Dassai Sake Pairing at Sushi Central.

Hamachi sushi paired with Dassai 23 was a revelation.

Dassai 23

For this pairing we owe master sake sommelier Yuji Matsumoto.

Yuji-san invited us to a sake and sushi pairing dinner was held at Sushi Central, a strip-mall spot in Palms. This pairing featured Dassai sake from Asahi Shuzo brewery in Honshu, which only makes junmai daiginjo sake.

I haven't heard of this place until I received the invitation from Yuji-san although now I wondered why that is. Our conversation revealed that the sushi chef, Phillip Yi, was formerly director and instructor of the California Sushi Academy.

"Wait, the one in the Trevor Corson book? The Zen of Fish?"
"Yes. He interviewed my wife for that book, she was one of the first female sushi chefs."

I've read and own this book. How did I miss this place?

Sushi Central also has no alcohol license. You know what that means. Yep, BYOB. Throughout our dinner, local regulars fill the small place and taking out various bottles/cans from a brown bag. Mostly beers and that lovely Charles Shaw two-buck-chucks (I urge you not to ... bring some good stuff instead, this sushi is worth it).

While we were waiting for someone to bring the sake, we got to try some ono sushi - somewhat considered a "signature" dish here at Sushi Central and what his regulars affectionately call the "crack sushi." This ono sushi was also the subject of a Bobby Flay throwdown episode.
Amazing. The ono was meaty and had a light smoky flavor. Yi served very well-prepared sushi with a nice ratio of fish:rice.

Soon our bottles of sake was delivered. The man we need to thank for this was Kazuhiro Sakurai from the Dassai factory in Japan who flew in for three days. He probably didn't fly just to meet us, but we felt special all the same.

"Dassai 23." What does the "23" refer to? I know what rum "151" refers to, but nope. Not it. The numbers on sake bottles actually refer to how fine the rice has been polished. The junmai dai ginjo sake type is the finest and has to be polished at least 50% or lower. Dassai only makes dai ginjo sake.
Not sure you can really tell from that photo but there is visible difference in size between the three samples. Dassai "23" means that the rice has been polished until it only retains 23% of its original size. It also takes 3 days and 3 nights to do this, as opposed to 10 hours to get to 70%.

What happens to that other 77% of the rice? Who knows ... I should've asked but did I really want to know ... ?

Yuji san started our sushi/sake pairing with the climax: the hamachi and Dassai 23 pairing.
This hamachi is a pretty lean cut.

Upon first tasting the Dassai 23, I noted that it smells very fruity. It had a clean, crisp and smooth taste with hints of lychee - perhaps pineapple.

With the yellowtail? The sake transformed into a "rounder", smoother sake. This pairing really brought out the sake.

As we move on to some fattier cuts of fish, we also move on to richer sake.
The salmon belly was paired with the Dassai 50. The sake was richer and had a fuller body than the 23. This was heavier while the 23 had a much cleaner taste. Paired with the salmon belly ,the sake developed a fruitier and mellower taste.

Next we had some house-cured saba (mackerel) with yuzu.
The saba is not a common sushi as it had the reputation of being too salty and fishy. The house-cured version at Sushi Central is a little salty, but not overpowering. It was tender and had a great texture. This was paired with the Dassai 39 (polished to 39%) which is only available in Japan. Neither the sake nor the fish overpowered each other.

Spicy tuna roll came next, paired with an unfiltered daiginjo sake (Daiginjo Nigori).
The Dassai Daiginjo Nigori is a dryer nigori than what you're probably used to. The fermented smell reminded me of the nanchy drink I had in Tijuana. While the previous pairing focused more on the sake, the nigori sake cuts through the spiciness of the tuna and enhances the flavor of the sushi.

The classic near-end of a sushi meal: kani (crab) roll.
This was a great crab roll. We moved back to the Dassai 50 sake, which worked well with the butteriness of the crab.

We also had an ankimo roll. I enjoyed this as the ponzu sauce isn't as acidic as many - it had a subtler acidity that works nicely with the ankimo without overpowering it.

I've had the Dassai 50 before while dining at Hachi and while I already liked it quite a bit there, this tasting brought me beyond.

