Mashikos Review

[col klink]

So do you just ask the sushi chef for an omakase at a certain price point?  Will that generally include things such as the little crabs or do you have to ask for it?

Yup, just ask for omakase. It can be as easy as letting them decide or saying, I'd like some kind of spicy roll or "anything with scallops." They'll usually ask you at some point if there's anything you particularly like. We did ask for the sawagani.

[nightscotsman]

I want a toy with my sushi

[mamster]

Hey, I had omakase at Mashiko!

It was a friend's birthday and we had some fifteen people in the place. Most people ordered off the menu, but a couple of serious sushi friends and I asked if we could do omakase, and they said sure. We did the $30 level.

I requested sawagani, and sawagani there were, a plate of eight or so little crabs that looked like they were dancing. Delicious. This was followed by the best tuna salad I've ever eaten, a sky-high concoction with raw tuna, cucumber half-moons, shredded seaweed and onions, dressed with ponzu.

Next, more sawagani, this time with fried sweet shrimp. Shrimp heads! The crustaceans were crawling around inside a web of fried cellophane noodles.

Finally, some sushi. Frankly, I don't remember what all the nigiri pieces were, but I know there was amber jack (kanpachi), maguro, albacore, scallop, and sockeye salmon. All absolutely exemplary. Some of the nigiri pieces had little minced bits of other fish on top, which is a nice touch.

At this point I figured we were done, and I would have been totally satisfied. Nope, there was one more plate, with slices of ankimo (monkfish liver pate), a cucumber boat full of uni (which, no, I still don't like), three baby octopuses, and some whitefish served inside a lime.

I cannot believe this was all $30. I robbed these people. Every piece of fish was scrupulously fresh, and the preparations perfectly straddle the line between austere and precious.

They've recently updated their menu at sushiwhore.com. There is now natto on the menu, I'm afraid, klink. We didn't get any.

Anyway, klink is of course right--it's hard to imagine a more satisfying and exciting sushi experience than this.

[mamster]

Wait, there was also a shrimp tempura uramaki at one point. And probably other things I forgot to mention. They went a little overboard on the fried crustaceans, maybe, but you did not hear me complaining.

[Kiz]

Sigh. If I'd *realised* in time y'all were doing the omakase ...

But I can't complain too much. I got to try the sawagani :) And now will not sleep until I track down a NYC place serving it. BTW, the 'expert' sushi assortment was also excellent.

There's probably no reason to go and not order sushi, but for those crazy enough to do so, my partner highly recommends the wasabi steak.

[col klink]

Welcome Kiz! I'm very happy that you were able to experience Mashiko's as it is my favorite restaurant in Seattle and I believe one of the best sushi restaurants on the West coast.

Mamster, congratulations on your first visit to Mashiko's, I wish I could visit Mashiko's for the first time again.

I'm very jealous about the uni and the ankimo, the last time I went they still weren't in season! And I'm not surprised that you didn't like the uni, it can be a challenge to get used to it. How was it served? The time I had it at Mashiko's it was simply divine, clean and pure and served on a bed of sliced squid that looked like noodles in one of those nori cups with a base of rice. The differences in texture was just something I'd never experienced before. Damn that was good. Likewise, how was the ankimo served?

[col klink]

Hey folks, today there's a party going on at Mashiko's:

[col klink]

Saturday the 7th was my birthday and to celebrate, Batgrrrl and I went to none other than Mashiko’s for omakase. The abbreviated version is that the meal was not only the best sushi I’ve ever had, but the best meal of my entire life. The previous time I went there his wife Kirsten prepared a 7 course meal that had the best roll I’ve ever had (the albacore toro roll!) and was an amazing meal and I thought that that meal couldn’t be beat. Boy was I wrong.

Hajime used his Saturday party to introduce his new menu but of course it was lost on us as we always order omakase, or chef’s choice. The DJ came about an hour and a half late but that was fine with us, personally, I was a little worried that there was even going to be a DJ. When he and his entourage finally showed up they played some nice house music off of his Apple laptop and hooked up an overhead projector. He started off with the usual mp3 visuals but eventually went with MacMAME and played 80’s video games like Pac-Man, Q-Bert and Kung Fu much to our enjoyment. Later in the evening he even played some scenes from the old Prisoner show but enough about the ambience.

