Happy New Year!  I can’t believe the holiday season passed so quickly, and now we are in 2012.  Soon we will be bitching about the hot summer.

I was in Japan for the holidays, and had quite a few good food moments. I am really thankful to iPhone since I can now take pictures anywhere (and pretty decent quality ones).

Wine in a can.

Top part becomes a glass for your drink — a brilliant idea. But it tasted pretty crappy. I bought this before my flight to Melbourne, after enduring a 13-hour flight from New York to Tokyo, and I went right to sleep after drinking it, so thank you crappy canned wine.

Very pink shabu-shabu beef from Nagano. I think I had four shabu shabu meals during my stay, and every time the beef was extremely pink. I am not young any more, and my doctor warned me that my cholesterol is too high and to avoid beef, but when I am in Japan, it’s just impossible not to eat fatty beef.

People say you don’t need teeth to eat these babies, and it’s very true. They literally melt in your mouth.

MOS burger. The best hamburger chain EVER.

Despite so many selections like pork tonkatsu with cabbage, or teriyaki chicken with crispy lettuce, which are two of my favorites, I ordered the original MOS burger, which has a huge slice of tomato, minced onion, and meat sauce. Heavenly.

For the first time in my life, I went to the Tsukiji fish market. I was not interested in seeing bunch of fish, but I was very much excited about going to a sushi restaurant there. Since they are directly connected to the market, the quality of fish is superb, and prices are very reasonable.

Neighboring restaurants Sushi Yamato and Sushi Dai, are the most famous ones in the area, hence the lines are very very long. I hate waiting in lines, and I asked one of the shop persons in the area for another recommendation and he suggested Iwasa Sushi. We still waited about 30 minutes, but it was SO worth every minute of the wait.

I am still salivating from looking at this picture.

From left: very sweet squid, aji (horse mackerel), kohada (gizzard shad), fatty tuna, and my favorite of the day, katsuo (bonito).
The katsuo was so sweet, and almost creamy, as was the tai (snapper). So good.

This place  features a lot of different kai (clams), and my friend ordered kai galore. I can’t remember what they were, but they were apparently awesome.

Uni, say no more. When I was in San Francisco, I had very good Santa Barbara uni, but it doesn’t compare to this one.

Shirako, aka raw fish jizz. It literally bursted in my mouth…

It was like dessert.

This is the original Yoshinoya.  I had no idea they started in Tsukiji.

After Tsukiji, I went to Kappa-bashi, which is sort of similar to Bowery Street here in New York. Store after store of restaurant supply and kitchen gadgets. I was in heaven. Look at these food items made out of wax!

The reason I went to Kappa-bashi was because I was picking up my press. I ordered MOTO logo press. How cool is this?

How cute are these coffee cup balconies??

I was done with busy Tokyo, and went back to my hometown. On my way back to rural Japan, I stopped by at a home supply store (I needed to buy scissors to cut nose hair since they were getting way too long), and found bags of fermented cow poop as fertilizer.  I mean we all know animal poop is used to fertilize soil, but I’ve never seen them packaged and sold in bags. Look how happy both farmers and a cow are.

Japan is obsessed with crab meat during holiday season. Holiday season is all about spending money, and Japan is no exception. In the US, the holiday meal is usually turkey, ham, steak, etc., but in Japan, it’s crab or beef. This was a newspaper ad filled with crab meat.

My brother went fishing in the middle of the night one day, and came home early in the morning with super fresh horse mackerels.

He served this fresh sashimi for breakfast.

Unfortunately there was no rice to eat with, so I had a bagel. Bagel and horse mackerel sashimi for breakfast. I usually don’t care too much for small fish, but these were super fresh.

By the way, WTF does “Orange & Lemons said the bells of saint clements” mean on the plate?  Is this a total Japangrish? What an odd mixture of dishes, too. Anders wouldn’t approve of this. Soy sauce on a fake Pooh-print dish? My home is equipped with very odd mixtures of dishes, in sets of 3, since mom, brother and sister-in-law are the only regular residents of the house.

A couple days before New Year, I tagged along with a friend of mine to a fish market nearby. Extremely busy, since everything there was quite reasonably priced. Snappers are also big during the holiday season, and there were bunch of them. Did you know there are various types of squid? Mongo, aori, yari, to name a few, and each has different shapes and texture.

