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Cheesy Pork Cutlet

Jan20

Location: 2121 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angels, CA 90025. 310-477-1129

Date: January 13 and October 20, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese Pork Cutlet

Rating: Tasty fry

One of the first things I noticed spending a lot of time in Japan was that restaurants specialized. I mean, really specialized. Some served sushi. Some served BBQ eel. Some tempura. Some Udon. And, of course, some served Tonkatsu, or deep fried pork cutlet. This is traditional accompanied by cabbage and its own special sauce.

The menu.

Condiments like sauces and salad dressing.

Unlimited cabbage and a tangy vinaigrette, surprisingly tasty (plus, traditional).

Taco Yaki. Translates more or less as “Octopus fried yummy”. This was literally the first food I had in Japan. Fresh off the plane 25 years ago I got some on the street — and burned my mouth badly with the 212 degree temp. This wasn’t as hot, but it tasted pretty much the same!

Red miso soup.

Rice in a cute little bucket.

Traditional Japanese pickles, which you eat with the rice. I love these guys actually.

The cute little pork cutlet. Check out that fuzzy fry.

I ordered the “cheesy cutlet”. Layers of folded pork with a bit of cheesy goodness in the center. The meat is unusually folded, and therefore lighter and fluffier. I’ve had this a bunch in Japan and it’s generally much denser and more chewy.

Here is a bit with the tangy (tamarind based?) tonkatsu sauce, which cuts the fat.

Curry Tonkatsu. The fried pork cutlet is on rice, but surrounded by an island of rich Japanese curry and accompanied by crunchy pickles and miso soup. This was one of the best curry rices I’ve had not only was the cutlet fabulous, but the curry was perfectly done and smooth and the pickles extra lovely.

Yuzu sorbet hit the spot — and it was free with a Facebook like, certainly no hardship.

This is a nice little spot, focused, as is typical in Japan, but certainly serving up top flight Tonkatsu in a way both traditional and souped up.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cutlet, Japan, Japanese cuisine, Miso soup, Sawtelle Boulevard, Tonkatsu, Worcestershire sauce

Sushi Zo – This Time With Pictures

Apr10

Restaurant: Sushi Zo

Location: 9824 National BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90034. (310) 842-3977

Date: March 29, 2012

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: Top warm rice style sushi.

LA is a sushi town. I eat a lot of sushi (just take a look at my LA Sushi review page!). People say Zo is the best in town. I’d been once before for lunch and they denied me the use of my camera (at the sushi bar) but this time, at a table for dinner, they didn’t hassle me.

Zo is omakase only. You sit down. They bring you stuff. They charge you by the piece but don’t really tell you how much. They keep bringing you sushi. Eventually you get full (not me, but normal people would) and they hand you a (stiff) bill. It’s closest in style and format to Sasabune (my detailed reviews of that, with photos, HERE and HERE).

This is Osaka-style “warm rice” sushi, like Sasabune, and presumably descended from the same Chef Nozawa source. The individual pieces are made one at a time, no precutting, and given to you in a hurry. The fish is superlative, although each piece seems to have been placed in a miniaturization machine set to 70%. I’ve never seen sushi this small. This was particularly humorous when it came to the “battleship” style ones like Uni (sea urchin). They just looked so cute and diminutive (maybe 50-60% size for these). But I’m not sure this size issue resulted directly in less value. At the end I was still just as full as at Sasabune, although it cost perhaps 10-20% more. I perhaps had more pieces numerically. But each was certainly smaller.

The fish was a bit better than Sasabune, and certainly better than Echigo. The preps are very similar, with 90% being “no soy sauce” — a fact of which we were emphatically reminded each and every time. There was a lot of use of vinegar, yuzu and other brightening flavors. I do like these, but I think it did tend to distract slightly from the fish — which was stellar.

There is no menu here. It’s just omakase. They start with miso soup in a very small bowl.

It’s worth noting here that this is my first meal out with the Canon 5D Mark iii (for more on Foodie Photography, see here). I was shooting with the 50mm compact macro handheld in low light. Usually, with the Mark ii, this would’ve made me fight to get decent focus and enough depth of field even at the slightly noisy ISO 6400. Plus, the focus sucked on the mark ii/50mm CM combo. With the Mark iii focus was effortless and I was able to stop down to 7.1 and still get 1/50 and relatively low noise. Pretty incredible.

Kumamoto Kaki/Oyster with a bit of ponzu, scallion, and the like. A very nice sweet oyster.

