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.

A Giant Thank You! from Bid and Eat for Haiti

The charity auctions benefiting Haiti relief efforts of CHF International and Operation USA have successfully concluded!

From both auctions we raised $1140 so I would like to thank everyone of you who has supported us by way of bidding, blogging, tweeting, or otherwise spreading the word :)

And of course, let's not forget to give a big shout out to all of our donors:

Allston Yacht Club
Bond St. Beverly Hills
Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron
Ciudad
Elements Kitchen
Fleming's
Fraiche
Guelaguetza Restaurante
iHerb, inc.
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea
Jian BBQ
La Casita Mexicana
LudoBites
Petrossian West Hollywood
Pizzeria Ortica
Rivera
Rush Street
The Raymond
Wine Detective


If you checked out the auction site, I'm sure you would agree they have donated so many good stuff to help raise funds.
To all the winners: thank you, congratulations, and I'm sure you'll enjoy those dinners, coffee, gift packages, or cookbooks you won!

SF: Tasting Menu at Coi

A while back I dined at the bar at Coi when I was in SF. The two-star Michelin restaurant came recommended by KevinEats. Reserving a table in the dining room restricts you to the tasting menu while dining at the bar you can do either tasting or a la carte. Not knowing what my companion would want, I reserved a table at the bar, but we ended up going with the tasting menu after all.

Both the bar and the dining room areas are small, so do make a reservation if you plan to go.

The tasting menu started with a light granita-like creation:
#1: "Summer, frozen in time" (plum, frozen meringue, yogurt)
With a slight saltiness, it was less sweet than your typical palate cleanser.

Half of the second dish bore a resemblance to the first:
#2: Melon and cucumber (mint)
These were again slightly salty, unexpectedly so upon hearing "melon and cucumber". For me the saltiness took away from both fruits' refreshing quality.

The meal took a major turn for the better for my tastes as we moved to the savory dishes.
#3: California Caviar, farm egg, creme fraiche, brioche, chive.
Chicken egg+fish egg=win. Having mixed the runny egg with the creme fraiche, I simply could not resits cleaning the plate completely using my crisp, toasted brioche.

#4: Inverted cherry tomato tart (black olive, basil)
Yet another great dish. The beautiful fresh cherry tomatoes are sandwiched between the black olive "crackers". A winner both in flavor and texture combination.

#5: Chilled eggplant soup (fresh and shelling beans, preserved lemon, summer savory)
This was a very well prepared soup albeit it is overshadowed by the other great dishes that night.

#6: Monterey bay abalone grilled on the plancha (nettle dandelion salsa verde, spicy breadcrumbs, lemon zest)
This was an excellent savory dish, and probably one of the best dish I've had in SF to date. The fresh and chewy abalone had a hint of smokiness. And the nettle dandelion salsa verde? Uncannily good.

#7: "Earth and Sea" (steamed tofu mousseline, yuba, fresh seaweeds, mushroom dashi)
Yuba is dried bean curd skin and Coi uses the one from Hodo Soy Beanery. A light soup that provided a lovely semi-rest period before our main "entree".

#8: Slow-roasted lamb (chard leaves and stems, garum, rosemary)
The tender pink meat was encased in a layer of fat, keeping all the juices in.

#9: Cheese course. Cavatina goat cheese with mission figs, arugula.
The Cavatina is a goat's milk cheese aged 3 weeks with ash rind, made by cheesemaker Soyoung Scanlan (chef Patterson seems to use this cheesemaker's products often) from Adante Dairy. I really loved this cheese. Smooth and firm, it went perfectly with the figs.

#10: Blackberry Bramble (peach, toasted saffron cake, wild fennel, sorrel)
While the individual components of this dessert were excellent, the overall taste was reminiscent of the amuse and the first appetizer - lightly fruity yet a bit salty. At this point I felt that this fruity/salty combination is too overwhelming for the meal as a whole. It had, in other words, became boring.

#11: Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel
This was more like it. Although the salted caramel made for yet another sweet/salty dish, it was balanced by the richness of the rest of the dish and made for a dessert more compatible to my tastes.

The sweet/salty theme did get us a bit bogged down by the end, but as this did not seem to be an issue in other meals I've read about, I wondered if it was an experimental phase ... Nonetheless, the savory dishes at Coi are undeniably good and stand strong on their own. Some of these dishes remained the most memorable out of all my meals in San Francisco.


Coi
373 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 393-9000
www.coirestaurant.com

Cafe Pierre: Gourmet Pigs Eat Gourmet Hog in Manhattan Beach

There were a few restaurants that I regretted missing out on when they closed. L'Orangerie was a big one, then Bastide. Another was Citrus at Social. So when a media invite came from Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach bearing the name of Remi Lauvand, formerly of Citrus at Social, I was quite happy to accept.

On a weeknight, the small restaurant was packed (even without our crew's help) so I was at first surprised that they bothered inviting us for dinner, but they pointed out that most of their clientele consists of an older crowd and they want to reach out more to the youngsters.

