Sushi Delight: (5/8/07)

As I am on the eternal quest for the $5 sushi feast, I am always on the lookout for a great deal at a local sushi restaurant. My boyfriend recently introduced me to the current favorite. At Hiroshi’s, a small little slip of a restaurant in a strip mall type building on the side of Eastlake. As you sit down, they bring over an amuse bouche of sesame seaweed salad. After ordering, I learned my meal also came with a miso soup, complete with chunks of fried egg and tofu. But the real specialty was the Chirashi bowl I had ordered. I have eaten a fair amount of chirashi in my life, and was expecting the usual bowl full of rice with 7-10 pieces of sashimi and a slice of tamago on top.

But no, I was wrong. I was given essentially a platter, with a thin layer of rice on the bottom, there was (I counted) 22 pieces of sashimi, mostly in sets of 3. In addition, I had the customary tamago, as well as a crab salad and some sort of pink sweet flakes I could not identify.

This feast set me back an extremely reasonable $17.95, but was also far more food than I could ever eat on my own.

Omakase Life (4/25/07)

Recently my roommate and I, sushi afficionado extraordinaires, discovered the magic word ‘Omakase’. Essentially it means that you would like the chef to give you whatever is best that day. Having just enjoyed a delicious and unique meal at Shun, near U. Village (full omakase reviews after the break), I got to thinking about using the term omakase in other fields. When we sit down at the sushi bar and say ‘omakase’ the chef relishes his (or her?) chance to show off just how well they can do while at the same time you get to enjoy the fruit of his labor. It isn’t that the sushi is not always amazing (it is) or that he doesn’t normally try (he clearly does), its just that somewhere in there, he has the extra trick up his sleeve, just waiting to be asked for. So I got to thinking about the use of this word in the rest of the world: What if I sat down in front of Ichiro and said that word. Would fancy bat work and trick dance steps down the baselines come out? Would the M’s start winning? Or say I said it to Mayor Nickels. Could we solve the tunnel/viaduct problem if we just asked someone to omakase it?
The intro to omakase came at Umi Sake House in Belltown. They have it priced and on the menu, so you can order it to your table. You also have the option of sushi or sashimi. Both times I ordered the $25 Sashimi plate and it came out different each time, filled with variety, each piece perfectly cut and introduced me to stuff I would never have ordered. The highlight included the three different types salmon on one of them and the king crab on the other. This is a great place to start your omakase journey.

The second place we tried is our local neighborhood joint that we love dearly. Shun (pronounced shoon), is just north of U Village. I was inclined to dislike it, as I was a huge fan of Thai Dusit, the thai restaurant it replaced, but it is hard to dislike a cheap, terrific sushi restaurant within 2 miles of your house. So we sat at the sushi bar and nervously eeked out the magic word. The chef grinned, asked us if there was anything we didn’t eat (hell no!) and got started. A seaweed and king crab salad started us off, followed by a variety of nigiri, monkfish liver in ponzu sauce, deep fried mackerel bones, and more nigiri. Everything was delicious and new to us. Those items that were not new to us had something different about them. The unagi, not something I normally like, melted off our tongues like butter. This was truly an enlightening sushi experience. As the bill came, we braced for the worst. And boy were we shocked when we saw the price–Just $30 each for this feast of chef specialities.

Drunk on our amazing omakase eating skills, we decided to go straight for the top: Shiro’s. I had heard from multiple sources that this was the place to get the best sushi in town. We got there at 5:30, right when it opened to be assured a spot at the sushi bar. We sat down, told the chef in front of us our order and tittered excitedly. The first piece of nigiri dropped in front of us. We chewed thoughtfully. It was, well, fishy. But we said nothing. Piece after undistinguished piece of nigiri dropped in front of us, and each one was fishy, not fresh and exciting, but like he was rushing us away. There was only one non-nigiri item, and that was the tuna handroll. Good, but not great. At the end, the other chef was making an amazing looking poke, and after looking longingly, he offered us a sample. Even that looked better than it tasted. There was a highlight at Shiro’s though, which was that we watched them kill our shrimp and lay them out on our nigiri. And I of course, love the deep fried shrimp head. My roommate let me eat hers. This time we were ready for the bill. Confident in our omakase experience, we were sure we would pay for what we got, which wasn’t worth a whole lot. Shortly, however, we were jarred back to reality, as the cost was $113 for the two of us. Heads hung in shame, we left, broke and unsatisfied.

I hope this helps everyone else discovery the wonderful world of omakase that this fine city has to offer. And maybe even get the word Omakase into our daily language.

In with the old…

I recently stopped writing for Seattle Metroblogging. While writing for them, they ask that you don’t cross post your blog posts. Now that I’m free of that, I will be archiving all my old posts, because I really think I did some of my best writing for them–and I want it back!

Does it Live up to the Hype?

Harvest Vine is the name on the tip of every foodie’s tongue in Seattle. I had heard the name over and over as the best place in town, but I had never been there. Not even since B’s best friend has been a cook there for the last 4 months (that is four months too long, my friend). So finally we went. I know my experience was not the same as everyone else’s, as we sat in front of Kim so that he could sneak us as many dishes as possible.