Here are the items I brought back from Japan.

This is one of the fine purchases from the trip. Silicon cooking chopsticks. I wanted dishwasher safe chopsticks since my wooden ones got pretty bent from high heat, yet I refuse to hand wash them.

These are far better than wooden kind since the tip grips extremely precisely. Unlike the wooden kinds, they don’t slip at all.

Do you know what this is?

Slide in a piece of seaweed.

And it punches out smile face. How cute?  There were a couple of different faces. I bought them at a dollar store. I may have to start character bento spree.

These are very convenient — you can now make conbini (convenient store) style rice balls. Seaweed can be stored separately and so whenever you eat it, it’s always crispy.

Japan is filled with cool food stuff.

I don’t miss Japan much as a whole, but I do miss Japan’s high quality food. I went to Mitsuwa market in New Jersey to feel good, and surely I found a lot of good stuff, but Mitsuwa is always very dangerous. $32o, for I don’t even remember what I bought….

Five minutes.

That’s litterally how much time I had to decide whether I was going to accept the out of the blue New Year’s Eve dinner party invitation from my friends in Stockholm at 12:30 in the afternoon on Dec 31, 2011. That’s all the time I had including packing my socks/curlers/laptop/night cream, locking up my apartment and get on the bike down to the Central Station in order to catch the train which would arrive at dinner time in Stockholm, five hours up into the cold, freezing wood lands of Northern Sweden.

Of course I said yes, and I had the most fun three days in the old, beautiful capital.

On the surprisingly empty train I got a window seat on first class which included free drinks, snacks, wifi, electric output for my laptop — and a most scenic view from my seat across icy mountains, deep dark forests, vast lakes and cozy villages hiding beyond the hills and valleys of a wintery Sweden. So much more fun and relaxing than the stress of flying.

Having finally arrived in good spirits just before the other guests arrived, I was handed the evening’s first glass of champagne and felt more than ready to let the air out of this horrible horrible year called 2011. Really, it’s been crap, including all that happened in Japan. Let’s have a new one, shall we?

As we all know, setting a table is of absolute importance to the succes of your dinner party. Creating a safe and intimate atmosphere is essential, making sure no guests are blinded by your table light or feeling cold and bleak from bluish neon lights in the ceiling. Many Americans decorate their kitchens like it was the staff room at McDonalds, but I say that is an abomination. Respect your eating environments, please. A little light & table decor love can go a long way.

Here in Stockholm, the dinner table is set fabulously with lots of Danish design:

Tablecloth “Fold/Unfold” by Margrethe Odgaard.

Plates and porcelain from Royal Copenhagen, silver ware + water pitcher from Georg Jensen.

The red wine was decanted before being served in a nice glass pitcher.

Main dish of the evening:

Julia Child’s famous (and very tedious to make) Beef Bourguignon from her cookbook Mastering French Cooking which was reintroduced to the public after the Julie & Julia movie came out a few years ago. If you like movies about food you must go and rent it right now.

Side dishes as the recipe demands: green peas and potatoes (and kindly cooked rice for me due to my insane food allergies).

Sorry about the blurry pic, I only brought my shitty little Casio cam for this trip

All the food was very delicious and a nice contrast to the usual New Year’s fish dishes you’re always served. A warm beef dish just matches slushy ice rain better than flaccid fish.

A nice, spicy red wine which goes well with the Bourguignon served in cool wine glasses with no stems.

For dessert:

Home baked chocolate cake with freshly whipped Swedish cream.

Lovely gold sparkling truffles for the champagne:

And if you’re still in doubt whether we’re all a bunch of fags, this should put your mind to ease:

On the shelf in the livingroom: the official DVD of the Royal Danish Wedding back in 2004 between his Majesty the Crown Prince Frederik II and Princess Mary. The gayest DVD in town.

So this is where I could end this post. I have no more pics of the dinner party, and all the guests were in a relationship so there are no slutty singles table dancing actions to report on anyway.

But since this was my first time in Stockholm and since I was very taken by its Swedishness I want to share more pics of my macro holiday.

We took a long walk on Jan 1st to inhale the fresh cold air of a new year.

Stockholm is a city built on islands so there are water fronts and rocky stone walls everwhere, always super close to the elements. It was raining sleet and slush the whole time so no cozy snow pics, but imagine this city on a quiet romantic summer night and you’ll fall in love instantly.

