Recently, my boyfriend and I took his mother (MIL) out for dinner at Nobu as a belated Christmas present. He actually chose the restaurant without any consultation from me, so it came as a pleasant surprise that he chose Nobu. If you’ve read my blog much at all – especially in years past, not so much in recent times – I have made it explicitly clear how much I adore this particular style of food; not quite fusion but not quite strictly “authentic” Japanese, blending notes from a few cuisines and cooking techniques across the board – I am a passionate lover of Morimoto and his restaurants. When people ask me what my favorite restaurant is (the answer is “I don’t have one”), my mind automatically flies to Morimoto (NYC) because it is a place I believe I could eat night or day after night or day and never get bored, hardly ever find something I don’t like.
Why am I mentioning all this when I went to Nobu? Well, it’s been said that Nobu Matsuhisa (the owner/founder of Nobu) acted as a mentor to Morimoto while Morimoto was head chef at Nobu, and then Morimoto left to open his own restaurants. If I enjoyed Morimoto’s menu so much, which of course was heavily influenced by Nobu, what would I think of Nobu? Unfiltered, pure, complete and straight from the source.
I’ve never been one much for trendy restaurants really nor am I big on superlatives, so I was surprised to find that one dish made me utter these words:
“Better than I could have ever imagined, because never in my wildest dreams did I dare imagine this would exist.”
Keep reading to find out what that was…
I decided to start with a cute cocktail named Shiro Usagi or White Rabbit, consisting of Calpico (an extremely syrupy sweet milky white drink that I’ve seen in Asian markets; my friends used to mix it with Sprite to temper the sweetness) and “Nobu soju” (soju is a Korean liquor that packs a mean punch but tastes mild; if you’re not careful, you WILL end up sh*t-faced), with a yamomo berry on the bottom. I really enjoyed this drink; sweet but not fruity and with a light kick… and, as you’ll notice the blurriness of my photos increase, it was doing its job.
I wanted to get a good overall grasp of the menu, so we opted to order a bunch of small plates from the hot/cold menus and share everything. First came my choice of Kumamoto Oysters with Maui Onion Salsa ($12). The oysters were fresh and briny, but the Maui onion salsa overshadowed the oyster flavor. The salsa itself was sweet and tangy, but completely masked any oyster taste. Sadface.
We’d also each opted to order from the incredibly short entree part of the menu (which should have been a tip off that they don’t focus on that at all…), which came with miso soup for each of us. BF took the first sip and immediately said, “Wow, that’s really good,” and MIL was next, agreeing that it was really delicious. I took a sip and found it to be on par with the miso soup I make at home; that is to say it was yummy, but I wouldn’t say particularly unusual in that aspect. I suppose it is better than standard “take out” style Japanese restaurant miso soup, which may be what MIL and BF are used to.
MIL had chosen the Big Eye Tuna Tempura roll ($17.50), which I have to say I was not not expecting to look like the above, nor did I expect that it would be very good. I envisioned something along the lines of a shrimp tempura roll – a chunk of tuna tempura’d, then rolled into a standard sushi roll. This was not the case! Something closer to tuna tartar, shaped around asparagus stalks, had been tempura’d before being rolled in a thin seaweed sheet. It was surprisingly good (surprising to me); it looked cold but when I bit into it, it was slightly warm. The textural contrasts made for a yummy roll, plus the sauce around the plate, a ginger ponzu reduction, brightened up the entire flavor. I enjoyed this very much.
Rock shrimp tempura with ponzu ($20) were BF’s choice; bouncy and cooked to perfection with a light breading, these were flavored well, and as expected, delicious. Citrusy from the ponzu, the only minor complaint would be that this dish wasn’t quite as crispy as I’d have liked/expected/wanted.
I’ve mentioned before how trendy miso black cod is, but what I failed to mention is that not only is it actually Nobu’s signature dish – he invented it. This is the origin of all the rip offs, the copies, the imtations.
Words (almost) fail.
(If you clicked on the link above, you’ll see that I actually haven’t had miso cod at Morimoto yet. But that will change shortly.)
This broiled black cod with miso ($26)… The skin was crispy, the fish mild and moist, overall delicious. Miso permeated the entire piece of fish but gently, fleetingly, so with each bite, you sought that slight nutty sweetness. If I were to be known for one dish, this would be that dish. If I were to be known for just one thing… I could be happy knowing it was this. The balance of delicate flavors, the combination, everything was just completely right. Amazing and wonderful. It was a rare moment that I was thankful BF doesn’t eat fish; as such, he left it to MIL and I to eat this. I could eat 5 plates of this alone. I need to attempt my own rendition. I will get it. Oomph.
