Happy Noms

Author: Victor
Restaurant: Soto
Chef: Sotohiro Kosugi

Date: August 14, 2012

Notes:
-There are 17 non-sushi courses and 9 pieces of sushi (nigiri).
-I shall nickname this meal the “Uni Assault”. We had SO MUCH UNI. I guess it’s kind of my fault—in the beginning, the waitress asked me how much we liked uni, and I answered with, “We love it!” And… yeah. The pictures show how much uni we ended up getting.
-Chef Sotohiro has a HUGE temper hahahaha. We saw some J-raging going on today; there was one time where he raged LOUDLY and the entire restaurant just turned quiet. Apparently an employee messed up on something. He was pissssssed.

17 Non-Sushi Courses:

Course 1:
Goma Tofu
-black and white tofu.
-with wasabi soy sauce and soy foam.
-with sake.

Course 2:
Chawanmushi
-traditional egg custard.
-with shrimp, chicken, and shiitake mushrooms.

That piece of shrimp was huge.

Course 3:
Fluke Ponzu
-with sea salt, kale, green onion, and ginger.
-served with ponzu sauce.

Course 4:
Uni Tempura
-served with homemade sea-urchin powder.

Uni dish #1! (“Uni? Yay! I love uni!”)

Course 5:
Sea Trout Carpaccio
-with black truffle, sea salt, chives, and caviar.
-served with watercress and sesame seed.

Course 6:
Uni Cocktail
-with soy reduction and fresh wasabi.

Uni dish #2! (“Yay, more uni! This is awesome!”)

Course 7:
Scallop and Fluke
-wrapped with a yuzu leaf and served with agedashi tofu.

Course 8:
Wild Snapper Carpaccio
-with chives, ginger shoot, and cilantro.

Course 9:
Seared Sea Bream Carpaccio (They called it carpaccio even though it wasn’t raw. Hmm.)
-served with ginger-scallion oil.

Course 10:
Uni and Yuba (uni and black soybean skin)
-served with shiitake broth.

Uni dish #3! (“Even more uni!? This is incredible. I could eat this over and over!”)

Course 11:
Fried Soft-shell Crab
-served with ponzu sauce.

Course 12:
Steamed Lobster
-with uni mousse.
-garnished with uni powder, chives, caviar, and lotus wrap.

Uni dish #4! (“More… uni? That’s kind of aggressive… Oh well, it’s delicious…”)

Course 13:
Atlantic Surf Clam
-thinly sliced with ginger.
-marinated with sweet miso mustard.

Course 14:
Chūtoro Tartare
-with avocado, seaweed, chives, and caviar.
-served with sesame ponzu sauce.

Course 15:
Braised Black Cod
-with Japanese turnip and shimeji mushroom.

Course 16:
Uni Ika Sugomori Zukuri (“Bird’s Nest from the Sea”)
-uni wrapped in thinly sliced squid with shiso.
-served with quail egg and tosa soy reduction.
-meant to be mixed gently using chopsticks!

Uni dish #5! (“More uni?! FIVE uni dishes?! Why, why, why? PLEASE… NO MORE UNI.”)

Admittedly, though, this dish was fantastic, and I can definitely see why it’s one of Chef Kosugi’s most famous dishes!

I forgot to take a pic of this before I started mixing it, so here’s a pic of how the dish looks like before mixing it.
(From: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/NQ6aQZMdy0aFPOetkvb3PQ?select=vmSuJPAhNXwYnMjZBym2Ag#vmSuJPAhNXwYnMjZBym2Ag)

And here’s a pic of the “Bird’s Nest” while I was starting to mix it.

Here’s it after I mixed it. It looks kind of gooey haha. IT WAS DELICIOUS, THOUGH! At the same time… it was the fifth uni dish. Five is a bit too much for me…

Course 17:
Broiled langoustine
-with shiitake sauce.

We flipped it over for fun just because we thought it was so big that we HAD to take a picture of it this way hahaha.

9 Pieces of Sushi (Nigiri):

Sushi 1:
Ika (squid).

Sushi 2:
Ocean trout.

Sushi 3:
Isaki (grunt).

Sushi 4:
Shima aji (striped jack).

Sushi 5:
Amaebi (Sweet shrimp).

Sushi 6:
Aji (horse mackerel).

Sushi 7:
Chūtoro.

Sushi 8:
Sea bream with ponzu sauce.

Sushi 9:
Uni roll.

Uni dish #6! (WHY SO MANY!?)

-I told them that we didn’t want any more uni (we were sick of it hahaha), but Chef Kosugi decided to give us one complimentary piece to end the meal… probably because he was thinking that we LOOOOOVE uni. I now know that I merely like uni. As of this meal, I don’t think I could fairly say that I love it.
-Chef Kosugi was smiling at us while giving us this. A “reasonable person” might think that he was just trying to make our meal more memorable and enjoyable, but he CLEARLY was thinking something along the lines of, “I know you guys are sick of uni right now, but I’M GONNA GIVE YOU MORE! HAHAHA!” Well played, Chef. Well played.

Dessert:
Mochi with ice cream.

Left to right:
-Mango.
-Strawberry.
-Green tea.
-Red bean.
-Vanilla.
-Mango.

Victor:
This was DELICIOUS ^___^. There were no uni-flavored pieces… thankfully.