish, akagai... can't remember the other 2 pieces... but I can certainly remember the sweet sweet taste of the big fat piece of uni... delicious. The tofu and tempura were so-so, nothing to shout about. The unagi had too much barbeque sauce on it and consequently too salty.
The sukiyaki was a pleasant surprise. It was a proper sukiyaki, cooked in a shallow sukiyaki pan with a robust sukiyaki sauce, and not the shabu shabu hybrid that is so common in other restaurants.
Overall, the most impressive dishes were the sashimi and sushi because of the high quality of the fish.
As I sat down to write this review, a question came to my mind, "Beyond the simple reason that it tastes good, why do I like raw fish?" Rewinding to the moment I put the piece of sashimi into my mouth, as I savoured the taste and texture of that piece of food in its most basic state, without the adornment of sauce, sans cover-up of seasoning, in its naked state, was a moment of truth, of utter honesty. The chef can't lie about the freshness of the raw fish. The experience is free of complication, there is no need to wonder what spice was used, how it was marinated, the complexity and depth of flavours... perhaps in a world full of deceit, falsities and camouflage, solace is found in a simple, honest piece of food.
Or perhaps I'm just over-thinking, as always.
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