The food was great. I wasn’t jumping out of my seat or squirming with excitement, but I think some of that was because I was expecting such a great meal. I was not dissapointed, but it did not exceed my expectations (they were so high, it would have been difficult). There are probably a million blog posts riddled with pictures and descriptions of the food. I don’t do photos in the restaurant, so you won’t see those. You can read the descriptions of individual dishes on their menu. I’m here to tell you what made the experience great.

The cooks were so excited to get the freedom to show off their most delicious dishes. As we were passed to the meat station, Brendan kept encouraging us–Do you have room for another course before the foie gras?–he wanted us to get as many tastes as we could. Is it my turn? the dessert guy asked. Kim was on the fish station and made us one of my favorites–squid braised in its own ink. The tentacles were cutely stuffed into the squid body and the whole thing was perfectly soft. Watching the whole fished baked in salt go by made me sad we weren’t getting one, but it was much nicer to taste one bite of everything than to waste stomach space on a huge dish like that. The basque white wine we started with was great, we moved on to a monstrell which was perfect for the meat courses.

To be honest, there are few individual dishes that stick out as terrific, what made it unique was that not a single bite was less than wonderful. From our first taste (a fish mousse amuse bouche) to the final sip (a glass of port) everything that passed our lips was beautifully created in front of our eyes by a group of enthusiastic young chefs trying to show off their skills.

Through all this the chef worked the front of the house. He is in fact a caricature of a chef, like Gusteau from Ratatouille, round and friendly, though stern with his kitchen chefs. It was great to see him at the restaurant helping out.

And just to show off: All in all we had ten courses, of which about half were duo’s or trios of multiple dishes, each one composed to be a taste of each item for the two of us. It was incredible.

Quick n’ Easy Version: Pho

Pho is like a godsend when you are sick. This Vietnamese version of the classic sickie food takes chicken noodle to a new level. If you are at the point of moving, the best thing is to get thee to the nearest Pho restaurant and let them do the work. But I wasn’t there yet. I was still at home, in bed. And that meant I wasn’t making the stock from scratch. Everything was thrown together and it was quick and easy. It wasn’t the best pho ever, but it did the trick.

 For Easy Pho: Chicken Stock (1 can), star anise (2 stars), Cardamom (.5 teaspoon of ground), salt and pepper to taste, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, ginger (a teaspoon minced), garlic (2 cloves, crushed).

Boiled all of these up in a broth and let it reduce to about half, then strained out the spices.

Into a bowl I put cilantro, fresh rice noodles, jalapeno, and chopped baby bok choy. Poured the broth over these ingredients and there it was. A steaming bowl of Pho.

There is no picture. Sick people can’t operate cameras.

The Best Grilled Cheese

“I came home last night to make a sandwich,” B told me last night…”and there was no provolone left?” I finished. Yeah, what happened to that provolone? I made it into my favorite grilled cheese sandwich. Inspired by a dish I ate in Uruguay (I know that people who know me are shocked that I say this, but once, I did eat good food there). The dish involves melting an entire round of provolone with spices and slicing it into pieces to eat with bread. This is just the Americanized verion.

Begin by melting the cheese (2 large slices should do) just enough that some grease slides off. Using a spatula, lift the cheese back off for a minute and toast the bread quickly, til golden, then flip one, piling on top the cheese, and removing the second piece of bread for a sec. Sprinkle the cheese with spices of your choice. I used red pepper flake, rosemary, salt and pepper. Then, with the toasted side toward the cheese, complete your sandwich. When the bottom toast is browned on the outside, flip it over and brown the other outside.

Delicious cheesiness with a bit of an adult flavor.

ViengThong: Wow, its actually Thai…

“Wow, it’s actually Thai” was the recurring theme of our dinner last night. We headed out to ViengThong, on MLK Jr Way, just past the Loews. And by we, I include my brother, who spent three weeks at Muay Thai training camp in Thailand, and his friend who lived there for a time. These boys snottily laugh at the Thai food we eat here in Seattle, comparing it to the delicious stuff they got in their time living on the beach there. As I reminded my brother, I think he has told me about the sticky rice like fifty times.

They opened the menu and seemed pleased at the options. The waitress giggled when they thanked her for water in Thai. They ordered a bunch of stuff, not all of which I can remember. The soup was the first to arrive, and it is the best soup I have ever eaten. I am not always prone to hyperbole, but when Aaron, the guy who’d lived in Thailand (and who is slightly more prone to hyperbole than me) echoed this sentiment, I felt a little more comfortable. It was spicy enough to push you to the edge, without ever losing flavor nor feeling like flavor is sacrificed for heat. A hint of coconut milk was present, but it wasn’t overly creamy as so many tom kai gais are.  (or tom yum gai. which ever one has the coconut!).  Next up was som tum, the green papaya salad that is ever present in Thai cuisine. This got another round of favorable comparison to true Thai food, though with the stipulation that it was (thankfully) missing the fish sauce which “no sane american would get anywhere near”.

