Shunji - OOE Omakase

[PorkyBelly]

Does ordering one of everything make you look fat? #askingforafriend

not sushi

Tai - Red snapper

Hirame - Halibut

Suzuki - Sea bass

Kurodai - Black seabream

Aori Ika - King Squid

Kanpachi - Amber Jack

Maguro - Bluefin

Inada - Baby yellowtail
Babies always taste better

Chu toro - medium fatty tuna

Sawara - King mackerel

Sake - Salmon

Ikura - Salmon roe

Crab handroll

Renko Dai - Red seabream

Tachiuo - Belt fish

Mejina - Opal eye

Nodoguro - Black Throat Sea Perch

Kohada - Shad

Hotate - Scallop

Santa Barbara Uni

Kamasu - Barracuda

Otoro - fatty tuna

Ama Ebi - Santa Barbara spot prawn
I found it a bit rude I was being stared at as I was eating its body.

Sayori - half beak

Himi Buri - Winter premium yellowtail
Can somebody translate?

Tobiuo - Flying fish

Akayagara - Trumpet fish

Saba - Japanese mackerel

Kegani - Haircrab

Unagi - Fresh water eel

Masu - Ocean trout

Aji - Spanish makerel

Nagareko - Baby Abalone

Bafun Uni

Hata - Japanese grouper

Isaki - Grunt fish

Kama toro - fatty tuna collar

Tako - Braised Octopus

Kinmedai - Goldeneye snapper

Chikamekintokidai - Alfonsino

Anago - Sea eel

Tamago - egg

Fin

---

update

It’s hairy crab and sperm season #gotmilt?

snapper, uni, ponzu

shirako tofu - sperm

oyster

hotaru ika - firefly squid

kegani - hairy crab

brains

gari

madai - red sea bream

kinmedai - golden eye snapper

rockfish

sayori - halfbeak

seigo - baby sea bass

ikura - salmon roe

shima aji - striped jack

maguro - bluefin

chutoro - medium fat bluefin belly

pomfret

ika - squid

kanpachi - amberjack

boton ebi - prawn

inada - baby yellowtail

otoro - fatty tuna belly

shirauo - icefish

hotate - scallop

katsuo - bonito

uni - santa barbara sea urchin

saba - mackerel

zuwaigani - snow crab

ama ebi - boston sweet shrimp

masu - ocean trout

aji - spanish mackerel

nodoguro - black throat seaperch

ankimo - monkfish liver

head

strawberry

---

extended OOE carmakase bang-bang #covid15

Somebody in another thread requested to see more pix, so here you go.

bluefin tuna toro don

japanese appetizer box

sushi bento

crab cake

grilled shrimp

grilled fish

shiitake shinjo tempura stuffed with shrimp and mountain potato

tamagoyaki with white fish

konnyaku potato

simmered quail egg topped with steam bafun uni

hotaru squid

surinagashi made with cauliflower and potato topped with 3 kinds of mushroom, broccolini, scallop

carrot

pumpkin tofu

After-bento bang at n/naka

N/naka - Modern Kaiseki

Extended OOE car-makase bang-bang continued… n/naka bento with sushi [IMG_20200404_184935~2] [00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200404185658267_COVER] [IMG_20200404_185453] sashimi salad with garlic miso dressing shio koji-marinated tomato [00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200404190231477_COVER] kabocha potato salad, cucumber seaweed sunomono [00000IMG_00000_BURST20200404190237732_COVER] panko-fried shrimp [00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200404190101383_COVER] shoyu koji-roasted sweet pota…

Shunji
12244 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 826-4737
http://www.shunji-ns.com/

[beam]

This looks amazing and I am sure it was!
How much was the damage?

[Chowseeker1999]

Hi @PorkyBelly,

Nice dinner! Wait, where’s the main course? That was just the appetizers right?

[Ns1]

@PorkyBelly

Kamasu - Barracuda

@PorkyBelly

Ama Ebi - Santa Barbara spot prawn

[J_L]

OOE = Out of Edo?

[BradFord]

@PorkyBelly

Himi Buri - Winter premium yellowtailCan somebody translate?

It’s a certification that it’s from the fishery in Himi (~ Toyama Bay), which is renowned for its kanburi. The writing is a declaration that it’s officially judged as kanburi for the season (“Declaration of Himi’s First Kanburi”). Around November or so, there’s actually a judging when they first catch an adult yellowtail - around ~13 lbs., to see if they can declare a buri season in Himi.

Kind of like a good vintage of champagne - they don’t release every year. In 2015 actually, I think they skipped the declaration, so 2016 (which officially started November 25) was a relief. In 2015, there may have been buri, but it wasn’t from Himi.

They’re shipped in these blue boxes, one ticket and one fish per:

Buri (mature yellowtail), is a “promotion fish,” which 1) changes in name as it gets older (starts young as “inada”) and 2) is a symbol of success.

Winter buri (kanburi) is also renowned because 1) basically the whole fish is “toro,” and 2) the best kanburi still maintains a satisfying texture, that by comparison, sometimes maguro otoro lacks (being too much “toro keru,” meaning melt in the mouth).

[PorkyBelly]

@beam

How much was the damage?

it was $229 before tax and tip.

[PorkyBelly]

@Chowseeker1999

Wait, where’s the main course? That was just the appetizers right?

