Kyoto - eGullet sushi lunches

[Rosie]

Lou needs a count. This is what I have. Anyone else? All are welcome. You can call in sick to work!

Lou Reda

Rosie Saferstein

Lowell Saferstein

Rachel Perlow

Anthony "RockADS21" Della Sala

Brian "Poots" Caputo

Kim WB

Pitter

[Lreda]

My girlfriend is going to join us also. The count is now 9. If anyone else is goin to be able to join us, just let me know. I'll call Sushi chef Bruce tomorrow and set something up for approx $40-45 a person.

[RockADS21]

Will we be booked under anyones name?

[Lreda]

Reda/ egullet/ Bond, James Bond

[Rachel Perlow]

Lou, I've received cancellations from Poots and Pitter via PMs, so bring the count down to 7. The rest of you are missing out!

[Poots]

Sorry to cancel, and especially so late. Familial obligations have arisen, and as i told Mrs. Perlow, if there's any monetary loss i've caused i will happily reimburse.

[Lreda]

Don't worry Poots, I called Kyoto and changed the number. Sushi chef Bruce is preparing a special lunch for us. I tried to reserve the sushi bar itself and they said they would see what they could do.

[Pitter]

I'm so sorry I won't be coming. I had a last hour reassignment of my workday. I wanted to meet you all. Again, so very sorry. Next time, I hope.

[Rosie]

And a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Lou Reda for organizing this feast. The sushi IMHO was a cut above other restaurants. Of course there were more wine, beer and saki bottles on the table than people! I think Suzanne was going to describe our meal and Rachel took pictures. I just want to know if Anthony made his conference call?

[RockADS21]

Yes Rosie I did pull off the conference call...luckily it was more of me listening to my client and his attorney with my intervening with a few yes and no's when appropriate. It was a pleasure to meet everyone and I would like to thank Lou for organizing the event. I thought the food was exceptional - I particullairly enjoyed the orange tuna dish - very different and very well done, and the alcohol to people content is certainly to be commended. Looking forward to another get together - next time however I will be taking the rest of the afternoon off.

[Lreda]

Sorry it's Friday and I'm getting ready for Friday service.After yesterday's lunch at Kyoto, Susanne and I were fortunate enough to enjoy a 4 course tasting menu prepared by Aldo Cirelli at Luigi's in Succcasunna. More details to follow on both lunch and dinner tomorrow...

Lou

[Rachel Perlow]

Here's the pictures from our lunch:

Seared Pepper Crusted Tuna

Tuna sashimi with Spicy Orange Sauce

Boat of Special Rolls with Nigiri Sushi in the background - the nigiri was my favorite part of the meal. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of that platter. It consisted of red and white tuna, beautifully sliced salmon showing the stripes of fat, spanish mackeral, and amaebi (sweet shrimp).

Attendees (from left to right): RockADS21, Rosie and Lowell Saferstein, Lou Reda, Kim WB, Suzanne (lreda's girlfriend). RPerlow taking the photo.

[Kim WB]

I thought it was very good sushi, and the orange citrus tuna was really extraordinary. None of the rolls packed the kind of heat and intensity that I prefer, but they were balanced and the primary flavor ( salmon. lobster) had the opportunity to shine through. I've got to get all the sushi lovers down to my neck of the woods, to Bonzai, in the Princeton area, for the Taka wasabi and the fluke fin salad!

Thanks Lou, for getting us together. It's nice sometimes when it is a small group and you have an opportunity to chat with everyone.

[Lreda]

First off, I'd like to thank those who attended and it was nice to actually put faces to names. Obviously I've developed a relationship with Lowell & Rosie in the past but it was great to meet Rachel ( At the door because we were late, though I still think I said 1:00 not 12:30 but we were quickly forgiven as the wine, sake & beer started flowing and food arrived promptly), Kim & Anthony.

