Sushi Bar Yasuda.

One of the meals I was most looking forwards to in Japan was dinner at Sushi Bar Yasuda (I posted earlier when I got a reservation).

I was not disappointed J

It was easily the best meal I've had so far in Japan, and the most fun too. I ate a ton, met some cool people, and learned a good bit about sushi and fish in the process.

It was a 40 minute complicated walk through side-streets or a $10 cab ride from door to door, so I hailed a taxi outside my hotel. I got there ten minutes before they opened, so I meandered a bit around the neighborhood. The neighborhood was on the edge of the largest cemetery in Tokyo, which was pretty cool. I could see the orderly rows of Buddhist tombstones at some spots.

I wandered back and Yasuda’s wife showed me into the restaurant. It was a little intimidating at first walking into a stark white room, empty except for the sushi chef behind the bar. It was a little more intimidating when I was seated RIGHT in front of him. The menu had four items on it:

• 14 piece set dinner ($55)
• 12 piece set dinner with a maki roll (also $55)
• Miso soup($3)
• Omakase

“Omakase” means “Chef’s choice,” and at most restaurants it means that the chef makes a set plate of various pieces of what’s good that day, but at Yasuda those were the other two sets on the menu. I went for the omakase option, as a) I wanted to see what he did and b) I was hungry, and the omakase was as big as I could eat.

(Please also note that the omakase didn’t have a stated price; it depended on what you ordered. I ignored this fact and hoped for the best.)

Yasuda started by asking what type of fish I liked and what I didn’t like. I said pretty much anything but squid and salmon roe, but I really liked fatty fish like salmon, o-toro, and mackerel. He gave a big smile and said, “Oh, that’s good! That’s best.” I asked what to drink, and he recommended a sake from his hometown, which was quite tasty. He started making nigiri pretty much immediately after that.

Yasuda spoke excellent English, was happy to answer every question I asked (which was quite a few), and was cracking jokes all the way through the meal. Someone asked whether it was better to eat nigiri with chopsticks or with your hands, and he looked thoughtful for a moment before solemnly saying, “You know, I prefer to eat it with my mouth.” He laughed and said whichever you liked.

Dude was also a beast when it came to making sushi. He was running the restaurant on his own, with just his wife taking drink orders, collecting payments, and serving soup. When it was just me, he was moving fairly quick, but when the other 13 seats filled up he started to MOVE. For the folks at the bar, he made each piece one at a time (unless he was making several of the same type of nigiri in a row), then drop it in front of you. For the two couples at tables, he’d make two pieces each of three types of sushi before bring it around. Even with that ‘shortcut,’ I can’t imagine managing moving that fast and still being able to keep up conversations with everyone.

A chest of tasty magic. All his fish was in here, the rice in a big insulated chest
off to the left, with his workstation between the two.

The other folks at the restaurant were a lot of fun as well. Everyone there was a foreigner, and everyone spoke English. There was a couple from Vancouver, two guys from Austria, a couple from Bangkok, a girl from the states studying north of Tokyo, and a few other folks I didn’t get to meet.

Of particular note though was Jessica and her husband, who were visiting from Austin. We started swapping stories, and realized we were both from Mississippi…then realized we were both from the Jackson area…then realized we were both from Madison…the realized we both grew up in North Bay. These crazy small world situations always end up happening to me. Here we are, two people from the same tiny hometown, sitting at an upscale fourteen seat sushi place in Tokyo. It boggles the mind, don’t it?

Anyway, below is photos and descriptions of the sushi I ate, but first:

Post meal photo with Yasuda. "We flex. Look tough, like English Bulldogs." Did
I mention he's a karate master who could probably snap me in half?

When I left, I said goodbye, but he corrected me and said, "Until next time," which is pretty accurate. I'll be back!

O-toro (fatty tuna) to start off. I think he was checking that I knew what
I was talking about when I said I liked fatty fish.

A different cut. Less pretty, more tender, just as tasty.

Some type of whitefish, which is traditional to start off a meal.

Yamame trout. I said it looked like salmon, and he laughed. The
Japanese refer to salmon that never leave freshwater as 'trout.' Yamame
is steelhead trout that was kept from reaching the sea somehow.

Cherry trout. Same as above, except with Coho salmon.

Again, but with King Salmon.

Fun fact! Very traditional Tokyo sushi restaurants refuse to serve salmon, as it's not a traditional Edo sushi ingredient. Salmon used to only come from northern Japan, and would be too old for sushi by the time it reached Tokyo. It was always grilled with sauce to mask its age.

Spanish mackerel.

Another silver-skinned fish. Didn't catch what it was, but probably another
type of mackerel.

Yamara Yellowtail.

Yellowtail #2

Yellowtail #3. All three of these were from different sized fish. The japanese apparently
have a different word for all the different sizes the fish can be at harvest time.

Tuna belly

Hokkaido long-spined Uni. Brown colored, earthy, and a little bitter. It also had some
crunchy salt crystals added to it to add some texture.

Short-spined Uni from Santa Barbera. Sweeter and lighter that the Hokkaido. Apparently
the best sea urchin in the world is from California, but since no one there eats the stuff,
the top grades get exported straight to Japan.

Freshly cooked and shelled shrimp. As in, he pulled it out of the pot, shelled it, and
put it directly on the rice.

Tiny white shrimp. Slightly sweet, very tender.

Geoduck (type of shellfish). This one was different from the rest, so he asked how
I liked it afterwards. I said it "wasn't my favorite," and he cracked up at my polite way of
saying "no more please."

Sardine. Very tasty. 

He said this was scallions, but I think it's actually chives. This was a big surprise,
but quite tasty.

Quickly broiled river eel. He cooked it in a basket right over a burner.

Sea eel, prepared the same way.

Tuna and scallion roll.

Uni handroll. A good way to close out the meal.

All said and done, I ate 28 pieces of sushi and drank two flasks of sake in two hours. I was FULL at the end. I took the photo with Yasuda above, and headed home to dream of fish and rice.