Summer solstice, heat waves and eating refreshing sushi go hand in hand for me.  Oh and minimal cooking on my part.  I had recently drooled over food photos posted on potatomato’s blog on their trip to Asanebo.

 

I had been there years ago with my brother, Bruce and his friend Charles while Bruce was visiting from SF.  Admittedly, there was a time when my foodie brother was informing ME about places to go and eat at in a town he didn’t even reside in.  Those places were more hole-in-the-walls, like Pink’s and Roscoe’s but he also knew his fair share of other spots.  Having lunched at Asenebo about 5 years ago, I was reminded by the blog photos about how wonderful everything was and convinced a couple other friends to come with me this weekend.

 

We ventured to Ventura Blvd. in Studio City for the ever famous strip mall fine dining in LA. The Prius temperature reading was climbing to 93˚ at 7pm PST.  Ugh.  There’s nothing I hate more than eating when I’m hot.  Wan was buying tickets for the Ting Ting’s on his iphone and I was giving everyone the omakase pep talk.  You see, tastings as well as omakase (chef’s recommendations) usually require that everyone in the party participate.  All or nothing.  I love this extremist attitude. The pep talk actually started at my place while we had our pre-dinner aperitif made with the new ginger liqueur, Canton.  More on that later.

 

This strip mall spot has a Michelin Star- the same accolade awarded to restaurants such as Spago’s, Sona, Ortolan and Matsuhisa in the Los Angeles area.  Of course being a food extremist that I am, I jotted down some notes about must-have dishes and we dove head first into the omakase, level B, for four at the sushi bar.  Aside from Jen not eating shrimp or uni (no comment) or mackarel, we made it very, very, very clear to our “hot chef”, as indicated on his biz card, Shige Fujimoto, that the rest of us participate in all things edible, the more exotic the better.  Some things I had read about that I was keeping my fingers crossed on were the Kagoshima beef, the truffles and halibut , the seaweed salad with uni and the marinated Kohada ‘braided’ sushi.  

 

 

sunomono course 

 

To liven things up we ordered some large Asahi’s and a bottle of unfiltered sake, which we generously shared with our sushi chefs.  I think it worked, though unfiltered sake is too sweet in my opinion and not my cold sake of choice.  I pick my battles, just happy that we all went with omakase. In any case, we were all having a grand old time, exchanged restaurants to go to in Tokyo with the chefs, and had some good laughs.  We had a total of 12 courses, if you count the fresh seaweed soup we finished with. No room at all for desert.  

chef Azumi having fun making our delicious meal 

 

Wan and I agreed that our favorite course was course number four, The Golden Eye snapper seared with a torch and smoked with cedar wood with boiled endive and what our chef, Taketoshi Azumi called “special Japanese sauce”  aka dashi, house made of course.  The smokiness of the fish was so delicate and paired nicely with the cleanliness of the dashi.  Quite an exquisite dish and flavors that were entirely new to me.  Of course, Stephen couldn’t quite remember this dish since our neighbor at the sushi counter was talking to him about standard poodles.  I was so glad I was able to stay focused on my food and remained oblivious to small talk that had nothing to do with what was set in front of me. 

 

 

 chef Fujimoto showing us the King Crab

 

Jen had requested I post a recap of our meal today since she couldn’t quite remember what we had. I did take meticulous notes and asked our chef about several things to the point that he was imitating me and joking with us,  I didn’t expect to get such a large amount of dishes and cannot wait to go again.  Sitting at the bar is the only way to go to sushi in my opinion. Omakase comes in 3 levels here.  You can choose from a)$80-100, b)$100-125, and c)$125-200. This kind of eating is guilt free in the caloric world as it is light and uplifting.  We were definitely on a sushi high.  As much as I love rich food, the richness in this meal came out in the subtle balance of traditional and new flavors.

