Froggie's birthday

It was the Resident Froggie's birthday today.  Surprisingly, she didn't have any plans.  Since no one should spend their birthday alone, I asked her to drop by the office after market close to hang out.

She shared some of her chocolate cake with us, a gift picked up by the Angry Working Mom at La Maison du Chocolat.  I popped open a bottle of 2003 Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage Rosé, and the two of us slowly drank it over the next couple of hours listening to Tears for Fears.

At some point we decided it was time to grab some food, so we strolled over to Sushi Kuu (寿司喰).  I haven't been there in a couple of years, so was happy to go and have a casual meal.

We started with some wagyu tataki (和牛タタキ), which surprisingly came in thin slices like carpaccio.  I guess I shouldn't expect things to be too traditional here.  The beef itself was fatty and tender, sitting on a bed of onions with that wonderful dressing... Mmmm....

Then came some grilled wagyu beef tongue.  Nice and tender inside, and nicely grilled without much charring outside.  Nice on its own, with a dab of grated yuzu chili, or even with the mustard sauce.  Not the best I've had, but decent enough to make me happy.  The greens on the side were pretty nice.

Grilled Japanese tuna collar was not bad.  The menu shows this to be hon maguro (本鮪), which means that the tuna was actually fished from the waters around Japan.  Lots of collagen here...making the flesh very juicy and slides around my tongue.  Froggie and I both agreed that the best tuna collar we've had was from San San Trois, although neither of us have been back for quite a while.

I ordered the braised Japanese pork belly (黒豚角煮) as an afterthought. Unfortunately, this was kinda disappointing.  I could see it as soon as the dish was laid down on the table. The color was way too light...which means it didn't have enough flavor since the soy sauce marinade didn't have enough penetration.  We playfully shook the plate, and the pork didn't wobble...at all.  That meant they didn't cook it long enough, and sure enough everything was just too tough and not tender enough.  Why bother serving pork fat that is not soft, tender and juicy?  Even the skin was a little too chewy.

We shared some cold sanuki udon (ざる讃岐うどん), which turned out to be a little unnecessary as we were already full.  I do like the chewy consistency of cold udon, though...

We decided not to have dessert, as we'd already had plenty of good food and wine on this casual evening.  I think it did turn out to be a pretty good day for the froggie after all...