omakase

i don’t remember where or when i first had sushi. it might have been hana at the foot of parnassus hill or somewhere down near stanford. either way, i’m pretty sure i’m the first in my family to try it. my parents don’t understand why someone would pay for a meal that the restaurant didn’t even have to cook. “i can buy a whole fish for what they charge for just one piece,” my mom would complain. “plus,” she said as a way of ending the discussion, “you’ll catch parasites.”

since then, of course, sushi had become, at least in major cities, as ubiquitous as pizza and burger. even my neighborhood gristede’s now offers little containers of california rolls garnished with lime-green pieces of plastic seaweed.

the problem, however, is that more is usually less. like chinese, italian, or other ethnic cuisine that made its way into main street, usa, quality varies greatly depending on where you eat. in new york, where it’s not unusual for the subject of best sushi to elicit the same passion typically reserved for baseball or fashion, you could easily have militant devotees of say, nobu, squaring off with equally rabid fans of yasuda like the hatfields and the mccoys.

while i have not even come close to sampling all the supposedly top sushi joints in the city, i do have a few favorites. in general, i tend to shun loud, trendy places like nobu and yasuda for relatively inexpensive, no nonsense places like tomoe in the village, where the focus is on fish not frills.

i can’t remember how daphne and i discovered kurumazushi, a small family establishment located on the second floor of a nondescript building just off 5th ave on 47th st, but it has become our place for celebrations, including daphne’s birthday last week.

one of the most memorable meals we’ve had at kurumazushi was on our first anniversary. instead of ordering from the menu at one of eight tables as we had before, we decided to sit at the counter and entrust our palates to owner/master chef toshihiro uezu by going omakase.

what followed was a delirious parade of seafood that was striking in both texture and flavor, including amaebi (sweet shrimp), ankimo (monkfish liver), otoro (fatty tuna belly), hamachi (young yellowtail), buri toro (fatty yellowtail), inada (very young yellowtail), kani (real crab meat), nama-saba (fresh raw mackerel flown in from japan), and uni (sea urchin eggs). i’m sure there were more but after the first 15 minutes, daphne and i were like two addicts, eyes glazed and mouths agape, unable to acknowledge anything other than the kaleidoscopic tastes of the briny gems that uezu-san was feeding us.

the bill did snap us out of our sushi-induced stupor - $500, by far the most expensive meal we’ve ever had – but only briefly. daphne felt guilty for being so decadent. i can usually hold my own when it comes to guilt, but even i was surprised that i was actually ok with it, and only worried for a minute about how we were going to pay the rent next month. it was such an extraordinary meal that i saw it as an investment in a special experience, as well as something that paralleled what i was doing with my label at the time.

i’ve always seen running a record label as an extreme form of record collecting. having amassed over 20,000 12 inches, lps, and cds since high school, the impulse to find and own all kinds of music has become as natural a part of my daily existence as eating and drinking. it is an unending quest for quality and diversity that not only speaks to a love of music but also the rich emotional content it helps bring to my life. from this perspective, there is little difference between say, picking up a copy of the original tommy boy promo of “the motorcade sped on” by steinski for 10 bucks or talking kurtis into assembling a new “king of the beats”-type collage for a grand, except for the sticker price.

in other words, being an a+r is about being a purveyor of taste, the one who senses and understands how a piece of music could resonate with a specific audience. some of the best a+r i know, gladys pizzaro of strictly rhythm or brian long, who helped launched astralwerks, for instance, are able to serve up music that are both historically aware and determinedly forward-looking, leveraging the familiar into the new.

so when uezu-san served us the sublimely delicate sweet shrimp or the buttery otoro, he’s really educating our palates and redefining and expanding our understanding and appreciation for sushi and sashimi. he’s our guide to one of those experiences that make life worth living. at $500, it’s a steal.

b from fsol turned me on to “sushi bar” by vangelis many years ago. it is taken from the soundtrack for “bladerunner,” (atlantic, 1994) perhaps my favorite sci-fi flick of all time. i was introduced to b by riz (aka small fish with spine, neotropic), who turned in “opium den” on the “ultimate sushi” album she did with me. it’s richness in sonic details rewards repeated listening and suggests the buzz that comes with quality seafood, among other things. leo’s sunship was basically marvin gaye’s session band. i got their “madam butterfly” from kon + amir’s “uncle junior's fish fry – the cleaning” compilation (uncle junior, 2004). it goes well with lizz wright’s bluesy take on ric marlow + bobby scott’s “tastes like honey” from her “dreaming wide awake” release (verve forecast, 2005).

Posted by cellpharmer at December 30, 2005 10:57 PM