GastroBlog
i've been wanting to go to some sort of high-end sushi place, and a trip to philadelphia provided an excellent opportunity, being the home to the original outpost of morimoto, the restaurant of original iron chef masaharu morimoto.
the front is so non-descript we walked past it. just a white wall with a small round window that said "morimoto" in it. you walk in and its this uber-mod interior with glass tables and an undulating bamboo ceiling. the tables are separated by opaque glass half-walls with changing-color lights in them.
i knew before we got there that i wanted to do the "omakase" menu. omakase is japanese for "just send me whatever you want and i'll eat it." you get to pick your price-point. the menu lists $85, $100, $125, and "up." the copy editor in me couldn't help but note that you could just say "$85 and up," and you've said exactly the same thing.
anyway, being a novice at the whole omakase, and a little concerned for my american express bill, i went for the omakase starter set at $85. that got me seven courses. the first three were raw fish, then two entrees, then susshi, then dessert. as detailed here:
-- hamachi tartare with caviar and fresh wasabi. hamachi is yellowfin tuna, and more of a white flesh than you might normally associate with tuna. there were crispy fried scallions in the tartare, which was an excellent textural counterpoint to the smooth, rich hamachi. it was sitting on a pool of very rich soy sauce. i really like good soy sauce. on the side was tear-inducing fresh wasabi, and a tiny japanese mountain peach that was sort of a palate cleanser.
-- snapper carpaccio with yuzu vinaigrette. ok, it was a dish of some kind of raw fish with vinaigrette on top. they told me what kind of fish, but it was a whole bunch of words i have never heard before, most of them japanese. it looked like some sort of snapper to me. i heard a waiter at another table tell someone who was also doing the omakase that it was yellowtail snapper. so that's my story. yuzu is a japanese citrus. i've never actually seen a yuzu, but i've heard it is essentially a sweet lemon. very tasty.
-- bonito with microgreen salad. with onion vinaigrette. the plate landed and i was hit with a strong smell of sesame oil. immediately makes me happy.
-- asian carbonara. this was the first entree. it was soba noodles with bay scallops, bacon and edamame in a creamy sauce.
-- white miso steamed black cod. very simple and delicious. on the side were three sweet fermented black beans, and a pickled red pepper rose with pickled ginger.
-- the sushi course was a simple selection of nigiri: tuna, flounder, salmon, jack fish, japanese snapper. i was kind of hoping for a little more sushi. i love the pictures with the beautiful rolls that look like some kind of kaleidoscopic art installation, which i KNOW they do here. but i didn't get any.
-- plum cobbler with white chocolate mousse, apricot tuille, and a huge blackberry. fruity sauce just what it sounds like. all good. oh, i didn't know what the dessert was going to be, but i saw that they had 20-year taylor fladgate port on the menu, and a hungarian tokaji, two of my favorite dessert wines. the port is red, of course, and the tokaji is white, so i asked the waitress if they could bring me a glass of whichever one would be more appropriate with the dessert i was getting. she brought me the dessert, and when i saw it, i said, well, apricots, plums, blackberries, fruity sauce ... definitely the tokaji. she said the wine guy said ... definitely port. believe me, 20-year taylor fladgate ALWAYS works, but i think the tokaji would have been nice, too.
pam decided she didn't know morimoto well enough to let him choose her dinner, so she ordered the morimoto surf and turf off the menu, and i didn't think it could happen when i was eating a seven-course omakase, but i was a little jealous. it looked amazing. the turf was slices of kobe beef filet on top of a sticky rice cake, with cup in the middle of morimoto signature beer reduction. the beef sliced with the side of the fork and melted in your mouth. the sauce was good, not that the meat needed sauce. the surf was a half lobster with meat neatly replaced in half the body with a creamy sauce, and green tobiko (flying fish roe). i'm willing to declare this the best thing i have ever seen pam order.
the menu also features a sushi collection, which was available at $50, $75, $100, "and up," (sigh). if i ever went back, i would probably do that, just to get that food as art experience. but i was happy with what i got.
i have to say, that while the interior was funky cool, the table was probably as uncomfortable as i have been in a restaurant in a long time. i like to sit a little bit back from the table, even further than my belly requires, and the fixed tables and fixed chairs made it impossible to get too comfortable. as a result, i felt like i was sitting over my food the whole night.
oh, and the lamps that were fixed into the table were a little too phallic. ok, they were a lot too phallic.
but the food was a definite hit. i give morimoto 8 out of a possible 10 points on taste, 4 out of 5 for plating and 5 out of 5 on originality. (that's probably only going to make sense if you watch iron chef, i realize. sorry.)
we didn’t see morimoto. he was probably at his other restaurant, in new york. if i went back, i would get more sushi.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
morimoto, philadelphia
