Never Had Sushi? Neither Had I Until Yesterday

( A typical sushi sampler )

Why had I never had sushi before yesterday you ask? No reason really, maybe only that I wasn’t a fan of fish when I was a kid, and there wasn’t (and still isn’t) any influence from my family around sushi. It was on my list of things to try and I just got to cross it off.

I found a great guide for my first sushi experience in Richard Auffrey, a.k.a The Passionate Foodie. Richard is a certified sake professional and a passionate writer/educator on many food and wine topics. We hadn’t yet met and picked a lunch outing for what I expect will be the first of many meetings as we both weave our way through all the wine and food events in the Boston area. Richard picked the Kyotoya Sushi restaurant in Stoneham, MA, both because he has had many positive experiences there and they are BYOB. That last part would give me an opportunity to bring a couple of my homemade wine selections to have with lunch.
I can see why Richard makes a great educator. He is approachable, very easy going and is extremely knowledgeable. We talked about topics from all over the spectrum from visiting Sherry bodegas in Spain to what makes a good wine shop. I am sure we could have filled days with similar conversation.

I asked Richard to pick a sushi sampler that would offer me variety but wouldn’t be too much of a challenge for a first try. The following was returned to the table on a beautiful tray which looks quite similar to the borrowed picture above. I had my camera but was enjoying talking and tasting so much, I never broke it out!

• Ebi (Shrimp)
• Tamago (Egg)
• Sake (Salmon)
• Maguro (Tuna)
• Hotate (Scallop)
• Unagi (Fresh water eel)

For pairing with lunch I brought a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc made from Sutter Ridge frozen juice and something called Pacific Quartet , a kit wine that is a blend of Vidal, Gewurztraminer, Chenin Blanc and Muscat.

The scallops were massive, a two biter for sure. The texture was so creamy, and of course not fishy as it should be. The salmon was quite familiar in flavor, but the texture of it raw was amazing. The shrimp was the least adventuresome for me as I will eat those and lobster in volume! The tuna was really incredible and I finally know what people mean when they say that it is much more like red meat than fish. It was richer with a bit more of a chewy texture than say the scallop or the salmon. The Tamago is a sweet egg omelet served over a rice ball wrapped in a small band of seaweed. If you have never had it or have seen it, it is the item closest to you in the picture above. From what I understand the fish influence can be from a fish broth used to cook it. This was very surprising to me. The texture was similar to that of the fish and the flavor was incredible, sweet, but not like candy. The final item was the Unagi, fresh water eel that has a small amount of what Richard called a BBQ sauce and is served over rice with the seaweed wrap. The taste and texture here is a bit different. It is also a bit chewier but not displeasing. Richard said that one of the best things Kyotoya has is an Unagi sandwich that consists of the eel, sauce between two pieces of tempura sweet potato. Before I had the eel that sounded weird but not so much after. The wine pairing that worked the best was the Pacific Quartet. It has some residual sugar and a good balance of tart and sweet that ended up working very well. The Sauvignon Blanc was tasting very good, this was the first bottle I’ve opened, but was too dry and too specific of bell pepper to work with the fish.

My first sushi experience was extremely positive and will not be my last. I am going to try and work on Margot to go with me and try it too. I think she will like it, but something tells me her approach won’t be so calm and full of interest.

We also ordered from the lunch special menu. I had the Crab Rangoon, Tempura Shrimp & Veggies, Fried Tofu and Fried Rice. The tempura was the highlight and specifically the acorn squash and the sweet potato. This feels to me like and underrated delight, something I will be looking for more examples of very soon! The fried Tofu was interesting. The Tofu had some funk to it and the exterior sections were crispy and very tasting. The inside, well it wasn’t that interesting. But is Tofu ever really that interesting? Everything else was very well prepared and tasty.

I left Richard with the wines we enjoyed at lunch and two other bottles from our collection. A 2009 Petit Verdot and a 2008 Gewurztraminer/Riesling blend. I can’t wait to hear his thoughts on them. I love getting feedback because it always helps guide my future winemaking.

Hungry for sushi now? I sure am and I just had it for the first time yesterday! Thank you very much Richard.

