Next time you look across at that pink filet calling you, remember where it came from.

I’ve got another bento blog to bring to the japadamus readers’ attention. Just Bento, via SeriousEats, is a relatively new blog by a veteran food blogger. There aren’t a ton of entries yet, but so far, she’s posted a few recipes for bento meals that contain both approximate calories per serving and estimated time needed.

Additionally, she’s got various useful how-to’s, like freezing pre-portioned rice. I had no idea you could freeze short-grain rice. Her posts are often focused on how to lose weight through making your own bento lunches, which seems sort of far-fetched because bentos always are heavy on the white rice component. But there is something to be said about making your own fresh from produce meals and maybe switching out to brown rice. Plus, if you’re so inclined, god, bento lunches can be very cute. Anyhow, I’m additing JustBento to my bookmarks and hope that there will be frequent posts. You should check it out!

Our trip to NOBU was supposed to be one of the highlights of our Vegas weekend.  We passed over well regarded local joints like Rosemary’s for the world renown japanese restaurant.  And our reservations?  Made a month in advance.

Ironically, I am halfway through this book called The Sushi Economy, and after I returned from vegas I started on a chapter that follows the history of NOBU owner, Nobu Matsuhisa.  Nobu was traditionally trained in Japan, but also worked in Peru, Argentinia, Alaska, and finally L.A.  He started his own sushi restaurant from the ground up, and eventually hit paydirt when one of his customers, Robert DeNiro, asked him to form a partnership.

The rest, of course, is history.  Today, Nobu, who is nearly 60 years old, operates NOBU restaurants in New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Hawaii, among other cities.

Supposedly, one of NOBU’s trademarks is a focus on fresh fish.  He also leverages his experience in South America to bring a unique southern taste to his dishes.

NOBU in Las Vegas is located in the Hard Rock hotel and casino.  The hotel is actually very nice, if a little rowdy (the dress code enforced after 7pm sign was a tip-off).

The restaurant itself was nice, if a little generic.  I mean, it’s hard to fault Nobu for this, but every japanese restaurant in vegas has a similar style of decoration - some bamboo here and there, some polished stones, and a large sign with one of the many asian fonts that you find in Microsoft Word.

NOBU serves food family style, and our waiter recommended that we try a mix of several hot dishes and several cold dishes.  A so-so selection of sushi is also available.

We started with hamachi w/ a soy-style sauce and jalapenos.  This is, I believe, one of NOBU’s trademark dishes and one that has been copied frequently.  The hamachi was fine, and it acquired a mexican-style taste when, as our waiter suggested, we ate it with the jalapeno and a piece of cilantro.  The soy sauce was decent as well, but overall the dish was quite ordinary.

Our next dish was ‘live’ scallop.  I’ve had this dish many times in many sushi bars, and NOBU’s version was mediocre.  The scallop was good, but I’ve had better at Oyaji.  I was also disappointed with the use of sriracha - the viet rooster sauce.  Again, nothing very unique, not very original.

The highlight of the night, and both myself and TJFKAK easily reached a consensus on this, was the black cod.  Basically, any hawaiian will recognize this dish as butterfish.  But the cut of fish was spectacular, and it was cooked (broiled I believe) in a way that created a nice crust on the outside, while preserving the rich flesh internally.  I’ve had butterfish before that was just too dry and flaky - this one was prepared wonderfully, with attention not only to flavor but with the texture and richness of the fish as well.

Our final dish was deep fried uni.  The uni was served, actually deep fried, wrapped in shiso leaves.  Deep fried shitakes were also presented on the plate.  I though this one looked really good on the menu, but it was perhaps the most disappointing of the bunch.  The uni acquired a mushy, nearly creamy consistency after being deep fried.  Although it contrasted well with the crunchy shiso leaf, the dish itself lacked flavor.

And we can forget the libations (TJFKAK taught me that word this weekend).  My first drink was a yuzu infused martini (not pictured).  This drink was actually very very good, if a bit citrusy.  The others, pictured from top to bottom, are a lychee martini, a pomegranate martini and a sake style martini.  I’m not getting the names right, but that’s basically what they were.  The lychee martini was not overly sweet and mixed with a milky sake.  Not bad.  The pomegranate martini was basically a cosmo.  Finally the sake martini was pretty good, smooth, and made with flavorful sake.

