An eely afternoon

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A while ago I got a ping from The Man in the White T-Shirt, asking whether I'd like to join him for a special lunch.  Apparently Godenya (ごでんや) is doing a guest chef/pop-up featuring Japanese eel, and knowing how much I love Japanese eel, he thought I'd be game for it.  Well, the timing was a little awkward, and it would mean not having a regularly scheduled lunch and dinner, but as I've turned down a number of his invitations lately, I figured I'd better accept this particular one.

I've never been to Godenya even though a number of friends have told me about it.  The place is pretty much a hole-in-the wall... One needs to walk down a back alley and enter through an unmarked back entrance of an old building, and besides the street number - which was not visible anywhere - the only hint that there was a Japanese restaurant was the presence of white noren (暖簾) above what turned out to be a wooden sliding door.

Upon entering the restaurant, I took my seat at one end of the wooden counter - not surprisingly made of one long piece of wood.  The counter only seats 6,  and there was a table of two set up behind us.  Until their private room is ready, this is it in terms of seats.  No wonder that the place is fully booked until next February...

Today's meal is a one-day pop-up by Ryo (翏), a restaurant specializing in eel in Naka-meguro (中目黒), Tokyo.  The young chef and the lady who "kinda feels like a wife" from the restaurant were in charge of the kitchen, while master of the house Goshima Shinya (五嶋慎也) took care of the sake pairings.

The eels are wild, and comes from Hachirogata (八郎潟) in Akita Prefecture (秋田県).  The ones today weigh around 1.2kg.  This is the best season for eel as they are at their fattest, and soon they will swim out to the ocean in winter and disappear.

From South China Sea with love

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Hello Kitty was meeting a very good friend who was in town, and we discussed where to take him for dinner.  Fish School seemed to offer the best opportunity to sample things not available from New York City, so I dutifully hauled my ass over for the second time this week.  First World problems, I know...

We took a pretty early seating, so The Man in the White T-Shirt wasn't in the house yet.  A couple of the staff now know me by sight, given it's my third visit in three weeks.  I let the others do the ordering, and foolishly passed up a special fish available tonight...

Salted garoupa / clams / potato brandade - had this just a few days ago, and tonight the deep-fried fish skin was even better.  Love the chewy texture of the salted garoupa.

Vroom, vroom

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It's been a while since I last caught up with a couple of friends, and they asked me whether there were any new restaurants I wanted to try out.  Normally I keep the list of new openings buried in the back of my mind, as I would only visit months after opening - when things have hopefully worked themselves out.  This time I threw out two names, and my friends chose Mercedes me.

When I first heard about this place, my immediate reaction was basically: "WTF?!"  A few luxury brands have opened up eateries in town, but I've never had any interest in visiting them because, rightly or wrongly, I see them essentially as places where you pay for the decor and branding - and where the food is of secondary concern.  But Mercedes have chosen Maximal Concepts as their partner, and these guys generally run joints where the food is pretty decent.

Then I saw my friend e_ting post a couple of pics on social media from her invitation meal, and that really piqued my interest.  Why not pop over to nibble on the food and get a chance to check out some cars at the same time?  It is, after all, a Mercedes store...

We were led to a booth upon arrival, which was a little too cozy for the 4 of us.  The place was very hip(ster), with a dark atmosphere, spot lights in all the strategic places, lively music, and waitstaff with body ink.  Thankfully each and every table seemed well-lit, so I wouldn't have any trouble with food pics tonight.

The menu looks a little compact at first glance, as it's all on two pages, but it does cover just under 30 items in all.  We started with a few cold items, then ordered another round of mostly hot dishes.

Sea urchin, fig, nori cracker, oyster leaf, ponzu - this was one of the dishes I had read about, so expectations were high.  I could smell the ponzu (ポン酢) when the dish arrived.  I ate this in one bite, so I didn't pay too much attention to the flavors of the individual ingredients... kinda like Pigsy (豬八戒) in Journey to the West (西遊記) when he swallowed peaches whole and didn't really know what they tasted like.  Anyway, my mouthful tasted pretty good, as all the ingredients seemed to meld together, but I wasn't particularly blown away as I had expected.  Maybe I need another bite...

Occupy Amber day 1: when 2 becomes 4

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During one of my visits to Amber last year, I was chatting with Chef Richard Ekkebus when he brought up the idea of taking his now-signature Hokkaido sea urchin dish off the menu.  Upon hearing this possibility, I apparently jokingly threatened to start an "Occupy Amber" movement if it ever happened.  Of course, I promptly forgot about my joke after I left the restaurant.

But Richard remembered, and when he decided that he would pass on the recipe for the dish to Corey Lee (so that it would be on the menu of In Situ, Corey's upcoming restaurant at SFMOMA) and finally take it off the Amber menu after 8 years, he spoke about this impending move to a few journalists and mentioned my "threat" as an anecdote.  Without mentioning any names, of course...  Heck, it even made it to the Wall Street Journal!  O, the irony!

Having been reminded of my threat, and shocked that he's actually going to take it off the menu, I decided to follow through with my threat and "occupy Amber".  But I did ask for Richard's permission first, and he was more than willing to let me show him what I've got.

So that's one of the reasons why I'm here today.  The other reason is that my friend had read my post about the game menu I had last month, and really wanted to have some of those dishes.  So the two of us showed up for my first Occupy session, although my friend was blissfully unaware...

Having eaten quite a lot lately, I decided I wanted a light lunch... and was going to order only 2 dishes.  However I encouraged my friend to order whatever he fancied, as it seems it's been a while since he was last here.

Our welcome drink today was mushroom tea, which came with a mushroom custard at the bottom of the cup, and what seemed to be wakame (若布) seaweed in the "tea".  I just love the fragrant mushroom flavor coming out of the cup.

No Fish (at) School

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It's been a while since No Fish and I caught up over a meal, and as usual, she was looking for a new restaurant to hit.  Knowing that I'm a big fan of David Lai's, she suggested and booked Fish School about a month ago.

By this time, of course, I have already made my first visit to Fish School and tried a few dishes... so I was looking forward to trying some new stuff tonight.  Unfortunately, we were seated in the one table in the entire restaurant with the least amount of light... so my pictures of the dishes turned out to be terrible.

Cuttlefish tagliatelle / shrimp paste / ficoide leaves - ah yes... cuttlefish noodles is definitely a trendy dish these days.  I love the texture of these long strands... which came soaking in a pool of fish sauce.  Adding some of the shrimp paste smeared on the side of the bowl gave it even more umami.  The crunchy ficoïde glaciale is always fun to eat.