Ferries in the many little harbours are sailing to close island destinations or maybe offering dinners and music on board while sight seeing from the waterside.

The many bare rock walls, like standing next to a mountain, were covered in beautiful ice patterns.

Even the metro stations around Stockholm are decorated as if they were cut out into the mountains… which they actually are. So it’s very meta.

The metro interiors though are super East Germany 1979. Brown/orange/yellow totally rules.

Gamla Stan (old city) is the old part of Stockholm, really old and really charming. Seems everyone was out walking on Jan 1st.

The narrow streets remind me of Italian villages, it’s super cozy.

People are rushing about, looking for a warm seat to hide from the icy rain.

There are many souvenir shops of course, most of them focus on Pippi, Moomin and viking heritage.

Make your own Medieval Clothing. Awesome.

Beer mugs made from animal horns, belt knuckle copies from the bronze age. This truly is the Skankynavia: Style edition.

White chocolate “flødeboller”/gräddbullar:

There is a range of beautiful designer/boutique and traditional hotels along the many waterfronts round the city.

We stepped into one of them to inspect this amazing lounge situated inside an old courtyard which has now been transformed into a hangout space for guests. The ceiling is supposed to be a pixelated version of looking up into green leaves from the ground.

For lunch we stepped into the upscale, but still relaxed Swedish restaurant Sturehof. The interior is like a French bistro with a Swedish undercurrent. The waiters were wearing three different colored jackets — red, black or white, all with military flavoured ornaments and emblems, depending on hierachy.

Fresh bouquets everywhere, how elegant.

The big menu card is unique and printed new every day (!)

It’s also very expensive. But then again, Stockholm is super pricey. Even the real estate market is booming like mad.

We start out with a basket of different homemade crackers and “knækbrød”. Scoop on butter or eat bare.

Two of us decided to go for the “rimmad salmon with stewed potatoes in dill and cream” ($39!).

Rimmad salmon is salmon marinated in sugar, salt and spices. It was just beautiful. And so tender you could cut it with your eyelash.

Potatoes also perfectly stewed and soft.

My other friend had bouilllabaise, the traditional fish stew with blue mussels and er.. other stuff. It had a deep umami flavour and was very filling.

The next day we went out for an art exhibition and then went for lunch at Råkultur, a sushi place.

When we arrived, the very friendly staff placed us at a table and went to fetch warm water for the little glass teapot with green tea leaves in the middle of the table.

Then an hour glass is flipped and when all the sand has run out, we could sip the tea.

Your own private little tea ceremony right there, for free, at your table. I think that’s good service and great fun.

The sushi was also very good. And that white thing resting on a maki roll there?

Yes, ladies and gentleman, that’s a popcorn. It was on both our plates so it probably wasn’t a mistake. Borderline silly but whatever, there’s a long way to Tokyo, the mothership of sushi, after all.

An hour later I was stepping onto the train back to Copenhagen, away from this great city which I’d love to explore more. I’ll just have to come back again in summertime, when you can take long walks along the harbour fronts and soak in more of the Swedish culture.

Happy new year — let’s all wish for an exciting and tasty 2012. And don’t forget to set your tables nicely!

Danran, a little sushi spot in the Sakurajosui station in Tokyo, is no stranger to Umamimart. Yoko introduced us to the place in 2008, and Tmonkey reported on it again later that year. Yoko took me to Danran for the first time several years ago, and I very much looked forward to visiting again on my last trip in October.

The place had not changed a bit — the master, his wife, and her brother, all greeted us with warm smiles as we happily retreated from the autumn rain. The small space was brightly-lit, and the wood interior gave off a cozy glow.

Naoko, Yoko and I sat at the counter of Danran, laughing, chatting and catching up, over wonderful food and drinks made to order by our hosts. We never looked at the time, and when it was time for us to say farewell, there was no one left in the restaurant. It was midnight. We had been there for something like six hours.

The photo above was one of the first dishes presented to us by the Master. It is stewed fish eggs, probably tai (snapper) or hirame (fluke). The lightness of flavor, with the bounciness of each fish egg, is just delightful.

This was one of my most memorable meals of 2011. Please take a look at the rest of our meal.