On top of that, I discovered a gem of a sushi place.

Thank you Yuji san, chef Phillip Yi, and of course Sakurai san from Dassai for bringing six bottles of sake ;)Sake sommelier Yuji Matsumoto and Chef Phillip Yi of Sushi Central

PS. Chef Phillip Yi also holds a sushi class every last Sunday of the month.
Yuji Matsumoto will be giving a seminar during the LA Sake Festival on March 27. He's also planning a sake/cheese tasting event, so stay tuned.

Read Shop Eat Sleep's post here and e*starLA's post here.


Sushi Central
3500 Overland ave. #100
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 202-6866
http://sushi-central.net/



Disclaimer: This meal was hosted and the sake provided by Dassai.

Kabuki: Sake, Sushi, Hollywood.

When a media invite came from Kabuki Hollywood came in my mailbox, I had doubts. It wasn't their fault because I had never been, but because my last experience at a popular/hip sushi place in Hollywood involved a bone in my toro (*cough* geisha house *cough*). But the desire to meet their sake master sommelier Yuji Matsumoto outweighed any reservation, and so I went.

Despite the swank interior, Kabuki's price point is actually cheap, especially considering it's a sushi joint in the Hollywood/Vine area (their rolls start at $3.95).

Photo courtesy of Kabuki Hollywood

Kabuki's sake list isn't extensive but had something for everyone. For our meal Yuji Matsumoto prepared three types of chilled sake.
We started with the lightest body sake (from right to left): Kikusui 'Junmai Ginjo' Niigata, Mizbasho Ginjo Gunma, Nanbu Bijin 'Tokubetsu Junmai' Iwate.
I loved loved the Nanbu Bijin, which probably meant I like heavier body sake. Or maybe that the Nanbu Bijin is just awesome.

Our meal started with their five new dishes which have been around in Kabuki in Las Vegas and Arizona but are new to the LA locations.

I was happily surprised to see a plate of ahi poke as the first of these new dishes.
This Hawaiian dish is somewhat hard to find in Los Angeles, especially among not-so-fresh version at Whole Foods and not-quite-the-poke-I-remember versions at various places around town, but Kabuki's version is fragrant with the sesame oil and seeds, complemented well by the wakame and is actually quite like what I remembered from Honolulu.

The yellowtail carpaccio is a rendition of Nobu's original yellowtail carpaccio, but at probably half the price (although with thinner slices of fish).
The jalapeno slices make the dish. Don't eat a slice of fish without a jalapeno.

Because some of the new dishes came out of the Midwest location, we see major influence from the Mexican cuisine in their new Baja Roll.
California roll topped with spicy sauce and salsa, pretty interesting.

They also had lasagna sushi: california roll topped with melted cheese. Some of you will probably balk at the notion of cheese on top of sushi, but seeing that cream cheese in sushi like Philadelphia rolls had become so mainstream, I guess why not cheese?

After trying out their new items, we got some nigiri sushi, including some toro.
I actually thought the pieces of fish themselves were not bad at all, they are pretty fresh, good quality fish for the price. What's lacking for me was their rice, though. Too dense, too cold, too hard for my taste. Although not every piece had cold rice, I did get a couple of the inconsistently cold ones, if I had to do over I'd probably order the sashimi platter like another blogger did.
The sashimi comes with a special condiment that I actually really liked and thought as quite unique: chopped wasabi stems. This has a nice texture and fragrance to it on top of the kick.

For my main entree I got one of their signature dishes, the Koshou Beef
A bit overcooked and so the beef was a bit tough, but the flavors were good.

Kabuki has won awards for their Kid's menu, and their choices of kids' sushi, teriyaki, bbq ribs, or tempura are printed on a fun playbook that teaches them about sushi and sea creatures. I dare say it's healthier than the chicken nuggets on my kid's menu. Oh, and they get Calpico soda, too.

Photo from Kabuki Hollywood

As you can imagine, Kabuki has a much more extensive dessert menu than most Japanese restaurants. Between the almost-dozen of us there, we tried pretty much a bit of all of them from the Chocolate Pyramid Anglaise that has more of the consistency of ice cream, to the "Freddo" which is pretty much a bowl of asian shaved ice with all the usual toppings - can't go wrong with that.

