Sushi aesthetes tend to have different signifiers that justify their lofty judgments on what makes a certain precious little bar, or restaurant, or lordly chef worth their time and money, especially these days when the city is overrun with endless expensive-omakase options. Maybe it’s the quality of the rice that keeps them coming back to the same little restaurant, or the perfect brittleness of the nori, or the texture of the uni and the fatty white-tuna belly as it slips down the back of your throat. At the posh new omakase spot,Noda— which opened, discreetly, a couple of months ago in a darkened, backdoor space in the Flatiron District — it was egg custard that the assorted big-money swells sitting around me at the bar couldn’t stop nattering about, and I have to admit, they had a point.
传统的Chawanmushi并不总是包含在镇上一些更激进的Omakase餐厅中，如果是，通常是事后想到的。蛋ust通常太流鼻涕或太硬或白垩苍白。这种chawanmushi是一个深gy的黄色，而不是太热或太冷，而是在室温下，在一个小玻璃杯中送达。打败的鸡蛋具有一道美味的菜肴的浓密而复杂的味道，融化了甜点的融化，令人满意的柔滑度。他们上面放着奥塞特拉鱼子酱，以表示有机会的感觉，以及北海道寒冷的水域中的一勺深橙色的uni，以宣布即将到来的食材的质量。
“现在，您可以在不飞14个小时的情况下品尝到东京的品尝一点，” Shinji Nohara说，他在烹饪痴迷的日本恐怖分中以东京的固定剂而闻名。诺哈拉（Nohara）在东京周围的野生动物园餐饮旅行中指导像我这样的飞机滞留记者，当他访问纽约时，通常是要陶醉于汉堡和玉米喂牛肉的汉堡，而不是寿司。但是两位年轻的餐馆老板贾斯汀·豪瑟（Justin Hauser）和戴维·赫斯（David Hess）说服了他对日本的一次访问，以帮助策划他们梦想中的omakase景点，他们一起说服了一位名叫Shigeyuki Tsunoda的年轻厨师寿司伊瓦in Tokyo, to pack up his set of pointy, glinting knives, and move with his entire team of assistants across the Pacific. This is not the standard migration route for most of the city’s vaunted sushi masters, many of whom work or train for a while in Japan, but don’t open their own restaurants until they arrive, and work for a bit, in the States. (Nohara points out that, likeMasa Takayamaand his acolytes who came from L.A., even our sushi god of the moment,纳川大道, ofJiro Dreams of Sushifame, worked elsewhere, in Seattle, before hitting Manhattan’s sushi scene.)
虽然h the polished little room at Noda looks an awful lot like a caricature of a young bond trader’s fantasy sushi den (the big-name designer, Ken Fulk, has installed violet cushioned chairs at the bar, among other baroque touches), my spare, 14-piece dinner had the focused, uncluttered feel of something you might encounter on a high-level sushi tour of one of the great sushi cities of Japan. After the chawanmushi, we watched Tsunoda construct a maki roll made with a single, long strip of silvery mackerel — which had been gently cured in vinegar in the classic, pre-refrigeration “edomae” style — and his signature brand of rice, which is unbleached, and treated with sake lees. There were fat grilled scallops served in little slips of toasted nori after that, and lustrous slices of monkfish liver, which had been softened for days in a mix of sake and soy sauce.
The nigiri sushi, when it appears, includes pats of delicately molded baby shrimp brushed with “proprietary” nikiri, and slices of esoteric “cherry” sea trout, which inhabit the tidal river estuaries of northern Hokkaido in the spring. There was yellowtail belly to go along with the usual tuna belly, and before dessert arrived, Tsunoda mixed up a batch of tuna tartare in a bowl, and handed everyone a final hand roll, like guests at a party.
Noda的晚餐费用为285美元，包括小费，这比您在Masaand some of the other top-dollar sushi temples around town — or even at upper-tier omakase parlors on the streets of Tokyo.* As is the high-roller custom, however, it’s possible to increase your bill drastically by delving into the impressive house selection of sake, Japanese whisky, and trophy European wine. To help facilitate this kind of consumption, Hauser and Hess (of the Hess Oil clan) convene everyone in the bar area for a drink before sitting down to dinner, and once you’re situated on your velvet-covered chair, you’ll find that the bar is gently curved, to encourage conversation. Is this something you’d see in the severe sushi temples of Japan? Of course not. Did your grumpy critic enjoy it? Actually, I sort of did, and if I can ever scrape together the necessary funds for a second taste of chef Tsunoda’s cooking, I might even be back.
*该帖子已更新，以反映以下事实：Nakazawa Sushi的Omakase菜单的价格低于Noda's。