Sushi Ko



Tuna 5 Ways. The fatty tuna was like butter.

 Soon took me out for sushi at Sushi-Ko on Wisconsin Avenue for my birthday. Sushi-Ko has been around at least 30 years and is D.C.'s first sushi restaurants. Amazingly, Sushi-Ko remains one of the best sushi restaurants in the City.

Sushi, everyone loves it and yet so few people really know what true quality sushi tastes like. How else do you explain Safeway brand Sushi?


With Sushi, it is important to start with an understanding of the rice. You can serve the finest quality fish in the world and if the rice is not good, the final product is ruined. Rice is everything with Sushi!

So, how do you recognize good sushi rice?  Sushi rice is a very starchy rice that has a unique flavor. The rice when prepared properly offers a blend of the sour from the rice-wine vinegar and the sweetness of the sugar. After cooking, the rice is spread out to cool evenly with a wooden spoon in a special wooden sushi rice bowl. If it is done correctly, each kernel of rice will move around freely in your mouth. In other words, it will not stick together in a lumpy and starchy mess. It should perfectly complement the fish that is gently placed on top and not ever compete. If the rice is hard, crunchy or salty the sushi is going to blow.

The fish should be so fresh that there is no need to drown out the flavor with wasabi. Too much wasabi between the fish and the rice and there is something wrong with the fish. Or the Sushi Chef is a non. (Short for Non-Sushi Chef or often used, by me, to describe someone who can't. i.e., "non" as in non-skier.).

Finally, you want your selection of fish to be unique and exotic. If you just really like California Rolls or tuna, go to Safeway. At Sushi-Ko, their Fish Monger often finds exotic fish like Jack Fish, Big-Eye Tuna, Spotted Prawn, Abelone, California Sea Urchin and fresh Mackeral. You want the rolls to be fine dining experiences that show the creativity of the Chef without being a sideshow.

Quail Eggs on Flying Fish Row. Can you really go wrong combining eggs of different species? The creaminess of the quail egg combined with flavor of the ocean that bursts free from the flying fish row is just too good. The Crunchy Spicy Tuna Rolls were spectacular. I always say that a good measure of a sushi restaurant is whether they use the tuna that is getting old to make their spicy tuna. Sushi-Ko gets it and uses only the freshest Tuna to make all of their rolls. They understand that the spices should enhance the flavor of the fish not mask the use of rotting fish.

You want a good sushi restaurant to serve authentic Japanese dishes. Not Thai Food for God's sakes. We followed our seaweed salad with yellow tail tuna jaw grilled and served with Sea Salt and Japanese Radish. It was awesome. The dark meat by the fin is oily and loaded with fishy flavor. If you are open minded enough to try this dish you will be blown away by the flavor.








The Softshell Crab Tempura Roll is a sushi restaurant staple. But when it is served warm with a sweet sesame and spicy sauce it transcends the expected. If you have the time, order your sushi one dish at a time and really enjoy the flavor. Then think about what would be a perfect complement to what you just finished.

Bottom line, I love to eat and Sushi-Ko in my opinion is the absolute best around.

P.S., we followed up dinner at Bourbons with Dino and Farah. Thanks Soon for a perfect Birthday!

Tom

The Pat Conroy Cookbook

Hilton Head, South Carolina is located is on the East Coast of South Caroline near the Georgia border. I spent a summer there in college with my friend Bill.  We stayed in a duplex off of the Island in a little town called Blufton. Bill's sister Mary lived on the first floor. At the time Blufton was a sleepy little town that was undeveloped and lined by the May River.

Mary was completely dialed into the South Carolina scene and knew just about everyone on the Island. She had a friend that lived on the last working Plantation on the Island. I remember that it was an amazing property that is long since gone. On Sundays, we would ride down to Savannah, Ga where drinking was allowed. Bill and I worked in restaurants on the Island and over the summer we got to know other college kids from the South. I have fond memories of my time in the South and many of the kids I met that summer became lifelong friends. I have continued to return to the South since that summer and I fall more in love with it as time passes.

Of course times change and as you get older, my idea of a good time is no longer hitting a private club until 5:00 a.m. and crashing on the beach.  I much prefer to get a good nights sleep and hit the links at sunrise. At the same time, there is something to be said for waking up in the blazing sun with a blinding hangover, the left side of your face sunburned, sand stuck to the right side of your saliva soaked face, looking around and realizing that the beach is full of families and kids. Of course the farther away from 19 years old you get the more difficult it becomes to pull off sleeping in public.

There is just something about Magnolila trees dripping with Spanish Moss and walking on soft pine needles in the shade that reminds me of images I have seen imagined in books I have read. For me the South is about mystery and great food.  I think of books like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a novel about a murder trial set in Savannah, Ga. I also have enjoyed Pat Conroy's books about the South and as an outsider looking in I feel like he has captured the feel of the South. I particularly liked the Water is Wide and My Losing Season. The Lords of Discipline is one of my favorite books.

About six months ago, Soon gave me "The Pat Conroy Cookbook" to read. I admit, I thought it looked a bit lame so I left it sitting on the coffee table all of this time. I finally got around to reading it on my recent trip to Napa and I really enjoyed it. It's an autobiograpy about his life as it relates to food. He lived in places like France and Rome for long periods of time and its a great read about his life in these places. He writes about cooking for weddings and funerals and makes you wish you were there. In particular, Conroy has a knack for telling stories about the people he has come across in his life that are just about as eccletic as you will find. It's interesting to me because I have always associated food with my friends and traveling. My own trips to places like Paris and Rome have inspired me to at least try to reproduce the dishes I have experienced.

As a way to thank Soon for giving me the book, I promised her I would cook some of the recipes he has included in the book.  Unfortunately, I do not have permission to publish the amazing recipes in the book but luckily a few are published on other sites!  Tonight, I am going to try Breakfast Shrimp and Grits. This is a dish I have eaten down South so I am looking forward to giving it a shot. I will write about it tomorrow and share a few pictures. Here is a link where you can find the recipe.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Recipes/story?id=238804&page=1

A witness at trial in the movie, My Cousin Vinny said, "no self-respecting southerner would make instant grits." And you should not either. There is a significant difference in flavor and texture between the grits that take 1/2 hour to an hour and instant grits. But if you are lazy and you like the taste of cardboard don't take my advice. You want to cook your grits so that they have nice creamy texture.  I have found that the trick is to cook them for about 5 minutes left than what is listed on the label. That way when you set them aside, they will not become too firm before you serve dinner.

 The recipe is very simple and easy to prepare. The combination of the butter and bacon makes an amazing sauce that perfectly flavors the grits. The only change I might make to the recipe would be to double the amount of bacon you cook and double the butter. I am suggesting this to extend the amount of sauce. Otherwise, it is an amazing recipe.

This definitely would make an excellent Mother's Day breakfast!

I always get a kick out of surprising Taylor with exotic fruits I come across in the market. This is  a Horned Melon, also known as African Horned Cucumber. The skin is smooth and a bright orange. The flesh is bright green and the flavor is a bit sour and sweet. The kids loved the spikes all over it. Horned Melon is an african fruit that grows on vines that look a lot like watermelon.








Looks Weird Tastes Great