The sake menu is short. This $90 Kimura though is fantastic with exactly the kind of anise flavor that I like in my sake. A really really good sake.

Maguro/Tuna Sashimi. The fish was excellent, although I felt the homemade real wasabi was a little weak. Compared to what is to come, this is nothing.

Ika/Squid Noodle with Uni/Sea Urchin. Yum. This combo is similar to a favorite at Sushi Sushi.

Hirame/Halibut. One thing to note about Zo is that each normal sushi piece is ludicrously small. I guess in the end, this allows for more variety, but each does feel like a tease. On the plus side, they are uniformly excellent and this bit of halibut was no exception. It was drizzled with a touch of yuzu that brought out lovely soft texture.

Fresh marinated ginger. I ate like 6 containers of this stuff.

Binnaga/Albacore. Melts in the mouth good.

Aji/Spanish Mackerel. This fish can be somewhat fishy, but not here. This is some superlative Mackerel.

Hotate/Scallop. I love raw scallop – as long as it’s fresh – and this one was spectacular.

Hamachi/Yellowtail. An overused fish in the novice sushi world. Still, when I first started eating sushi in 1978 and through the early 80s this was one of my favorites. This particular piece reminded me why.

Butterfish with a sweet miso paste. This is a bit cooked I believe and is very approachable and warm.

Chu-Toro/Medium Fatty Tuna. These were certainly some great pieces of toro. Like butter. Sometimes I prefer the chu-toro to the really fatty o-toro too because while less rich it often has a more consistent texture.

Pompano.

Kinmedai/Golden Eye Snapper.

Amaebi/Sweet Shrimp. Soft and sweet, with a bit of chew.

Shima Aji/Striped Jack.

Ankimo/Monkfish Liver. Certainly monkfish liver doesn’t get much better than this, not even a hint of fishiness.

Giant clam. Chewy, with a nice bit of yuzu. Not my favorite sushi, but this was a great example of type.

Kanpachi/Amberjack.

A snapper of some sort.

One of the light white fishes with a bit of yuzu.

Madai/Red Snapper.

Kurodai/Black Snapper.

Ha-Gatsuo/Skipjack Tuna. Also melt in your mouth good.

Another light white fish with salt.

Sake/Salmon with kelp. Nice sweet salmon, although this is one fish where I think Sushi Sushi is a little better.

Meji Maguro/Baby Tuna. Real bang of flavor here.

Uni/Sea Urchin & Ikura/Salmon Eggs. While tiny, both were excellent examples of the type.

Anago/Sea Eel. A wonderful smoky flavor, and without the sweet sauce. One of the best pieces of sea eel I’ve had.

Toro handroll. A really great toro roll.

Crab handroll. Again, pretty spectacular (if a little small). I could have eaten about 8 of these.

Yuzu Juice. This strange bit of Japanese lemonade is served as dessert. Nothing wrong with it, and it clears the palette, but it isn’t exactly creme brulee.

Overall, I was much more impressed with Zo on this second outing. Yes, the pieces are tiny, but the quality of the fish and the preparation is truly first class. One could really use two of each (or just bigger though) as each flavor is so quick as to become ephemeral. In the end you do get to try a large number of fish. It’s expensive but on par with what you get, not like Sushi Mori which feels extremely overpriced. A definite contender in LA’s long list of really great sushi only joints.

For more sushi reviews, check out my LA Sushi page.

By: agavin
Comments (13)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Japanese, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Miso soup, Omakase, Osaka, Soy sauce, Sushi, Sushi Zo, warm rice

Manpuku – Not so Secret Beef

Oct16

Restaurant: Manpuku

Location: 2125 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 473-0580

Date: October 14, 2011

Cuisine: Yakinaku

Rating: Tasty BBQ, good value

Manpuku is a Yakinaku (Japanese style Korean BBQ) joint in the heart of the Sawtelle little-Tokyo area (just a few stores down from awesome Kiriko Sushi). It’s been a lunch favorite of mine for years because it offers really good BBQ at value prices. It isn’t the ultimate Yakinaku, a title reserved for the amazing Totoraku, but it is about 10% of the price!

This mini-mall is packed with delicious Asian lunch spots.

Just in case you wondered what you might find inside.

