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| - OK, my foodie friends...what follows is a description of one of my top 3 Restaurant meals, from last night at Yasu Sushi Bistro on Cactus and Tatum. Hands down the best sushi place in AZ. We have been going there for about 5 years, but this is the first time we left it all in the hands of our Chef, Yasu Hashino and ordered Omakase.
We sat at the sushi bar, and Chef seemed delighted to create a special experience for us... he asked if anything was off limits, only Uni I said. Sea Urchin is not my bag...but everything else was on the table. We placed an order from his small, but exquisite wine list and picked a 2010 Byron Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley. All of his seafood is less than 24 hours old, flown to Phoenix from the Tokyo fish market daily. What follows is a description of foodie heaven....
Yuzu Kanpachi - 6 perfect slices of baby yellowtail from Hawaii, finely slivered Japanese peppers and lemon, topped with ponzu.
6 fresh, briny, on ice fresh Coromandel oysters from New Zealand
Ocean Trout Carpaccio - another delightful sashimi type dish of a fatty, fresh fish also from New Zealand with a warm olive oil and slivered garlic chips and shaved daikon radish
Mushroom salad with Yuzu vinaigrette - think lots warm mushrooms, shitake, enoki and shimeji on top of thin slices of celery and spinach tossed in delicious warm vinaigrette then topped with a handful of 18 year old shaved parmesan. Wow.
Next was a bowl of steaming clams in a garlic & cilantro miso broth. After we devoured the clams - Chef asked for the broth back and then made a creamy risotto to serve us.
While waiting for the risotto, he served a tray of sliced fresh Albacore, which had been very lightly seared and thickly sliced served with sharp radish sprouts and garlic chips. Tender and delicious, the Albacore is only at its peak 2 months of the year and it was so succulent!
Then the risotto to prepare for the bamboo wrapped beef tongue. Yes, beef tongue. I didn't declare it off limits so that was fair game. (And to be truthful, since I have never had it before I should not have been biased against it.) The tongue is braised for 5 hours in a broth with ginger and green onion among other things I am sure. Then it is sliced and topped with shaved green onion then placed on a bed of red miso and wrapped in bamboo leaf. The placed an a special hibachi grill and served. I couldn't take it anymore and finally got out the camera. It was melt in your mouth tender and delicious. Think braised short ribs without all the fat.
Now after the risotto, we let him know we were getting full so only one more dish after the beef tongue. Kathy's favorite dessert - and we always get this in some form when we go to Yasu. Wait for it...Foie Gras. And he made me a very special presentation - he said the world's most expensive lolly pop! (photo included) It wasn't really, but he took a large slice of Hudson Valley Fois Gras, seared it lightly and put on a stick. Served with what I call Yasu special sauce (I have no idea what is in it, and he won't say but it's like crack) and a Japanese peach. The best part.... I got one and Don got one too so I didn't have to share!!!
Needless to say, it required more wine than just one bottle...but it was incredible. Thank you Yasu-San!
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