As for dessert, we got a coffee flavored ice cream with ground peanuts.  The ground peanuts was similar to kinako, a japanese powered soy topping, i think.

Now for the ratings.

Food:  B  Really, there was nothing special here.  It was kind of a disappointment.  Sure, the cod was excellent, but you have high expectations for NOBU.

Selection:  B+  The selection was decent, but not the 200 item menu that the original NOBU restaurants were known for.  Really, this didn’t make a big difference either way, but they did a good job of splitting hot and cold dishes to make your meal flow smoothly.

Service:  A-  Our server was very helpful and pretty attentive.  He had a surprisingly good knowledge of the menu, and did a good job of suggesting items.  There are a lot of people working there, so you will get your water refilled quickly, and have your dirty plates bussed right when you finish.

Ambience:  B  Like I said, somewhat generic and cookie cutter asian-y.  One thing that was really odd was we were seated in a 2 person table where the bench was kind of an L shape, and with no extra chair.  This basically meant that I was sitting to the left of TJFKAK, and in order for her to get up I had to get up.  That was annoying.

Overall:  B  The thing is, you really have very very high expectations going to NOBU.  And, the restaurant just didn’t deliver.

Let me tell you something about Japanese food in vegas.  Every halfway decent hotel has a trendy-looking japanese restaurant that has a Nobu-style menu, meaning fusiony appetizers and entrees, and most likely some high priced meats, like kobe, and even some foie gois.  You shouldn’t get sushi at these places, because it’s really an afterthought.  You don’t know your chef, and your chef is most likely not japanese.  Vegas is like trendy sushi for dummies, and when you think about it, it makes sense.  You have people from all over the United States, so you can’t go too traditional.  Vegas is right, it does japanese food how vegas should do japanese food - and it works very well in terms of revenue - but from a Cali perspective, it’s not all that interesting.

So, NOBU gets a B.  It is really a watered-down version of every creative japanese restaurant I’ve ever been to, which is ironic, considering that every japanese restaurant in some way or another has their eyes on NOBU, who is, for all intents and purposes, the Jordan of japanese cuisine.

Oh, and did I mention the bill was $250?

Sushifaq is billing itself as the definitive guide to sushi and sashimi and I tend to agree.   They seem to have everything here, except of course a step to step guide to making Ankimo or an Uni primer.  One complaint about the guide is that its a little pretentious, although sushi has a lot of customs and specialized knowledge, I don’t think the cuisine is meant to be elitist. Sushi like all food should be enjoyed.

I visited the new Genki Ramen last night in beautiful San Francisco, CA.  The interior of Genki is very stylish.  Plasma Televisions adorn the walls blasting Japanese Pop videos.  The tables are stained a deep red and decorated with logos and carvings.  Everything looks custom made.

The menu was pretty standard noodle house fare, with several appetizers such as edamame, chicken karaage, vegetable tempura, onigiri, and gyoza.  I also noticed several non-standard items for San Francisco.   These included a three types Okonomiyaki and unagi fried rice.

I ordered the Tempura Ramen and grilled Onigiri.  Here’s my rating:

-Food:  B+  The broth for the Ramen was delicious.  Since the restaurant house makes its own Charsu, I’m assuming they use the byproducts of that to make the broth.  One thing I noticed was that the broth itself wasn’t particularly salty which I thought was great.  The color was a milky brown almost like chocolate milk, with some oil droplets floating on the service.  The noodles were cooked perfectly and were served slightly al dente.  The grilled Onigiri was awful, it was brought to the table falling apart drenched in unagi sauce.  I wouldn’t order that again.

-Ambiance: A  The place is really nice.   The custom tables, the plasma televisions, special chopstick holders all add to a great experience.  Makes me wonder what they spent initially to adorn the restaurant.

-Service:  B+  Nothing to write about.

-Selection: B  The had all the Ramen house fare.   Nothing too exciting added or omitted from the menu

-Overall:  B+ The food was decent, the service was ok, the interior was flashy.  I definitely would go back and recommend this place to friends.

  Ever been at a Sushiboat restaurant and wondered “how long has that Maguro been riding around the restaurant?”  Well, Forbes has an excellent article about Blue C Sushi in Seattle and their use of RFID tags to track the freshness of their sushi.  These tags also help manage inventory and speed up the checkout process.  Sushi chefs are able to monitor their inventory in real-time and restock the selection accordingly.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me, anyone foresee any problems with this process?  I wonder how much it cost the restaurant to implement this expensive technology.

