Momma Foodie's splurge choice was Morimoto--that is, the Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's not-Nobu outpost, adjacent to the Food Network's Chelsea Market.
Bright white and uber-modern, this place houses the kind of people you'd expect (you know, the guys that pretend to know everything with the women that pretend to eat), but with the big bonus of not having to compromise your dignity to get a table.
And there, in the temple of good lighting...we laughed in the face of death! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
That's right, folks...that'd be fugu sashimi, with lil shreds of fugu skin (yubiki) all a-piled!
What does death taste like? Not much. Mostly like the lovely besprinkled shiso flowers (though flesh itself was pleasingly melty-tissue-thin). The skin was chewy and didn't really register on the palate either, but hey--waste not, want not.
The deep-fried fugu bones (fugu karaage) and fugu hotpot (fugu-chiri, also comprised of blowfish bones) proved to be tastier than the pristine sashimi. The hotpot was the fave, with a limpid dashi soup base scented with shredded scallions and mushrooms, rich with blowfishy collagen. Momma sipped and fished for the poached fugu bits, temporarily relieved of her frostbite blues.
But man/woman/momma can't live on blowfish alone, so we opted for more oceanic supplements, a la spicy king crab:
The sweet shreds of cracked crustacean draped in a tongue-warming, tobiko-spiked cloak made me wish for beer...and another order of crab, please!
Reading "Oysters with Foie Gras and Uni" on the menu elicited an involuntary twitch. I'm a fan each of those components, but slapping them together seemed somehow metaphysically unlawful.
I LOVE being proven wrong. This won't be for everyone--one of the things that I liked was that the foie, uni and lightly cooked oyster were all about the same temperature and texture, which'll definitely put off anyone who's not in the mood for a mouthful of land-and-sea custard. Each member of Team EF picked off their bivalve with lip-smacking approval.
MORE FISH! Pretty, no? (And surprisingly filling!) We didn't want to commit to omakase, but this was an impressive feat of bracing freshness. Mmmmm. Oceany.
Clockwise, from scallop shell: Mirugai (geoduck), hotate (scallops), tako (octopus), sake (salmon)...ummm...grouper? Groatfish? Can't remember, but skin-on, and quite tasty! Amaebi (sweet deep-sea shrimp), hamachi (yellowtail), misc. white fish, chutoro (fatty tuna), and saba (mackerel, skin-on, shoved in back of the chutoro) and in the center, maguro (lean tuna).
Surf and Turf! In this case, the Turf being camera-shy Wagyu beef, and the Surf a dish of hamachi (yellowtail) over avocado with a fun little pipette of ponzu sauce. It's as the prophecies foretold! Land fat meets sea fat meets veggie fat with belly-brimming consequences!!!
For dessert, we went with pomegranate, green apple, and pear sorbet:
...a chocolate cake with popcorn ice cream, and the waitress was kind enough to bring us some basil sorbet, too! (Thank you, Delilah!)
On the whole? Really luxuriant food without being super-heavy, great for those not shy of fish fat, and a rare non-compromising compromise between scenesters, food nerds, and food nerd moms.
(Supposing there were scenesters at our table. Scenesters don't stare death in the eye for dinner! Gimmethatcrableg.)
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Morimoto
88 10th Ave
(at 16th St)
Meatpacking / Chelsea Market
NYC, NY 10011
Ph: 212.989.8883
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