Shigenori Fujimoto :: All Things Andy Gavin

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Shiki Times Three

Nov07

Location: 410 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 310-888-0036

Date: August 26, October 30, 2014, and January 10, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Some of the best sushi I’ve had in a while!

Shiki Beverly Hills recently replaced Enoteco Drago in the primo Canon Dr space right in the heart of Beverly Hills. It features extremely Japanese seasonal ingredient focused kaiseki and sushi. The space is elegant and modern, really not that different than it was as Drago.

Chef Shigenori Fujimoto was at Matsuhisa from 94-04 and brings with him both a traditionalist and “new style” sushi vibe. My friend Liz, who has impeccable taste, first brought me when she arranged a Sage Society dinner here. This post represents three similar Omakase blended together (two lunches and one dinner), so there are slightly more non-sushi courses represented than you might eat in one meal. Slight, given how large our meals were!

2012 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. 92 points. A very nice, very dry friulano. A clean crispy cool weather Italian white that paired perfectly with sushi.

Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with ikura (salmon egg) and uni (sea urchin). Dashi. A wonderful blend of some textures and briny flavors.

Parfait of seaweed and various soft sea stuff. A very delicate flavor with unusual textures.

Kamamoto oysters prepared three ways, with a sort of mignonette, caviar, and uni!

Pepper and halibut salad. Fresh farmer’s market peppers.

Eggplant and Tai salad. Seared snapper with egg plant, dashi, and mushrooms. Really Japanese and delicious.

Halibut sashimi with truffles. Pickled tomato. Really a fabulous savory combination. The tomato is great too, and because it’s heavily marinated, it doesn’t bother me like a raw tomato.

2000 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte. Burghound 95. While discreet, there is a trace of wood that sits atop the ever-so-mildly exotic fruit and wonderfully layered aromas that are still admirably fresh even though they now display some mature notes. The exceptionally rich and overtly muscular flavors are quite forward though powerful as a still firm and prominent acid spine keeps everything in perfect balance on the magnificently persistent finish. This is classy juice that is knocking on the door of its prime drinkability.

agavin: This one started off so deep yellow, and with so much creme brulee on the nose that I thought it was premoxed, although drinking pleasant enough right now, but over the next 30 minutes or so it came into balance and opened up into an absolutely lovely Chevy. I don’t think it will last, so I wouldn’t hold them for too many years. I’ve open 4 bottles of it this year. 3 have been like this one, and 1 was so premoxed we could barely drink it. None have been pale and fresh/crisp. Now this is 14-15 year old white Burg, but I opened a 1991 Sauzet Chevy for New Years that tasted years younger! So the whole thing has me wondering where the large number of wines made in the new style that come off like this are going. I’m guessing we need to drink them!

Wild yellowtail sashimi with jalopeno. A variant on the now classic Matsuhisa dish.

Salmon with truffle sashimi. Another great.

Slow cooked fish, uni paste, and Japanese pickles.

Giant clam. Wasabi, dashi, seaweed. This was all about the texture. The big chunks of clam had a wonderful crunch.

Oysters. With a slightly sour pink suspension.

The next dish came in one of those cute tea pot/bowls.

Shrimp, mushroom, ginko soup. Inside is a broth with various seafood and vegetables.

This one had a slightly spicy suspension (you can see the chili flakes) and a strong acidity (you squeeze in the Japanese lime) and drink. Then pick out the seafood.

1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 93 points. 1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. Like old cherries and truffles.

agavin: I love this vineyard, in part because it’s mild and elegant and quite a lot like Musigny (which it is adjacent to, being one of the best locations in Clos Vougeot). It paired perfectly with the beef below.

Wagyu sirloin and filet mignon, with vegetables. The meat melted in your mouth.

And daikon as accompaniment.

Fresh pickled ginger. Shiki pickles his own whole ginger roots! Super flavorful and stomach settling. I gnawed through two.

2000 Etienne Sauzet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Intense honeysuckle, fresh sliced peach and pear notes with flavors that are not quite as robust and powerful as the Combettes yet finer and more complex. This delivers exciting intensity and a degree of persistence that borders on the astonishing. The Combettes is perhaps grander but this is finer – it’s simply a question of preference, not quality.

agavin: Our bottle started off extremely closed. Paler and clearly younger (less premoxed) than the 2000 Chevalier above. After about 30-40 minutes it opened up into a lovely mature Grand Cru, gaining both the mineral and the floral weight.