 

 

 

Please read on for a list of the omakase we had.  The photos are posted in order of how we had each dish. Every omakase is different depending on availability of ingredients and caters to the preferences of the customer so be sure to tell them ahead of time about likes, loves, dislikes and “I must have it or I’m gonna leave angry” items.  I was very vocal, as usual, and being the youngest of three kids in my family, I usually get my way.  To my dismay, they had run out of the marinated kohada about 30 minutes before we arrived, but aside from this, I left very happy.  One more reason to go back in the near future.  Reason number two would be to try the uni steamed with special salt water.  Chef Fujimoto was preparing it for someone else in the restaurant and we were so curious he offered us a tasting by telling us to put out our “paw”.  He took his elegant, long chef chopsticks, reached over and placed a morsel of the steamed uni on each of the backsides of our  panda “paws”.  The texture was tight and firm.  It was like uni that had done pilates.  I will dream of this till my next visit.

 

 

Couse 1:  Spinach Salad with portobello mushrooms, fried onions and fresh snow crab, finished with fresh Japanese lime aka yuzu.

 

Couse 2: Seafood stick- filled with shrimp, white fish and shisho leaf, with spicy Japanese salsa of shallots, ponzu and orange juice.

 

Course 3: Sunomono, traditional vinegared cucumber dish topped with mountain yam and fresh water eel (unagi).

 

 

 

Course 4: My Favorite dish of the night:  Golden eye snapper seared with a torch and smoked with cedar wood with boiled endive and dashi broth. The fish was from Japan.

 

 

Course 5:  This was our sashimi landscape, beautifully plated with red snapper, tuna and hamachi.  The drizzled sauce is a miso wasabi and was then dusted with yuzu as well. 

 

Course 6:  Seared king scallops, fresh from Mexico.  As you all should know after Spike’s fiasco on Top Chef, previously frozen scallops are a big no no.  The problem is, is that the home chef like you or me cannot seem to find them fresh.  If anyone knows where to get them, let me know.  The meat of frozen ones is not firm and is very watery.  The ones we had her were meaty and sweet.  The Dish was finished with Hawaiian rock salt.

 

 

 

Course 7: Kampachi yellowtail from Japan.  There are several kinds of yellowtail in Japan.  This one I was told was less oily and lighter as well as translucent in appearance and was served with micro-arugula and topped with a drop of sesame miso and serranco pepper slices standing upright.  clever.

 

 

 

 

Course 8: This is a runner up for another favorite of mine.  After our taste buds had caught the huge ocean swell, we came upon this dish of kagoshima beef, black beef from Japan, and chilean sea bass both marinated in miso and served in mini lettuce cups. Kagoshima is known as the best of black beef.  Somewhere in there i heard them say best of kobe, but after some research online it is not true kobe, but a different breed of beef.  We were told to use our hands and roll them up like taquitos.  I started with the beef.  It was divine.  Tender and flavorful, with a slight bit of sweetness, just writing about is is making my mouth water.  The sea bass was delicious and the fattiness of both fillings served in the crisp lettuce was a nice complement.

 

 

 

Course 9:  Escaveche of sweet shrimp (amaebi) with sweet mirin jalapeno sweet vinegar.  I think.  This is where my writing in my notebook became less and less legible. Basically, it was a tempura battered sweet shrimp with the head.  I ate the head and tail.  They were so accomodating they made Jen the same course with white fish instead.  

 

 

Course 10:  Grilled fresh snow crab.  The fresh crab meat was so meaty and firm and sweet.  Not like anything I’ve had.  Also fresh from Japan.  I cannot wait to go to Japan in September.

 

 

Course 11:  The sushi course.  I forgot to inquire why the sushi course comes last. Does anyone know?  We were served from top left, amber jack, hmmmm, Chilean seasonal salmon, uni (yay!), lightly seared bonito with ponzu jelly and garlic chip, fresh albacore from Japan.

 

 

 

Course 12:  A hot fresh seaweed soup with tofu.  I was so full but this may have been the best soup I have had.  There was only the light flavor or broth and was not overpowered with miso.

 

As we got up to leave and said our good byes, they were not letting us off so easy.  They made Jen finish her full glass of beer.  hehe.  Good times.

 

Asanebo

11941 Ventura Blvd.

Studio City, CA 91604

(818) 760-3348

 

Reservations recommended.  Bar can be requested but is first come first serve.

Planning to be open 7 days a week soon, I was told, but for now hours are:

Tue-Thu 12pm-2pm and 6pm-10:30pm

Fri 12pm-2pm and 6pm-11:30pm

Sat 6pm-11:30pm

Sun 6pm-10pm 

 

Good to know there’s a great sushi place open on Sundays.