But no, this was not what inspired the quote I teased you with in the beginning. Obviously, since I knew this dish existed and that quote says, “Better than I could have ever imagined, because never in my wildest dreams did I dare imagine this would exist.” Keep reading.
As I mentioned before, we’d each opted to also order our own entrees. MIL went with the tempura dinner ($28), and received the above. Great presentation, but in my opinion, I felt it was nothing unusual. There were a few items I don’t believe she was used to seeing tempura-style – slices of (white) potato, a stalk of asparagus, green pepper, seaweed… I know she enjoyed her meal.
BF ordered the tenderloin of beef with teriyaki sauce ($35) – are you surprised? He enjoyed it very much and said it was good, very tender and flavorful. I tried a piece and was surprised by the texture – I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely not the same cut of meat that is normally used for beef teriyaki (obviously, as the name states…). It was seasoned well and cooked exactly to his specification of medium rare.
I ordered the sashimi dinner ($34), and was not surprised to discover that every fish included was nothing unusual, very run of the mill for a sashimi platter. Salmon, tuna, Pacific clam, hamachi (yellowtail), fluke, and what I believe was skipjack/bonito (the fish in the center?). Everything was fresh and delicious, but not unique. I enjoyed my platter of sashimi.
Though we were all pretty full, we decided looking at the dessert menu couldn’t hurt… Unfortunately, MIL (who is a diabetic) asked about the fresh fruit available, and none of it was on the OK list for her to consume.
Personally, I was torn. The tofu cheesecake – I don’t like cheesecake, but have had good experiences with tofu cheesecake in the past, and Asian pear dumplings sound fantastic. Nobu beer ice cream parfait – I don’t like beer but that sounds really interesting. (Ok, I knocked that one off the list pretty quickly.) Warm bittersweet chocolate soup – chocolate soup sounds like not-up-my-alley, but peanut butter crunch, chocolate mochi (I have a weakness for mochi anything, really), and yamomo (which I love) mascarpone (main ingredient in my favorite dessert, tiramisu) ice cream?! Yummm? And then there was the bento box, which… come on! It says bento! It was almost destiny!
But then I got to mochi ice cream. Part of me was like “I haven’t had mochi ice cream in so long!” and the other part was like, “Are you retarded? It’s $10 and probably 2, maybe 3 pieces of mochi ice cream; you can get a box of 6 for $3.50 at the supermarket tomorrow if you really want it. Don’t be an idiot.”
I told BF my thoughts, and he said “Get whatever you like,” but then amended “Well maybe you should get something interesting because we’re here, you know?” I agreed. I knew this. But. I. REALLY. wanted. mochi. ice. cream. I’m not really one to deny myself in a situation like this. BUT. BENTO. I was all set to get the bento, but after MIL had quizzed the waitress on the fruit selection and the waitress had to go back and check for her, I made up my mind to at least ask what flavors of mochi they had.
The waitress responded, “Vanilla… strawberry… and [mumble mumble ss-something].”
“I’m sorry, what was that last thing?”
“Ss-mumble mumble cara-mumble.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you!” Normally I’d give up at this point. But… it sounded like she said… no… I’ve never…
“Salted caramel.”
Holy f*ck Fatgirl! Hold onto your shirt because your heart is about to leap through.
I haven’t mentioned it here because it hasn’t come up I guess, but a while back, I had a piece of salted caramel (candy) and was like, wow, that’s good. A few months later, Starbucks came out with a salted caramel hot chocolate (drink), and I happened to go into Starbucks with SpB (who is addicted to Starbucks; I don’t go to Starbucks on a regular basis or at all), and I tried that after hearing StB talk about it… well, you could say that the rest was history, except since I don’t go to Starbucks and I didn’t realize it was a seasonal/limited engagement drink, I only ordered it one more time after that and it wasn’t as good as that first time. But let’s just say, it put me on a real salted caramel spin and I’ve talked about that flavor combination up and down with BF before.
So when he returned to the table after I’d ordered dessert, and I explained to him excitedly ordering mochi ice cream, he understood completely.
So first came his kabocha duo ($11); caramelized kabocha pudding with candied pumpkin seeds, kabocha cake with creme fraiche ice cream and caramel apples. I tried to explain to him what kabocha was (having seen it on various food blogs before), but it was hard since I don’t have much experience with actually eating it. He liked it enough and said it was similar to pumpkin, but he didn’t love it nor rave about it. It was good but not fantastic, is probably how he’d put it.
