More wonderful sushi

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The Locusts are in town on a brief stopover, and requested that I take them to Sushi Saito (鮨 さいとう) Hong Kong.  Being the good and loyal friend that I am, I promptly called and made a reservation for lunch today.

Salmon roe (イクラ) - absolutely delicious way to start lunch.  So light and delicate.  So much umami.  Wonderful with a touch of fragrance from the yuzu zest shavings.

Japanese horsehair crab (毛蟹) - lovely with some acidity and the fragrance of sake marinade.

Splendid alfonsino (金目鯛) - the shari (シャリ) came at a nice, warm temperature, with a good hit of acidity.

Yellowtail (鰤) - the acidity was even more noticeable, but the yellowtail was very, very nice... with just enough of a crunch after aging.

Japanese glass shrimp (白海老) - with a drop of kabosu (カボス) on top of the nikkiri shoyu (煮切り醤油).

Young gizzard shad (新子) - this was actually two halves of the same piece of fish.  Noticeably more salty than other gizzard shad I remember tasting, as the salt came through the vinegar.

Pink sea urchin (赤雲丹) - from Kyushu (九州).  Sooo sweet.  So soft and melt-in-your-mouth.

Pacific Saury (秋刀魚) - beautiful texture, soft but still has a bit of crunch.  Nice flavors from the spring onion.

Squid (墨烏賊) - with a sprinkle of salt and some kabosu.  Very tender after aging and scoring.

Japanese green sea urchin (馬糞雲丹) - from Kushiro (釧路) in Hokkaido.  Creamier with richer flavors.

Horse mackerel (鯵) - this has consistently been my favorite neta over the last few visits, and I gotta say that the way they age it here is perfect.  It's always been melt-in-your-mouth, but surprising it's just crunchy around the edges.  Mr. Locust also like this piece best.

Conger eel (穴子)

Mackerel bozushi (鯖の棒鮨) - another piece they always do well, but unfortunately I don't always get it when I come.  Rolled with shiso (紫蘇) leaves and sprinkled with sesame on top of the thin layer of konbu (昆布).  Nice crunch here.

Egg (玉子焼き)

I was surprised to see melon show up in my Instagram feed, but they have indeed finally added this to the menu.  At the end of my last visit, the rich and famous next to me complained about the lack of any dessert at the end of the meal... as they expected something like ice cream or fruit.  I guess Saito-san is finally reacting to the local clientele's demands...

It was good to see the Locusts, and also good to see Koba-san.

P.S. I know I sound like a total whiny bitch, but why is it that EVERY.SINGLE.TIME that I come here, there's always someone who makes my eyes roll to the back of my head??

There was that hypocritical Japanese asshole on my first visit who snickered at me for taking a picture of my soup with my professional camera after he finished snapping pictures of his sushi with his phone.  Then there was the uncle on my second visit who spent a whole 10 minutes bragging to the staff about how he's a VIP at lots of restaurants and they all know him.  The third visit saw me seated next to a diva who was 20 minute late, who didn't want any rice with her sushi, and whose friends didn't know the name of the restaurant they were in.  And there were the rich and famous on my last visit who didn't have any appreciation for what the chef was serving them.

Today I sat next to two young ladies - one of whom was late by probably 15 minutes - who spent the whole lunch scrolling through their phones.  One of them kept talking on or into the phone, and their eyes were so glued to their phones that they didn't pay any attention to Koba-san as he laid the nigiri (握り) on their plates and introduced the pieces.  Show some fucking respect!  Seriously, if they didn't care about what they were being served by the chef, then what the fuck were they doing there in front of the counter, paying more than USD 200 for lunch?!