We showed up a couple of minutes before they opened but Kirsten let us in and we had Hajime all to ourselves for the first half hour. Here are the courses we enjoyed:

1) Seaweed salad topped with marinated baby octopi. The menu now actually includes the octopi whereas sometimes we had to ask for the octopi previously.

2) Another small salad with what we’re told is leftovers of making tofu. It was mixed with sautéed onions and carrots, dressed with a vinaigrette and served cold. It was pretty good and interesting but I probably don’t need to order it on my own.

3) Sawagani! Yeah! Seems almost heretical not to have sawagani when going out for sushi.

4) Shrimp ceviche with fresh taro root chips. This was really cool and something I’d never expect from a sushi restaurant. Wonderfully fresh, the shrimp in lime, onion and cilantro were a real treat, let alone the taro chips. Sliced on a mandolin and quickly fried, they provided a subtle sweetness and were perfectly crisp without being greasy.

5) Rockfish sashimi marinated for 10 hours in a special seaweed which I believe is called kobu, but I’m not sure. The meat was served with a ponzu sauce and was very tasty. The rockfish is a white fish and had a delicate flavor that is hard to explain.

6) Ankimo! Yeah! I’ve been missing ankimo for so long, thank the stars it’s finally back in season! There were seven, YES SEVEN, slices of the precious liver placed on a bed of seaweed salad and topped with green onions, sesame seeds and garlic sauce (which Hajime hasn’t started bottling yet). I thought at first that this much ankimo was too luxurious but it was so heavenly and creamy and wonderful that it was perfect. I could really go for some more ankimo right now.

7) Real crabmeat in a spicy mayo sauce on a bed of sliced tempura maguro and topped with Hajime’s own hot sauce (similar to Siracha, but spicier), curry and black sesame seeds. First a decent sized piece of maguro is wrapped in nori and then very quickly dipped in the fryer to set the tempura batter. This is sliced and was the bed for the spicy crab. This was a fun dish and as you can imagine, very tasty. At this point I truly regretted not taking my camera. I guess I’ll save that for next time!

8) Albacore nigiri topped with green onions, garlic sauce and chopped albacore toro. Ever since the last time I went to Mashiko’s, I’ve been absolutely in love with albacore toro, or the belly meat of the albacore. It is so succulent and it’s my favorite of all fish. I’ve always said that Hajime’s albacore is the best in the city, but he truly one-upped himself with the addition of the toro. There should be laws in place that make it illegal to cook toro and they should include it in the three strikes law.

9) Fresh uni served in the rice and nori cups. It was very fresh but uni is not everyone’s cup of tea, luckily for me, I love it. By the way, does anyone know the word for a small finger of rice that nori is wrapped around and used as a cup, like for roe? After we ordered the uni, we gave Hajime the uni challenge! We told him we love uni and asked him about other ways of serving uni and he took this as a challenge but more on that later.

10) A very special tuna roll with albacore, albacore toro, and flying fish roe all wrapped around a sprig of asparagus tempura and held together with a soy wrapper. There was no rice. Talk about an extravagant roll!

11) The uni challenge! Since we also mentioned our love for scallops, he had the kitchen incorporate them as well. They seared the scallops in butter with garlic and shitake mushrooms and topped with warmed uni. This was a very distinctive dish and a wonderful experiment and although I still prefer my scallops raw, we really enjoyed it. The warm uni was particularly intriguing.

12) Two cuts of flounder sashimi. The first cut is from the edge of the flounder at the base of the fins that as Hajime said, the French throw away and is very reminiscent of fugu in texture but as I’m told, tastes much better. The other cut is your standard flounder and provided an interesting change in texture. The first cut was more chewy and had a briny flavor, very cool. Both were served with a twist of lemon and flecked sea salt. At first when Hajime talked about the first cut, he called it “the” muscle of the flounder but then was nice enough to make a drawing to clear up any issues.

13) A very large spider roll, cut into four pieces. A standard nori wrapper but instead of being rolled along its length, it was rolled along the much narrower width giving the roll a greater diameter. This was done to incorporate an ENTIRE DEEP FRIED SOFT SHELL CRAB. Totally cool but extremely difficult to eat the end pieces with the legs sticking out as I found out when I lost half of it in my first bite. This surprised me because as others will attest, I have a big mouth!

