Three in a row

I had been missing some decent sushi, which is rare for me.  Back in February I asked My Favorite Cousin if she'd like to go to Sushi Saito (鮨 さいとう). Since she had this thing about not eating carbs at night, and I didn't want to do long lunches on weekdays, that left us with Saturday lunch as the only option. This meant we waited for a full 3 months for the first available opening...

We were once again seated in front of Kubota-san.  I'm still getting used to his style of service.

Firefly squid (蛍烏賊) - served with mozuku (モズク). You've got wonderful acidity from the ponzu (ポン酢) to wake up the tastebuds, and also works to balance the umami and strong flavors from the squid.

The pickles were a surprise, and we had pickled radish (沢庵) with yuzu (柚子), eggplant, and slices of watermelon which tasted very salty thanks to soy sauce.

Japanese hairtail (大刀魚) - pretty nice, with a little bit of smoky katsuobushi (鰹節) flakes on the grated radish.

Then came the nigiri portion of our meal:

Sea bream (真鯛) - surprisingly nice amount of chew from the neta.

Chicken grunt (伊佐木) - the neta was pretty thick, which delivered a little more crunch, but clearly the fish has been aged to soften the texture.

Gizzard shad (小鰭) - good acidity from the vinegar marinade. Always wakes up the tastebuds with this one.

Mactra clam adductor muscles (小柱) - our substitute for lean tuna (赤身). The temperature was pretty cold, and the neta was very sweet, which contrasted well with the nori (海苔).

Glass shrimp (白海老) - our substitute for medium fatty tuna (中トロ).

Japanese horsehair crab (毛蟹) - our substitute for fatty tuna (大トロ).

Clam shell (蛤) - with yuzu and very sweet tare (タレ).

Horse mackerel (鯵) - one can always count on this while dining here.

Japanese green sea urchin (馬糞雲丹) - ICE CREAM!!!!!!

Conger (穴子)

The soup was fine today, as it always is.

Futomaki (太巻) - always wonderful, thanks to the premium ingredients being used... like conger eel, crab, and fluffy egg custard.

Egg custard (玉子焼き) - always among my favorites.

Cockle (鳥貝) - Kubota-san asked if we wanted anything extra, and I figured I'd take one of these. I must say I was surprised at how big and thick these pieces were, but perhaps I would prefer it to be smaller.

Melon

I thought we should take it easy on the alcohol side, so I only brought one bottle for the three of us.

2014 Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo - flinty, surprising a little buttery, more ripe than expected and not as lean.  Still has the lemon citrus notes.  The finish turned more acidic and dry later.

A pretty happy lunch, and now we look forward to our next one in about 3 months' time...

P.S. Amazingly, the other diners next to us today were completely normal... again! That makes it thrice in a row that we haven't run into weirdos or people I wanna bitch slap.  WHAT.HAPPENED?!