I was in Miami for Thanksgiving, listening to salsa music while eating turkey, which was great. Last Thanksgiving, I had a steak in Fort Lauderdale, but this year we had a very traditional Thanksgiving meal, with nontraditional music accompaniment. Since Thanksgiving Day’s meal looks the same no matter how fancy, or tasty it may be, I will skip it.

I’ve been wanting to go to NAOE restaurant for a while after I read about it on a blog a year ago or so. It’s in Miami, but located far up on Collins Avenue, in an area called Sunny Isle. Even though I go to Miami about twice a year, and last time I was there in May, they were closed the entire time we were there. So when we decided to go to Miami for Thanksgiving Day, the first thing I did was to make a reservation there.

According to my information, chef Kevin Cory is Miami born, his mother’s side of the family is from Ishikawa, Japan, and he went to train at his uncle’s restaurant in Toyama prefecture for six months. Upon his return, he researched, studied more, and started the restaurant with his wife. How cute of a story is this? I heard the food is very unorthodox compared to regular Japanese restaurants, yet all the flavors are just top notch. I was very curious, and was very excited to try it.

We went there the day before Thanksgiving, and since they only had 6:30 and 9:30 slots, we left the hotel around 5:45 way in time for 6:30 reservation. What we didn’t know was the traffic the day before Thanksgiving. The road was terribly packed with everyone going somewhere to eat turkey. I frantically called the restaurant, yet unfortunately no human picked up and their voice mail instructs you directions to the restaurant since they know they are located middle of nowhere. Finally we arrived close to 7pm, fearing we lost our reservation. Luckily everyone at the restaurant was very nice, and understanding.

Phew. We sat at the bar counter.

There’s no menu, and basically you eat what chef serves you. This is pretty daring for Miami, since there aren’t that many Japanese restaurants. Despite the fact the city hosts a reputable food festival every year, I think Miami is pretty weak when it comes to Japanese food. Sure, many restaurants are Japan-infused, like my dining experience at Azul in May, but generally there aren’t that many TRUE Japanese restaurant, as far as I’ve heard.

So we were in for the chef’s omakase for the evening.

From all the reviews, I knew they serve kaiseki-style bento box as an appetizer, which includes rice. Appetizer, with rice? Really? Then the dinner is followed by a bunch of nigiri sushi. Very different from how we usually have course meals at Japanese restaurants in NYC, but almost refreshing.

Then came the bento box. Nice wooden box filled with goodies. Chef Kevin explained everything in detail.

Top left: the chef put raw hamachi (yellowtail) in the bowl with yamaimo (mountain yam) and steamed it to perfection. Then, he added starch-thickened dashi on top, with ginko nuts from Japan, mitsuba stems (Japanese parsley), and a dab of fresh wasabi. The dashi was so delicate, very kaiseki-like flavor.

Top right: shirako (they called it “cod milk”, which was the least offensive way to describe it; but here at Umamimart we call it, “fish jizz” which may be a bit too offensive for their customers) simmered in sake and soy sauce, sprinkled with sansho (I think?). Left of the shirako is baigai, which is a small, conch-like clam (which seems to be a specialty of Toyama, where Chef Cory’s uncle works as a chef). It was well-flavored with sake. Next to the clam is smelt and yam tempura, and chestnut with karasumi (bottarga).

Bottom left is shiitake rice. The amount of rice was just right, not too much, and it was a good portion as an appetizer.

Bottom right: cobia sashimi. This was probably the only local fish they have, and it was very nice. Its flavor is a lighter version of yellowtail, but the texture is very chewy or what should I say, almost beef like. Very fresh, and what I like is how he cut shiso leaves into small pieces. Whenever you go to sushi restaurant, sushi or sashimi are served with a bit of daikon radish or shiso, but they are basically more for decoration. I think shiso really adds a great flavor, and sometimes, cuts the fishiness, yet no one eats them. So he had a bed of cut-up shiso underneath the cobia, which I thought was very smart–an untraditional way of serving it, which encouraged people to eat it. Of course all his wasabi is freshly grated.

We are now in for chef’s progression for nigiri sushi. He had the most non-traditional technique for making nigiri sushi. He first made a tiny rice ball, placed it on the counter, added a bit of wasabi, then placed the fish on top. You know how regular sushi chef place rice on palm, adds wasabi and fish, then squeeze them just right? Nigiri comes from the word nigiru, which means “to hold tight, or grab”, but he wasn’t grabbing his sushi whatsoever. Yet, he squeezed it at the end, just enough so that it doesn’t fall apart. Brand new way of sushi making.

