Tophat665

So this weekend my baby cousin Doctor Cindy got married in Massatuchits (sic) and wife and I hauled the spawn north to see their cousins for the first ever. Now, my folks have graciously allowed our pygmy pagans to stay with them for the week and wear themselves threadbare in the lake all day, and Ange and I had to head back to NoVA and our respective salt mines. However, on the way, we so arranged it that we could stay over in Philthydelphia, and, by dint of practices of which the New Joisey state highway patrol would be sure to disapprove of, we made the trip from Connecticut to Philly in 5 hours, arriving 3 minutes early for our reservations at <a href="http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/">Morimoto</a>.

If you are familiar with the original Iron Chef, you'll be familiar with Matsaharu Morimoto, but, if not, what can I say? He's gifted.

So, here's what I had for dinner:
First course: Toro (tuna belly) tartare with crispy shallots topped with caviar in a daishi/soy sauce with fresh wasabi and a Japanese mountain peach (the size of my smallest toe) accompanied by champagne (Forgive me that I didn't memorize the wines - it was very loud, and I'd rather spend my brainpower learning about beer than wine.)

Second Course: Three raw oysters on the half shell (served on a truncated pyramid of shaved ice with an orchid as garnish). One had fish sauce and a sliver of jalape&ntilde;o, one with Japanese Salsa, and the last with some sort of spicy yuzo preparation. All quite good, very clever and subtle.

Third Course: Thinly sliced scallop ceviche in a spicy sesame oil sauce with more yuzo. Accompanied with a nice, fruity Chardonnay.

Fourth Course: Tuna Pastrami (pastrami cured tuna) and dried bonito with chrysanthemum petals over "micro greens" - which appeared to be high grade field greens, or, as I call them, weeds, and thin slices of some translucent white vegetable - with a creamy yuzo vinaigrette. This came with a sake martini - junmai sake and premium vodka with three slices of a tiny cucumber. This was probably may least favorite dish, but even so was incredibly well judged. The bitter and musty flavors of the greens set off the dried fish and peppery flavors in the fish and they all melded nicely with the grassy, cilantro like sourness of the vinaigrette, and the bitter notes picked up nice echoes in the mid grade sake and high grade vodka. And those little cukes were delicious.

Fifth Course: Intermission - a scoop of raspberry/wasabi sorbet.

Sixth course: Half a (small) roasted lobster with creme freche for dipping, with french carrot, broccoli, and a single asparagus spear. Interestingly enough this was accompanied by a hugely peppery pinot noir.

Seventh Course: Over three small potatoes, a slice of briefly seared Kobe beef topped with a piece of sauteed fois gras, in a meat broth kind of a sauce that really defies description. In one sweel foop I get to check off two items from the "do before you die" list. (Now if only a threesome could have been arranged...) This came with an excellent Australian Shiraz that was beyond my palate to fully appreciate (I could tell it was good, but I couldn't really tell you how good or why). I suspect that, had I not been so intent on the food that I had had a few sips while eating, I would have enjoyed all of it more, which could have involved changing my trousers. This was really phenomenal.

Eighth course, Sushi: Unagi: Broiled freshwater eel - Like eel flavored butter on rice; Mirugai - Giant Clam - something I have never enjoyed in the past, but which was perfect here; Aji - Spanish Mackerel; Hirame - Fluke fin; Hamachi - Yellow tail; Toro - Tuna Belly - Exquisite. All with very lightly pickled ginger and fresh grated real wasabi. They served this with a glass of the Junmai Ginjo (premium filtered) Sake specially brewed for the restaurant. This was light and full of tropical fruit tastes, with only a hint of bitterness in the back.

Ninth Course - Dessert: Now, I don't know what they actually called this. It was a small, lightly sweetened chocolate cake, perhaps two inches across and the same tall. Also, a small amount of spiced apple puree (applesauce!) three candied almonds, a small sugar wafer, and a scoop of white miso ice cream (very like a cheesecake icecream). Taken all together, it was excellent and very very clever. This came with a different, sweeter champagne.

To wrap it all up and to compare with their ginjo sake, I had a glass of the daiginjo (super premium), which was so smooth as to feel almost like the memory of a beverage. It was mindblowingly good - slightly dry with black current and licorice notes.

All in all, the best meal I have ever had by an order of magnitude (and easily the most expensive, but worth it.)

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