L.A. Regains a Sushi Master - Mori at Shiki Beverly Hills [Thoughts + Pics]

Hi @TheCookie,

Woo! Sounds like you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day with one of L.A.'s best sushi masters. :grin: The meal looks great even if it was “only” a prix fixe menu. Mori-san is just such an affable, nice itamae right? :slight_smile:

I will definitely have to try the Yanagi Sake next time, and so glad you loved the Japanese Mountain Peach bite (I still think about it from time to time!). :slight_smile:

And I’m so glad you got to try the Kohada, it’s really distinct and he prepares in a Jiro (“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”) method that he learned from the master. The bite next to the Kinmedai should be a type of Ika (Squid).

Great job on the report and thoughts.

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Hi @beefnoguy,

Ooh! The Yanagi is from the same brewer as Heiankyo? Nice! :slight_smile: We really enjoyed the Heiankyo Junmai Daigjinjo last time. :slight_smile:

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Sounds like a great meal. The ankimo tofu looks wonderful. PSA @TheCookie Torigai is in season, I think I prefer this over mirugai, very sweet

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Hi @beefnoguy -

We had to read this a few times. The knowledge flows with ease. Thanks, I was hoping you would add to my description. This was the first bottle that blew our minds. Yep… we’re on the road to delicious ruin.

Yes, Nanbu Bijin Daiginjo doesn’t seem easy to find without mail order. My cousin goes to Marukai. I’ve given her the task. We had a bottle of Plum Sake (Umeshu) in the fridge for a while. It was cooking wine quality. The liquid and plums (minced) are good in vinaigrette and marinades.

Still learning what qualities are good for sake/food pairing. Is there a general rule?

Well, high praise indeed.

There are more sake out there that could potentially have similar mind blowing effects!

What qualities are good for sake/food pairing? Great question and glad you asked.

There are no hard or fast rules for pairing sake with food (or vice versa). Overall, the more polished the rice in the sake, the lighter the flavor profile for food (e.g. Junmai Daiginjo sake generally would be better paired with white fleshed fish sashimi, raw oysters, lighter flavor / more delicate profile sushi, uni, sweet pristine shellfish, lobster etc). Otherwise you end up overwhelming the sake or there is lesser effect with pairing. Think of your types of white wine or lighter/medium bodied reds as a distant parallel as to what kind of food you would pair them with, including Japanese.

Lower polished sake like Honjozo and Junmai are more fuller bodied and have more flexibility with food in general, and can withstand some heating (e.g. warm sake) where if the right type is used with the proper heating technique, can produce wonderful results with certain food…contrary to popular belief, warm/hot sake is actually great with oily/greasy foods, including tempura. Certain traditionally made sake have far more structure and increased, yet balanced acidity…these can be far more bolder than casual drinkers can handle (including a profile some would deem “funk”)…e.g. sake made with Kimoto or Yamahai method where both involve the creation of lactic acid for fermentation naturally (thus taking twice as long as non traditional methods where starter yeast is added to speed up the fermentation process). The Kimoto method includes a step of using large fan like paddles to press and stir the mash (though some Kimoto are apparently “fake” Kimoto using machinery for stirring/pressing instead of by hand). The acidity and sometimes tartness associated with the traditional methods can be really enjoyable with particular foods designed to go with sake, including strong cheese that work great with Pinot Noir (e.g. Epoisse, Comte, sheep milk based cheese, or goat or blue), but also typical “otsumami” or snack bites to go with sake (e.g. shiokara/fermented squid in its own bile, takowasa (chopped octopus marinated in wasabi), konowata (pickled sea cucumber guts), and last but not least shuto (salted/fermented fish based guts, most typical are katsuo and maguro) which go great with cream cheese. Of course anything oily greasy could use some full bodied sake with acidity to clean it up/wash it down…yakitori or charcoal grilled anything comes to mind.

Junmai Ginjo have polish ratios between 50% to 60/70%, sometimes the line gets blurred…since by some definitions Junmai Daiginjo have a minimum polish ratio of 50%, but you also have Junmai Ginjo, Ginjo sake polished to 50% but are not labled as Junmai Daiginjo.

Sometimes you can get a vague idea of a sake’s profile once you have tasted enough, from taking a look at the specs. The polish ratio only matters to a certain degree…then you want to look at whether it is a dry/semi dry sake etc, and any characteristics/descriptions (you’d probably have to learn Japanese or kanji for this)…for example Mori’s bottle says “Houjun” on the Daiginjo label which roughly translates to mellow, but with it there’s some sort of dynamic/reference to aromatic but perhaps with some subtlety. There are sake with other characteristics such as karakuchi (leaning more dry), umakuchi (more umami in the profile), amakuchi (more fruit forward not just in the nose and initial attack) and unfortunately these tend to be on the Japanese label (sometimes distributors are lazy or they don’t translate all the information correctly). Then finally acidity and alcohol percentage, and any tasting notes from the distributor, vendor…and if you are super geeked out, tasting notes from Japanese websites for more accurate information to paint a bigger picture. And oh, last but not least, the prefecture of the sake brewery. If you taste enough sake from Niigata and Ishikawa (for example) you will know those have certain profiles that are different from sake from the west (Kobe/Hyogo, Kyoto, Hiroshima), and of course water from various regions that sometimes makes or breaks whether the sake is masculine or femine (e.g. more minerality vs softness via softwater). Super geeks will also try to find out the type of sake yeast used in the brewing process. Ultimately until you taste it, you won’t know if you will like it or not, but it helps to have a baseline knowledge, or have this in mind when you want to come up with your own optimal pairing scenario.