First was salmon belly. As I was chewing buttery salmon nigiri, I realized I forgot to take a picture. Here is an empty plate where salmon nigiri was.

Barely cooked lobster claw. He cooked the lobster in a very interesting and different ways–claws in one way, tails in another. Simply, since their thicknesses vary, they take different times to cook.

The claw was very soft, very sweet.

Iidako (octopus) from Portugal. Not chewy whatsoever, very sweet and very good texture. He poured orange-scented pouzu on top.

I skipped this, but Nate had kumamoto oyster from the west coast.

He added a bit of shiso, plus fresh wasabi. I really like how he incorporates shiso in dishes. Nate said it was very nice.

Fresh scallop. VERY sweet.

Oh, by the way, this is the kinda place where the chef dabs each sushi with home-blended soy sauce, or orange-scented ponzu. It turns out that the chef comes from a shoyu-brewing family, in Kanazawa. No place for Kikkoman here.

Madai (sea bream). He kept the skin on, which is a traditional way of serving this sushi.

The skin added another level of texture. He really knows his fish.

Squid from Boston. He randomly slices it along the top, which was nice, and so sweet.

Aji (horse mackerel). Some of the freshest aji I’ve ever had. With grated ginger on top.

Cobia belly, with white seaweed on top. I am really digging this fish for its meat-like texture.

Uni!! Instead of wrapping it in nori, he placed a couple of pieces on top of the rice. Simple and true.

This uni was from Hokkaido. After tasting these babies, Santa Barbara uni is totally second class.

Here is his specialty. When he trained in Toyama at his uncle’s restaurant, the place featured unagi (freshwater eel), where he learned to cut up the live eel, debone them, and steam them to perfection (like in Kayoko’s post the other  week).

These fresh (not in the pack, from China) eels are extremely different from what you may think of as unagi. So soft, so clean, with no weird chemical flavor we usually taste in the pre-packed kinds. Brilliant. This was steamed, with sea salt sprinkled on top–no sauce.

Last but not at least, eel kabayaki. As we were eating and chatting about food, he kept going back to oven, dabbing kabayaki sauce on the eel, and after like 15 minutes of nicely grilling, he gave the last awesome piece of eel sushi.

Oh, on the left side, you see pickles, which is narazuke, one of my favorite pickles. Japanese melon (cucumber-like gourd) is pickled in sakekasu (sake lees). This is special since it’s been sitting in it for 2 years. Wow, so flavorful, almost boozy.

This was very good. I still don’t know if Miami diners are daring enough to keep up with chef Kevin’s style, but to us, it was so good. He said 80% of his customers are from NYC, no wonder. They have 16 seats, and when we got there, it was half full. I was like, “I thought it was so hard to make reservation here”, and he said, he only takes eight guests per seating. What a luxury. How the hell does he make money??!!

And I found out some great news from the chef. Due to the fact the landlord is bulldozing the current location, they are MOVING TO MIAMI PROPER! No longer do Miamians need to drive for 30 minutes! They will operate at the current location until the end of December, and they will reopen in Brickell, across from Mandarin Oriental Hotel (where we usually stay), sometime in February or March. I can’t wait for the next visit at the new location.

What I also found out was, Naoe is Kevin’s mom’s maiden name. He figured Kevin as Japanese restaurant name wouldn’t make any sense.

If you aren’t afraid of trying Japanese seafood little-known in the States, this is the place in Miami.

Yes, Japanese food in this country is still equated to sushi. Growing up, people would always ask me, “Do you eat sushi every day?” I guess that’s mostly due to the fact that my father is a sushi chef, but even so, it always bewildered me. I mean, sushi is such a luxury! And it is a part of my food culture that I am proud of, and it’s pretty neat that it has taken over California and New York the way it has. I mean, a slice of raw fish, on a bit-size morsel rice? For $3+ a piece? It’s a bonkers concept, if you think about it.

Even so, the number of sushi joints that are actually GOOD are few and far between. Sushi has become such a fad, that quality has gone down through the years. You have to know–really know–where to go for the good stuff. This usually means that the chef will speak little English, and barely look up from him knife and chopping block, but that’s usually a sign you’re in the right place.