We shared a pile of main dishes, a decent green curry, a chicken dish that turned out not to be what the boys were hoping for. Then we had two stand out dishes. At the waitresses suggestion we ordered a plate of barbecue chicken. The flavor was perfect, the chicken, cut like they were ribs, was amazing. It melted away in your mouth. The other stand out dish was the steamed whole fish. In a thin brown soy based sauce, the fish fell apart on the fork. It was, I believe a sea bass. And it was, I believe, delicious.

We also ordered the Phad Lao, which was similar to a phad thai only far less sweet (always my biggest problem with pad thai). I enjoyed this, though it was much closer to dishes I had had before. Then of course, was the sticky rice. As I said last night, rice is one of my favorite foods, but I really enjoy food more when I can use my hands. Sticky rice has solved this probelm for me. It is meant to be eaten with the hands. And shovel it in is what I did. You can use it to pick up chunks of fish, sauces whatever. Similar to injera at an Ethiopian restaurant.

Everything we ordered was so far superior to dishes at any other Thai restaurant, it was a quite pleasant surprise. And all through the night the boys just kept echoing “Just like in Thailand!” and reminiscing about sticky rice from street carts and choose your own fish stalls on the beach.

Another great deal too: $100 with tax and tip for the six of us, beers included!

A Nice New Year’s Eve Surprise

Sometimes the right meal just comes to you. As we jumped out of a friend’s car on New Year’s eve, planning for sushi at Ototo (a very good neighborhood place) an empty restaurant caught our eye. Opal has been open for a little over a year now, and had a few rave reviews and some mediocre ones, but sounded far fancier and more celebratory than a sushi joint we frequented. In we went, seated right away. Champagne was on special, so we ordered that up right away. Service was impeccable, which was not lost on our table full of long time restaurant employees. We started with the cheese plate, which was ordered from mildest to sharpest and each item explained by our server. Next up we tried the apples and fennel, which was dusted with pomegranate seeds. The crisp crunch of the apples matched surprisingly well with the pop of the pomegranate seeds for a delightfully fresh mouthfeel. The flavors were excellent. We then had the butternut squash soup, which held the title of my favorite soup I have ever had for 2 days (await my next post for its overthrow). It was a beautifully creamy butternut squash soup with little niblets of maple glazed pork belly. Now I know, I’m a sucker for pork belly, but this was delicious with or with out the little treasures. One more small bite, we had the sweet potato french toast with foie gras. Now, I’m not quite sure I would have known what I was eating if I hadn’t been told. It was quite good, but the flavors melded into each other and I wasn’t fully able to detect either sweet potato or foie gras. Finally, we ended with one of the entrees, sea bass over polenta with lobster essence. The fish was perfectly cooked, which gave the dish a heightened taste right off the bat. Again, the flavors (lobster, polenta) didn’t stand out as distinctly as I might have wanted, but having such a perfectly cooked piece of fish made up for that.

The meal turned out to be quite cheap (3 drinks a piece, all the food listed above) totalling $150 for three people, including tax and tip. It was the perfect celebration meal, and truly lead to the begining of a great night by putting us all in such a positive mood.

Jerks and Mozzies

No they aren’t rival gangs, Jerks and Mozzies is what B asks for when he wants to go watch football at Wingmasters. In an effort to save some money and spend more time at home, I told him that I would make him Jerks and Mozzies while he watched football. Unfortunately it was an exciting game, and as such I neglected to write down what I put in to the dishes. Luckily I took a picture of the ridiculous mise en place I had for the jerk sauce, so I hope I can tell you approzimately what I put in there.

Starting with the bowl in the center, which is one bunch of scallions. The red in the one oclock position is 2 habanero peppers, working clockwise that is the juice of one lemon, an entire package of thyme (about 1/8 of a cup maybe?), about 5 cloves of garlic. These little ones are hard, but I ground all the spices myself, so I really don’t want to mess these guys up! A tablespoon of oil–I used a bit of sesame, a bit of hazelnut and a little olive. Then cinnamon, the flat chinese dish has a bay leaf, the bowl at the 11 oclock is ginger, next to it is nutmeg. of the four small spoons, I know one is salt and one is pepper. Okay, only two more spoons to think of. Um…one is coriander and one is allspice. Wheew. Remind me to right these down next time!

I put all these in a cuisinart and made them into a paste, I stuck them in the power marinater for about 20 minutes (equivilent to overnight) and baked the wings in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. What I didn’t do, which I think would have kept them a bit crispier, was to put them on a rack in the dish in the oven, as they ended up poaching a bit in the sauce.

So there they are in all their glory. Spicy and delcicious and way healthier than the ones at Wingmasters. The mozzarella sticks were way easier than I thought. I bought mozzarella string cheese, cut them in half, dipped them in egg beaters and rolled them in premade bread crumbs. Then I put them all in the fridge for a bit and repeated the process, then baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because a few did burst before I got them out of there.