Cheers!

Jason

Picture Citations
1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Typical_japanese_sushi_set.jpg

Lunch at Gourmet Dumpling House, Boston

I had lunch in Chinatown with a former colleague today. It turns out that Richard and I have more in common than we had found out when working together for a few years in our past lives at Fidelity. Richard likes good food and is very willing to share his finds and favorites with others. What more could someone ask for in a foodie friend?

I will quickly dispense with the Chinese food stereotypes. My wife and I eat the typical American style Chinese food from the local places in NH every few months. We both like both rice and noodle dishes and of course the typical fried selections. We have been to a few authentic Asian restaurants including for Dim Sum, but our experience is pretty limited. This is going to change, I can tell.

We headed over to Gourmet Dumpling House, my pick of 4 choices from Richard’s recommendations, which turns out to be his favorite. A lucky pick for sure. After being seated he shared a funny anecdote about how one of his past teams had asked him to assume the dinner outing organizer role, down to picking the dishes. Since I wasn’t familiar with the menu and was very interested in trying new things this also worked out well for me.

Our order consisted of the Mini Juicy Dumplings with Pork, Twice Cooked Pork and Sautéed Julienne Beef with Long Horn Peppers. The pork and beef dishes also come with white rice and the soup of the day, a seaweed soup with a pork broth.

The soup had an interesting flavor that was certainly new to me, much like briny spinach. The seaweed had a bit more structure to it, like sliced pea pods or slivered green beans. I didn’t finish it only because everything else started arriving and smelled so good.

The juicy dumplings also seem to be called soup dumplings in a series of Yelp reviews. I add that for those that might have seen the reviews and would want to know if these are the same. Richard explained a useful procedure for eating the dumplings, because as the name infers, they do have broth inside and it will be messy if you are not careful. Thank you much for the advice. I had one misstep, but the broth hit the napkin and not my pants so I was all set. Essentially you use the special spoon provided in coordination with your chopsticks to secure a dumpling such that you can puncture the top or side, make sure you orient the puncture area upwards; and suck the broth out before biting into the dumpling. That is fun food! The broth was very flavorful and the pork inside was moist, seasoned well but not spicy. I will definitely be back for this dish and some of variations I see on their menu as I write this.

The Twice Cooked Pork came next. As best as I could tell the dish contained green chilies, cabbage or Asian lettuce in addition to the pork. Richard asserted the pork looked like bacon which I had to agree with. If so, the second cooking was most likely the preparation in this dish. The texture of the meat was not as juicy as bacon might infer, more like crispy skin perhaps. The sauce was spicy but easily manageable. Good combo with the rice.

The Sautéed Julienne Beef with Long Horn Peppers arrived and from the moment I saw it I knew I was going to enjoy it. There was almost as much pepper as there was beef! Richard clearly stated that the restaurant typically uses very fresh peppers and they would likely be hot. No problem I thought. This dish was indeed spicy, the kind that builds and then just lingers. Luckily it didn’t keep building but it didn’t go away for about 30 minutes either. It was so good I couldn’t stop eating it. The beef was well cooked, lean and not fatty. The brown sauce was light and the pepper seeds were everywhere. The visual gives away its truth!

In discussing the dishes Richard explained that the selections were more representative of northern Chinese cuisine and that the dumplings are normally associated with Shanghai.

The restaurant is small and will be quite busy during the lunch and dinner rush. We went at 1:30 and were seated about a minute later. It would be worth a wait if you have it. The food was hot, quickly prepared and of excellent quality. The service was prompt and excellent. You can also buy canned beer, what looked like small bottles of wine and sodas. I stuck with the tea.

Our conversation over lunch was interesting as we agreed that our mutual love of food was something we had never really talked about before and now need to catch up on. We also shared an appreciation for the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In Outliers Gladwell lays down a good argument that success is a combination of luck, location, openness, desire, skill and isn’t easily created. I offered up a sense of the serendipity that that book has helped me be more open too, the basis of my goal of becoming a sommelier and exploring food and wine. Good times.

Cheers!

--Jason