We started with miso soup which was a little weak in flavor, the a good seaweed salad to open up the palate. We then had the peppered tuna, which I had the week before but with white tuna. I thought the white tuna the week before was of better quality but this week's was still good. My favorite was the orange tuna sashami. At first I thought it was too sweet but after a minute the spice kicked. A perfect example of proper spicing. The rolls are described in my earlier post but the extra one we had was with smoked salmon but I don't remember what else was in it. This in part because I started hitting Anthony's sake.

Anthony will have to get back to you on the name of the sake. I brought some Magic Hat #9 beer to start with than gratuated to Newton Chardonnay Unfiltered which went well with the orange tuna, then Duckhorn Sav Blanc for the sushi & rolls.

Overall a fun time, Thanks to Rachel for taking the photos, Kim for providing some laughs on being married to a chef and dealing with our huge egos ( Anyone see my blender ) and Anthony for the interest in being restauraneur.(sic) I'll see you in the kitchen at my place one weekend Anthony, the offer's still open, and of course to Lowell & Rosie for keeping the conversation flowing.

[Kim WB]

( Anyone see my blender  )

Only Suzan is qualified to discuss the size blender needed..but we can all atest to your oversized biceps!!

[Rachel Perlow]

I still think I said 1:00 not 12:30

I was going to let it drop, but then I said to myself, "nah." So, I reviewed both this thread and the one that started it all (see the first post in this thread for a link) and the only times ever batted about were noon and 12:30. So there.

[Lreda]

I still think I said 1:00 not 12:30

I was going to let it drop, but then I said to myself, "nah." So, I reviewed both this thread and the one that started it all (see the first post in this thread for a link) and the only times ever batted about were noon and 12:30. So there.

Mea culpa, mea culpa.

I look foward to speaking with you again Rachel. We'll try to sit together next time

[Jason Perlow]

Here are the pictures Rachel took at lunch today:

[Rachel Perlow]

I didn't get pictures of everything, but we had various nigiri sushi, quite a few of their specialty maki, some seared tuna sashimi, and an order of tempora to top everything off.

Dessert? That came in the form of a beautiful Icewine from LReda. Mmm.

[tommy]

that was some super sushi.

i generally don't like my raw fish seared at all, but the tuna, pictured above, was just perfect. just barely seared.

all the wines were great. lreda managed to bring a chardonnay that i actually enjoyed! it's been a while since i've enjoyed chardonnay. and the ice wine (sauvignon blanc) was a perfect dessert.

[steakas]

Here are the pictures Rachel took at lunch today:

What's that yellow stuff with the middle plate? It looks like cheez whiz.??

[Rachel Perlow]

Spicy mayonaisse. I'm pretty sure this is a Korean owned place, and they frequently use a combination of mayonaisse and chili sauce as a condiment. I actually didn't care for that roll (Godzilla roll, I think), as the sauce overwhelms the other ingredients. We had some other specialty rolls earlier in the meal, one with white nori, which were more delicate, but I didn't remember to take their picture because we were all so hungry and just dug in.

[Rosie]

The picture is 1/10 of what we ate. Food was excellent. Thank you Lou for setting this up. I was so full I didn't eat dinner. And Tommy--what about my wine? I brought it especially for you!

[Lreda]

I enjoyed the godzilla roll, sauve was a bit overwelming but had good flavor. We also had The Romantic roll which was Yellow tail & avacado inside with spicy & white tuna with a nori wrap. The other was The Hot Lover's roll with shrimp tempura , spicy tuna & avacado inside wrapped with a soy bean seaweed wrap in a spicy kabayaki sauce. We also had a Three stooges roll, tuna, salmon, yellow tail, fish egg and cucumber wrapped in white seaweed.

As far as sushi, we had tuna, spanish mackeral, salmon and eel.

Pete brought a Pinot Gries which I didn't see the producer. Tommy brought a German Lossen Reisling. The Rock brought a bottle of sake which Kyoto warmed for us. I brought a bottle of Chalk Hill Chard and a bottle of the affornmentioned Ice wine which was from Oregon called Sokol Blossom.

A great lunch, glad we made the switch.

[Rosie]

And don't forget the calamari salad.