My favorite dessert was the coconut sorbet in the shell, complete with bits of coconut inside.

With their low price point, it's easy to see Kabuki as the better dining options in that area (in fact, the place was pretty busy for a rainy weeknight) and I was pretty happy with the quality of the food we got for what it was. Granted I haven't really eaten sushi rolls in years (except for that time I was stuck in Los Alamos for 2 weeks and ate a sushi roll with green chile - new menu idea for Kabuki?) but I certainly know people whose idea of a sushi meal equals creative, westernized rolls. They do have pretty good fish on hand, if they work on their rice a bit they can be much better.

Kabuki
1545 Vine St
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 464-6003

DineLA 2010 Quickie: Dinner at K-Zo

Dine LA dinner at K-Zo in Culver City is $44 for 3 courses and the choices seemed pretty good. When I saw the regular menu though, I noticed they have 5 courses for $58 any day, so whether or not the $44 is a special deal or not gets a double take.

The appetizer options are 1) Rokuten Mori (a selection of 6 appetizers), 2) Seafood salad, or 3) Bouillabaise.

The Rokuten Mori gives you a sampling of a variety of cold seafood appetizers including crab sunomono, oysters, yellow tail sashimi, ankimo, etc. All of them were well prepared with fresh ingredients. The bouillabaise was pretty good, but it doesn't compare to the one I had at Bond St.

For the entrees we had a choice between: 1) a plate of nigiri sushi + popcorn shrimp and asparagus roll, 2) grilled rib-eye steak, or 3) braised Chilean sea bass.Having a plate of sushi means you're not getting each piece fresh from the hands of the itamae, but nonetheless they were still good with fresh pieces of fish - although they are mostly your standard orders.

The Chilean sea bass was well prepared and tender. The mashed "purple potato" and steamed bok choy were good accompaniments and filled you up.

For dessert, we ordered the apple "tatan" (hey, that's how they spelled it :P).
The apple tatin was pretty nicely caramelized - although the strawberry accompaniment seemed an afterthought and deterred from the sweetness of the apples.

I ordered the purple sweet potato parfait because it seemed most interesting.
This was a very enjoyable dessert - like a sweet potato zanzai - with red bean, mochi balls, and vanilla ice cream. The "sauce" was made with Okinawa purple sweet potato. I would definitely get this one again, especially since this was one of the more unique desserts they offer.

Overall the K-Zo dineLA meal was good and satisfying (although the portions are smaller than many other restaurants), but as I mentioned, since they normally have a 5 course meal for $58, I probably wouldn't hurry here if you only have limited opportunities to do dineLA.

K-Zo
9240 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 202-8890

Reasonable & Chic Sushi at K-Zo

K-Zo's decor can be described as chic. Hip. It seems like there's even a bar in the front, though I do think they only serve shochu cocktails. But unlike what comes to mind when I think of "hip sushi restaurant" (*cough* Katsuya Hollywood, Sushi Roku *cough*) it isn't crowded and loud and, as K-Zo has been known for, the prices are quite reasonable.
But really, my main reason for finally checking K-Zo out is a Yelp review that mentioned their sinful molten chocolate cake. I've long been searching for a good sushi joint that also offers good dessert (I mean, beyond your mochi ice cream and tempura ice cream).

But I'm ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.

We started with a "seafood salad" ($16) - Tuna, yellowtail, salmon, whitefish, shrimp, and albacore on a bed of lettuce with soy mustard dressing
A bit heavy on the dressing, but otherwise good. Fish and green ingredients are good and fresh and the dressing works well for both.

Wakame (seaweed) salad - $8 (hey we wanted our greens and minerals)
Nice, light and healthy. Unlike the previous salad, the dressing here is not heavy and was just perfect.

Besides the standard sushi menu, K-Zo also has a specials menu featuring the rarer/seasonal fishies. I ordered some wild salmon.
The color is much darker than your regular salmon, and as you can probably tell from the lack of thick white stripes, this is a much leaner piece of fish. It was fresh, the fish/rice ratio was just right. The fish cuts are narrow so the portion isn't huge, but it's fair and big enough for a bite. A nice first impression of K-Zo's sushi.

