Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger: November 2011

I've to admit that Itacho Sushi makes a very good quick fix for Japanese food. It wouldn't be the type of place where one gets top notch items, but we do get what we pay for. That being said, one also does get some of the fun stuff that might not be altogether a traditional item from Japanese foodlore, but is probably very much contemporary menu items tempered from a loose basis of the rich history of Japanese cuisine.

My ususal/boring selection of ankimo again. I love this stuff.

Smoked duck croquettes which wasn't too spectacular for me. Lacked much of the smoked duck flavors.

This is one of the fun stuff that I was mentioning above. Deep fried oysters with udon. I was initially quite apprehensive since it was fried oysters and I haven't had much that was really worthy of mentions. These ones were surprisingly decent. The oysters were coated in a light batter, fat and not dried out. Not tempura styled. But still tasty. The second surprise came from the udon which looked to me like a bore. I mean, tomato sauce?

The tomato sauce, which wasn't of any pre-made variety was actually pretty damned good. It was honestly, a very surprising enjoyable blend of tart, garlic, sweetness from the onions and a healthy dash of accompanying heat. I liked it even though the noodles weren't as QQ. I think what mattered was that the sauce tasted fresh.

The tempura ebi sushi with curry powder was served literally. But I was glad that they tempura-ed the shrimp much better than I was expecting out of a crowded main street joint like this.

Engawa. Cheap, greasy and not too bad.

I'm not sure what kind of wagyu Itacho uses, but it was definitely a passably decent aburied sushi. One notices the nice fatty marbling.

Inari pouchs are a guilty pleasure for me. This spicy sakura ebi variety that Itacho did didn't really taste spicy at all. In fact, the dominant flavors came from the sweetness of the beancurd skin. The unexpected burst of flavor, came from the dried or toasted sakura ebi. That was nice.

Their aburi foe gras sushi wasn't what I had in mind. The slice of foie gras was a little too thin. Any possibility of a creamy innard was lost. To be fair, the torched crust was nicely done.

Another of those fun stuff were their stuffed tamago. These ones were stuffed with curry mayo lobster. It wasn't a particularly spicy curry actually. It tasted more creamy and the textures from the bites did unveil little chunks of lobster. Maybe it was crayfish. I couldn't tell.