Goldeneye snapper. Salt, yuzu, and a bit of kick.

Japanese Barracuda. The best piece of this fish I’ve had.

A different seared Japanese fish that is only eaten in winter (for its high fat content). Really rich and delicious.

Jumbo clam with shiso. More texture, but fabulous.

O toro. As wonder a piece of sushi as one could hope for.

Wild Baby yellowtail. Wow!

Wild Spanish Mackerel (Aji). No fishiness at all.

Japanese gizzard shad (kohada). Also fabulous.

Orange clam. Soft (for clam).

2007 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses Blanc. Burghound 90. As would reasonably be expected, there is just more here in every dimension with a more complex and more elegant nose that is layered and very fresh and this refinement continues onto the nicely concentrated middle weight flavors that display evident minerality on the sappy, intense and mouth coating finish that lingers and lingers. This is a terrific Savigny blanc and recommended.

agavin: This is a nice young Chardonnay that is drinking terrifically.

Sweet shrimp (Ama-ebi). Yum.

On one of the days the shrimp came with row! Even better.

And the heads of course can come back fried, or as Liz likes it above, grilled. Grilled really tastes incredible with a good shrimp like this. You suck out the guts and brain basically (worth it!).

Or miso soup is an option with the head.

King mackerel. Not at all like Aji, but delicious.

Japanese squid (ika). With just the right firmness.

Hokkaido sea urchin (uni). Yum!

Santa Barbara Uni. Delicious.

New Zealand Sea Trout (salmon relative). Fabulous.

Halibut fin with salt and yuzu and pepper. This has a wonderful texture and chew, with some richness. Fin is a rare bit because there isn’t much usable meat in there.

Halibut fin with slightly sweet soy. Another take on the same meat. Both were good but I slightly prefer the first one.

Salmon eggs (ikura). No fishiness.

Anago (sea eel). With salt and wasabi.

Tuna (maguro). Also like toro.

A second wand of ginger.

Hokkaido scallop (Hotate). Just fabulous.

Red snapper (tai) with shiso. Yum!

Clam miso.

A toro and citrus peel handroll. Divine.

Yellowtail handroll.

Orange clam cut roll. Nice crunch.

Classic tuna roll. Not spicy!

Plum and shiso handroll. Incredibly traditional and with a sour “minty” taste.

Check out the inside with the plum paste.

Yuzu ice cream.

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Panna cotta with fruit. Small and lovely.

Traditional mochi, saba sauce, and ice cream.

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Taco yaki?

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, Japanese cuisine, Liz Lee, Sage Society, Sashimi, Shigenori Fujimoto, Shiki Sushi, Sushi

Food as Art – Shiki Sushi

Aug13

Restaurant: Shiki Beverly Hills [1, 2]

Location: 410 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. 310-888-0036

Date: August 6, 2014

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Some of the best sushi I’ve had in a while!

Chef Shigenori Fujimoto was at Matsuhisa from 94-04 and brings with him both a traditionalist and “new style” sushi vibe. My friend Liz, who has impeccable taste, arranged a very traditional menu for us and organized.

1988 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut. 92 points. Like many older Cristal bottles, there was a bit of oxidation going on. But a very nice underlying champagne. Its always great to drink 88, and Cristal, even better when its 88 and Cristal!

Seasonal Pike Eel on a “mousse” of tofu, avocado, dashi and the like. This is one of those fabulous dishes that is intensely Japanese, with subtle dashi flavor.

Seared red snapper with various peppers. A little bit of heat to this, but deliciously bright.

Seared scallop and fresh white peach salad. Extremely fresh and tasty.

Check out the peach underneath, the fruit had been scooped out and made into the above balls.

1985 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année. 95 points. Golden colour, yeasty nose. Bead almost gone, but still some fizz. Beautiful fully developed fruit, long finish. A great vintage champagne still drinking at its peak. Outstanding wine. Fresher than the 88.

Octopus and Uni — really two dishes plated together.

