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What are some of the failures of their test kitchen?
Went to Shunji this weekend and confirmed that the wagyu/uni surf and turf was an oldie and goodie.
Standouts included the ridiculously good bluefin tuna marinated in shoyu.
Also particularly good was the fresh sea cucumber. Infinitely better than the dried version. The only other time I had it fresh was in the arroz con mariscos at La Mar Lima. Fresh sea cucumber is crunchy like abalone but more sweet and tender like mirugai. More places need to serve this fresh.
Of note he is now using red vinegar to season the sushi rice.
The rest of the meal:
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That tuna looks so sexy and delicious.You altruist you…never a thought for yourself.
Shunji’s aging his honmaguro so, so properly… It’s a true learning experience once you’ve tried his akami at different points of the aging process.
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What’s that miniature swordfish?
I am notorious - and often embarrassed when at shunji’s - for forgetting the Japanese names for much of his nigiri. But i think I got this one - Aji (Spanish Mackerel - with the bones, served fried, pictured at the end).
But I expect someone - like JL or Porthos - will show me to be incorrect, again.
Sayori aka halfbeak. One of my favorites for sushi.
Notice the longer lower “beak”.
Needlefish is how it was translated for us there, I think.
As predicted - wrong again
Yes. Sayori aka halfbeak aka needlefish.
"Halfbeaks are marine fish belonging to the Order Beloniformes — belone translating
as “needle” in Greek, describing the slender form of many of these
fishes. Beloniform fishes also include flying fish, needlefish, as well
as sauries, one of which we visited in a past blogpost.
Family Hemiramphidae contains the halfbeaks — named because their lower jaw juts out farther than their upper jaw"
Needlefish are abundant throughout the tropical Pacific. Needlefish are considered to be extremely dangerous for their leaping abilities, particularly at night - they are attracted to light. They are fast swimmers and horizontally leap 20-40 feet or more to catch or escape other fish. The danger is the incidental spearing of anything or anyone that they fly at - usually in smaller boats - their flight path is about 3-6 feet in the air. Some ultimately end up on deck, where they are gladly roasted over a fire once back on land.
It’s nice to finally see LA getting a place that does kasu su meshi / aka shari and aging tuna on top of that. I hope it’s not just a trend as now other places all around are starting to become copycats and do similar things (but not the whole package). The problem with aka shari is that you need strong flavored and treated/decorated neta in order to achieve a proper balance. It works fantastic with kohada, honmaguro zuke (with chu toro zuke being a personal favorite), and of course anago with sauce. With white fish however, it may be too overpowering (unless chef adds more work to bring additional flavors out).
Nice to see noresore (sea eel larvae) which I affectionately coin “glass noodles with eyes”. Slurp slurp!
Ditto for such large pieces of namako…perfect for the warmer weather lately (even up here in SF)
The ikura looks amazing as usual, hopefully still the wonderrful cold chillin’ poppin’ boba like dashi marinated golden dragonballs from my last visit.
The sayori looks a lot larger than usual, could it be the more mature version “kannuki” (kind of like how longer kohada are either nakazumi or any longer than that, konoshiro?) which is also quite rare to find even in Japan?
The white fish with the beautiful skin included with the yellow/golden threads…is it itoyoridai?
On a side note, anyone know where to get a bottle of Henri Giraud Masuizumi Chenne D’Argonne Sake in CA (or has tasted it and can comment)? Looks like a burgundy or an aged chardonnay, basically taking Masuizumi Brewery (Toyama Prefecture) pressed sake and aging in old oak barrels previously used for Henri Giraud’s champagne production. Crazy stuff, but intriguing.
Yes and good eyes!
My friend went this weekend and was confused by the rice. They said it was almost like brown rice by color and had a lot of red vinegar added to the rice. They didn’t like the taste of the rice but said the fish was amazing.
I’ve never been but been meaning to go. In some of these pictures it looks like there is some type of sauce or dressing on many of the pieces but just wanted feedback on the rice.
I have never seen rice at Shunji the way your friend described it. This picture isn’t well white balanced, but hopefully it shows that the rice does not look like brown rice.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-nLk_ag-hy/
Still, it could be possible that they changed their rice/preparation in the last few weeks (we went two weeks ago–see below). The rice in @Porthos’ pics do look a little darker and sauced, but the pics are also a little more saturated.
BTW, for anyone interested, they had fresh bamboo a few weeks ago, and it should still be in season. It’s my wife’s favorite, so we went and had some. These two are part of a larger platter of multiple preparations of bamboo.
Bamboo and kombu in dashi and bonito.
Takenoko dengaku, bamboo grilled with miso.
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The rice now looks like brown rice which is why I asked about it.
The bamboo is no longer in season or at least, was not served last weekend 
Ah, sorry, I missed that one line in your post about the red vinegar.