Every table comes equipped with it’s own BBQ. I apologize for the mediocre pictures. My snapshot camera is in the shop and so I had only the iPhone4 (I wasn’t going to lug the big camera). On the plus side, the photos did magically sync to my Mac via photostream, which is pretty sexy. Canon needs to add at least Wifi to their regular cameras. I’m sick of pulling out that card.

The lunch menu.

Kimchee on the left, the delicious sweet sauce (for use on the meat after cooking) on the right.

I ordered the “prime rib lunch set” ($15, and sometimes on sale!) and it comes with all you can eat Japanese salad.

And miso soup.

And rice.

Plus one of these plates of marinated prime short rib and a few vegetables.

The meal is simple. You BBQ to taste (rare in my case), dip in the sweet sauce, let cool on the rice, then eat!

There is nothing to complain about here. The beef is fresh, tender, and tasty. If you enjoy this, and are want to really max out on the variety this cuisine offers (every cut of cow) then check out Totoraku.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Barbecue, bbq, beef, Japanese cuisine, Kiriko Sushi, Los Angeles, Manpuku, Miso soup, Tokyo, Tokyo BBQ, Yakinaku

Ozumo – Japan invades the Mall

Aug09

Restaurant: Ozumo

Location: 395 Santa Monica Place Santa Monica, CA 90401 T: 424.214.5130

Date: July 15, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Japanese / Sushi

Rating: Good

ANY CHARACTER HERE

I’ve been slowly working my way through the new Santa Monica Place Mall dining scene. Which surprisingly, isn’t bad. Not brilliant either, but not bad. They’ve populated the mall with six or so small chain corporate places (restaurant groups of 2-4 restaurants each). These are never quite as good as sole (and chef owned) establishments, but they are better than big chains — barf! So far I’ve reviewed Xino, Zengo, and La Sandia. Now it’s time for the Japanese, Ozumo.

The interior space is large.

With multiple parts and a real sushi bar.

The dinner menu can be found here.

We ordered this decent (but not exactly on the level of this) cold sake. They did have a lot of expensive sakes on the menu, so some of them might be amazing.

“Kinoko Miso Soup. Nameko, shiitake and enoki mushrooms in a rustic Koji miso soup with negi.” A nice miso variant. I liked all the mushroom action.

“Hanabi. Slices of hamachi and avocado drizzled with a warm ginger and jalapeño ponzu sauce.” This is their interpretation of the classic Nobu dish. Everyone has it now. This version was a tad overdone, throwing in a few more elements and disguising the fish. But at the same time it was tasty and nothing clashed.

“Special heirloom tomato salad.”

Toro sashimi. I’m trying to low carb it so I’ve been doing more sashimi. This was good toro, but it reinforced my conclusion that this Rolls Royce of fish does better as sushi than as sashimi. Somehow it’s fat content needs the rice as a foil.

“Yiya Yakko. Chilled silken tofu, fresh ginger, negi and tamari shoyu.”

Here are the traditional sauces. The tofu itself was perfect. And truth is this is exactly how I’ve gotten it in Japan. The problem is that the straight up soy sauce is a little bland for the tofu. This is a flaw in the classic dish, not the restaurant. The deadly hot Korean version I had recently at Moko was tastier — and vastly more nose shattering.

Some various sashimi. Salmon, scallop, albacore. This was all good, although not ‘amazing,’ I’d say 8/10 on the fish meter.

“Yamabuki. Fresh uni, shimeji and shiitake mushrooms in a healthy Genmai brown rice risotto.” This made me suspend my “low carbing” for a dish. I would have liked more uni (sea urchin) as there are only two tiny pieces. The risotto itself was very good. It tasted more “healthy” and brown rice than a classic Italian version, which would have been slightly yummier. But it did have great texture, particularly with the mushrooms. Overall a very pleasant dish.

Here is the other bar, which is ‘first come first serve.’ These mall places are huge though, and as of yet there is no problem getting into any of them even at prime time.

They even have some cool outside seating, although not as nice as Xino or Zengo’s patios which are fantastic.

Overall, Ozumo is good. I’d probably rate it 7/10. The food was quite good. The service, like all the mall places, needs some work. I think they hire too many young inexperienced servers. The food’s not as good as many of LA’s other top sushi joints, but it’s solid (remember I’m a serious sushi snob), and considerably better (and cheaper) than over trendified mediocre fish joints like Katsuya Brentwood or Sushi Roku. As far as the mall goes, it’s in the league with Xino and Zengo, and certainly better than La Sandia.

