Friday, April 16, 2010

Toshi Sushi (Little Tokyo): Omakase vs "Omakase"

Craving sushi, I remembered that Toshi Sushi in downtown has received a lot of praise from fellow bloggers recently, including Sinosoul, djjewelz, and others.
We came on Easter night and the restaurant was empty. I asked to sit at the sushi bar, and the waitress asked what I was going to order. Sushi? Probably Omakase?

Then she asked what kind of omakase I'm ordering, the set or something-or-other.
Toshi Sushi offers an "Omakase" Sushi set that is printed on the menu. For $44.50 you get:
daily appetizers, asari (clam) miso soup, wagyu tataki, grilled black cod, and "most valuable 10 pieces of sushi assortment of the day", and ice cream. This is the meal that djjewelz reviewed.

OK, understandable if the place was full, but why do they care if the restaurant is empty. Moving on, I said I'll order whatever is needed for me to sit at the sushi bar.
We ended up getting a full-on omakase. Whatever Toshi-san wants.

1. We started with some appetizers: seaweed from Japan, mountain yam, shark fin, and pear.
Some of you may be furious about the sharks fin offered here, but I wasn't. I grew up loving sharkin and stil do ... A nice combination of texture here between the sticky yam and seaweed and the crisper pear and sharkfin.

2. Halibut with marinated seaweed.
This first sushi course is a wonderful introduction of the freshness of the sushi we were about to have and the subtlety of Toshi-san's touch.

3. Bluefin tuna from Spain (that I forgot to take a photo of).
It's smooth and fatty, amazingly so for a non-toro tuna.

4. Snapper from Japan.
Fresh and chewy. The marinade is light and not overwhelming.

5. Deep fried octopus.
Chewy texture. The batter is a bit salty and greasy but the dish overall is good and flavorful.

6. Mackerel with marinated seaweed.
The mackerel has a natural saltiness. Both the flavor and texture are quite nice.

7. Chu-toro bluefin tuna from Spain.
This piece was not too fatty but still melts in your mouth and has that nice oily flavor. And of course, fresh.

8. Here we moved back to a lighter set of appetizers. A trio of dishes:

Sea cucumber
Nice and crunchy, surprisingly so as usually cooked sea cucumber is very fatty and tendon-like. Still, if you're used to sea cucumber you would enjoy this and otherwise it might be too weird.

Kumamoto oysters.
This has a bit too much sauce for my taste.

Baby squids.

Sweet and slimy. Loved it.

9. Now we're back to the fattier and heavier side of the meal, starting with Hamachi belly.
My favorite, always. Fatty but still a bit chewy. Nice flavor

Next came the most memorable and unique dish of the night:
10. Slowly baked bluefin tuna cheek.
This was my first time having cooked bluefin tuna cheek and it was amazing. It was tender but a bit chewy and meaty, had lots of flavor, a lot of oil. Excellent. If Toshi has this when you go, do try it.

11. O-toro (again, forgot to take a photo. Guess I was hungry!)
Melts in your mouth, definitely much fattier than the chu-toro.

12. Seared salmon belly with foie gras.
Fat on fat. Oh yes. The texture and flavor combinations are great, in that fatty melt-in-your-mouth-save-my-heart kind of way.

Because my companion loves his tamagoyaki, he asked for an order. Instead, we were given a tasting of three tamagoyakis:
13. Tamagoyaki with seaweed powder, tamagoyaki with yam, shiso, and plum, and a regular tamagoyaki.
In those Japanese comics or drama people always argue whether or not they like the salty or sweet tamagoyaki. Well, here we have both and more.

14. Aji from Japan.
The sushi here is never overwhelmed by sauces.

15. To finish up, I had an order of really sweet uni (Santa Barbara) while my not-an-uni-lover-companion had some ikura.
16. Followed by an order of unagi.
Nicely seared meaty unagi and again, not doused in too much sauce.

Brown rice tea to cleanse off.

Most people would count uni or unagi as their “dessert” but we have such a sweet tooth interesting so we got a couple:

“Chocolate Souffle”
It’s a perfectly fine dessert but I do not think this is a proper soufflé. This isn’t the first time I encounter “soufflés” at Japanese restaurants (and beyond) though. The vanilla mochi ice cream, though, was quite good and noticeably fresher than ones you get at the grocery stores (prompting us to walk across the street to Mikawaya!)

Panna CottaThis dessert worked better than the soufflé for us.

This meal wasn't $44.50. Obviously, right? That would've been amazing. Still, we got away with ~$80 per person after tax and tips which I still think was a great deal considering what we ate.
I was quite impressed with the quality of the sushi we had, and that baked bluefin tuna cheeks? Incredible.

