Friday, August 26, 2011
The Best Muki Hotate is at Masu
Located in the west end of Portland, the contemporary second-story Japanese restaurant known as Masu makes a great stop for sushi. The stylish, modern decor is enhanced by the light shining through the large windows along one wall, if you happen to be in during the daytime.
The Muki Hotate, or Jumbo Scallop, is unbelievably fresh and sweet here. Taking a bite of this soft, heavenly scallop nigiri is like tasting the ocean, or nibbling half fish, half silk. The eight-piece Japanista Roll, for $16, features spicy crab, spicy tuna and sprouts with seared yellowtail and a bright contrast of red jalapeno slices on top. It is served with a Hana sauce and sweet chili sauce.
Dungeness crab, which I've found to be in amazing abundance in Portland, is served at Masu; however, I have yet to find one restaurant in this city which serves it so fresh that it has me swooning, and which doesn't scoop it out of a plastic tub (which suggests it's not shelled in the kitchen but perhaps purchased beforehand from a purveyor). At Masu, I found my Dungeness crab hand roll to be pretty bland, although the avocado and Japanese mayonnaise I had requested to be added gave it a bit more flavor.
Masu
406 SW 13th Avenue
503-221-MASU
The Muki Hotate, or Jumbo Scallop, is unbelievably fresh and sweet here. Taking a bite of this soft, heavenly scallop nigiri is like tasting the ocean, or nibbling half fish, half silk. The eight-piece Japanista Roll, for $16, features spicy crab, spicy tuna and sprouts with seared yellowtail and a bright contrast of red jalapeno slices on top. It is served with a Hana sauce and sweet chili sauce.
Dungeness crab, which I've found to be in amazing abundance in Portland, is served at Masu; however, I have yet to find one restaurant in this city which serves it so fresh that it has me swooning, and which doesn't scoop it out of a plastic tub (which suggests it's not shelled in the kitchen but perhaps purchased beforehand from a purveyor). At Masu, I found my Dungeness crab hand roll to be pretty bland, although the avocado and Japanese mayonnaise I had requested to be added gave it a bit more flavor.
Masu
406 SW 13th Avenue
503-221-MASU
Portland's Restaurant Murata
Considering that Restaurant Murata was highly recommended by other sushi chefs, and that its front window practically flaunts its awards and accolades which extol it as "Top 100" and "The City's Best," I was utterly dumbfounded that the sushi rice was completely lacking in flavor. Sushi rice, one of the key elements to delicious sushi, should be properly seasoned with the right mixture of vinegar, sugar and salt. The resulting rice should be aromatic, sweet and savory, not so plain that it begs the question, Is this just regular white rice?
Thwarted by the sushi rice in my otherwise delicious hand roll with real crab, I ordered the Fresh Oysters in Ponzu Sauce for $9.95, and was glad I did. Although they were served in a bowl of cold goopiness with green onions and spicy pickled radish (without their pretty shells, aesthetics be damned), these oysters were opalescent, and rife in richness and taste.
Although the solemn chefs at the this traditional restaurant seemed oblivious to their bland sushi rice, they probably get away with it due to the cluelessness of the patrons, who perhaps just don't know any better. After all, this city is not known for its sushi, and many diners here seem more concerned with quantity than quality.
Restaurant Masa
200 SW Market St., Portland, OR
503-227-0080
Thwarted by the sushi rice in my otherwise delicious hand roll with real crab, I ordered the Fresh Oysters in Ponzu Sauce for $9.95, and was glad I did. Although they were served in a bowl of cold goopiness with green onions and spicy pickled radish (without their pretty shells, aesthetics be damned), these oysters were opalescent, and rife in richness and taste.
Although the solemn chefs at the this traditional restaurant seemed oblivious to their bland sushi rice, they probably get away with it due to the cluelessness of the patrons, who perhaps just don't know any better. After all, this city is not known for its sushi, and many diners here seem more concerned with quantity than quality.
Restaurant Masa
200 SW Market St., Portland, OR
503-227-0080
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Sushi of 15 E.15
It's a beautiful, sunny day on 15th Street in New York, and inside its resident Japanese restaurant (appropriately named 15 East), the chef behind the sushi bar picks up a still-alive-and-kicking sweet shirmp, its beady black eyes staring blankly as its body bucks and thrashes. And then, a deft maneuver as the chef turns his back–did he use a knife or his bare hands?–and the ama ebi is beheaded. The group of young adults who sit at the sushi bar stare aghast as the chitinous carapace with attached antennas and legs (now a centerpiece for the assorted sushi palette presented to them) still twitches. Its body, shelled and pink and delectable, has just been served as nigiri, ready to be eaten and enjoyed as only freshly killed sea creatures can be.
The onlookers didn't flinch. They didn't gasp. They giggled and gawked for a moment and then dived in, oblivious to the ongoing but ever-decreasing flails of the fading crustacean's appendages. Several minutes later, I glanced over and sure enough, the thing was still moving.
It doesn't get better than live, and those who have consumed sweet shrimp as fresh as this know that it makes all the difference in taste. Just make sure you don't scream and drop the head should you pick it up by its feelers to pose it for a picture like I did, thinking it's dead since it's been severed from the rest of its body for longer than five minutes and it's no longer even spasming, and the head suddenly begins to thrash violently in response...unless you want a good laugh.
At 15 East, be prepared to spend top dollar for top-quality sushi that's a bit on the traditional side: $6 for a single piece of soy-marinated tuna zuke nigiri, $6 for one of the oh-so-rare and strong-flavored shako (mantis shrimp); and as much as $12 for uni or otoro. Want a roll? Be willing to pay $18 for a six-piece negi toro maki. Or for something different, how about a plate of six kumamoto oysters served with pickled radish for $21? The wasabi here is raw and real but for some reason, strangely and soothingly mild. The chef grates it from a stalk of wasabi until a mushy, light green muck begins to mound on the plate.
15 East
15 E. 15th Street, New York, NY
212-647-0015
The onlookers didn't flinch. They didn't gasp. They giggled and gawked for a moment and then dived in, oblivious to the ongoing but ever-decreasing flails of the fading crustacean's appendages. Several minutes later, I glanced over and sure enough, the thing was still moving.
It doesn't get better than live, and those who have consumed sweet shrimp as fresh as this know that it makes all the difference in taste. Just make sure you don't scream and drop the head should you pick it up by its feelers to pose it for a picture like I did, thinking it's dead since it's been severed from the rest of its body for longer than five minutes and it's no longer even spasming, and the head suddenly begins to thrash violently in response...unless you want a good laugh.
At 15 East, be prepared to spend top dollar for top-quality sushi that's a bit on the traditional side: $6 for a single piece of soy-marinated tuna zuke nigiri, $6 for one of the oh-so-rare and strong-flavored shako (mantis shrimp); and as much as $12 for uni or otoro. Want a roll? Be willing to pay $18 for a six-piece negi toro maki. Or for something different, how about a plate of six kumamoto oysters served with pickled radish for $21? The wasabi here is raw and real but for some reason, strangely and soothingly mild. The chef grates it from a stalk of wasabi until a mushy, light green muck begins to mound on the plate.
15 East
15 E. 15th Street, New York, NY
212-647-0015
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