My apps took so long the kitchen closed. I got some fugetsu-do mochis at marukai for dessert.

[A5KOBE]

Fuckin thumb exercise scrolling on my phone.

Nice dinner and photos.

[TheCookie]

You really are my food hero.

[TheCookie]

Who are you!

[PorkyBelly]

Great info @BradFord

@BradFord

Winter buri (kanburi) is also renowned because 1) basically the whole fish is “toro,”

I too, try to become all toro in the winter.

[JeetKuneBao]

Mr. BradFord has been a welcome addition to FTC LA. So much sushi knowledge. We are not worthy

[TheCookie]

Question: I’ve noticed on photos here and other Shunji threads that the rice has a brown tinge. What is that?

[aaqjr]

Akazu or Red rice vinegar has become more popular with high end sushi chefs recently. IIRC someone mentioned Shunji made the switch

[TheCookie]

@JeetKuneBao

So much sushi knowledge

Japanese beef too. Talk about an encyclopedic mind.

[BradFord]

Just an enthusiast looking to always learn. Thanks, anyway.

Btw I had some Himi buri gently smoked and served with karashi (Japanese mustard), and it was a fantastic preparation.

[beefnoguy]

A little bit of background for perspective.

The technical and proper term is actually sake lees (sake kasu 酒粕) vinegar. The key ingredient is the lees from sake production, which is left over from the process of pressing the mash//mixture (rice, water, yeast, koji). In essence the sake lees is white in color. In the old days, rice was very expensive, thus rice vinegar was not cheap.

Then came the Edo period, and demand for sake grew. The lees, although a by product, was cheap and readily accessible, and people came up with the idea of using sake lees as a replacement for rice. They added water to the lees to try to make rice vinegar (lees already has some alcohol so it would be less processing than fermenting rice for vinegar), but the resulting flavor turned out to be far too light (not enough sugar content in the lees for further fermentation). Apparently the discovery and breakthrough came by aging the sake lees for at least a year, resulting in a much darker (crimson dark red) shade, then adding water as part of the sake lees vinegar process. Since this was the discovery of its time, hence it was the Edo style vinegar or red vinegar / sake lees vinegar.

Seafood used in Edomae cuisine (including sushi), such as Kasugodai, Kohada, Anago, Kuruma Ebi, Saba, Maguro, Hamaguri, Shako, Unagi (kabayaki, not served as sushi), required advanced prep, involving techniques such as vinegar marination, soy sauce marination, or soy sauce simmer. These resulted in what we would call strong flavored neta/seafood toppings. Supposedly Hanaya Yoshi/Hanaya Yohei, the inventor of Edomae Sushi) decided that rice seasoned with sake lees vinegar was the right fit for the stronger flavored neta. Again, this was also the best available rice based vinegar at the time, as rice (not lees) was expensive and using it to make regular rice vinegar was cost prohibitive.

As time went by, people started to be able to afford and develop tastes for exquisite delicate white fleshed fish (madai, kue, fugu, karei, hirame etc). There are schools of thought out there, that if you pair delicate flavored white fleshed fish, without treating it properly, and serve it with sake lees vinegared rice, then you throw out the entire balance. In Tokyo at the recently minted one star Sushi Arai, actually has this problem where their rice is too vinegary/salty and it is wasted with their white fleshed fish (amongst a few other things), and it was only when heavier flavored neta were applied (e.g. anago with sauce) or pristine uni that was rich, that overpowered the rice to achieve a tilt in the balance towards a bit more of a favorable bite. Some say the stronger salt/vinegar accent in the rice is intentional (even if the balance is thrown) and some locals and fans enjoy and perhaps disagree with that. Different strokes for different folks.
This is also a good reason why Mori Sushi should not use sake lees vinegar in their sushi rice, it’s already perfectly seasoned as is and his seafood selections are so delicate already.

In Tokyo there are some places (particularly the Sushi Sho schools) that offer two kinds of sushi rice, the regular white (white rice vinegar/komezu) and sake lees vinegar seasoned sushi rice (akazu / aka shari), carefully selected to pair with particular seafood/neta/toppings. This is a lot of work, so the quicker way is to figure out an adequately seasoned sake lees vinegared sushi rice with the hope and intention that it works with everything, for places that don’t use white rice vinegar.

While sake lees vinegar is not too sour or strong by itself, it does require further seasoning in order to make good sake lees vinegared sushi rice taste really good (and to match the fish it goes with), and this could be done with sugar (in some cases), salt, konbu and the rest and proportions are industry secrets. Each restaurant/chef will have their own unique blend (using the sake lees vinegar base), some work better than others.

So yeah, many places (from California to Asia) are now using the sake lees vinegar to season their sushi rice, but there are some who don’t know what they are doing. The plethora of places doing this could mean business owners/chefs jumping on trends, thus trying to define sake lees vinegared sushi rice = high end. What distinguishes the great places from the ones jumping on trends is the end result and balance, and of course the folks who understand this and appreciate the ones doing it for the right reasons.

[aaqjr]

This is a question for the cooking board but now I am curious what rice vinegar you like to buy for simple cooking, japanese pickles ect. I’ve been using a brown rice vinegar currently.

[CiaoBob]

@TheCookie

What is that?

Lighting, for the most part, I think.
On some pieces there is sauce that gets on/in the rice as it is prepared but I do not think the rice on its own is browner than other rice.