As a comparison we also got the regular salmon sushi ($5/2pc order)
A fattier cut (but I like fatty too). Again, a good and fresh piece.

Speaking of fatty, I of course got my o-toro fix. I was very happy with the prices of toro here, which I think was only ~$10.
That long tail just means more fish for me ... This was a pretty fatty and smooth, melt-in-your-mouth toro. While not the best o-toro I've had, this was definitely one of the good ones, and at this price point, I was perfectly happy.

We like to end our sushi meals with some eel. This time to compare we got both the freshwater and seawater eels.
Freshwater Eel/Unagi ($5/2pc)
Seawater eel/Anago ($6/2pc)
Most Japanese people seem to prefer anago, and it is also higher priced. The unagi tends to be sweeter, which kind of provides a nice end to the meal, IMHO.

The chocolate molten cake I was looking forward to finally came. It was pretty small though! As you can see, it was only the size of an ice cream scoop.
It's small but packs a punch. Definitely rich and sinful. I also like the sesame ice cream quite a bit, but by itself. In this case the whole is less than the sum of the parts ... This small ramekin dish of chocolate cake is definitely enough. For one person, that is. As we were sharing, we're glad we had another dessert coming.

The lychee tart's portion was also pretty small.
Richer and denser than what I was expecting for a lychee tart, as it was a bit eggy. An enjoyable dessert, though I thought the taste and freshness of the lychees got lost in the rich eggy tart base.

Overall a very reasonably-priced sushi dinner with high quality and fresh ingredients. The dessert selections are much more interesting and varied than most of its counterparts (especially with the disappearance of Jinpachi's famous desserts). The dessert portions are on the small side, but might as well ... I shouldn't be eating so much anyway :P
Add on top of that free parking in the public structure right next to the restaurant, K-Zo is winning lots of points with me!

K-Zo
9240 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 202-8890

Nishimura: The Beverly Hills Sushi Fortress

There was someone who kept claiming that Nishimura was better than all the sushi places I've brought him to. I took him to Sushi Zo, he says Nishimura is better. I took him to Sushi Mori, he says Nishimura is better value. So finally I just retorted back with "So why haven't you taken me there?" So off we went!!

Nishimura is located across the street from the Pacific Design Center. There's no sign, just a tall, solid, wooden gate, in front of which you may occasionally find a towncar or two. Street parking are aplenty next to it.

Unfortunately it was rather dark and I didn't want to use flash so only a few of the photos really turned out well. I'll just give you guys a sampling.

At first I was a bit disappointed because Nishimura himself was not the one serving me sushi. But my young sushi chef was very friendly and as it turned out, very good. We got to talking and apparently before going to Nishimura he used to work at Jinpachi.

Among our dishes were a sampling of oysters - 3 kinds per person.
All very fresh and delicious.

Then came a slew of sashimi. Unlike Zo which was mostly sushi or Mori which offers a significant number of cooked dishes for the omakase, our omakase here was significantly composed of sashimi dishes. I'm not complaining, mind you.

Among them were octopus with yuzu.
Fresh and chewy. "Crunchy" even. The quality of the ingredients at Nishimura is evident.

There were tons of hamachi and albacore with ponzu sashimi, etc, all of which were very good. It's a lot of fun watching this young chef coming up with dish after dish, all of which he tried to put special touches on.

The highlight of my meal was probably this one: seared toro with white truffle salt and yuzu.
Orgasm on a plate. I mean, it's practically everything that I love, with the absence of foie gras! The toro used here was fatty and delicious, but the one used for our simple toro sushi we had later that night was even better - it tasted fresher and fattier than the seared one.

I didn't spend the whole night eating fatty fish, though. The waitstaff also brought out piping hot ginko nuts with sea salt.

The highlight towards the end of the meal for me were these fresh king crab legs.
Fresh, juicy, meaty. I had to chow down with my fingers to make sure I got every little piece of meat out of those shells.

The meal for 2 post-tips was $160 - which was comparable to my meal at Sushi Mori, but with more of the things I like (sashimi!). I had to agree that Nishimura was very good indeed, and yes, probably is a better value than Mori. At least, I felt like I got more for my money here.

Nishimura
8684 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 659-4770