Next came my mochi ice cream, salted caramel ($10). The waitress had seemed amused when I said immediately after her telling me salted caramel, “I’LL TAKE THAT,” but still asked if I wanted an assortment or … and I just cut in and bubbled, “All salted caramel, please!” I even shared half of one with BF (who declined my offer of his taking another; I think he saw how much I was enjoying it).
Let me just say again.
Better than I could have ever imagined, because never in my wildest dreams did I dare imagine this would exist.
You see, never did I put these two things together in my head. How do I explain how this felt? Ok, so here goes: I’ve been searching for Earl Grey creme brulee for a few years now (and I know, it exists at a handful of high end restaurants around the city), but that was something I randomly pulled in my head to cobble together, and then Google’d and found on menus around the city. So it’s almost like if I went to a restaurant and had a great meal, then was handed the dessert menu and found out that Earl Grey creme brulee was available. But it’s better than that, because you see, I imagined/envisioned Earl Grey already, it’s already a reality in my head, I know it exists. I know it’s possible.
But I never knew, I never thought, my mind never put these items together.
Salted caramel + mochi + ice cream.
Oh. my. stars.
Mochi, in case you aren’t familiar, is a doughy sheet made from rice, and is slightly chewy with a lot of give. Mochi ice cream is ice cream that’s been wrapped in a layer of this, and biting through the mochi to feel the cold ice cream melting on your tongue is a delightful textural experience. (You know how I love my textures in food!) I’ve had vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and mango mochi ice cream before, and they’re all quite yummy (I have a preferred brand, but I forget the name right now, I just know how the box looks). It’s a fun little snack and since they come in individual portions, it’s almost perfect for portion control and a little treat.
But this mochi ice cream was even better than that, because in addition to the contrasting textures, you had perfectly contrasting flavors. The caramel-y ice cream was not cloyingly sweet or heavy, as caramel can be; it didn’t overwhelm your tongue with sugar. The salt was slight and just balanced the caramel perfectly; I believe most of the salt flavor was in the mochi part, making the mochi slightly salty/savory (which, my understanding is, some people eat mochi in a savory application, though I personally have not had the pleasure). The combination of salt & caramel is excellent alone; but to use it for mochi ice cream was a pure stroke of inspiration and genius. I am beginning to understand what it means to be a culinary genius. I was suitably awed and silenced at this point in the meal.
Though I regrettably did not take a picture of the mochi’s cross section, I assure you that this would appear house-made, as there was a portion of the mochi that was slightly thicker in one area. I’m not sure if this flavor is always on the menu, but if it is when you go there, it would be sheer folly for you to not order it. Just… get it. It’s the perfect end to any meal – if you didn’t like your meal, it washes the bad taste of spending too much on a meal for something you didn’t like right out, and if you did enjoy your meal, it just makes it better.
Yvo says: We had great service; the atmosphere was lovely; the decor and ambiance are great as well. Dinner for the three of us with a drink each and a nice tip came out to a little over $300. It isn’t cheap but by ordering wisely, you could probably pay a lot less and be happy with what you got. But my focus is actually going to be the food: while there were some dishes that were completely ordinary and not worth their exorbitant prices (namely, our three entrees), and a dish that was good but not what I thought it should be (the oysters), there are a ton of items on the menu that sound interesting enough that they are worth a try. The overall is that I enjoyed the entire meal greatly and would not mind going back to try more things on the menu, though the black cod would definitely be ordered again (as would the salted caramel mochi ice cream). It wasn’t all hype as I am always afraid trendy/ish places may turn out to be. The food that we ordered was sincerely well executed and delicious.
highly recommended
A note about how weird I am: it almost pains me to give such a high rating to Nobu because of its trendy connotation and all the hype surrounding this place. I almost hate to agree with much of the hype because that’s the kind of person I am. But you know, I did enjoy my food and am not going to lie about that. I would not mind going back one bit. So really, my writing such a glowing review of this place means that I really genuinely liked it. Believe me! Haha.
danny says
that salted caramel mochi ice cream thing sounds like heaven… have you seen any other flavors in super markets besides vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and green tea?
Rochelle says
I loved this post. And am SO glad I’m about to eat dinner .. you seriously made me hungry with your descriptions. It sounds like a great night. 🙂 That cod .. oh my god. (Hehe I rhymed)