Morimoto

I was going through some of the stuff on my Palm Pilot, and discovered the notes that I took when I ate at Morimoto (the Iron Chef's Manhattan outpost). It had been a long photo safari day -- I had started at the NY Botanical Garden taking photos of their Kiku exhibit, driving down to the Upper West Side's Riverside Park I eventually wandered all the way down to Chelsea, taking photos all along the way, and before I knew it, it got late and my tummy started growling for food.

I decided to drop by Morimoto, as under dressed as I was (an M1 Army jacket, my favorite worn in USMC Matterhorn standard issue boots, etc. -- you get the idea!) and see if they would take in a poor starving puppy. For a place that is extremely chic, they get extra credit for not batting an eyelash and seating me at the sushi bar. Too tired and hungry to try and make choices, I selected the Omakase, which is the Japanese restaurant version of the tasting menu – the menu merely says Omakase and the chef presents you with a number of dishes, each a surprise.

I was seated at the far end of this bar.

My meal started with an Amuse Bouche that was a deep fried ball of sushi rice. This was followed by an O-Toro tartar with Osetra caviar and a dashi soy dipping sauce. This was presented in a bamboo flat with the chopped tuna and a little section of squares of Wasabi, sour cream, nori seaweed paste, chives, avocado and rice crackers. The presentation and the taste was quite good.

A fruit was presented to cleans the palate, and then Spanish Mackerel with shaved ginger shiitake mushrooms cherry tomatoes, followed by seared Hamachi with puréed mushrooms and watercress salad tossed in an orange vinaigrette and then with a Pacific Oyster with foie gras and uni in a teruyaki reduction to wrap up the appetizer portion of the meal.

Sushi was then served consisting of red snapper, medium fatty tuna, shad, orange clam and japanese mushroom otaki roll, all of which was followed by an intermezzo of Matcha green tea with a sesame macaroon.

The main courses consisted of roasted Maine lobster with taramasala and lemon creme fraîche, and Kobe Beef with Sweet Potato. Dessert was a red bean cake with apricot sorbet, apricot, lavender and buckwheat honey tuille and a red bean and green tea sauce.

All in all a wonderful end to a long day. Extra points to Morimoto for not being snooty about serving a gourmand in kinkster's clothing.