A much better sushi lunch

I'm meeting up with the Specialist for lunch today, even though I hadn't planned on eating out much this weekend.  The original suggestion of going to Upper Modern Bistro - which both of us really like - was flatly rejected by yours truly.  Why?  Because I really didn't want to eat a lot today, and I feared that if Jeremy saw me there, there was no way I could escape without having a ton of cheese... So I needed to go to a place where they don't know me, so that I could eat as little as I wanted to.

The solution turned out to be Sushi Sase (鮨佐瀬).  Long considered one of the best places in town for sushi, I have very fond memories of my only visit a few years ago.  I was only too happy to check it out for lunch.

I settled for the traditional sushi set (織部 握り), which comes with 10 pieces of nigiri (寿司10貫) and a roll (巻物).  When I told our chef that I did not wish to have any type of tuna, he informed me that normally the roll is a fatty tuna and scallion roll (葱トロ巻き), but he would try to substitute that for me.

We started with a chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し).

Halibut (鰈) - slightly crunchy.

Salmon (鮭) - wild, from Hokkaido.  This was very tender, and with deeper flavor than your average salmon.  Wonder how long they aged it.  Served with a relish made with leeks (葱), bonito (鰹) flakes, and horseradish.

Horsehair crab (毛蟹) - from Hokkaido.  Very tasty, with plenty of flavors from the sea.

Squid (烏賊) - scored and then torched.  Sprinkled with sesame.  I could definitely taste the smoky flavors from the torching.  Love it.

Taking a little break with some red miso soup.

Yellowtail (鰤) - wild.  Marinated in soy sauce, scored and lightly torched on the skin side.  Very, very yummy.

Scallop (帆立貝) - very tender.

Mackerel (鯖) - with a dab of sauce that the chef called 三星醬 in Chinese, which was made with chili.  Very, very tasty.

Salmon roe (イクラ) - if I had to nitpick, I would take issue with the fact that the strip of seaweed was not sticking to the rice correctly.  Otherwise this was good.

Striped jack (縞鰺) - the chef offered two pieces of nigiri as replacement for the fatty tuna and scallion roll I turned down.  This was the first one.  Served with the same relish as the salmon.

Egg (卵) - this is where I had a problem.  They served it out of order for us because the customers next to us asked for a special batch to be made piping hot, but that's not my objection.  At a high-end sushi joint, why are we still being served this crappy egg?  It should be the sponge cake type.  Not acceptable.

Red snapper (鯛) - the second substitute piece.

Conger eel (穴子) - tasted fine, but seemingly a little more bony than I expected.

Tanuki udon (たぬきうどん) - I wasn't expecting this after the sushi, but this definitely filled me up.

Pretty good lunch.  There were more than a few surprises, and the only thing I really had to complain about was the egg being the wrong style.  Even though my sushi wasn't made by Chef Sase himself, what I got was of high quality.  Oh and they didn't downgrade me from a roll with fatty tuna to a roll with just pickles, so that's gotta count for something, right?