14) Four unagi nigiri, wonderful, sweet and warm fresh water eel.

15) Dessert! Regular chopped toro with green onions and garlic sauce topped with curry powder, flying fish roe and chives presented on tempura’d slices of yams and eaten like chips and dip. Toro is so decadent!

16) Of course we couldn’t leave without having some more albacore nigiri, replete with albacore toro on top. This is proof that God intended man to eat fish and eat it raw.

We also asked for a special sake to be had with dessert and they gave us the same sake as the last time which is incredibly interesting. This time however we were smart enough to ask for Kirsten to write the name down, it’s called Sato No Homane. I’m not sure which is the name of the brewer, but as I said in the last report, they have been brewing since the 1600’s and follows the strict rules which state you may only use rice to make their sake yet their sake has wonderful fruit flavors like pear. They must have magical barrels.

Batgrrrl and I sat at the end of the bar for almost 2 ½ hours and every moment was shear bliss. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday meal. I’d like to note that although the presentation of Mashiko’s sushi has always been top notch, they’re doing even better presentation now. Both Batgrrrl and I noticed that they’ve taken it to a new level, not only combining new and interesting ingredients, but in elaborate and beautiful ways. I certainly don’t know of any sushi restaurant that can compete at Mashiko’s level. Maybe I should start a thread in General talking about favorite omakase experiences and get a feel where in the spectrum of sushi Hajime and team perform.

As a side note, this thread should be renamed to a more Onionesque: “OBSCENITY DELETED! Hajime walks on OBSCENITY DELETED water!”

[tighe]

As a side note, this thread should be renamed to a more Onionesque: “OBSCENITY DELETED! Hajime walks on OBSCENITY DELETED water!”

Isn't it amusing how the more refined and sublime food gets, the more crass some peoples' reaction to it becomes?? I know it works this way for me, and apparently the Colonel as well. I can't hardly described the best meals of my life without some string of four-letter words and/or their derivatives!

As far as the question at had.....these review are becoming like Chinese water torture. I need to get myself to Mashikos before I completely come unglued.

Edited December 11, 2002 by tighe (log)

[Schielke]

Yeah, you bastard!!!!! Quit making me feel bad for not eating there!

[Blue Heron]

Klink, what a perfect birthday meal! My mouth is watering after reading your review. I just checked out their website to take a peek at their new menu. I also noticed they do catering. Can you imagine going to/or having a party or wedding with that amazing food? Wow. I'm sad to see they are still not open for lunch, though . In the meantime, I need to get myself there for dinner again, as I need to order the omakase!

[col klink]

To answer my own question about the little rice finger wrapped with nori to make a cup for sushi that has no form, it's called a "goonka." But it's probably spelled gunka. Batgrrrl and I went out for more happy food at Hisago's and I asked the chef what the name is. It's Japanese for "battleship."

I felt really cool tonight because as Steve the chef was talking about shiso to another customer at the bar, I mentioned that I liked shiso with mackeral and he asked me "do you make your own sushi?" "Of course, though it doesn't quite look as professional as I'd like." When we left he asked our names and remembered that we there last week! Of course I didn't mention that I got the idea from Mashiko's.

By the way, we tried a really cool roll at Hisago tonight called a "Maryanna" roll. It's an inside out roll with sesame seeds filled with uni, orange, cucumber and avacado. The orange and uni combination was absolutely fascinating. This was the first time I've really had citrus in sushi, sure I've seen plenty of lemon, but there was actual pieces of orange in the roll. At first I thought the uni would overpower everything else, but the orange and the uni went very well together, a salty, sweet and sour combination and the avacado was the keel that kept the roll upright. I tell you, there is some really neat stuff going on at Hisago!

Tighe, while Batgrrrl and I were at Mashiko's and after one of the many sublime courses we ate I thanked the Lord above to which Hajime was almost startled and Batgrrrl says "he only gets religious in two places and your sushi restaurant is one of them."

[tighe]

Tighe, while Batgrrrl and I were at Mashiko's and after one of the many sublime courses we ate I thanked the Lord above to which Hajime was almost startled and Batgrrrl says "he only gets religious in two places and your sushi restaurant is one of them."