Toshi Sushi
359 E 1st St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-4166
www.sushicateringtoshi.com
Toshi Sushi on Urbanspoon

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Plaisir Opening Party: Launching Guilty Pleasures

Plaisir is the newest hot bakery in town, recently launched by owner Daniel Salva and Frenchman Pastry Chef Philippe Dray (previously at Cafe Flore).
Plaisir has only been open for about a month but have garnered some great reviews on Yelp.

The main attraction at Plaisir is their take on the traditional cream puffs. Colorfully glazed and filled with a creamy mousse, the cream puffs come in many a flavor.
Their namesake creampuffs, which come in 2 sizes, are quite addicting. I was recently invited to their grand opening party where I tasted the vanilla, mint, and peach cream puffs. The peach filling has a nice hint of tartness that makes it even easier to keep popping more in your mouth.

We also tried some of their savory offerings:
Buttery croissant sandwiches include ham & cheese, and lox & cream cheese.

There's a special quiche-of-the-day every day and that night I tried their spinach quiche.
Good and healthier, but I have to say I loved the slightly richer and cheesy Quiche Lorraine even more (regular order $6.95).

You can also order crepes and Belgian waffles made-to-order here. I'll have to try them next time.

Besides the cream puffs, chef Dray also offers a variety of other desserts. A peek inside the display case during this party shows mousse, baba au rum, and various cakes.

During the opening party they had a live DJ and generously flowing cava, because as they say this place is about guilty pleasures.

But it's not ALL about guilty pleasures. You can do your work here too.
What I really loved about this place is not only do they offer FREE WI-FI, but each seat is also set up with an iPod nano and its very own headphones.

With a freshly made crepe or Belgian waffle and a couple of Plaisir creampuffs next to your laptop, it's quite the work set up, don't you think?

Plaisir is located in the same complex as Trader Joe's on Santa Monica Blvd. Parking is available in the back with free 1-hour w/ validation.

Plaisir
8613 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 855-7177
www.plaisir-la.com
@PlaisirLA
Plaisir on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

JTYH: Knife Cut Noodles, Chili Peppers.

JTYH has been one of the foodbloggers' favorite in the past year. A descendant of the much-loved-but-now-defunct Heavy Noodling (I never did make it there), JTYH was first raved about by Sinosoul, and one by one bloggers made their way there. Especially after J. Gold did, too. I came here first with Sinosoul and crew, and then that same week with LA & OC Foodie so I can pick up the crap I left in his car before my travel mug gets moldy. But with everyone else writing it up at the time, I got lazy about it.

It's probably time now. That, and, you know, the photos are already uploaded and all.

The main attraction at JTYH is the Shanxi dao xiao mian (knife cut noodles).
Shaved fresh off a ball of dough with a sharp knife, because I don't think you even can buy it dried.

You shave it like this:
and btw, is that a cute logo or what?

JTYH has a selection of noodle soups, including the spare rib soup (above, $5.95 for a large), or the beef stew noodles below (same price), involving beef briskets.
But for me, the best thing to get is the stir fried noodles in shacha sauce ($6.25). Usually this comes with beef and they have a different stir fry noodles with lamb. On my visit with Sinosoul, we somehow got fried noodles with lamb in shacha sauce.

Stir fried, the noodles had a chewier consistency and it is also a much more flavor forward dish than noodle soups.

Bored with those long noodle strands? Try the Mooshu "Cat Ears" ($5.75)
The cat-ear-shaped "noodles" are thicker and even chewier. It's reminiscent of orecchiette and was perfect tossed with scrambled eggs, wood ear mushrooms, and pork. It's great any time of the day but was perfect for our br/unch outing.

JTYH also offers a variety of non-noodle dishes.
Fried Three Ingredient Dumplings ($6.95)
In this area you can find even better dumplings, but the ones here aren't bad at all.

Pan Fried Onion Cake ($2.95)
A pretty nice rendition that's not too greasy and has a nice crispiness.

The beef roll is also quite good, with a crunchy roll and a generous flavors.

The spice hounds would be happy to know that JTYH also offers some Szechuan dishes, including a great and crunchy pork intestines dish and these ribs:
and fish filet doused in red hot chili sauce.
For some of you these are probably not *that* hot, because I could eat them although I was dying.

Bottom line: go for handmade knife-cut noodles, stay for the rest.

JTYH Restaurant
9425 Valley Boulevard
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 442-8999
JTYH Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Gourmet Pigs   © 2008. Template Recipes by Emporium Digital

TOP