On Friday we made our way to Oyaji after the Giants and A’s game.  Remarkably, the place was open till midnight - and when we got there at half ’till it was still packed.

Oyaji’s kitchen menu is very comprehensive compared to other japanese restaurants.  While most places will have yakitori, for example, Oyaji offers several different types of skewered meats…chicken thigh, chicken gizzard, chicken wings, duck, beef asparagus…and more.  They even have yaki onigiri and ramen - I swear you could eat at this place for a week and never order the same time twice.  We decided on Yakitori and skewered pork, as well as an order of yaki onigiri.

The sushi selection at Oyaji is decent, but not outstanding.  They did, however, have ‘live’ scallop, pretty good looking aji, and conch shell.

We bit for the live scallop - and it was excellent.  Most of the time, when a restaurant says ‘live’ scallops, you’re getting scallops that have really been cleaned and gutted that day - an improvement over store bought stuff, but not truly live.  Oyaji’s scallops seemed as close to live as you can get.  The meat was a bit firm, and incredibly flavorful - a far cry from the mostly bland scallops that most bars serve.  The scallop innards were also grilled and presented to us in a shell.

We also had a spider roll, aji, ankimo and hamachi sashimi.  The aji was good - the sushi was interesting cut into two smaller-than-nigiri-sized pieces and seasoned with shiso.  The spider roll was simple, but adequate, and the ankimo was fine as well.  The hamachi sashimi was also basic, but the fish spoke for itself - juicy and buttery at the same time.

The chef also gave us a side dish of toro with what seemed to be a ponzu sauce.  That’s one thing about Oyaji, they are always very generous with the extras.

Overall, another great Oyaji experience.  Everytime I go there, I am impressed.

-Food:  A-  The food at Oyaji is excellent.  The live scallop was the best I’ve had in a long time - finally a live dish that actually tasted live.  Oyaji doesn’t skimp on the standard items like hamachi either - everything was fresh, well prepared and tasty.

-Selection:  B+  Oyaji’s japanese kitchen menu selection is a definite ‘A’.  However, their sushi selection is only better than average.  They could do more to add sushi specials on the menu, but as it stands their existing selection takes a quality over quantity approach that works very well.

-Service:  C+  Everytime I have been to Oyaji, the service was so-so…or worse.  The young asian girls working there seem overloaded - often running around back and forth.  It’s more of a problem if you sit at a table than the bar, but even when you sit at the bar they forget things like tea or beer, which takes away from the otherwise excellent food.  The chefs on the other hand, were mostly attentive.  Usually at Oyaji that is the case - the chefs tend to be accommodating and friendly, an improvement from the often standoffish chefs at other bars.

-Ambience:  B  Nothing spectacular at all, but at the same time not tacky.  It’s not a pretentious restaurant with expensive decorations - it’s a down-home style place with traditional, natural wood styling.

-Overall:  A-  Oyaji is one of the better sushi restaurants in the bay for japanese food lovers.  The chefs are usually very good, as is the food.  The kitchen items are a real treat - you can scour the bay looking for some of the items available at Oyaji.  The sushi, while someone limited in selection, is well-kept, well prepared, and professional.

It must also be said, that Oyaji has a certain personality that you won’t find at other bars.  Usually halfway into the night, the ‘Oyaji,’ i.e. old man, escapes from the bar to mingle with customers.  Like Rocco, Oyaji will flirt and drink with the ladies, and he came out to have a cigarette with us when we were done.  He’s also generous with the drinks, often walking around with a large sake bottle in hand.  Atmosphere - not to be confused with ambience - is one of Oyaji’s most distinctive qualities, and combined with the food, it makes the restaurant a solid bet any night.

Oyaji Restaurant

3123 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 379-3604

Akane is a nondescript sushi joint hidden away in downtown Los Altos.  With about room for 30 diners and another 8 at the sushi bar, Akane is a comfortable medium-sized restaurant.

Akane is a true Japanese-owned sushi restaurant.  The menu has a host of traditional japanese selections, like nameko soup, shishito (japanese peppers), beef tataki, and gindara kasuzuke.  With that said, Akane does have a good selection of Americanized rolls and teriyaki dinners.