The other place is in church, right? My only question is, how good would it have to be for you to actually lean across the sushi bar and kiss Hajime on the lips?

My other reaction to fabulous food, besides profanity, is that my eyes well up with tears. No one has ever said anything, but I can only imagine what the server must think when they see me all red-eyed after devouring some particularly great dish....

[mamster]

Mashiko's has hit the big time: Elle Magazine, which this month has a column about unusual Westernized sushi pieces. The column is writted by some Portly Person.

[col klink]

What did he say about Mashiko's? I pushed it pretty hard when FG asked us to do his work for him.

[mamster]

I looked at it early this morning and then immediately forgot. It was basically, "At Mashiko's in Seattle they have a BLANK roll," and I can't remember what the blank was.

[col klink]

GREAT, now I'm going to DIE of embarassment when I purchase an Elle magazine.

[col klink]

Here's the line:

"At Seattle’s Mashiko, a Japanese bagel consists of rice rolled around basil, cream cheese, and smoked salmon."

[col klink]

This was a Wednesday night about a month ago and it just so happened that Hajime and Kirsten were back in Japan for some family business. At first I was a little worried because I had been here before once without either of them and although it was still good it wasn't up to what I'm used to. However, by the end of the meal any doubts were misplaced because we all had a fantastic meal.

Back in December I reported that Hajime started a new menu which now actually lists omakase and at three different levels: beginner ($20 and up), normal ($30 and up) and expert ($35 and up). We all opted for the expert save for one party who ordered off of the menu. As with any omakase experience, you are more than welcome to make suggestions or special requests and as always, I made a special request for sawagani for the uninitiated (and myself ). The sawagani was the first course of nine.

1) Sawagani. I can't speak well enough about sawagani, the very, very cute fresh water crabs about the size of a 50 cent piece that are dropped (alive) in the fryer with a minimal amount of batter. Not only are they quite tasty, but they have a cool factor that's hard to beat.

2) Penn Cove oysters served on the half shell. Beautiful, raw, juicy and plump served with a light ponzu sauce, pickled daikon and a horseradish sprout on a bed of cucumbers and seaweed.

3) Sashimi platter: surf clams, baby octopus on chukka salad, uni on squid and seaweed on a bed of red seaweed, and a white fish I believe was called onaga. The onaga was tasty (sorry, it's been awhile so my memory isn't quite as sharp as I would like) as well as the uni whose season is nearing its end. A number of people have issues with the texture of uni which basically disolves as soon as it hits your tongue but when you serve it with squid there isn't a reason in the world not to like fresh uni. I'm very happy that a few in our party tried the baby octopus for the first time and liked it. Like the sawagani, baby octopus has a tinge of fear factor because you eat it whole: tentacles, head and all but they overcame it and now they love it as much as I do.

4) Hajime's prawn ceviche with avocado, black sesame seeds, cilantro, onion and served with fresh fried taro chips. Very fresh and a great palate cleanser but I'm also a fiend for cilantro.

5) Platter of maki and nigiri. The maki: salmon skin roll and a natto roll. The nigiri: hamachi (yellowtail tuna) with curry powder, toro (tuna belly meat) with garlic/ginger sauce, black sesame seeds and scallions, tako (adult octopus), saba (mackerel) on a shiso leaf and sake (salmon) with a small wedge of lime. One of the reasons I've been such a proponent of Mashiko is the use of curry powder which I haven't seen anywhere else to my recollection and for some reason it really highlights the hamachi. The toro was absolutely divine as it was buttery and slightly plump yet so tender you chew it with your tongue. The saba was not as heavy as most is but that may be because of the shiso which cuts through the oil. If you haven't tried a salmon skin roll, it's very good. Salmon carry the perfect amount of fat under the skin and it crisps up very well.

I should mention that when we ordered omakase our server asked if there was anything we didn't like and the knee jerk response is nearly always natto. It's a fermented soybean product with a texture that most find very difficult to get past. I can only imagine that it's due to very long protein strands but nothing describes the texture like "mucus." The first time I tried it was a couple of years ago and I haven't been tempted to try it again. Mashiko's natto though was a pleasant surprise. There were solid pieces instead of a homogenous slurry and it had tasty burnt flavors similar to chocolate and coffee that I liked really liked once I got past the odd texture. I ended up eating half of the roll myself!