Bottom line, much like wine, it’s better to do as much actual tasting as you can and explore for yourself to come to your own determinations and preferences. Unfortunately sake tasting opportunities are too far and few in between, so actual hands on learning will require investing money, time, and patience, unlike with wine you can find wine shops that offer some tastings. Or if a restaurant offers sake pairing, give it a go. Or ask for recommendations from restaurants that are trustworthy and have a healthy turnover of stock (and seasonally rotates their sake menu). I encourage you (and others) to pick out some selections you feel comfortable with and try enjoying them at home with a variety of food, from American to Western to things like BBQ or non Japanese cuisines, pizza, pasta, taco trucks or fusion tacos, anything non Japanese really. Ultimately the best tasting grounds at least for me tend to be at izakaya where I trust that the food will work great, or even experiment with places like no corkage pop up eateries. Go have fun with it.

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Thanks @Chowseeker1999!

We talked about the board and how excited peeps are that he’s back and working again.

Happy :sushi: Eating!

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Hi @Sgee -

I will look out for Torigai!


Does the piece on the bottom right look like Mirugai?

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yes the bottom right looks like mirugai. was it sweet and crunchy?

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Yes and yes

bottom left looks like kanpachi

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Spring is generally the season for clams. Torigai is great, and beautiful, too. Mirugai is a favorite of mine, one of my top 5. Tairagai (“pen shell clam”) is scallop-esque, and is great with a little nori wrap (maybe as “tairagai no isobeyaki” to look like a mochi sandwiched in nori), Consider also baigai (“ivory shell”) aka sea snails, which are great when cooked “nibitashi” (braised in a sweet dashi-based broth) and eaten with a toothpick. They have a great chewy texture that is nice alongside hotaru ika (another Spring specialty) with su-miso sauce and some contrasting thin cucumbers.

I think these can even go well with some mild game or grilled meats. Consider maybe a grilled lamb chop kojizuke or even kalbi. They might even work slightly warmed if there’s some type of barbecue sauce.

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Okay good. I knew the general area. But figuring out Amberjack, Yellowtail, Kampachi, Kanpachi, Japanese Amberjack is still like “Who’s on First?” for me. It’s a bummer because we recently went to Aburiya Raku (again :relaxed:) and had the Sashimi Sampler (again :relaxed:), and they were excited to offer a not easily found species of one-of-the-above, but I couldn’t report on it because I’m confused and am loathe to repeadly ask the server to repeat his/herself.


Bottom right. Anyone?

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looks like kan-buri - winter yellowtail

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Yes!

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Sushi nomenclature can be confusing in part because it’s not always applied consistently. Also, there are different names for species in the same family, for different ages, and even slight regional variation in naming.

They’re all loosely referred to as yellowtail in some way or another.

With that said, kampachi refers to Hawaiian (I think it’s pretty much all in Kona, farmed) almaco jack, which is technically not the same as amberjack but it passes for it on some menus.

Kanpachi is “greater amberjack,” a different fish than almaco jack. It tends to have a slightly snappier texture compared to kampachi, in my experience.

Japanese amberjack is also a different species. This is the one which goes from hamachi to buri. I believe you can find this even in Hawaii, complicating this but “kampachi” is different.

Bottom line - just follow your trusted sushi chef for what’s in season.

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Certain sake could possibly work with some wild game, but in addition to being yamahai or kimoto, some aging to bring out some more robust flavors (in addition to acidity) so that it will hold up. At that point it becomes very much an acquired taste, like the blue cheese of sake. Kikuhime Yamahai Junmai is the prototypical style/genre that many other breweries aspire to achieve its profile and structure (I think aged one to two years in bottle at most), it’s one that I really like and I think it’s mostly available for ordering for the East Coast market (1.8L only) but you can find the 720 mL pretty easily in many 7-Eleven’s in Tokyo for cheap, and quite a few department stores across. The perfect izakaya sake and excellent warmed, especially with oden.
Another good one would be Shiokawa brewery’s Cowboy Yamahai Junmai Ginjo Genshu, that’s a lot more accessible (designed to go with beef, steak, greasy delicious grilled beef innards/horumon, and I’m sure can hold up against a buffalo or Venison without the gamey or funk feel from the sake itself)

A well structured Yamahai Muroka Nama Genshu (unfiltered, unpasteurized, undiluted) that is not just strong, but funky in a good way, high acidity, higher alcohol content, robust and well structured/balanced would also work well with gamey meats…and a good portion of these sake are seasonal winter releases. Junmai sake of that type are generally the best bets.

I need to try a good grill sake with American BBQ, BBQ sauce and smoked brisket sometime!

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Hi @BradFord -

I’m glad we cleared that up. :grimacing: But seriously - as much as I like Samplers and Omakase - I might order à la carte for a bit, to familiarize myself with each piece.

Thanks!

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When making a reservation, do you guys have to specifically request Mori-san, or if you just ask to be seated at the sushi bar, that is already assumed?

We specifically requested Mori-san.

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