Grilled octopus with chili. As tender and good as octopus gets.

Uni pasta with wasabi and nori. The paste wasn’t just straight uni but had been brined. The nori was a special Japanese variety. Really, spread on the seaweed with a little wasabi this was stunningly delightful. I could have eaten 10x as much.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. Incredibly beautiful and elegant aromas of white flower and citrus softly introduce steely, gorgeously pure and delineated medium full flavors that seem as though they’re chiseled directly from solid rock. This is much more mineral driven than the typical Bâtard, and blind I would have mistaken it for a classically styled Chevalier. There is plenty of punch and racy supporting acidity plus simply knockout length. Of all these impressive attributes though, it’s the stunning purity and overall harmony of expression that make this one of the wines of the vintage. Interestingly, this is not a dramatic wine in terms of sheer size and weight but the focus and sneaky length make this a wine that is impossible not to be struck by its intensity. In short, this is one of the best examples of young Bâtard that I have ever had and one that will age for at least a decade. Don’t miss it!

Halibut sashimi with black truffle and motomara tomato. I usually don’t like truffle on my sushi, but this was fabulous. Even the tomato was good (it was marinated, which makes them palatable to my taste).

1996 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 98. As with the 750 ml, the purity, elegance and sheer beauty of this wine is frankly difficult to adequately describe as words just don’t seem up to the task. There is nuance after nuance among the brilliantly delineated aromas of white flowers, citrus, wet stone and rose blossoms that perfectly complement the focused and laser-precise medium full flavors that are like rolling liquid rocks around in the mouth. There is a barely contained intensity and one can sense the slow build from the mid-palate to the explosive finish that goes on and on. While no where near ready, this is so good that it’s still a wonderful experience to drink and it’s comforting to know for those that own it that it’s still on its way up. In short, this is a brilliant wine, indeed a text book example and quite simply the finest Jadot Demoiselles I have ever had the pleasure to drink and one that will last for decades in this format.

Conch steamed in its own shell. I’ve had this dish in Japan, and here, but this was probably one of the best versions. The conch was very tender. You drink the juices/soup afterward.

Pike eel soup. One of those lovely mild Japanese soups.

2004 Morey-Blanc Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. A reserved, indeed backward spicy green apple and white pear nose complements delineated but very rich flavors that display moderate wood on the big and weighty if not necessarily super dense finish that packs a serious punch and intensity. The length here is really impressive and the balance is such that this should age for 15 to possibly 20 years.

Maguro. Lovely big eye tuna.

o’o-toro. Absolutely perfect piece of premium tuna belly.

Shinko. Young gizzard shad.

Golden eye snapper.

Anago. Conger eel. Served without the eel sauce, instead with yuzu and salt. Fabulous.

Ebi. Shrimp.

Engawa. Seared Flounder fin, with yuzu and salt. Awesome.

Santa Barbara Uni. Yum!

Aji. Japanese jack mackerel.

Hotate. Japanese scallop.

Ama-ebi. Sweet shrimp.

The heads return, this time grilled. Sucking out the guts was a treat.

Seared halibut?

Ikura. Salmon eggs. Sweet.

Yellowtail belly. With a bit of stronger sauce.

Saba. Chub mackerel.

Awabi. Abalone. Very tender.

A chef with an albacore!

1995 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. IWC 94. Red-ruby color. Knockout nose combines rose petal, raspberry, mulberry, iodine, cardamom, tobacco and iris. Great sweetness on the palate; offers as much volume as the mouth can hold. Builds and builds. Really exhilarating delineation and depth of flavor. Tannins are substantial but ripe. A superb example of this great grand cru.

Wagyu beef with mushrooms and asparagus. Melts in the mouth.

Plum and shiso handroll. Incredibly traditional and with a sour “minty” taste. Very refreshing.

Ice cream with starch “mochi” on the side and fresh figs and other fruit.

Wow. LA has lots of great Japanese, and I have good sushi all the time, but this was particularly awesome. Really the sushi itself was as good as it gets. Very traditional style too, which is my favorite. I love the acid washed Nozawa style too, but hand sauced traditional like this is my favorite. We had fabulous — and correctly paired — wines too, not to mention just three of us at the sushi bar and great company. All and all worth the hangover.

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