Where in the World?

Erica and I ate at a fabulous restaurant tonight called Uchi. The chef at Uchi prepares gourmet sushi, sashimi, and several hot and cold Japanese dishes, the likes of which I’ve never experienced before. The dishes were inventive, creative, artistic and had a blend of flavors that were simply divine. Our waitress was very knowledgeable, professional and key to the wonderful time we spent exploring and tasting items from the rich menu.

We ordered a number of dishes that were brought to the table one at a time to be shared. It made for a rich and varied dining experience. I supplemented the meal with a cold sake called Otokoyama. Otokoyama is light and very smooth with a hint of banana. This was my first time trying cold sake. I’ll probably never try hot sake again. The cold was that much better.

The menu can be found on the Uchi website. We tried the following dishes:

• Brie tempura ringo – Lightly fried brie with apple chutney and sweet potatoe chips (Incredible combination of flavors and the cheese was to die for.)
• Avo bake – Creamy baked tiger shrimp and krab, served in an avocado (One of our favorites for the night. It was slightly spicy and the avocado was warm. Very different.)
• Spider sushi roll – Softshell crab, flying fish roe, Japanese cucumber and white soybean paper. (Crispy and soft at the same time with a slightly spicy sauce.)
• Shag – Tempura fried bond roll with salmon and squid ink sumiso sauce (We also loved this one. Crunchy on the outside and softer on the inside. The squid ink sauce was really good. I can’t explain the taste though.)
• Sunomono -A variety of seaweeds, Japanese cucumber, and radish sprouts in ponzu. (Fantastic, light and invigorating.)
• Shrimp tempura – lightly batter tiger shrimp. (These were fried to perfection and melted in the mouth.)
• Peanut butter semi freddo – with apple miso sorbet and ringo crisps. (The sorbet was light, sweet and addictive.)
• Valrhona chocolat and wasabi fondant – with pistachio ice cream and orange tuile. (The chocolate was unbelievably rich and the pistachio ice cream was perfect, not too sweet and just the right creaminess.)

Uchi was a fantastic find and I have added it to my all time favorite restaurant list. I’ll be eating here again next time I’m in Austin.

Michael