ISO: Foie Gras Sushi - Manhattan

[ssl5b]

hakata tonton is the only place i've found that serves foie gras sushi, which i found to be lacking. anyone know if any of the "established" sushi houses serve this kind of sushi?

thanks.

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Hakata TonTon
61 Grove Street, New York, NY 10014

[cgh]

if you travel to DC, be sure to visit Kaz Sushi Bistro. Kaz does a plum wine infused foie gras sushi that is divine. The rest of the menu is great, too. I used to live in the area, and miss it now that I've moved away. Thanks for asking this question. I plan to check out some of the suggestions.

[sgordon]

It's not sushi, but one of Morimoto's signature dishes is his "Oysters Foie Gras" - cold briny oysters topped with a hot seared cube of foie gras, then topped again by a creamy blob of Uni.

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Morimoto
88 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

[kosmose7]

I loved it! At first I was a bit skeptical about the foie gras and uni combination, but as soon as I tasted it.. Wow!

[ssl5b]

that does look great. is that available a la carte or off his omakase?

what's stopping him from throwing some caviar, lardo, and quail eggs on that too!?!? haha

[kosmose7]

Yes, you can order it a la carte for $21.

Btw, Morimoto does have an appetizer with caviar LOL. It's called toro tartare for $31, which is accompanied by osetra caviar, dashi soy sauce, wasabi, sour cream, seaweed paste, chive, avocado puree, and rice crackers.

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Morimoto
88 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

[ssl5b]

wow. such decadence is almost, at least in my mind, un-japanese.

[sgordon]

I'm actually not a fan of his tartares - they're a bit mushy. Last time I had one they'd used O-Toro, which was a shame since the whole POINT of O-Toro is the beautiful texture - chop it into little pieces and it could be any tuna at that point (kind of the same problem as those who use Kobe for burgers, etc)

But yeah, the OFG is OMFG for sure.

I've never seen it in the omakase, but then I never order the omakase anymore - I prefer to make-my-own multi course meal there by picking and choosing - you can do it for the same price and have a pretty extensive feast.

[kathryn]

Agreed, the presentation is great, and it does taste good, but it was difficult to discern any difference in tuna quality that way.

[kosmose7]

You are right. It isn't as tasty as otoro chunk, but I think they use cuts and corners of otoro (or even some chu toro may have been added to it too), not a whole chunk of otoro, to prepare the tartare. Perhaps that's why the price is relatively reasonable for such a generous amount of toro plus caviar. Japanese traditional chopped toro with green onions (called negitoro), is prepared that way too. An economical way to enjoy toro.

[Silverjay]

Seriously doubt they are mincing up actual pieces of chu or o-toro. So traditionally the "toro" in negitoro does not refer to the cut of the fish itself, but rather the method by which it is removed. The meat is usually collected by scrapping the spine (meat itself is usually called naka ochi) . It can also be bits scraped off of other bones and sometimes fatty meat scraped from close to the skin. The meat is usually finely minced to almost a paste. But even chu- and o-toro do not really describe a specific part of the anatomy and at this point just refers to "fatty", so I don't think it's disingenuous to call the meat in that tartar dish just toro. Well anyway, your very fine photo looks like a pimped out version of negi-toro, which Morimoto seems to have creatively and alliteratively, opted to call Toro Tartar.

[kosmose7]

Negitoro can be prepared by either 1. chopping cuts and corners of toro that are too small pieces to be served as sashimi or sushi, or 2. scrapping out the meat on bones (中落ち) as you said.

These days, however, some restaurants or izakayas in Japan chop up cheaper 'kihada maguro' or 'bincho maguro' and add vegetable oil and food coloring to make fatty negitoro too, whereas upscale restaurants still follow the traditional way. So it all depends on the restaurants.

[Silverjay]

Yeah, I read the Japan wiki too....Some places will actually serve it from a pastry bag type of thing where the just squeeze out portions. Kind of cheap and nasty...Places that usually serve bits of leftover sushi and sashimi are serving it in small portions as leftovers in makizushi..... Scale of Morimoto would seem to be from bones, etc. I'm not sure anyone could really tell that much difference once eating it anyway.

[kosmose7]

After reading your comment, I searched Yahoo Japan and found this page: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8D%E3%82%AE%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD
Is this what you were referring to? (^^*

)

It is widely known fact in Japan that lots of restaurants prepare negitoro using cheap ingredients. This page illustrates how to prepare'real' negitoro.
http://temaeitamae.2-d.jp/top/t7/a/tuna.6.html

Obviously fake negitoro is quite popular in Japan, but some upscale restaurants in Japan still scrap meat from bones and skin, or chop up cuts and corners of real toro and serve it as gunkan maki or negitoro don.