To start off the dinner, we started with a huge spread of their housemade jarred goodies. Our table was filled with mason jars of foie parfait with pain d'epices and black mission figs ($7), pork rillete with cornichons and crostini ($10)


hand-cut prime bavette beef tartare and shelling beans ($14), head cheese with frisee and mustard dressing ($8), pig trotters ($8), and sardines.

I really liked the pig trotters (so fatty and tender!) and the beef tartare. The foie parfait was also very good, smooth and rich complemented well by the sweet gelee on top.
The sardines we all had trouble deboning on the table so that although we liked how they tasted they were rather difficult to eat.

Apparently we shouldn't have stuffed ourselves with the jars since those weren't even appetizers. Again, we all shared an assortment of appetizers.

Stuffed baby calamari, sweet pepper, saffron, wild arugula ($14).The two bites I had of this were pretty good but a bit bland for me. The texture of the stuffing didn't seem to quite work with the chewiness of the squid.

Roasted bone marrow, pickled radish, red wine onion compote ($11).

House-cured Tasmanian trout, lemon, serrano, honey mustard ($13).
I was very happy to have a light and healthier dish to balance all the other rich appetizers with! The simple looking dish became one of my favorite appetizers with the amazing house cured trout and the fresh greens.

As fas as the entrees go, I do believe all of us agreed on a favorite dish: Jude Becker's Acorn fed Hog duo (sausage, short rib, brussels sprout, wild mushrooms)
The sausage, made with the shoulder and belly meat, was divine. I couldn't stop munching on the brussels sprouts drenched in pork fat.

Making this dish even more special is Sinosoul pointing out that Jude Becker is the farmer featured in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. He finished feeding a portion of his hogs on acorn, and this time Remi Lauvand got 50 lbs of it. FoodGPS also counted this as his favorite pork dish that week.
Now, I did say the dish was a special but if you want to try it, Cafe Pierre will be serving it again next Tuesday, March 9!

Some of the other dishes we had:
Veal sweetbreads, roasted carrots, parmesan jus ($28).
Before asking Remi directly we had a debate on what kind of sweetbreads this was. We thought it couldn't possibly be veal since it was so big! This dish managed to showcase the texture of sweetbread yet somehow tasted less "offal-y" than most.

We had another veal dish, equally good: Veal breast, shelling beans, arugula, jalapeño veal jus ($24).

Another dish I enjoyed very much was the 70 hour braised short ribs. I don't care if short ribs had gotten a bad rep for being a cheap cut among foodies, I love them all the same and I'd pay for that 70 hour cooking time. The short ribs were meaty yet tender enough and held so much flavor.

We similarly shared all the desserts they offered. On the lighter side were Poached pear and shortbread cookie with pistachios and dark chocolate mouse, and the Remi apple tarte with See Canyon Ranch Winesap apples

There were also a duo of bread pudding, Baba au rhum, profiteroles, and tiramisu.
My favorite was the baba au rhum (and sounds like LA&OC Foodie and WeezerMonkey agree). It's just the combination of the tang from the slices of poached pineapple hidden inside, that cream, and of course the rum-soaked dough.

I'm glad I finally got to try chef Remi Lauvand's creation, and glad that Manhattan Beach now has a dining destination of this caliber. With Remi helming the kitchen, Cafe Pierre not only is worthy as a Manhattan Beach favorite, but stands up to restaurants in LA and makes Manhattan Beach worth the drive.

Especially next Tuesday, March 9. You know ... when chef Lauvand gets more acorn fed hog and feeds it to you as part of a 3 course menu ($50).

Cafe Pierre
317 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
(310) 545-5252
cafepierre.com

Bali: Indonesian-style Ribs at Naughty Nuri's

Sweet soy sauce. Kecap manis. To Indonesians, that is the perfect combination of the sweet and the umami. We like our food a little sweeter. Back in college, it was the only condiment I kept in my kitchen at all times.

While living with my aunt in South Carolina, I easily picked up their sweet soy sauce habit. We put it on scrambled eggs. We put it in grits.

But one American expat and his Javanese chef-wife in Bali had an even better idea. Let's put it on barbecued ribs, baby.
They opened Naughty Nuri's Warung in Ubud, serving the carnivorous natives and tourists ribs, steaks, lamb chops and more, marinated in "Indonesian-style marinade." That is, it's sweet soy sauce based. Yes, Bali has the suckling pig "babi guling", ikan lilit, bebek bengil, what have you. But my brother and all my cousins (ok, well, all my male cousins) claim Naughty Nuri's is their favorite eatery in Bali.

A warung is meant to be a low end eatery and while the ambiance at Nuri's is undoubtedly casual, the prices are pretty high for the country's GDP. Bali is, after all, a tourist hotspot. $7 is a steal for New Zealand lamb chop, but a pricey meal for your regular native.
If you're reading this, though, you're probably a tourist, so go there and splurge on fall-off-the-bone tender ribs and juicy lamb chops. But please, don't ask for ketchup or A1 sauce. You won't be needing it.

Naughty Nuri's Warung
Jl. Raya Sanggingan (Across the road from Neka Museum)
Ubud, Bali
Phone: (361)977547
8am-10pm daily
http://www.naughty-nuris.com/