Happy Noms

Author: Victor
Restaurant: Urasawa
Chef: Hiroyuki Urasawa

Date: July 5, 2012

Notes:

I decided to stop by Urasawa once again while I was in town, and I went with two old friends. Here’s an excerpt from my friend’s site about this meal—it was basically his first really good sushi meal!

“This all changed this summer. My friend invited me to join him for a meal at Urasawa when I visited Los Angeles in July. I was able to see the craftsmanship and attention to detail that contributes to each course in person and experience the end result. The sushi really stood out to me. The balance of flavor and the just-right density of the sushi rice just worked so well for each of the sushi courses. Yes, the items placed on top of the sushi rice were exquisite, but Hiro and Ken could have put almost anything on top of that rice and the end result would still be amazing.

The seed was planted in my head. Amazing food isn’t just about the individual ingredients on the plate, but how they are put together. And I wanted to see what else is out there. I started reading more about food online and talking with my friend about other restaurants to try in the future. I then remembered that I have a copy of The French Laundry Cookbook, and dug it out. Suddenly the recipes made a lot more sense. The goal is to make every component that goes into a dish as perfect as possible. I then searched online for “french laundry at home” to find other people’s experiences with the recipes, and stumbled upon Carol Blymire’s blog “French Laundry At Home”. The post that Carol wrote after cooking every dish in The French Laundry Cookbook was extremely inspiring and has a list of great first recipes to try. I decided that this is where I’m going to start my gastronomic adventure.”

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Click to see the pictures!

Author: Victor
Restaurant: Urasawa
Chef: Hiroyuki Urasawa

Date: November 26, 2010

Restaurant Info:
-This is my favorite Japanese restaurant in the US. Hiro’s SUPER friendly, and he even drinks with you! (Actually, he might be my favorite just because he drinks with you hahaha.)
-Hiro used to be Masa Takayama’s apprentice. I actually would rather eat at Urasawa than Masa. The food at Masa was a bit better, but the experience at Urasawa is just so much better. The restaurant Masa felt kind of cold and clinical, and Masa himself wasn’t THAT warm (at least not nearly as much as Hiro is!).

Meal Info:
-I wrote down what each course was several months after eating here, so I might have a few things wrong. Nevertheless, I tried to refrain from naming something if I wasn’t s ure.
–I missed at least three courses. You can see pictures of what these courses would look like in my 2nd Urasawa post, though!
#4: An “ice block” course that has three kinds of sashimi (toro, red snapper, and skipjack or amberjack) as well as wasabi, seaweed, daikon, and red ginger. (Course #4 in the 2nd Urasawa post)
#5: A course that consists of a spoonful of a wagyu-and-caviar-mix and a pickled bell pepper on the side that you’re supposed to eat after. (Course #5 in the 2nd Urasawa post)
#25: Afternoon tea. (Course #29 in the 2nd Urasawa post)

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Click to see the pictures!