Unlike the boisterous MASU, Cocoro is an understated affair,
and rather hidden, in an old brick building in a quiet part of Auckland. With
no sushi bar, the only way to catch a glimpse of the chefs in the kitchen is
through a long rectangular serving window cut into the wall, from which smartly
dressed waiters pick up the plates that are ready to be presented to patrons. A
large communal table sits in the center of this small place, catering to
groups; intimate dining tables for couples line the walls.
Cocoro features a degustation menu for NZ $89, a nine-course
meal which comes with seafood, duck, free-range chicken, and of course,
dessert. Cocoro must also be known for its wasabi, for the place serves some of
the sweetest tasting real wasabi I’ve ever had; it’s gritty and has the perfect
texture.
I knew meringue was popular in New Zealand because of
their famous pavlova dessert, but when I found out those orange-hued bits on my
long serving tile were actually puffs of meringue with soy sauce, I knew this
was no ordinary restaurant. Besides which, my “Angel Prawn and Cucumber
Hosomaki Finger Roll Sushi” (NZ $17 for six pieces) was practically an artistic
creation, the way the bites of maki were interspersed with haphazardly (yet
harmoniously) placed edible flowers, alongside a miniature decorative wooden
cutting board of some sort that had a mini mound of real grated wasabi on top.
Cocoro obviously takes presentation very seriously, so it
came as no surprise when my single piece of farm-raised Bluefin Toro sushi (NZ
$9.50 a piece) arrived on a square volcanic rock plate, or that my “New Zealand
King Crab Leg Steamed Sashimi (with special crab caviar, uchiko)” came
on an elaborate plate, ornate silver crab-picking tool and all.
“Left side is grilled, right side is chilled,” explained the
waitress of my dish of six cut-up pieces of King Crab Leg. (In my opinion, the
chilled crab had more flavor and tasted sweeter; the warm side was a bit
salty.)
She also imparted that the little bowl of pink and white
stuff on my plate is actual crab head meat, that it’s very popular in Japan,
and that the saucer with the yellow goop is uchiko sauce, or a sauce made from
crab roe. I found that to my slightly Americanized taste buds, the crab head
meat tasted a bit strong, but the uchiko sauce was very heady stuff.
Of course, no New Zealand trip would be complete without a
cheese plate, so I asked to try the New Zealand Cheese Selection with Rice
Crackers for NZ $24. Of the five kinds, the best ones were the cream cheese
marinated with sweet miso, the blue cheese, and Manuka Honey-smoked cheddar
cheese, obviously an indigenous favorite.
I’m not typically a die-hard for desserts at restaurants,
but who could turn down the chance to try soy sauce and ginger-flavored vanilla
ice cream with sesame cracker, tempura flakes and droplets of cherry blossom
puree? The magical finish came with a perfect touch—a dish of three diminutive sake ganache
chocolate balls with Marlborough Flaky Sea Salt.
Cocoro may boast “New Style Japanese Cuisine,” but clearly
this is a marriage made in Heaven between the old traditional way and the
innovation of bold flavor twists.
Cocoro
56a Brown Street,
Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand
+64 9 360 0927
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