Click here to see more LA sushi posts.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, California, Cook, Hanabi, Japanese cuisine, Los Angeles, Mall, Miso soup, Ozumo, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Santa Monica California, Santa Monica Place, Sashimi, Sushi

Fast Food Sushi?

Mar15

Restaurant: Sushi-Don

Location: 970 Monument St #118, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 454-6710

Date: March 9, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: Not bad for a $20 lunch.

There seems to be a strange trend going on right now where top sushi bars are opening fast food or light branches. Sushi-Don is in my hood, and it’s owned by, or in some way executive chefed by, Sasabune (see my first and second reviews of that here). Sushi-Don is a kind of fast food version of it’s big brother Sasabune, where you have a simplified menu and reduced prices.

The menu is on the wall.

I went for “Combo B” the soup, cut roll, and 5 pieces of standard sushi.

The miso soup is exactly as you’d expect.

You can chose any cut roll, I went for blue crab. Left to right we have Maguro (tuna), albacore x2 with two sauces, salmon, and Hamachi (yellowtail).

The sushi itself is fine. It’s not fantastic, being perhaps 80% as good as that at Sasabune. This is no Sushi-Sushi (REVIEW) either, but then again, the above was $12. It’s certainly not icky mall sushi, and the chef made it in front of me.

I also ordered a scallop hand roll, which was tasty enough. Could have used a touch of yuzu 🙂

Sushi-Don is what it is. You can have a little light sushi meal here for $15, or you could probably get stuffed for $30-35. The equivalent food at Sasabune or Sushi-Sushi or similar would be at least twice as much. Sure the quality is better there. But at Sushi-Don you can also be in and out in 15-20 minutes. So I think it fills a niche, when one is in a hurry, often alone, and just want a tasty quick bite to eat.

Sushi Nozawa has tried a similar concept with SugarFISH, but that for me is even less satisfying, as it isn’t actually much (if any) cheaper than a real sushi bar, and they’ve eliminated the chef. My colleague kevineats.com reviews that HERE.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Fast food, Food, Hamachi, Japanese cuisine, Maguro, Miso soup, Pacific Palisades Los Angeles, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sushi, Sushi-Don

Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy

Mar06

Restaurant: Sushi Sushi [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 326 1/2 Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 277-1165

Date: March 1, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Old school sushi – fantastic fish and presentation!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

After discovering this place about a month ago I’ve been three times (previous REVIEW HERE). The craving keeps creeping into my mind. It’s old school sushi without all the distractions, just really good fish and rice (and a bit of other trappings). Last time we got the Omakase, so this time we ordered the basic lunch special (the reasonably priced — for sushi — 10 piece plus appetizer, cut roll, and soup). We then added a bit to it.

Aji (Spanish Mackerel) sashimi, with miso paste, seaweed, and some white kelp or rice noodle (not sure). The paste has a very strong tangy sweetness, and it marries nicely with te mackerel.

Lunch specials come with choice of miso. Normal Shiitake (not pictured), or nameko mushroom (above). I like the firm texture of these little button mushrooms.

Clam miso, saltier, more clam broth flavors.

Homemade real wasabi is a sign of a series sushi restaurant.

8 of the 10 pieces of the lunch special. Two came on a sidecar.

And here is the sidecar. On the left, Uni (sea urchin) and on the right Ikura (salmon egg roe). Both are specular versions of the type. The uni was sweet and soft, the eggs little perfect balls of sharp brine, no bitterness at all.

The sushi itself. Left to right. Maguro (blue fin tuna), Hamachi (yellow tail tuna), chu-toro (medium tuna belly), Tai (red snapper), Sweet Shrimp, and Shimaji (stripe jack). All were delicious. Sushi sushi for the most part puts the wasabi and the soy sauce on the pieces before serving them.

Chopped Toro (tuna belly) cut roll, then Tamago (sweet omelet), and Unagi (fresh water eel). Yum!

My brother doesn’t like uni, so he got Kani (fresh king crab) instead.

Some extra pieces we ordered. Left to right. Ika (squid) with shiso, o-toro (premium tuna belly), and raw Japanese scallop. Again all wonderful.

A Kani (king crab) handroll, with cucumber for crunch. Sushi sushi cuts the handrolls at the bottom to make a little flap of nori (seaweed) that covers the bottom. Small, but elegant, detail.

Baked salmon skin handroll. Always has a nice crunch.

Hamachi (yellowtail) handroll, another classic.

Afterward, walking back to our car, we ran into this temptation.

