Shibucho Makes Me Squeal Like a Little Girl

Pairing wines with sushi might sound strange at first, but as a group of foodies experienced firsthand at the end of last year, the two make quite a pair.

Last year? Yeah I'm backlogged. Workin on it! Anyway, Fooddigger has been bringing foodbloggers and foodies around town together on many occasions last year. For their last dinner of the year, KevinEats, Tangbro, inomthings, FoodGPS, sinosoul, and I joined part of the Fooddigger family at Shibucho for a night of great sushi, and great vintage wines.

Now, the good thing about posting late is that I get 'cheat sheets' from the likes of Kevin who takes detailed notes, especially for all the wines that I can't keep track of! and inomthings who already did the background on some of the fishies we had that night.

The wines for the occasion were actually brought in by the wine collectors among us (not I), including the Fooddigger people and Kevin. Here are the red wine lineup.

Oh and when I say "vintage" wines I wasn't kidding. The youngest wine was a 1989, but everything else was older than me with the oldest being a couple 1975 wines.

We toasted the started of the night with a 1978 Dom Perignon, courtesy of Kevin and Tangbro. Light, crisp, and sweet. I wasn't a big champagne fan prior to this one glass.

Foodwise, We started with some ankimo in ponzu sauce.
This was one of the best ankimos I've had yet, the texture being smoother than most. This actually went quite well with the champagne and apparently even better with the red wine we had next, the 1982 Chateau Pavie-Decesse.

Sunomono of mirugai (geoduck clam), aoyagi (surf clam), and hotate (scallops)
Light, and sweet. The marinade was apparently white miso (thx inomthings) which explains the sweet but mild and not overbearing taste.

Next we had bincho maguro/albacore salad in ponzu sauce. Nicely prepared as the ponzu draws out the flavor of the albacore but the lettuce and tomatoes helped cut the acidity of ponzu which I normally don't like too much.

Then onto a series of sashimi. First up is some fatty bluefin tuna (chutoro)
The chutoro is not the fattiest cut, but it's very fresh and still had a nice fattiness to it.
The toro, along with the other tuna, works quite well with the red wine.
We also had some regular blue fin maguro, and tai (red snapper) sashimi, followed by buri sashimi
Buri is "old" yellowtail (yellowtail goes through 3 periods in their life cycle and are called kanpachi, hamachi, and buri, respectively). I don't think I really enjoyed buri before this, but apparently buri is fattiest during the winter, i.e. at the time I ate this, so it makes sense that I like this one better than previous ones.

Salmon salad with onions, arugula, and salmon roe, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Then we had an ... eggplant parmesan. This was a surprising dish considering we're eating at a sushi restaurant but apparently Shige-san is known for occasionally serving western-inspired dishes.
Possibly the best eggplant I have ever had. Unlike other 'eggplant parmesans' this one is lightly sauced, which makes it not overbearing (not saying that all others are) but it's subtly sweet and very delicious. Shige-san also stated that Japanese eggplants are very different and much better than any other counterpart. This eggplant parmesan was quite sweet, but light.

Afterwards was a series of delicious, fresh sushi, for example this toro sushi.
Inomthings and I both let out a squeal as this beauty went into our mouths, prompting Shige-san to ask "Oishii deshou?" *nod* *nod* *munch* *munch*

Probably even more than toro, I loooove my hamachi belleh!
Smooth, fatty, delicious melt-in-your-mouth. Mmmm.

More great sushi followed (hirame, kinmedai).

After all the sushi, we had a daikon stew with buri kama (collar).
Given that this was in mid-December, this was such a perfect dish. Buri is apparently fattiest in the winter, and daikon is in season also during the winter months. The daikon was sweet and so~ soft. I kept thinking back to this dish throughout the winter, especially when I was down with a cold. Sigh.

At the end of the meal, Will from Fooddigger was apparently craving some uni! He asked who else wanted an uni hand roll. Well, uh ... me? me? :D
Some of us split some uni hand rolls, so we each got half a handroll.
The uni was sweet and creamy. A very nice way to end the meal. Well, pre-desserts, that is.

Instead of serving Japanese desserts or mochi ice cream or fresh fruits, Shige-san served Western-style desserts, and everyone got something different (like this tiramisu)- fun!
I was happy to get the blueberry tart since I love blueberries.

A feast. A feast like no other, and I probably will not have another like this. Just the wines alone were such a privilege to drink. My favorite was the 1976 Rioja Bosconia (R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rioja Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva ). And to top it all off with such great sashimi, sushi, and the amazing eggplant and daikon stew .... Mmmm. Not to mention sharing it all with such great foodie company. Twas a night to remember.