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, I took Brother out to wherever he wanted for his birthday. He chose Takao, in Brentwood. It is owned and manned by Takao Izumida, who worked with my father for years at Inagiku (one of Japan’s oldest tempura restaurants), in LA the early 80s. Although he branched off and opened his own place over 15 years ago, only recently has my parents actually gone to see him. My father still raves about that meal, so I was very excited to finally be able to visit.

We sat at the counter, right in front of Takao-san. He is a youthful, jolly fella, who was taken aback when I introduced myself. Apparently, he only remembered me as a small person. I guess it is pretty trippy to see people all growns up.

Takao-san on the left

Kokuryu sake on ice. So smooth, great with sushi. The restaurant also has an impressive wine list

Takao-san masterfully crafts each dish with precise Japanese techniques, sprinkled with Western influences. But no way would I call his food “fusion”. He just uses what is available to him in inventive, unique ways. The meal was spectacular; each bite utterly joyful.

Scallop and crab in su-miso (vinegared miso)

Smoked salmon crisps with avocado and truffle

Hirame carpaccio with pink peppercorn

Salmon skin salad. I have a slight obsession with this and am always looking for the best in town. This was pretty awesome–the salmon skin was perfectly crisp.

Kumamoto oysters topped with a soy-dashi-scallion mixture

Grilled matsutake mushrooms with sudachi. Yup, we went big.

We could have gone Akabori-style and ordered more appetizers, but I wanted to hold out for the sushi. I am so happy we did. Here’s the sushi showdown:

Freshly grated wasabi

Ika (squid), my favorite. But not just any ika. Left is spinkled with karasumi (bottarga fish roe). Left is with Russian caviar. Happy birthday, Brother!

Shime-saba (mackeral) on left; tai on right

Mirugai. When it curls up like this, you know it’s still alive

Kampachi

UNI! From Santa Barbara. The best!

Ikura with uzura (quail egg). Cholesterol decadence

Negi-toro maki

The Akabori Grand Finale: Ume-shiso maki

Takao-san also makes phenomenal desserts. We had the coffee zelly with syrup:

Great to reunite with Takao-san.

Thank you for such an epic meal, and reinstating our faith in good sushi.

We will be back.

Saba (or mackerel) is often priced really cheap in the U.S. and hovers around at the bottom of many sushi menus. It’s known to be stinky and not as silky as other popular sashimi like maguro and salmon. But I’d like to make it known, loud and clear that I love saba and feel lucky that it’s often priced so low. I don’t care if I go to a cheap or swanky place, I will order saba.

Saba falls into the hikarimomo category. Hikarimono includes all blue-backed fish. Aji (horse mackerel), iwashi (sardine), sanma (pike mackerel), tobiuo (flying fish), and kohada (gizzard shad) all fall into the hikarimono category. I DIE with excitement when any of those are on the specials board at a sushi restaurant.

Hikarimono are not for everyone. My Japanese mother-in-law, who is über-sensitive to smell and dislikes garlic, does not care for hikarimono because it tastes namagusai or “fishy-smelling.” In addition to the smell, some people may not be so excited by the silvery skin as. None of this applies to me however, and I am a huge advocate of hikarimono.

In general, there is a distinct scent to hikarimono. It smells a little bit of the salty air of the sea and the flesh has give. I love how the skin is perceptible only by sight (it should never be tough). The metallic exterior is so visually pleasing, proving its freshness to the eater. When in its optimum form, the taste has plenty of bursting umami, a little salty and without the over-the-top oiliness that toro or salmon has. Soy sauce should be used with discretion.

I recently trekked out to Sushi Ran, a fancy-schmancy white people place for sushi. I admit that I was a little bit skeptical because “Vietnamese Shaking Beef” was on the menu. But all was forgiven when I saw that the sushi bar specials included iwashi (sardine from Mie prefecture) and kohada (gizzard shad from Saga prefecture), both from Tsukiji market.

Kohada (gizzard shad) from Saga Prefecture

Don’t get me wrong though, these were NOT cheap like your run-of-the-mill sushi restaurant saba. One piece was $5.25 each. ONE!

