When the going gets tough, boys from Jersey get going... to the mall. Like a siren's song, the attraction was overwhelming. Between the Christmas season and the transit strike, I was beckoned. Bear, Wife and I figured the transit strike might open up some otherwise hard-to-get tables; Masa seemed a good place to start. So right after work we made our way over to the mall and at 6:40 sat down to the Omakase menu in the 26-seat box that is Masa.
Masa is in the back of the same mall that holds Per Se (I am done talking about what a let-down Per Se was), V Steak House (which sucks too much for words), and various other restaurants that I have yet to make it to. So far, the decorations of the various places have been absurd -- V looking like a baroque brothel that doesn't see enough business to patina the offensive luster, and Per Se like an amphitheater carved out of dark, boring clay. Masa is a large rectangular room with four tables of four and a sushi bar that seats ten. The decor is raw blond wood, bamboo, and room dividers with Japanese characters written on them. It looks like a very fancy Japanese restaurant in a very fancy mall in America. It leans towards sterile the way minimalism can.
There is a wine list I took a cursory glance at. The only thing that really popped was the Gaja and, if you are the person sitting down to multi-course dinner of raw fish and you even think to order a Gaja, you need not worry about me clamoring to join you.
There is also a Sake list and from it we chose a Yuki no Bosha AkitaKomachi Shikomi. It is served in a stone bowl, nestled in a pile of chipped ice, in a square, stone ice bucket. It is very light, and dry, and has a subtle hint of cucumber, fruit leaves, and melon. The Sake is served in frozen green bamboo joints, the aesthetics of which are lovely, but they do bring their own scent of raw greenness to the party which becomes more clear as the vessel thaws (as it inevitably will do over three hours of dining). I can say that it paired nicely with everything we ate, except the pickled ginger. It served to refresh the palate between tastes and mostly stayed out of the way otherwise. Well chosen, Bear. Huzzah!
I swear my intention was to take pictures of everything and to be a good little blogger this time, but our server asked me not to and, in the end, my companions admitted to being pleased not to have the distraction.
The truth is, ambiance and a great wine program can really give a place an advantage, and I guess it is possible that a cold room and wine list geared to trophy hunters (as opposed to people who look for a symbiosis in their food and beverage choices) may start at a disadvantage, unless the food is so sublime that, by the second or third dish, you become so relaxed that you start noticing things like warmth in the yellow hue of the screens by the walls, and the wonderful tactile sensation of the unadorned wood of the table. This food is that good.
It all started with:
APPETIZERS
Kegani Crab and Mozuku Seaweed Vinaigrett: Crabmeat is the sweetest flesh in the sea, but it is also very labor intensive to get at and alas, the work to reward ratio just does not always make crab a smart choice. It is best when a talented chef is willing to do the work for you. In this dish, the crabmeat itself was sweet and had the bite of the thumb meat of a hard-shell lobster. It was adorned with a light chrysanthemum vinaigrette and a mix of micro-greens; red benitade sprouts which were cinnamony, and purple shiso flowers which were peppery, offsetting the sweetness of the crab's meat.
Toro Tartare with Sterling Royal Caviar: Were you one of the kids who used to get yelled at for eating butter? Then this is the dish for you. The round, unctuous fattiness of the chopped Toro and the subtle saltiness of the caviar come together to be basically more a feeling than a flavor. It is served with small, warm toast squares and, when it is all put together, the sensation is that of salted butter on toast, except cleaner by way of the sea.
Fugu sashimi Salad: Ok, let's forget that at this point most Fugu in the world is not actually poisonous. I have always wanted to eat some and now I have. The flesh has a chew not unlike well-prepared squid; the liver is soft, like silken tofu, and flavorful and quite fun to bite into. The fact that Wife ate her way around the liver till the end and asked for reassurance she should eat made it feel daring anyway.
Fugu Karaage: Fugu is back again, this time fried. At the waiter's recommendation, we picked it up and ate it as if it were a chicken wing. The batter was lightly salty and the flesh possessed a wonderful seafood version of gaminess. I would eat this from a bucket in front of the TV, no problem.
Uni and Shirako Risotto with White Truffles: When Urchin told me this was one of her favorite dishes, I was very doubtful. How could the flavor of Uni, the wonderful lightness of the foam of a receding wave, mix well with the flavor of a white truffle, the wonderful earthiness of the forest floor covered in fallen leaves? Well it does, and it does well. The Shirako (soft roe) really rounds out the two extremes perfectly. This is no doubt one of the greatest dishes I have had. The best part is that it is available at Bar Masa a la carte. Finally, a reason to go to the mall every day; it's like I'm fifteen again.
Buri Wild Yellowtail Shabu Shabu: I watched an Iron Chef episode once in which the challenger was a master of Shabu Shabu, and I thought to myself "poaching food in broth, big whoop." Wow, what a whoop. The yellowtail was fantastic. Even better was the foie. I have never had foie taste clean; foie usually tastes rich, fatty, buttery, oleaginous, or unctuous, but not clean. When it had served its poaching purposes, we ate the broth, which was light and ethereal.
