Beyond Sushi.

We felt like the luckiest girls in the world the other night after being invited by Chef Hirata to the most amazing sushi dinner! All the way up at E 47th street, tucked away down a few stairs is this simple small sushi restaurant! (obviously known by local chefs ;) We were blown away by the amazing omakase dinner! I apologize in advance for the obscenely long entry.

We started with a great duck salad and a plate of hamachi, served carpaccio style. This was ridiculous, it had a small bit of RED yuzukocho on top! I've never ever even heard of red yuzukocho. It's usually green-yellow and the citrus taste is impossible to miss! I LOVE yuzu! We also had a tempura dish made up of tiny whole fish, you could see their frozen faces through the fried batter... they were so yummy, like popping french fries.. but with heads and tails!

We then had tuna sashimi in okura and yamaimo. Yamaimo, is the super sticky Japanese mountain potato that gets mixed up until its a verty particular consistency. (and had very interesting uses back in Japanese Edo period ;) It usually gets served alongside raw tuna. In this case they mixed it with okura to make it even more gooey. It's definitely not for beginners but I find the texture interesting (in small doses)! So after the meal had already blown my mind we moved into the sushi, which is what this restaurant is known for!

We dove (head first) into an insane sushi platter, with some crazy fresh fish... the toro and salmon were like butter, the hamachi was heavenly and the uni was sweet like candy! Everything was amazing! Next, we were each given each our own plate of nigiri, choice of the chef, from tuna tataki, to aji, to sake, and finishing off with anago as the last piece to eat. It was lovely and perfectly balanced. We finished off (or so we thought) with a lovely bowl of ume udon to share, which had two ume-boshi (picked plums) in the broth giving it a slightly sour taste! I love anything ume taste too. Hirata-san picked everything perfectly.

And just as we were about to fold up our napkins, we were hit with yet another sushi plate! (compliments of the chef there!) It was ridiculous but it couldn't be wasted! Apparently, it was three pieces of some of the best sushi around. I had never had any of them before. All three were pink and so fresh looking, a kind of beautiful gradating colour scheme. The first was "aka mutsu", the second "shima aji" and the third was "ishi dai". From left to right, it went from a softer lighter taste to heavier as you go right. You finish on the heaviest one. They were all unique and amazing.

With all the incredible sake we drank and all the amazing fresh fish we ate, we left floating... High on fresh raw fish feeling so full but so healthy... and SO happy.

Tsushima
141 E 47th St
New York, NY
(212) 207-1938