As always, I went for the coconut cream-cheese.

Not a bad version of the type. The top has the proper extreme sweetness, and there was a dab of whipped filling in the center, a bit like some hostess treat.

If you enjoyed this, make sure to check out the previous review, the next review, or some other good sushi like Sasabune, Nobu, Matsuhisa, Takao, or the incomparable Urwasawa.

By: agavin
Comments (15)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Asian, Atlantic Spanish mackerel, Beverly Hills California, Caviar, crab, Food, Hamachi, Ikura, Japanese cuisine, Miso, Miso soup, Omakase, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sashimi, side dishes, Spanish Mackerel, Sushi, Sushi Sushi

Food as Art: Sushi House Unico

Nov13

Restaurant: Sushi House Unico (SHU)

Location: 2932 1/2 Beverly Glen Circle – Bel Air, Ca 90077 (310) 474-2740

Date: Nov 12, 2010

Cuisine: New Style Sushi

Rating: A great “Nobu” clone with some dishes of its own.

Nearly 15 years ago now when I first ate at Matsuhisa I was blown away. I was already a veteran Sushi eater, having started going to Washington D.C.s one (then two) places in the late 70’s, and having been to Japan 2 or 3 times at that point (now it’s around 20). At the time it seemed like a culinary breakthrough. Classic sushi was great, but here was a whole new cuisine based on “modernizing” and combining Japanese elements with some other sensibility. Fundamentally it seemed intensely creative. But nowadays half the restaurants in LA have Miso Cod or Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno. In Food just as in any other art, creativity is surprisingly rare. SHU is very much derivative of this tradition, but unlike many of the places (Sushi Ryoku & Katsuya you know who you are!) does add a dash of its own style. Now we had read that SHU combined Japanese flavors with Italian. As a lover of both cuisines I didn’t really see this. It was more like a 95%/5% split in the Japanese favor. A few dishes had an occasional ingredient pulled from the Italian palette (like Olive Oil), but that was about it.

The menu, left half.

And right. There is also a separate Sushi menu and a specials of the day menu.

“Edamame,” the usual. They just put it on the table, which some places do.

This is unfiltered Sake, served cold. It looks like the Japanese soda Pocari Milk. I liked it, smoother than many filtered Sakes, with a nice “rice” flavor.

“Miso Soup w/ Tofu & Green Onion,” the classic. Certainly well done, but I object to the presence of the spoon.

“Tuna Carpaccio. Thinly sliced Tuna w/ arugola, extra virgin Olive Oil, Yuzu & bottarga,” was very tasty, bright, soft, with a pronounced citrus zing and a good dose of black pepper. While it did have Olive Oil, I’d hardly call it Italian — but I liked it!

“Wild Yellowtail: Tomato Sashimi,” was nice. The sauce had a LOT of zing to it, very vinegary in a good way, with a little hint of spice afterwards.

“Heirloom tomato salad with Jalapenos, onion, cilantro and Jalapeno dressing.” I only tried the dressing, as I detest raw tomatoes (one of 2 foods I don’t like). My wife liked it, although it was a chopstick challenge. The dressing was on the side and I used it on some other dishes as it had a great, very bright citrus, vinegar, jalapeno tang.

“Salmon Carpaccio, thinly sliced Salmon, w/ capers, arugolo, extra virgin Olive oil, sea salt & lemon,” I didn’t try. In fact, I didn’t order, but it was so pretty I photoed it from the next table over.

“Crispy Risotto w/ Spicy Tuna Tartar & Sliced Jalapeno” was a very nice dish, but the Risotto name was a total misnomer. It’s the standard “friend crispy rice cake,” topped with spicy tuna. But it was very good, even though I’m not a spicy tuna fan. Spicy tuna is to Sushi as Spaghetti and Meatballs is to Italian.

“Broiled Miso Marinated Black Cod,” the Nobu classic and one of my wife’s favorites.

“Roch Shrimp Tempura w/ spicy creamy mayo” is another Nobu classic, but it was done just as well here.

Click the pic for a zoom. Starting left to right across the top: Toro, Salmon, Albacore, Uni, Japanese Scallop, Eki (squid), Fresh Water Eel, and Tamago (Egg Omelet). The sushi was excellent. It was just a notch below what you get at Nobu, the late Hump (sob), or other extremely top LA places. So extremely yummy, but not totally sublime. Bear in mind that I am an extreme sushi snob with over 30 years of practice.