In Junichiro Tanizaki’s celebrated novel, The Makioka Sisters (or Sasameyuki (細雪), loosely translated as ‘light snow’ or ‘a flurry of snow’–titles in translations are always so different but I guess it’s as much about nuance as meaning), the four Makioka sisters, Tsuruko, Sachiko, Yukiko and Taeko, all born and bred in Osaka, take a trip to Tokyo where the eldest Tsuruko has relocated for financial reasons. From a once-wealthy family in decline, Tanizaki’s gentle tale of sibling relationships and marriage follows their search for a suitable match for the third sister Yukiko while the youngest, Taeko, chafes against the social codes of pre-war Japan and is ultimately punished for her attempts to break free from social expectations.

In Tokyo, they do the rounds, sightseeing, dining and shopping and one of the places they visit is Japan’s most famous department store Mitsukoshi in Nihonbashi, originally founded as a kimono shop in 1673. Now an international chain with stores all over Japan, Asia and Europe, the London store opened in 1985. I even came across one in Munich although it’s no longer open. Like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason’s, Mitsukoshi is synonymous with quality, elegance and taste.

Mitsukoshi London is small, but remains a regular pit-stop for Japanese tourists doing last-minute gift shopping as they mainly stock brand names and souvenirs. However, they do have a rather lovely restaurant in the basement. As students in the mid-90s, my Japanese friends and I would walk past sighing as we perused their menu as there were few affordable and authentic Japanese restaurants then. It’s one of the places Japanese families would go to celebrate a special occasion such as birthdays and graduations.

And so my Japanese pianist friend K and I decided to go there to celebrate her pregnancy. It was also rather serendipitous as K, who is normally a very adventurous eater, found she could no longer stomach any spice and could only eat Japanese food. Baby bump rules. And so off to Mitsukoshi Restaurant we went. It’s one of those restaurants that as you enter, you are instantly enveloped in a feeling of familiarity and comfort. It’s as though you’ve stepped back in time to a Japan of your childhood. It’s calm, quiet and very Japanese department store-ish.

K went for the lunch set of the month and chose an all sushi lunch. The starters were impressive. There was a selection of nigiri, maguro (tuna) no tataki with avocado and some scallops with tobiko.

As was the main course. She was happily munching away at all the raw fish. I was seriously jealous of her sushi as I love white fish and shell fish but I was, unfortunately, off my seafood. Grrr.

I couldn’t resist the Iberico pork oroshi tonkatsu set lunch. I love daikon oroshi (grated mooli/radish) and this came with a slightly ponzu-ish dipping sauce. I normally eat katsu with Japanese tonkatsu sauce (a bit like Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter) mixed with chilli sauce (I can’t escape from my Sri Lankan DNA), but this was very more-ish. And SO Japanese. And the portions were pretty generous too.

There wasn’t much dessert choice so we both got ice cream: matcha (green tea) and affogato (vanilla with espresso). We talked non-stop, went for a little walk around Piccadilly Circus and found ourselves in front of the much talked-about new gelateria Gelupo for another round of ice cream. I did say baby bump rules, right?

I had grapefruit and espresso and K had mandarin and chocolate. I normally shy away from quotidian flavours (except for coffee–I just don’t have the willpower to say no), but I have to say, the chocolate was absolutely divine. It was so rich and dark. We both agreed it’s the best we’ve ever had.

Go to any sushi restaurant in Japan and notice that “ikura” or salmon roe, is either written in katakana or hiragana. I was curious as to why it was often written in katakana–the alphabet designated to loanwords. I asked the master at Sushi Danran about this curiosity. He told me that “ikura” イクラ comes from the Russian language. The Russian word for “caviar” is “ikra” hence, “ikura” in Japanese. Salmon roe is prevalent in Russia–so much so that they have salmon roe flavored Lay’s! Hit me up.

Last week, my fish monger had some beautiful sacs of salmon roe in his display. I snatched up 1/4 lb at $13.99/lb.

It comes in a membrane sac that holds together all the eggs. This sac must be removed, and the eggs marinated to resemble the ikura that is served in your sushi.

Ikura Shoyu Marinade

INGREDIENTS
1/4 lb. fresh salmon roe (sujiko)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sake

METHOD

1. Place sujiko in warm water and break the eggs away from the sac. The eggs are delicate so be careful when separating them from the membrane sack.