6) A platter of seared tuna from the kitchen sliced and served rare on a bed of onions (short of caramelized), carrots and bell peppers sauteed and with a sesame flavored cream sauce. Nightscotsman mentioned that it was similar to shabu shabu sauce; all I know is we came really close to licking the plate.

7) Platter of rolls: mountain potato, saba and shiso; "temptation island" tempura onion inside topped with albacore, garlic-ginger sauce and scallions; and the last roll was squid, tobiko, dried shiso and lemon. The potato and saba roll was better than I had expected but someone mentioned that the potatoes were traditionally fermented in some fashion but I think they were just boiled or steamed. Now for the "temptation island" roll, I'm not a fan of the name but I am a fan of using tempura inside of rolls and to top it with albacore and Hajime's garlic-ginger sauce, who couldn't be happy with that? The squid and tobiko roll was also quite good.

8) Albacore nigiri. The savory courses actually finished with the rolls but we couldn't leave without the Mashiko newbies trying the best albacore in the city. It's topped with the garlic-ginger sauce, pickled daikon and scallions. It's not just the sauce and the scallions, Hajime is able to find the best quality of albacore in Seattle and nobody else can match it.

9) Dessert. Plum ice cream with plum sake marinated Asian pears, a split grape (though detached so you couldn't do the really cool microwave trick) and topped with powdered sugar. All I have to say is that I really like plums after this.

Though the meal was very good, I should mention that the service was a little off. We initially ordered a couple bottles of house sake but it took almost 20 minutes to arrive despite the fact that they weren't that crowded. Once the food started flowing though, so did the sake and the service but at times subsequent courses came before the current course was completely finished. In no way though did the service detract from a terrific meal at a terrific price and the best sushi in town. Besides, at this price point, you wouldn't expect service like at a Michelin 3 star restaurant costing five times as much but since the food is at that level, you sometimes forget!

[col klink]

Late breaking news . . .

Mashiko Happy Hour Drinks are here!

*Kirin Ichiban on Tap -- $2.50

*Black Bottle Sake -- $4.00

*Selection of Momokawa Brewery Sake -- $4.00

Hours: 5:00 - 6:30pm, Sunday through Thursday

Be Happy!

[tighe]

So after drooling over all the reviews for months, scrat and I finally got ourselves to Mashiko last weekend: WOW!! It was everything that others have said it is and greatly exceeded my expectations. I’ve always thought Nishino was the best sushi I’ve had; Mashiko gives it a run for its money in terms of basic quality of fish and in terms composition of the dishes and pure excitement level of the food, I think Mashiko surpasses Nishino.

As recommended by Herr Klink, we sat at the bar and struck up a conversation with Hajime, telling him that we wanted an omakase menu without boundaries and would like to spend around $40 per person. Thus it began…

First Course

Albacore Sashimi with Green Onion, Sesame Seeds, Ponzu Garlic Sauce, served atop Cucumber Seaweed Salad with Daikon Sprouts

Exquisite quality albacore, with an amazing garlic sauce. Scrat’s favorite dish of the evening.

Second Course

Red Snapper marinated in Konbu Seaweeed, served over an Orange slice with Flying Fish Roe

A beautiful presentation and a very subtle flavor imparted by the seaweed.

Third Course

Hamachi Nigiri

Hiramasa Nigiri

Didn’t manage a picture before I devoured this one. Hajime pointed out the interesting contrast between these two, with the hamachi being fattier and richer while the flavor of the hiramasa was very fresh and clean.

Fourth Course

White King Salmon Nigiri

Copper River King Salmon Nigiri

The white salmon was nice but the Copper River was just unbelievably good.

Fifth Course

Hama Hama Oysters with Japanese Pickle and Cucumber Seaweed Salad

Very fresh oysters with the flavor brought to life by the dressing that was added to them. It so tempting to just go ahead and order a dozen…

Sixth Course

Toro Roll wrapped in Soy based wrapper with Asparagus Tempura, with Wasabi Garlic Mayonnaise, Black Sesame Seeds and Flying Fish Roe

For me this was simply one of those, “you are f%!%g kidding?!!?” kind of food moments. This was so good, I still can’t believe it really happened. Definitely my favorite of the night.