We sat at the sushi bar, which was actually pretty small.  A large TV was placed high in the right corner of the bar - perfect for viewing Giants games, or the NBA playoffs.  The casual atmosphere works well for Akane - it gives you the low key feeling of a neighborhood joint, rather than the uptight, slacks only environment of more trendy upscale sushi bars.

As for the sushi, it was well done.  Our nigiri including mirugai, tai, aji and kanpachi.  The portions were decent, and the fishes, even the difficult to keep aji, were fresh and without a hint of fishiness.

However, SushiAttack noticed some pre-sliced fish, a time saving move that can dramatically reduce the shelf life of fresh items.  Popular items like maguro and sake got this treatment, and since we did not try these items it’s hard to judge what effect this had on quality.  Either way, this is not ideal protocol for fish handling.

We also got a salmon skin roll, which was excellent, and a natto maki, which was good.  Along the way, the chef also treated us with a deep fried aji bone (which seemed to be fried some time ago) and yamagobo with sesame.

From the kitchen, we order a beef tataki and beef negi roll.  The tataki was well done, with slightly seared, thinly sliced pieces of beef laying beneath garnishes of onion and grated daikon.  The accompanying sauce was a bit ordinary - just plain ponzu it seemed - but good nonetheless.

The beef negi roll was satisfying, with tender beef wrapped around a slightly spicy green onion.  Covered in teriyaki sauce, this dish could have been an excellent starter, except it arrived 30 minutes into the meal.

Now for the ratings:

-Food:  B+  The food was good, but with the exception of the salmon skin roll, nothing was outstanding.  But as sushi is concerned, this place does a very good job with freshness and fish quality, the only question mark is the pre-cutting of some sushi items.

-Selection:  B  Akane had some specials like Blue Fin tuna, Tombo and Toro, but these are standard specials that you will find at any decent sushi restaurant.  More impressive was the menu selection, with a wide range of traditional japanese appetizers that you will not find at Korean-owned sushi places.  Still, the best Akane can get is a B, due to it’s sushi selection.

-Service:  B+  The waitress and sushi chefs were very attentive.  Unlike some places where you sit at the bar and wonder who you order from, the sushi chef addressed us relatively quickly and our drink orders were taken with little delay as well.

-Ambience:  C  Akane is not much to look at - but again that is part of it’s neighborhood charm.  The tatami rooms behind us, which are traditional japanese style with no holes cut for you legs, were dark and unkept, with one room converted into a to-go preparation area.  The rest of the restaurant was decently kept, but unspectacular.

-Overall:  B  Akane is a great local sushi bar, with very reasonable prices (our dinner came to $35 per person, with a beer, before tip) and a comfortable atmosphere.  The appetizer selection of Akane stands out, although the sushi selection was just average.  Without any attributes that are truly spectacular, Akane is a solid ‘B’ - I look forward to spending more time there, and the TV at the bar makes Akane a perfect place for the playoffs.  But, if I was looking for the best in the bay, or trying to impress a date, Akane would not hold weight against other upscale restaurants in the area.

Akane Japanese Restaurant

250 3rd St
Los Altos, CA 94022

(650) 941-8150

Uni

Ikura

Don

Uni Ikura Don

I don’t usually push other people’s blogs but after stumbling on this one, I had to share it. The owner is a college girl than makes bentos for lunch daily. I don’t know what she looks like but my guess is that she’s prob pretty hot if she can cook like this daily.

http://lalalady7.livejournal.com/calendar

Cnet has a good interview with Homaro Cantu, owner and chef of Chicago’s Moto Restaurant.  Cantu focuses on molecular gastronomy stuff, and has become one of the leading chefs in this arena.

Cantu also beat Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America by a slim margin.  Apparently he used lasers and liquid nitrogen in that battle.

I’m kind of divided about this - i mean, on one hand, it is very interesting and cool, and some stuff does look artistic.  Plus, I love food, and I love computers - what is there not to like about this stuff?

But on the other hand, do i really need to eat my menu?  do i need to see pictures of what my food is trying to emulate on the food itself (for example, on iron chef cantu made sushi rolls wrapped with paper that had sushi rolls printed on it)?, does my soup really have to change temperatures while I eat it?  These features don’t make the food more tasty, just more visually appealing and neat.

Oh well, I can’t really talk because I haven’t actually been to one of these places yet.  In any case, check out the interview with Cantu here, and be sure to take a look at these great pics that Cnet took.