Accident photo that I ended up really liking
Dallas will be out of town for my birthday and through the weekend, so we celebrated my birthday by going out to dinner last night. We went to Arami, a Japanese restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try for ages. We have tried before to get in on a weeknight and they were too packed. A Tuesday evening after Labor Day was just the right time.
We ordered a ton of food. For appetizers we got edamame; seared hotate (scallop) with unagi (eel), mushrooms and shiro miso; and hamachi kama. The scallops were amazing. I wanted to lick the bowl to get all of the delicious sauce out. And the scallops were perfectly seared. The crisply unagi pairing was really good.
Hamachi kama is the prized portion of the collar of a Pacific yellowtail. Dallas and I always order this at Sansei in Hawaii when it is available, so when we saw it on the specials menu, we had to get it. It was tasty, but not as good or as big as when we get it in Hawaii. Still, we enjoyed it.
Dallas ordered an assortment of sashimi and it came out next. I was suprised because we were sitting there finishing up our appetizers and I saw a lady with a huge fishbowl type of container and it was filled with orchids and bamboo shooting out a few feet in the air. I thought at first someone ordered a huge drink. When they brought it to our table, I saw that it was filled with ice and had all of the sashimi displayed on the ice with seashells and rocks and flowers. It was gorgeous! I wasn’t taking photos during this dinner, but check out a few here. Beautiful presentation aside, the fish was super fresh and very tasty. Dallas loved it.
For an entree I got two maki rolls. One was with hamachi (yellowtail), tuna, scallion, jalapeno, shrimp and spicy mayo. This was a great, clean tasting roll. It did have some mayo on it, but not an excessive amount that would mask the taste of the fish. Also, the spice was just the right level of spicy. My other roll had kani (king crab) and ebi (shrimp) and almonds. This was my favorite of the two rolls.
Dallas got the kimchi ramen with tofu, pork belly, a poached egg and scallions. He loved it. I think he’s going to divorce me and marry it. After eating all the ramen and scraping the bottom for more, he was too full to think about dessert. Arami offers mochi and gelato. I opted for a toasted sesame, fig and chocolate chip ice cream and loved the flavor combination.
So, really great birthday dinner. I’m sure we’ll be back here again. I think it’s our new favorite sushi spot!
