Entries Tagged as 'sashimi'

Mitch’s Fish Market

June 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

Dallas’s friend Ryan took us to Mitch’s Fish Market for dinner. If you live in Hawaii and you’ve never heard of this place, it’s no surprise. It has to be the best hidden restaurant in Honolulu. Mitch’s is located by the airport off Nimitz on Ohohia St behind Avis Rent-a-Car in what appears to be a warehouse district. And it’s TINY. There are only enough tables to seat 10 and then 4 additional seats at the sushi bar. Reservations recommended, for sure. Ryan always takes us to these really fabulous little places, so I was excited for dinner that night.

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Also, Mitch’s is BYO. Ryan brought some Kirin beer and this bottle of sake. He got the sake from a colleague of his who got it in Japan. If anyone sees this sake anywhere, let me know. It was so good, but we don’t know what it is because none of us reads Japanese kanji.

mitchs_fish_market_sake

We each decided to get the omakase, which is a Japanese phrase that means “it’s up to you,” meaning that the chef chooses what to serve you. The first thing we got were small, individual servings of some squid salad with miso and a cucumber slice. Next, a guy came to our table and showed us a live lobster. We had approve of it. Then he took it to the back and killed it. We were then served this big placte of sashimi, including lobster sashimi (on the back right). Talk about fresh!

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This was the best sashimi I’ve ever had. There were things on the plate that I’ve tried in Chicago and vowed never to eat again that were delicious at Mitch’s.

The next course was individual servings of salmon miso yaki (grilled salmon with miso). Shortly after a half of a lobster baked with some sort of mayo-ish sauce came out for us to share. I don’t know what it was exactly, but it was so rich and delicious. While we were finishing these up, out came a big plate of nigiri. I was a bit overwhelmed with the camera so I don’t have photos of the salmon or lobster, but here’s the nigiri:

mitchs_fish_market_nigiri

Beautiful, huh? The uni (sea urchin) is the orange one in the front and I think it’s a bit of an aquired taste, but everything else was great. While we were eating our sushi, they took away the shell from our baked lobster. I wasn’t sure at the time why they did this, but turns out they were using all the leftover lobster parts to make soup. Miso soup. Lobster miso soup. The best kind of miso soup that exists.

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Seriously, this was so good. We also got some tools so that after we drank our soup we could crack open any remaining lobster parts and get the meat out.

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Mitch’s is definitely not cheap, but you get what you pay for. And you’re not paying for the ambiance or the location, it’s the food. All about the food. I’m no expert, but this was the best sushi I’ve ever had. (And the two Hawaiian/Japanese guys with me agreed!)

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Making Wontons

September 5th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Kathy & Laura
Kathy & Auntie Laura

Caroline
Caroline

Kathy & Laura Making Wontons
Kathy & Auntie Laura

Stuffing Wontons
Making Wontons

Uncooked Wontons
Uncooked Wontons

Danny Frying Wontons
Danny Frying Wontons

Wontons
Finished!

On Sunday all of Dallas’ family who were in town and who live in the suburbs came to our house for a (mostly) Korean dinner. Dallas’ parents, George & Kathy, & Auntie Laura came first. I was trying to finish up making some cookies when they arrived, but once Kathy & Auntie Laura got into the kitchen I pretty much had to surrender. I was fine with that, though. I knew the food they would be making was going to be fantastic and that they needed to do what they needed to do. Kathy was the ringleader and she gave everyone else jobs to do. In the end, Dallas’ whole immediate family, plus some Aunties and his sister’s friends and Danny all helped in making the meal. It was fun to have everyone involved.

Auntie Laura had taken George and Kathy to both a Korean market and Mitsuwa before coming to our house, so they brought all the ingredients they needed. For dinner we had oriental chicken salad, kalbi ribs, ahi sashimi, wontons, spinach namul, Hawaiian mac salad, and probably even more things that I’m not remembering right now.

I was the most excited about Dallas’ mom’s famous wontons. I’ve had a lot of the other foods we ate that day before, but not the wontons. Whenever Dallas visits his parents he always raves about them, but they don’t exactly travel well, so I’ve never had them. I special requested wontons and Dallas’ mom was nice enough to agree to make them at our house even though we had to make special arrangements to get the proper cooking gear here to do it. George and Danny ended up setting up an electric wok out on our porch so that our kitchen wouldn’t get full of oil. And extra thanks to Danny, who sat out there in the hot sun over a big wok of hot oil all day to cook the wontons. They were delicious.

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Mitsuwa

March 20th, 2006 · 13 Comments

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Tuna Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Octopus Sashimi :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Daikon :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Cute Packaging :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Open Up :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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Crunky :: Mitsuwa, Arlington Heights, IL

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The Motherload, East Ukrainian Village, Chicago

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Katsu Pork, Roscoe Village, Chicago

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Sukiyaki, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Yesterday I tagged along with Danny and Lori to go to the Japanese store that I kept hearing Dallas’ family talk about, Mitsuwa. It’s in Arlington Heights, which makes it impossible for us to get to, but Danny & Lori have a car so, problem solved.

Mitsuwa is a huge Japanese supermarket. Then there are a few seperate shops around the outside, but under the same roof: A bakery, a liquor store, a place that sells pottery, and a big food court. The produce, meat and seafood all looked great. I was wondering where people were buying their daikon! The snacks and confections are the section of any Asian supermarket that I love, though. The packaging is always so irresistable and cute. .. and in New York I used to always buy strange candies and then take them home and try them to see if they were any good. I used to always send it to my niece, too.

Dallas wanted me to pick up some norimaki for him. . the kind with the nori (seaweed) on the outside. I don’t really like it and it makes your breath smell like ass, but Mitsuwa had about 20 different kinds to choose from. I prefer my rice crackers not to have a lot of nori. Yum. I was also looking for some ume (asian plum) candy for him. I got all confused trying to figure it out and picked the wrong candy. Hey, don’t send a white girl from Wisconsin to the Japanese supermarket to do your grocery shopping unless you’re looking for some new things to experiment with! I did a pretty good job, though. I was also looking for some lychee. I remember buying it on the street in New York, but I didn’t find any in the produce department at Mitsuwa. Oh well. Re: the chocolate candybar called “Crunky”: Either Lil John has a new product he’s endorsing or they meant to say “Crunchy.” One last thing, we were surpised that Mitsuwa had Kaua’i Kookies since the only place we’ve ever seen them is on kaua’i. There were only 2 flavors there, but still …

Later that night we all went to Danny & Lori’s where the boys cooked katsu pork and sukiyaki for us. Then along with that we had maki, inari, bao, and sashimi that I bought earlier. So good.. so much food! It was the first time I had sukiyaki but if Danny ever says he’s making it again, I’m stopping whatever I’m doing and hailing a cab to their place. So delicious.

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