Mo' sushi

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Aaaaand... as I was still feeling full and digesting the huge dinner last night, I joined a couple of friends for a late lunch.  I've been hearing a lot of good things about Sushi Mori Tomoaki, but since I don't eat a whole lotta sushi in this town, I never bothered to check it out.  My friend who works near the restaurant thought it would be worthwhile for me to make the trek, and I'm glad I did.

Since my friend knows the chef, we decided to follow his recommendation.  Little did I know that we would be having dinner omakase (お任せ) for lunch...  We asked the chef not to serve us tuna, as is my usual practice.

Steamed egg custard (茶碗蒸し) - this came with the usual shiitake mushroom, fish, fish cake (蒲鉾), and shredded crab meat.  Unfortunately the crab meat had the texture of steel wool... but the yuzu (柚子) fragrance was lovely.

Marbled flounder (真子鰈) - came with two parts.  Chewy and springy.  Served with salt.

Marbled flounder wing (縁側) - softer but still kinda chewy.

Baby seabream (春子鯛) - first piece of sushi.  The rice was a lot wetter than I'm used to, and kinda loose.

Thread-sail filefish (皮剥) - served with sauce made with its liver, along with very finely diced scallion sprouts (芽ねぎ) and perilla flowers.  Beautiful and creamy.

Golden alfonsino (金目鯛) - really soft, fluffy, and oily.  Delicious!

This Japanese horsehair crab bowl was really, really delicious.  The chef took some sea urchin suspended in sea water (海水雲丹) and mixed it in with the meat from the body of the Japanese horsehair crab (毛蟹). Meat from a leg of the horsehair crab is placed to one side, then a dollop of crab tomalley (蟹味噌) is spooned on top... garnished with some perilla (紫蘇) flowers.  So. Damn. Good.

Hokkai shrimp (縞海老) - these were wrapped in kelp (昆布締め).  Very, very nice.

Japanese geoduck (本海松貝) - geoduck is probably my least favorite item for sushi other than fish cum... and these two pieces expressed the reason perfectly.  Just really, really strong and "fishy" flavors... and not in the good, fish oil kinda way that I like, but more like hospital disinfectant...  Very crunchy and fresh, no doubt... and this even came from the waters around Japan.  But I no likey... I tried to give a piece away to the Great One, but surprisingly she turned me down...

Ark shell (赤貝) - from Kyoto, seasoned with yuzu juice.  Pretty nice... and I don't normally like this.

Spanish mackerel (鰆) - lightly torched and came with a dab of yuzukosho (柚子胡椒).

Rosy seabass (喉黒) - torched, naturally... Very tender and succulent.  Yum.

Gizzard shad (小鰭) - aged for 1 week after marinating in vinegar.  Served with a thin slice of kelp.  Acidity was surprisingly high here.

Japanese green sea urchin (馬糞雲丹) - nom nom nom.

Northern sea urchin (北紫雲丹) - ah... the famous "white sea urchin (白雲丹)" from Hokkaido.  Sooo plump and delicious, with a sprinkle of black salt.  This was the "second place" supplier whereas Rozan (魯山) gets theirs from the "first place" supplier which, naturally, commands a higher price point.

Since none of us wanted tuna, the chef had to think about what kind of roll to serve us.  He decided to wrap long, thin strips of golden cuttlefish (墨烏賊) that has been aged for 1 week, along with spicy pollock roe (辛し明太子) and perilla leaves.  Yum.

Conger eel (穴子) - grilled and torched.  Lots of sauce here.

They brought out this grilled egg (玉子焼き) just as they finished making it, so it was still steaming hot.  A truly beautiful sight...

Nice and spongy... so fluffy!

The melon was pretty ripe and sweet.

This was waaaaaay too much food for me at lunch... especially after 3 days of heavy-eating.  I walked out of the restaurant very satisfied in terms of my palate, but in physical pain due to a bloated stomach.  Gotta take it easy next time!