2. Once they are broken apart, rinse them through a colander with cold water.

3. Combine soy sauce and sake in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Wait until the mixture cools down.

4. Place the ikura in a air-tight food storage container. Pour the liquid mixture over it.

5. Seal the lid on the container and place it in the refrigerator. Wait for a half day before eating.

Приятного аппетита! (Prijatnovo appetita)

When I first moved to Studio City earlier this year, my friend Trevor greeted me with “Welcome to the city of sushi joints and bong shops.” And I thought to myself, “Heaven?”  I kid, kind of.  According to Yelp.com there’s about 63 places to eat sushi in the 7.11 square miles that is Studio City.  If my math holds up, that’s about eight sushi spots for every square mile and that to me is just amazeballs!

Now, I’ve been to a few of these Studio City joints – my favorite being the fairly infamous Katsuya, which I think is loads better than the fancy schmancy Hollywood Katsuya – but that’s nowhere near my desire to try as many as possible.   It was no surprise that when I came across Huffington Post’s Top 10 Sushi Restaurants in LA list, three of the ten were located in Studio City and one of them was Asanebo. So we were off.

We sat at the sushi bar when we arrived and guess who was sitting next to us with a man friend!?  Sandra Oh!  Yeah, I wasn’t that excited either.   Let’s get to the food.

We started with tai (red snapper), albacore, and sake. When the plate was put down in front of us, we were told (rather emphatically) by the exuberant server who ran up behind us, not to eat the tai or albacore with soy sauce. Totally new concept to me.  Maybe some of you can expand on that, but my thought was that the soy sauce would overpower some sort of citrus flavor (yuzu?) that both the tai and albacore had in the rice. No clue, but we followed orders and enjoyed. Both delectable – the tai had a great texture and I was sold on the tangy flavor sans soy sauce.

There were no soy sauce bans on the salmon, so that guy got a dunk and was buttery nom nomy.

Albacore.

The spicy tuna roll was meh – nothing really to write home about. My dining buddy noted that he wasn’t into the nori and that it tasted “homemade.”  I wasn’t really sure what he meant and I didn’t pry, but maybe the nori was chewier and a little more moist than most nori at sushi restaurants? He wasn’t a fan.

However all my cheers and fanaticism went to the buckwheat risotto with mushrooms and uni. Dear Lord. I’m just gonna call this guy a serious panty melter, in love. The risotto was perfectly cooked and the earthiness of the mushrooms combined with the smoky flavor from the uni was a delight.

The creamy pile of uni at the sushi bar continued to elicit the serious drooling action I had while eating the above.

We tried the grilled chilean sea bass in butter lettuce. This time around the server was straight up emphatic about the no dipping rule and almost ran away with our little saucer of soy when he put this dish down. The plate wasn’t really worth it considering one little bite was five dollars, but it was pleasant and looked pretty.

Second round of sushi was a kampachi (amberjack) and a maguro. Again, really solid with the fish.  You could see and taste the freshness.

However, I’ve never seen maguro look like this before with all the tendrils. Anyone? Bueller? I couldn’t stop thinking that I was eating Dr. Zoiberg from Futurama.

We finished the meal off with a spicy hamachi roll and Asahi draft beer, which I learned that night that the draft beer is made in Japan while the bottled stuff is made here. Good to know! I so heart things that come from Japan. Here’s looking at you sushi.

My final verdict is that I’ll definitely be back. It’s a little on the pricey side, so it probably won’t become a go to place, but their menu is pretty extensive and there were a lot of other good looking dishes being passed around while there that I’ll need to try. But maybe first, I’ll stand outside my door in Studio City, pick up a rock to throw and go to the sushi spot it lands on.

Just in at Sushi Kuni (my pop’s restaurant): RAW OCTOPUS (nama dako)! Kuni ordered this long, spindly tentacled arm last week straight from Tsukiji market. It was over three feet long, with a gorgeous purple-pink tone. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there’s something oddly sexy about it.

Kuni lightly blanches it, only for a moment, so that it’s still raw in the middle. No vinegar necessary to tenderize it! Normal octopus is usually boiled thoroughly, often with vinegar, which is what makes this so especial.

Unlike usual octopus, which can get flavorless after so much chewing, this was so tender and sprightly! I would even say a bit crisp– like good mirugai (geoduck). I loved the texture. Kuni just sprinkles a bit of salt on it, and with a squeeze of lemon, it’s a pillowish, magnificent bite. I would recommend it sashimi style– don’t ruin it by adding rice to it.

For your nerds, here’s a great article by master food scientist Harold McGee about preparing octopus.