Happy Noms

Author: Victor
Exec Chef: Satoru Mukogawa
My Sushi Chef: Ivan Ko

August 28, 2013

I arrived in Hong Kong after a few fun nights in Chengdu, China. I was going to be in HK for only a few days, so I wanted to make sure I got the chance to eat something really delicious while I was there. I was craving good sushi, and I had heard about Sushi Kuu before, but I didn’t exactly go ahead and make the reservation. I was being lazy…

What did happen, though, was that I got dinner in Central with a couple of friends from New York (some now live in HK). After dinner, I was still hungry, so I walked by Kuu and checked it out to see if there was space at the sushi bar. There was! My sushi chef was named Ivan, and I quickly went with the Chef’s Omakase. I didn’t exactly have the calories to spare, but I totally ignored that. A new high-end sushi restaurant to try! I can’t let simple calories hold me back!

Ivan was pretty quiet for the first few courses, but after we got to the sushi part of the meal he opened up more. I feel like people in HK don’t really interact with sushi chefs nearly as much as they do in, for instance NYC. (Then again, there was a party of two nearby having a LOT of fun and drinking a massive amount of alcohol. They were pretty much sharing shots with other chefs/management and so on. That was pretty entertaining hahaha.)

Food:

Starter 1:
Laageh (I wasn’t sure what it was, and I sadly didn’t catch how to spell it) and iwashi (sardines).

Starter 2:
Onsen tamago (“hot spring egg”) with uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe), and ika (squid).

This was a great starter. Just by looking at the ingredients, you can’t really go wrong. It wasn’t complex or anything; it was a really simple dish, but that was fine because the ingredients go together really well. And it was delicious! Uni, ikura, ika, and creamy egg yolk! Mmmmm.

Starter 3:
Oyster from France with ponzu, chives, and radish.

This tasted like a normal fresh oyster to me.

Sashimi 1:
Hirame (flounder).

Sashimi 2:
Shima aji (striped jack).

Sashimi 3:
Awabi (abalone).

This didn’t taste very special to me at all. I miss the awabi at Yoshitake, Ginza Kyubey, and the Roppongi branch of Jiro… It was decent abalone, but it wasn’t spectacular.

Sashimi 4:
Ōtoro (fatty tuna) with soy sauce.

As you can probably tell just from looking at the picture, this was fan-freaking-tastic.

Sashimi 5:
Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino / golden eye snapper) with skin.

This was also delicious! The skin provided a slight crispness and bite to the sashimi, which tasted very fresh. I might be biased in my thoughts of this, though—I’m partial to kinmedai!

Sashimi 6:
Sanma (Pacific saury / mackerel pike).

Entrée 1:
Grilled Wagyu beef tongue from Kagoshima, Japan.

This tasted like normal grilled Japanese Wagyu. It wasn’t close to the best Wagyu I’ve ever had, but it was decent! I think most people would have enjoyed this a lot.

Entrée 2:
Snow crab tempura and squash tempura.

I… don’t like the idea of making a tempura out of something like snow crab. It was good, but… it’s snow crab! Why would you deep-fry it :(?

Sushi:

Regarding the sushi, the good part was that the fish was VERY fresh and flavorful. Each piece of seafood had that nice “wet” feeling that really good raw seafood has. The rice was decent. However, there were times when the rice was a bit grainy, and it was also a little cold at times—that might explain why it was grainy. There should be more consistency (of the good kind)!

1. Hotate (scallop).

2. Isaki (triggerfish / gruntfish).

3. Akamutsu (red bluefish).

4. Botan ebi (shrimp).

5. Aji (jack mackerel / horse mackerel).

6. Uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido.

I asked Ivan why he serves it without seaweed and in this manner, and he replied that the seaweed they use overpowers the taste of the uni. Hmm… (Then use better seaweed!)

7. Engawa (flounder fin).

8. Kohada (gizzard shad) with marinated seaweed.

9. Ōtoro (fatty tuna) hand roll.

10. Dashimaki-style tamago (egg).

11. Akami (lean tuna).

12. Anago (saltwater eel) and iwashi (sardines).

Ivan seemed pretty excited to serve me this piece, and he prepared it pretty meticulously. He even said that he was making it specially for me hahaha; it’s probably not true, but I’ll take it! It was very delicate in flavor, but I enjoyed it a lot! (Admittedly, I think I’d like anago by itself more…)

Post-sushi soup:
Matsutake mushroom miso soup.

I forgot to take a pic of this hahaha :(.

Dessert:
Japanese apple slices, Japanese grapes, and Jell-o.

Mmm, Japanese fruits. I love my Japanese fruits. They’re always juicy, soft, and flavorful. Each bite’s always a joy for me! Oh, and they’re ridiculously expensive. CitySuper in HK will have these big Japanese peaches for what’s equivalent to 6 USD. Apples are around 5 USD, and the melons are around 30 to 35 USD…

Conclusion:
All in all, I enjoyed the meal immensely. Ivan was great company, and the different sushi pieces were pretty good. (It wasn’t the close to the best I’ve ever had, but I’ve had some pretty dang amazing sushi.) The price is decent for the quality of food you’re getting. Next time, though, I’d probably stick to just pure sushi (and maybe sashimi). The starters and entrées aren’t bad, but they aren’t nearly as good as just eating lots of good sushi!

I definitely recommend people who live in HK to try it out!