Shibucho
3114 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 387-8498
http://www.shibucho-la.com/

Bamboodles and the $1 Noodles (I Kid You Not)

Bamboodles has kind of been at the periphery of my radar ever since reading Exile Kiss' post on it, but when Wandering Chopsticks told me they had $1 daily special noodles ($1 ???) I immediately asked her to take me there.

The draw of Bamboodles is the bamboo-made noodles, made fresh daily. When we got there the guy was still working on some noodles, but alas, he didn't mount the big bamboo for my enjoyment. WC got a video though so hopefully she'll blog (sorry, vlog) this.I know the green tea pork noodles is supposed to be the highlight dish here, but since I came to get $1 noodles, the green tea pork will have to wait.
Since I felt kind of bad coming in and just ordering $1 dishes, I asked for an iced lemon tea also and WC got a side of spicy wontons.

Here's the $1 chicken-green onion-noodles:
Pretty good, huh? I don't think I can get this for $1 even back home in Indonesia these days ... Wandering Chopsticks said that the last time she got it, they put less chicken meat, so I guess don't always expect as much meat. But still, for $1 this was quite a meal, and quite a deal.

The noodles are quite good, with a nice chewiness and firmness. There was light fragrance to it. Parts of it were still sticking to each other but I believe these would work wonderfully in a soup. Can't wait to try their spinach noodles also.

The Spicy Wontons ($1.95) contained of eight wontons lightly covered in chili sauce.
The chili sauce itself was nothing special, but the wontons were wrapped in a thin yet springy skin. The meat was also nice and of higher quality (more meat, less bad fat) than most. This was also a nice deal for the price.
(These wontons, plus the chili sauce from YunChuan would be zomg amazing!)

The most expensive item on our check ended up being my iced lemon tea for $2.45 (expensive for an iced tea but I guess they have to cover overhead somehow)!
I'm going to be back to try their other items, but in the meantime ... guys, if you're feeling poor, just come here, get your $1 noodles, but please be considerate and tip reasonably (the dish usually sells for $5.95).
Oh, and the $1 special only lasts while the daily supplies still last, so go there early.

Bamboodles
535 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 281-1226
www.bamboodlesrestaurant.com

Going Umami

"Umami." The 5th taste that can't be pinned down by (english) words. One-up that by putting it all in a burger (Mmm burger ...). Umami Burger has been all over Chowhound as of late, so when I realized my part-time job is actually only 3 blocks away, instead of driving home in the middle of rush hour on the 101, I stopped by for a quick dinner.

There's a small parking lot that's shared with the other stores there, but hey, there's an actual lot and it's free, so don't complain.The space is small, but there were quite a few of tables and stools. It's a nice and clean space with Asian-inspired decor.

As an "amuse-bouche" (a burger place with an amuse bouche, eh? Fancy ...) they brought out a spoonful of shiitake mushrooms in "pure umami ketchup."
Intense is one way to describe it, it may even be too intense for some people, but it's kind of an effective in-your-face intro to that which is "umami".

It's my first visit so naturally I got the Umami burger (parmesan crisp, roasted tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, Umami ketchup, onions, $8) and a side of Malt Liquor tempura Onion Rings ($2.50)
These onion rings are some of the best ones I've ever had. Light and crispy, dip it in their Umami ketchup - delicious and addicting.

Onto the Umami Burger.
The patty was medium rare, and it was quite juicy and flavorful. The bun is buttery, the shiitake mushrooms were a great addition and I liked the crispy parmesan also. Definitely a savory burger full of flavor and quite good (dip it in the umami ketchup for even extra flavor!).

Though, personally this burger is missing a lil something for me. I miss that 'crunch' I get when I bite into a burger filled with lettuce and onions. The crispness that comes out, the textural and flavor play. I suppose that won't be adding to the "umami" rating. Iceberg lettuce would totally kill this burger, but maybe ... arugula? Methinks a bit of arugula would do it for me.

That was a personal preference, don't judge me :P I still enjoyed the umami burger quite a bit and I plan on coming back for it and to try the other burgers, such as their Pork&Stilton and their specials (currently Ahi Tuna burger) - working 3 blocks away would help this mission a lot!

PS. For extra incentive, they have a BYOB policy with no corkage, and they also sell Cake Monkey cakewiches and Yo-Hos which, while not cheap ($4), are yummy!


Umami Burger
850 S La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 931-3000