SUSHI COURSE
I will start the discussion of the sushi course by trying to ignore how angry chef Masa has made me with all the other NY chefs making what they call Sushi. Rather than dwell on their disproportionate fish size and clumpy rice, and wasabi that is really just dyed horseradish de- and re-hydrated, I will talk about what chef Masa gets so gloriously right. Starting with the rice, this is different food. The rice bed feels like it is somehow geometrically fit together rather than bound by the gluey starch in the rice.When you put it on your tongue, each kernel has its own integrity and flavor. The soy sauce, which the chef adds himself to each piece, has the deep flavor of a brewed product and isn't simply salty black water. The amount of wasabi is varied per piece by the chefs' deft hand, each one being exactly right. The nori that bound a couple of pieces was pliant, not crunchy, and tasted good and flavorful, not just of dried seaweed. This sushi is so far above the level of anything I have ever had (Morimoto in Philadelphia being the exception) as to make one believe everyone eating at Japonica is on crazy pills.
Toro (fatty tuna): No one will describe this better then Bruni did in his review. It is hard not to sound like an 80's teenybopper talking about Jordan from the New Kids. Suffice it to say we liked it so much, we seriously considered distracting the four Japanese businessmen next to us with some elaborate plan involving ninja-like moves and catapults to steal theirs when it was served them about half an hour later.
Shimaaji (Striped Jack): Buttery and soft, a nice step away from the Toro.
Hirami (Hallibut): Nice body and chew. Translucent pink in color.
Tai (Sea Bream): One of the fish you aren't supposed to ever find outside Japan, with the lovely, light flavor of the sea. Not unlike snapper.
Kinmee (Snapper): Clean, fresh, and firm.
Amaebi (Sweet Shrimp): Just that. Sweet. Shrimp.
Aoyagi (round clam): The chew and color of the center part of a cherrystone clamwith that same deep-water flavor.
Bay Scallop: Rich and creamy, almost like a risotto.
Suji(grilled toro sinew): Somehow sweet and salty. You keep believing they are just pulling your leg and it is actually beef.
Squid: The bite of squid, with less resistance.
Kohada (shad): The bite of an oily fish (think Mackerel) without the oily finish.
Sayori (needlefish): Tiny fillets stacked like lumber and topped with the shiso flowers again, pepper this time playing off salt.
Iwashi (sardines): Tight flesh, very savory.
Saba (mackerel) with persimmon: The thinnest slice of persimmon adds a tang to the salty savory-ness of the mackerel.
Uni (Sea Urchin): Just like biting into a refreshingly cold wave at the shore.
White Truffle: That's right, white truffle. The conviction and confidence to simply take a small ball of warm rice and wrap it in the thinnest shavings of truffle I have ever seen is what is to be respected about this perfect little bite.
Hotate Grilled (Scallop): The wonderful texture of a fresh scallop with the added dimension of the slightest char. Bear loves it so much he wants to marry it.
Unagi (eel): At the other sushi restaurants in NY I am constantly requesting a substitution for the eel, not because I don't like eel, but because I hate that candied syrup they pour all over it. The Japanese have a fifth taste (beyond the accepted four: salty, sweet, bitter and sour) called umame. Often discussed in wine tasting, it is the feeling in your mouth of richness from protein. It is a common sensation in all of this food, but none more so than with the eel. There was a very light, sweet sauce brushed over the eel, which was served in a shaving of cucumber, but all it did was show off the richness of the eel. Sublime.
Negitoro roll: A roll with Toro and scallions. There was a serious hit of wasabi in this one and so much toro as to make us gleeful. It was the also the only piece we dipped in the bowl of soy sauce that had been put in front of us at the beginning of the sushi service. We had wanted to the whole time, but saw no reason to mess with the chef's perfect balance, until the server gave us the go-ahead to do it on this one. The soy sauce was as good as it smelled.
Ume ShisoBall: All meals should end like this. The smallest chiffonade of what was described as a type of Japanese mint on a small ball of rice, refreshing and unassuming.
DESSERT
Grapefruit Granite: I am just not a sweet fan in general, but at the end of a meal involving such subtleness, the lightest touch of a dish with sugar in it might have chased away too many flavors we wanted to hang on to. The granite was perfect, a little bitter, a little sweet. Made all the more light by its frozen delivery, this finished us in perfect style.
Soba Cha: was a tea made from Buckwheat that had a nutty aroma not unlike peanuts being shelled. Wife has been online ever since finding some for the house.
The food is perfect, honestly, but all people want to discuss when it comes to MASA seems to be price. This meal (exclusive of the Sake and gratuity) costs $350 and, indeed, that is a lot of money. It may seem like less to me at this point because a straight-shot cab home, a 50 block ride on unpopulated streets, cost us $45 in a yellow taxi because three of us went into a second zone on the special-for-the-strike guide to gouging New Yorkers the TLC gave the cabbies (this ride would normally total about $12.50).
The truth is, every single one of these courses was made from a perfect version, of luxury ingredients (that wouldn't be cheap if you were just getting them to make in your home and not including the expertise involved in their preparation at Masa).Here is the thing though, every New Yorker I know walks into the crappy sushi bars around town with some degree of regularity and drops between fifty or a hundred dollars, each time. My advice: skip this three-and-a-half to seven times and go to Masa once instead. Take the time, give yourself over to the experience and you will be as close to zen a person who eats animals can get.
Fanjrillian...daaamn...
SO. That sounded amazing. Thanks for the descriptions and the cute visuals. ;) I like sushi, but I'm not in love with it (food I am in love with: grilled eel, katsu-anything, curry, plebian foods). However, if I could win the lottery then I'd love to check out Masa. Actually, I'd fly to Japan...I suppose that would be better. However, you make a good point with how much money people would usually spend on a sushi dinner. It seems to make more sense to save up some money and fast to experience Masa.
(stratches head)
Hm...someday, perhaps.
Posted by: roboppy | December 21, 2005 at 10:02 PM