Tinted face, primitive times and raw pleasures
Uncategorized No Comments »Before we left home, I cleaned the house and took a long shower. My baby asked me for help in music file conversion and transferring to cellphone. After countless problems bumped in the process, my fuse started to ignite. Poor guy, not his fault. So after some minutes I said that I am sorry for the attacks, and poor him to have to put up with this at times. If it is indeed my hormones, damn them for lashing at him. From that point though, it was all good. A clean, non cluttered house always make my mind more clearer and relaxed. The opposite wrecks havock with me. If the house is a mess, almost always my mind is a tangled up mess as well. Happy and holding hands we paved our way out in a slightly rainy outdoors. Having one umbrella doubles the closeness of snuggling. I took advantage of that ofcourse.
We shoved some burgers and other junkfoods in burger king before we headed to the cinema. We saw one of our former colleague and friend from our burger king branch before and chat a little. We stopped over my sister’s work. She was delighted to see me glowing, happy and dressed up.
The movie was fun, and the whole experience would be all pleasant if not for these youngsters in the back row who thinks they are alone in the cinema. I said to myself oh why didn’t they prefer the norwegian audio of ice age. The impoliteness of these guys and non consideration of children and adults in the cinema is just so alarming. Kids are getting worse and worse. I was outright annoyed and just controlled myself from telling on them or start scolding them.
Next stop was the long awaited sushi experience. This place has so great rave reviews. One sushi connoiseur even said that this was the best sushi place outside Japan, and another said that it changes the way you see sushi. This place is the place for the top elite of Norway for sushi dining. The big business tycoons are often spotted here.
It was our first time there, but I have long savored their online menu and all the praises and raves I keep hearing. We went to the opposite direction, but finally found it. I made sure to reserve which was wise. From 8 pm onwards it was full. I already studied the menu at home to get a notion of what to order (I am a menu freak. I love taking time to read a menu). We had to go through 2 massive steeldoors before we came in. The very first one was heavy and I even had to have help. I wished I didn’t chomp that burger because I was really feelin the sushi tingle even though my tummy have only digested 75% of the first meal, and that was like barely 4 hours ago.
Most of the seating place is in an elliptical bar like setup with the ingredients and the chefs in the middle working and giving out the food to costumer. A little akward at first for the deduction of privacy in this manner. You can see everyone eat and everyone can see you. You get a little concious much like a first date with your crush. also this is a reason why I never got to pull out my camera. There are 2 groups of tables further away and a secluded room for business or private functions. I ordered right away, no time to waste. I waited for this in 2 months now. Our last sushi experience in Hongkong was so bad that I just wanted to taste the better versions, and may I say much much better.
We ordered mostly maki which was a very wimpy order. Next time I have to explore the more challenging and new flavors. The only thing i don’t want to taste is squid and eel. We got a complimentary salmon sashimi as starter surrounded by Alex’ special sashimi sauce. And it was indeed special. The salmon tasted so much better. It lost some of the rawness in flavor, while the consistency and texture remained very much raw. This was a great sauce, and i can’t quite point to what ingredience was used, but this is a thing you should taste for yourself and not be described to. The salmon was topped with salmon roe. salmon Roe is very malansa (fishy), but I just love how I burst that in my mouth. I usually eat them one by one which takes time since they are so small. The chopstick can barely pick up one for their size and slipperiness. The sashimi was topped with chopped leeks, coriander and other fresh herbs. I still can’t believe that this was free and so good (for me this was my fave among what we ate, since I usually don’t order sashimi).
The next was 2 salmon nigiri and 2 bluefin tuna nigiri. One futomaki order of deep fried scampi and one maxi maki of crunchy king crab maki (one of their specials). 1 Uramaki order of spicy tuna with just a small rush of hotness that stays with you just enough without discomforts and wanting to swallow tons of your water instantly. This hotness was a ride you wanted to stick around for (I am usually a wimp when it comes to hotness, and that’s why i don’t even use wasabi on my soya, but this was a good bite). Then last we had the salmon skin uramaki type. The last one was what i was looking most forward to. I have read about this recently as something that is offered in Philippine sushibars in Pinoy fod review blogs. Some place even have cream cheese on their maki. This was the first place I saw they offered it in Norway. It was really good. It was placed in a small dam of a sweet sauce (based on soya I guess, but thickened and sweetened) and it was very good. I wasn’ dissapointed. I had green tea on the side which was quite different from the ones I’ve tasted. This seems more authentic. It weirdly reminded me of burnt flour, but it was refreshing nevertheless. I drank up the whole humongous cup.
The thing I guess that makes this place more appealing than the rest is the overall experience. Oftentimes the other places would mess up on the rice. Their rice was done just right. It was cooked just long enough and marinated just right with the sushi vinegar mix. I have eaten many good suhiplaces, but this has the added extra. The sashimi is so far from any place I have eaten. Somehow the salmom was tastier here and more slippery. The sauce is the most perfect touch. The service is impecable. They were just so corteous (all of them. They were plenty for a small place, but we soon saw how busy this place was), but not intrusive. We felt taken care of. The water was filled in time. The chefs in the middle brings in the humour and somehow ties all the guest up like if we were all in a party where we all knew each other (but still akward). They have such a variety in their menu, and there is definitely something there for everybody (they have tis concept reflected on 4 different sets where you let your chef choose teh content. This set change from day to day). Their paraphernalia’s as well as their sushi containers are so contemporary and practical. They have this thin elongated porcelain ware that fits just right on the 2nd level (the bar like structure in dark wood is like a stair. The table proper on ground level, a tiny 2nd level and the 3rd level where the chefs place the finished orders. You get a sturdy set of chopsticks with a white porcelain holder. A plain black napkin. A small wooden bowl with 2 dampened towels. You get a brochure type menu which you can select to take home. Plenty of pickled ginger (my favorite which the Hongkong place didn’t have), and you don’t even have to ask for 2nd serving. The other sushi places is very sparing on this. We had so much excess and besides bizzi don’t like the ginger. So I had plenty to savor on. The soya containers weren’t soiled and full of fingerprints. There was water everywhere by the window in case the waiter wasn’t there when your glass got empty. And I’ve never seen a restroom in their standard. I loved all the nice touches and the big space. The last time I was impressed by a public restroom was in Antonio’s in Tagaytay. This restroom had a sink made of concrete. It was very refined industry look. It was smoothly shaped, but the finishing and color was very rough. On the wall, there was a rectangular vertical slot with 3 shelfs. All shelfs contained white nicely folded white towels. It was secured by a brown leather strap. The continuity of those towels looked so nice as a background to the straps. There was a white cluster of tall phalaenopsis (I love this in interiors) in a vase in the corner. The part nearest to the mirror was several glassplates stacked on top of each other. It was nice offset to the concrete. The whole place smelled nice and looked very clean and nicely maintained. I even wished I had a cp camera to snap away the details. Total damage was 570 kroner (4k plus in pesos) and it was fair enough considering the place, the value for the experience and flavors, the service and that we live in Norway.
