A few weeks ago I heard from my contact at Fruit Media again, and the reason for the call was a little surprising. Apparently the PR person responsible for a restaurant had wanted to invite me for a tasting, but as not many PRs in town know me personally - and this lady realized that I had been profiled by Fruit Media last year - she decided it may be best to reach out to me in this roundabout way.
No, I had not been to the trio of new restaurants which had recently been opened. However, I have invariably enjoyed myself at ALL of the restaurants under the same group, and that includes some very high-profile outlets with macarons. Yes, I would be interested in trying out whichever new place they chose… but I was starting to develop a cough, and it's never good manners to cough on our dining companions - especially your hostess. I asked for a rain check.
Having recovered only recently, I accepted to invitation to lunch at Rozan (魯山). It's day 6 of my new nutritional plan and I'm doing my first cheat. As there will be a few more cheat meals next week, I am ever so grateful that this meal could be scheduled for this week and not crammed into the next… I had warned my lovely nutritionist about this meal, and she tried in vain to convince me to stay within the strict bounds of the meal plan she had prescribed for me. No way, Jose! Not with this meal.
I was running late thanks to an issue at work, and while en route I received a request not to mention Fruit Media's name at the door of the restaurant. Apparently the famous Sifu was lunching at the restaurant and sitting right next to us (there are only 16 seats after all…), so my dining companions did not wish to create any tensions with this VIP. I dutifully obliged.
It's strictly omakase here, and not surprisingly skewed towards the higher end of the pricing scale. I introduced myself to my hostess and eagerly waited for the food to arrive… I did tell the restaurant not to give me any (bluefin) tuna as I'm more determined than before not to consume any, ever since I found out that the annual haul of bluefin tuna in southern Taiwan has declined to about 2% of the volume 14 years ago.
A trio of amuses bouches arrived to kick us off:
For only the second time in my life - the first being at Xuan Sushi (玄鮨) in Hong Kong last year, and curiously it was also in my flounder - I found bones in my sashimi. When I used my fingers to yank the tiny nuisance from the fish in my mouth and slowly placed it on the dish in front of me, Chef Masa was embarassed and apologized. When I placed a second piece on the plate, he was mortified.
And he should be. For the uninitiated like myself, it seems to be a rookie mistake that a seasoned chef couldn't possibly make. As flounders are usually served at the start of the sequence in a meal, this means that when you make a mistake like this, you are starting the meal on the wrong foot. In the case of Xuan Sushi, I have never had the desire to return after that experience...
Personally I have never been able to appreciate the beauty of kobujime (昆布締め), as the additional flavors coming from the kelp are just too mild after only 1 night. My untrained palate needs something a bit less subtle.
P.S. I was getting a little frustrating during lunch as I knew I wasn't getting the colors right on some of the fish. It wasn't until after I got home that I realized while I had taken the test shot to set custom white balance, I never actually switched from auto white balance on the dial… No wonder the colors are all wrong! I guess I was still a little frantic from being late and neglected this crucial step...
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