Ooo! Chee! Kooooo!

Last Sunday evening, I finally had the chance to visit Uchiko, the younger sibling of famed Japanese restaurant Uchi, where, you may remember, I once ate a pig’s brain. With DealSwarm voucher in hand,* I arrived to meet Katelyn and her new beau. [Yes, I felt a bit like a mom meeting her daughter's new boyfriend for the first time.]

*A very controversial voucher that not many people were able to get their hands on…but I was at the right place at the right time–the right place being twitter–to grab it last fall.Although the pronunciation of the name of this Japanese farmhouse-style restaurant [Ooo-chee-ko, with a short accent on the 'oo'] evokes fond memories of Rufio and the Lost Boys from Hook (hence the blog post title), the food here is certainly not imaginary.*

After a fresh start of Hotate Ringo–shave diver scallop, sudachi, apple, almond, and mint–which was beautiful as well as delicately delicious, we moved into a number of sushi ‘pieces.’ [This was a much different dining style than I have had at either of my two experiences at Uchi, so if you ask me to compare the two, I'm not sure that I can do so accurately.]

The Hamachi–Japanese yellowtail, pickled green apple, and jalapeno–was nice (although sadly lacking in apple essence), but nothing could beat the surprisingly bold flavor of the Nasu. It was eggplant. I couldn’t believe how fabulous it was. Who would have thought? Eggplant!

*I tended to ‘make-my-own-sashimi’ by ignoring the rice.^ But with this, I kept nibbling on the remnants hoping to secure any more of the delicious sauce I could.

^And I’m not really even sure that makes it sashimi…but let’s go with it.We flirted with the Madai–Japanese bream, with shiso, meyer lemon zest, and olive oil–which I chose based solely on the inclusion of shiso…recalling a shiso reduction I had at Uchi that made me want to lick my plate.

We also nibbled on Big Eye Tuna with sweet chili. [It was tuna...it was sweet chili...you can probably figure out what that tastes like.]

Then we moved on to the Shag Roll.

Oh the Shag Roll…tempura-fried salmon with sun-dried tomatoes, sumiso, and spicy sauce. Was I skeptical upon hearing the word “tempura”? Yes. Yes I was. Was I wrong? Yes. Yes I was. I pretty much wanted to magically make this appear in my pocket any time I was hungry for a snack.

I thought things couldn’t get any better….until I ate this beautiful display of mushroom and bacon heaven. [Watch out Hilary Duff...because THIS is what dreams are made of.] Roasted Abalone Mushroom with thyme blossom, garlic soubise, pumpernickel ‘soil,’ and bacon snow.* This pretty much made me want to move back to Pennsylvania and start an abalone mushroom farm so I could eat this every day.

*One guess as to why I couldn’t stop thinking about ordering it. Hint: starts with ‘bacon’ and ends with ‘snow.’

And once I realized soubise basically meant butter sauce…well, I understood even more why I wanted to drown my tastebuds in this dish. But there was no time for that…because I had to have dessert. In all honesty, I think the desserts are my favorite part of both Uchi and Uchiko. Always creative and reminiscent of childhood fantasy come to life in an edible art project,* I find them highly entertaining and delicious; so much so that I was tempted just to use my little voucher and order all of the desserts. But I stuck with two.

*Maybe we ARE at the table in Hook after all…

The first was a special of the evening–Strawberry Sorbet with aerated mint ganache, strawberry gelee, and red beet puree. It came to the table steaming from dry ice, and I don’t know if you can see it, but there was a fruit-by-the-foot-like tape of pressed strawberry running underneath the whole thing. Frozen white chocolate mint ‘bombs’ dotted the entire thing…and who knew that beets and strawberries could play off one another so well?Then, it was time to move on to the pies de resistance: the Sweet Corn Sorbet with polenta custard, caramel salt, and lemon.Any time someone talks about Uchiko, this is what they mention. So of course, I had to order it. Being a fan of the corn ice cream made by the Mexican ice cream shop in my hometown–and a fan of cornbread–I figured I would love this. And I did. It was totally different from the sweet strawberry dessert; the corn’s subtle sweetness played well with the slightly savory saltiness that came through and the tart lemon notes that you picked up only briefly. Texturally, I was in heaven with the crumbled cornbread serving as a bed for the whole beautiful mess.Lucky for me, last night the lovely Miss Rebeccamendations birthday-gifted me an incentive to return soon.

Next time I’m going straight for dessert.

Fine. Maybe I’ll take a detour for the pork belly on pecan soil. Maybe.