Seventh Course

Swordfish Sushi with Mango Chutney Salsa (Mango, Red Bell Pepper, Tomato, Onion), served atop a bed of fresh Crab, garnished with Black Sesame Seeds and a Chile Mayonnaise

This was the most un-Japanese dish we had. Very good, but almost too much of a departure from the rest of the menu. The swordfish also seemed almost tough, compared to the other fish.

Eighth Course

Unagi Roll (Grilled Eel) with Kaboto Squash and Avocado, served with an Eel Stock Reduction and sprinkled with Powdered Sugar

Totally changed my opinion of unagi, which I had always thought I didn’t care for. The eel stock looked like balsamic, but Hajime explained to us that he chops up and boils eel heads and then reduces it. Can’t begin to explain exactly what the flavor is.

Ninth Course

Crab and Tuna Sashimi on a Tempura Shiso Leaf, garnished with Green Onions, Black Sesame Seeds and a Chile Mayonnaise

Hajime said they called this tuna on a snowshoe. Very fun and easy to eat, another of the highlight courses for me.

Tenth Course

Octopus Sashimi served atop a bed of Rice with Chopped Shiso Leaf, garnished with Grated Dried Skip Jack Tuna, Salmon Roe and Garlic Sauce

We had told Hajime that the previous course would be our last, but I was just unwilling to let it end and asked for one more dish. To me this one had the quintessential Japanese flavor profile of all the dishes. The dried tuna was a really interesting flavor, almost earthy or nutty in character.

It was fun to talk to Hajime and watch him work. When we first came in, the restaurant was slow and our dishes came in pretty rapid-fire succession. About halfway through the meal though, the place filled up and Hajime went into overdrive. The guy can make sushi at light speed and it still comes out looking gorgeous. The business was actually better for us because we got some time to rest between courses.

And here’s the kicker, we got the bill, expecting that the last course would have put us over our specified amount, only to see that we had only been charged $35 per person for this feast. I’m still waiting for the cops to show up at my door and drag me away for grand larceny.

[mb7o]

Also went to Mashiko's recently first time.

Had many of the same courses as you did, in a slightly different order. The salmon nigiri was interesting--I love salmon, but usually not salmon nigiri, it's just too fatty or something. But this fish was somehow refined.

The down side came at the end--no qualms over the price especially given the quality, but we were charged for edamame, something we were given and happily ate, but hadn't ordered. My friends didn't feel like asking why, so we didn't.

[tighe]

Scrat and I had another wonderful meal at Mashiko last weekend but I wanted to share a funny story, at my own expense. I could count on my hands the number of times that I’ve had sake, maybe even on one hand. I don’t know squat about it other than there seems to be disagreement over the proper temperature. A few years ago, we visited Sake One (SO) in Newberg, OR during a trip to the Willamette and it was the first time I had tasted a variety of sakes. The first time we went to Mashiko, we noticed they had the Momokawa Pearl, an unfiltered sake that is made by SO and that we remembered liking. This time we ordered a bottle of it. Reading the bottle I noticed that the serving suggestions were fruit and dessert items, so I checked my pride and asked the waiter if a serious Japanese culinarian would disapprove of our choice with sushi. He smiled slightly and said that this type of sake would generally be considered too sweet to go with sushi. About this time Hajime came over to talk with us and the waiter relayed my question, to which he responded, “definitely, this is a foo-foo sake.” He then gave us a sample of a drier, cleaner unfiltered sake that I really liked and a quick but thorough version of Sake 101. The fact that he had the patience and took the time to do this was very gratifying. He also suggested that we try the sake sampler next time we came in. I pondered all of this for a little while and the next time the waiter came back I asked, “did we just order white zinfandel with our dinner?” “Yes.” THE HOR-ROR!

[col klink]

We recently had the pleasure of dining with Rochelle and her partner Erin. She had asked about sushi on her recent trip to Seattle so she didn't have a choice, we were going to Mashiko's. We ordered four of the expert level omakase and one of the regular for Erin who wasn’t feeling quite as adventurous that day. I have to apologize for the pictures, I started out pretty well, but it was tough keeping everybody off of the dishes so I could take a decent picture! You’ll notice by the end I finally gave up and used the flash.

