Archive
NYC Kaiseki: Soto (Dec. 2012)
Authors: Monty and Tad
Restaurant: Soto
Chef: Sotohiro Kosugi
Date: December 8, 2012
Notes:
Tad’s Notes:
“Soto is like a kaiseki love-letter to uni. You must love sea urchin to eat here. Those who merely like sea urchin may find an overabundance of sweet, nutty richness. Those who don’t even like sea urchin should probably curse their parents for not giving them the correct genes or for an insufficiently worldly upbringing.”
“A Japanese business associate of my father once told me that the Kaiseki meal is very infrequently eaten by Japanese people. It is the equivalent of a high-end Western tasting menu, but with more ceremony, tradition, and attention to aesthetic elements. But I eat tasting menus all the time, so I am sure there are some people in Japan that eat Kaiseki meals pretty regularly.”
Monte: I love Japanese food. Soto only confirms how real our amour is.
LA: OOtoro Sushi (in Walnut, CA) (Dec. 2012)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: OOtoro Sushi (in Walnut, CA)
Chef: Kai Wei “Kurt” Chen
Date: December 19, 2012
Notes:
It was my first meal in SoCal since August, and I wanted to go with some friends to try this sushi place I’ve heard about. I don’t know why they have wagyu from Kobe, Japan (what people know as kobe beef), or kama toro (the collar bone of the bluefin tuna). It’s basically in the middle of nowhere—I’m not sure how they’ll be able to sustain business at this place haha.
After finding out that this place had kobe beef and kama toro, though, I knew I had to try this place! Finals just ended, so it was a nice excuse to go eat delicious food and drink a bunch of sake haha.
The menu has four omakase options, and the names are basically different grades (C, B, A, and A+), with each option rising in price and quality. The menu lists the food in the C, B, and A options. There’s a fourth option, A+, that’s just described as “best in season” haha. Anyway, we went with the “Omakase A+” option. (On another note, I wonder if the omakase options are named like that to target Asians…)
The fish was really good (especially the kama toro—but, then again, you can’t really go wrong with any kind of toro haha). The rice really wasn’t too great, however. At times, it was warm but a little too hard; at other times, it was cold and very hard. Overall, I think it qualifies as a pretty solid/good sushi restaurant with really high-quality fish/meat. Unfortunately, the rice could definitely improve a bit. For now, it might not be worth the price.
NYC Sushi: Sasabune (Nov. 2012)
Authors: Victor and Monty
Restaurant: Sasabune
Chef: Kenji Takahashi
Date: November 29, 2012
Victor’s Notes:
-The fish was fantastic; it felt almost on par with Sushi Yasuda, which says a LOT.
-I’m a little sad that we didn’t get to try the toro. Also, they don’t make tamago, so we didn’t get to try that either.
-The rice was really soft and fluffy, BUT it was also a little too warm for my taste. It was significantly above room tempterature (It was even warmer than Sushi Yasuda’s rice, which is already slightly above room temp!).
-One or a few grains of rice would occasionally drop when I went to pick a piece up; I don’t quite like it when that happens. I’m guessing that the temperature of the rice has to do with how well the rice sticks together…
-I don’t really like how they serve you three pieces at once. I’d rather they serve it one by one so I can finish each piece within a few seconds. (Then again, I already do that; I still prefer that they come out one by one, though, so I have more time to enjoy each piece haha.)
Monte’s thoughts:
I thought this place was amazing and worth the experience. The ambience is very intimate, but the chefs are quite busy putting out orders to the separate dining room. The rice is really warm like Victor said, and while I like warm rice, I think it was a tad (Hi Tad) too hot at times, and I wonder if it affected the stickiness of the rice. Two or three times for me, the pillows of rice beneath the sushi would just crumble into 5 smaller clumps the second I picked it up, and I would have to basically eat sashimi and try to reform the rice ball. Still, the quality of everything was really great and tastewise, I think it’s up there with the best.
Also, there’s apparently an “Asian”-focused omakase that focuses on shellfish, and a …non-asian focused omakase that I think has the more popular fishes in American sushi. Shrug.
Food:
1.
Right: Kumamoto oysters
Left: Reconstructed “egg” (squid wrapped around crab meat)
Victor: The oysters were good, but they weren’t too amazing. The squid and crab meat were FANTASTIC.
Monte: Yeah, the squid and crab was really unique. I felt like I was eating a deviled egg, but it’s only seafood! The meat was sweet but creamy.
Click here to see our thoughts and pictures of the whole meal!
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 