Just Shoot It!

I am not an uni die-hard, but something about an uni shooter (as recommended by the gracious RuKasu himself) sounded tempting. Tempting because I had only tried an oyster shooter before; tempting because a shot glass of sea urchin, sake and sauce sounds sick and wrong. But one little shot is hardly a glass, barely a mouthful; and with the sake added, you’d assume you would hardly notice or mind the gaggy ingredients. So I agreed, and into that shot glass went the works: uni, sake, ponzu sauce, hot sauce, masago, green onions, a single raw quail egg, and the surprising but wonderful addition of crushed garlic chips.

The top half of the shot looked innocuous enough, but a glance at the bottom where the spongy-looking sea urchin had settled provided a flashback to my high school Life Science class, where the teacher stored many a pickled specimen jar in the verboten cabinets.

Sake…
I didn’t even like sake!
Think of it as a sake shot….

The last time I downed an oyster shooter, I chewed the kaki thoroughly, slowly, so as to savor the flavor. Not so with this one. I cheated. I imbibed everything else in the glass for taste, but the spongy brown stuff which left muddy streaks in the glass afterwards…that, my friend, I swallowed.

RuKasu Japanese Fusion
12229 Ventura Blvd., Studio City
818-506-5200

*Note: RuKasu has closed down