Here are our courses in order

1) Skipjack and albacore sashimi on a bed of cucumber salad, garlic/ginger sauce and ponzu sauce topped with marinated onions, watercress sprouts, sesame seeds and a small dash of bonito flakes. It’s not often that albacore gets overshadowed by another fish but that skipjack was to die for, which also means that the whole dish was to die for. It’s hard to describe skipjack tuna’s taste but the texture is easy -- it’s more tender than maguro, almost as soft as albacore, yet still has a plumpness to it.

2) Kawahagi sashimi on a bed of chukka salad with portions of monkfish liver pate (not ankima) with dried plum, pickled daikon and ponzu. The kawahagi was one of the specials, the muscle fibers split easily but the individual fibers were quite plump. It's a wonderfully suuculent fish.

3) Oysters! I’m not sure exactly was with the oysters but there were definitely green onions, pickled daikon and watercress sprouts. I didn’t recognize the sauce but the combination was fantastic. The oysters were presented on a bed of cucumber salad and salty red daikon.

4) Nigiri platter consisting of (from front to back) salmon, onagu (Hawaiian snapper), Oregon Troll caught salmon and the mystery fish (could’ve been the kawahagi). All were good but the Oregon salmon with the lime and the onagu with some shiso underneath really stood out. There’s just no comparison when you have wild salmon!

5) Deep fried red sole with a Japanese sweet and sour sauce on bed of marinated onions and red pepper with a garnish of a lime wedge and watercress sprouts. I regret to say that this dish from the kitchen noticeably lagged behind the others which is quite rare at Mashiko. The only reason being that the fish was chock full of bones so that you couldn’t just bite into the fish. I’m not sure if it’s just because we were too inexperienced or not. I don’t think we were supposed to eat the bones because this wasn’t like a case with smelt or other small fish where you can basically ignore the bones. No, each piece actually had a section of spine and a number of pin bones. I had better luck with my second piece when I figured out that I could bend the fish and basically pluck the spine and the pin bones out. Other than the unexpected bones, it was quite nice.

6) Roll platter consisting of unagi, tempura asparagus and shrimp wrapped in nori for the first roll and for the second there was okra, sweet potato, tobiko and garlic and then the whole roll was finished tempura style. Both rolls were on the sweet side, the unagi more so than the sweet potato and okra one. I think finishing a roll in a fryer is fantastic and there are not enough sushi joints that do it. It’s such a nice contrast to most sushi that is served cold or at room temperature, not only that, you have a great contrast in texture as well when first bite into a crunchy exterior through to a nice center.

7) Tako and ankima topped with black sesame seeds and garlic sauce on a bed of chukka salad. If anybody doesn’t know, ankima is the foie gras of the sea and it’s literally a slice of heaven. Ankima is always great but the surprise here was the octopus, I’ve never had such succulent and tender adult octopus in all of my days. Usually the tough texture of the octopus would completely take over the ankima which just melts on the tongue but not so!

8) Steamed clams with sautéed onions, green onions in a basil and bacon gravy garnished with parsley. As promised in the menu, with the expert omakase meal comes a course from the kitchen. I’m not sure what the “gravy” or the sauce that the clams were in (it may not have had bacon it it) but damn was it tasty. The clams were not overcooked so they were very juicy and not at all chewy. I recall not leaving any of the sauce left.

9) Albacore nigiri, spicy scallop roll and toro roll. I had to make sure that Rochelle tried the albacore nigiri and of course it was as great as ever. This last plate was some extra requests. When asked for something with scallops and something with toro. The spicy scallop roll came with cucumber and watercress sprouts and wrapped with nori. The white roll is the toro roll with tempura sweet potatoes and wrapped with soy paper. Both were quite nice. Toro is a gift from the sea, and that roll was the best of the night.

As a nice thank you for all of the terrific meals at Mashiko, I gave Hajime a give of my smoked corned beef. I hope he liked it!

[col klink]

There's another DJ night if y'all are interested:

Saturday July 12, Mashiko DJ night.