Speaking of 'fake', there even exists fake salmon roe (ikura):
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~NX5H-AKYM/ikura/jinzo_ikura.htm

Fake ikura is widely sold at restaurants or supermarkets in Japan so you have to be careful:
http://dadadadadancho.blog114.fc2.com...

[Silverjay]

Yes, we did a whole negitoro discussion as part of a sushi thread on General Topics a few years ago. At some sushi shops, you can sometimes see the younger itamae scrapping meat between lunch and dinner service, even here in NYC.

[sgordon]

At Kanoyama they do a dish - I can't remember the name - where they give you the meat on the bone to scrape yourself. Then when you're finished, they take the bones and grill them up extra-crispy and bring them back. Yum!

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Kanoyama
175 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

[foodwhisperer]

They do Giant Bluefin Tuna ribs, where you scrape the raw tuna meat, and you get like a tuna tartare. then they broil the ribs or grill them and you get cooked tuna ribs.
Speaking of different dishes, i love a dish called toriwasa ( raw chicken) which I've had several times in Japan. I wonder if it's legal here, and if anyone makes it.
Oh, I also had Bluefin Eye, socket and eyeball at Kanoyama

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Kanoyama
175 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

[sgordon]

Good points, all, above and below - I hadn't really thought it was probably "scrap" otoro that was going into it. That said, I still would have likely preferred it with regular toro, or at least not minced so finely. I think I'm just kind of burnt on tartares like that, nearly the texture of applesauce. I want a little texture.

[ssl5b]

love the breadth of knowledge presented by the people of this forum.

[Silverjay]

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I used to eat negitoro nearly every single day at one point in my life. I used to have my own method to trick it out.....How was this particular rendition with all the funky options?

[kosmose7]

And I am not exaggerating when I say I used to eat negitoro and otoro nearly every day at one point in my life. I used to have minor symptom of alopecia areata and I was on a 'tuna, hikarimono fish, seaweed' diet, eating otoro and honmaguro akami as well as negitoro almost every day, all flown from Tsukiji. :)

[kathryn]

Gari or Sushi of Gari maybe? I had it at the UWS one, but years ago.

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Gari
370 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024

[foodwhisperer]

Sushi of Gari still has foie gras sushi. Even though I prefer traditional sushi, once in awhile I do enjoy Sushi of Gari, and the foie gras sushi is one of my favorite things they have there

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Gari
370 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024

[ssl5b]

thanks for the update! ill definitely check it out then. is it possible to order it a la carte? or is it only provided through the omakase course?

like foodwhisperer said, i'd prefer to spend omakase money on 15 east...

[kosmose7]

Wasan has foie gras sushi too. Nicely vinegared sushi rice and pan fried foie gras with strawberry balsamic vinegar glaze on top, all these on a bed of crispy endive. I have tried foie gras sushi here and there, but this was one of better ones.

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Wasan
108 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

[uwsister]

Man, gotta say that sounds amazing.

I've had it at Gari as well, though I haven't been there in years - not a huge fan of their style, but the foie gras sushi was good. The best I've had was at O Ya in Boston, but I know that doesn't help the OP.

[ssl5b]

great! just checked their menu and it's available a la carte. definitely going to try it. thanks!

[kathryn]

Nice, kind of reminds me of the amazing Uchi in Austin, who serves hot seared foie gras nigiri with a drizzle of teriyaki sauce and a few grains of crunchy, candied quinoa, for textural contrast. Wasan's whole style seems a little similar to Uchi, down to the steak cooked on a hot rock. It's definitely going on my list...

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Wasan
108 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

[ssl5b]

thanks for everyone's help so far. definitely going to wasan in december, along with 15 east and kyo ya. then ill just report my credit card stolen. just kidding...i think..

[sam1]

wasan was a lot better when it was byob.

that said, get the hamachi collar if they have it.

[ssl5b]

tried wasan a few weeks back and had the foie gras sushi. definitely good but wasnt super memorable. i actually cant really recall how it tasted or looked, but i do remember being satisfied.

overall, the restaurant was good. kind of a home-style feeling for a lot of the food. will definitely return.

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Wasan
108 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

[kosmose7]

Glad you liked it. Wasan is not in the same league as Kyo Ya or 15 East, but is has a variety of menu that is fairly well executed at its own level. (That said, I am not fully satisfied with any Japanese fine dining restaurant in New York city, not even with Kyo Ya or 15 East, although they are better ones here).

I just hope Wasan will change their menu more often so that I could visit it more frequently. :)

[ssl5b]

yeah, i definitely agree with 15 east but i tried kyo ya's set menu and wasn't very impressed. based on price, i'd rather go to wasan again. part of the problem was probably because i went to kyo ya on a sunday...the a la carte items did look good though.

i did love the bathroom at kyo ya.