Word: nigiri
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Even if you didn't know how often high-end restaurant design is all about the search for glamorous novelties, you would figure it out as soon as you set foot in Megu, a new Japanese place in lower Manhattan where the "edomae nigiri sushi" goes for as much as $90 a person and where, in the center of the main dining room, you will find a 5-ft.-high ice sculpture of the Buddha that, no surprise, is replaced every day. Ice? Well, if you forget every banquet-hall buffet centerpiece you've ever seen, it's possible...
Fugakyu is most famous, however, not for its traditional nigiri sushi as for its impressive array of Americanized maki rolls. Caterpillar roll, containing barbecued eel and cucumber surrounded by rice and thin slivers of ripe avocado, was a successful (and amusing) concoction. The sweetness of the barbecue sauce worked well countered by a drop of the potent wasabi and a slice of the pickled ginger. Spider roll, containing an entire deep-fried soft-shell crab, was a delicious, gut-busting treat. Eating the mammoth rolls was quite a challenge—but one well worth taking...
...fish. Additionally, the consistency of the rice is imperative. Once the proper proportion of ingredients is calibrated, the rice is compacted on mats into little rolls. In the absence of adequate air between the grains, the texture and flavor are ruined. When the balls of rice supporting nigiri sushi are too compact, they interfere with the customer's experience of the fish. To further complicate matters, even if the fish, rice and presentation are perfect, everything can be mucked up with a simple flick of the wrist. The bane of all self-respecting sushi-makers is the over-zealous American...
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