Omakase

Xuanie and Derek, my soon-to-be brother-in-law, met Jeanne and me out in the Westside to get dinner a Uzen, a sushi restaurant on Santa Monica at Brockton. We chose four seats at the bar and asked for omakase, which translates to Chef's Special. Since the chef chooses what to make for you, it's a good way to taste a lot of things that you'd never usually order. I had only done this once before at Tekka in San Francisco with Eleanor and Arion, and had tons of fun mmm-ing over all the little dishes of things I had no clue about but knew would be good.

This time was no different. Bits of food kept getting dropped onto our plates by our sushi chef who reached over the clear divide that separated him from us and the seafood cool. The chef put various types of nigiri on our plates--sea bream, halibut, salmon, crawfish, shrimp, scallop, mackerel, sardine, toro. The seafood was so fresh and smooth in texture, most it tasted like butter on my tongue. A plate of grilled eggplant topped with a soybean paste appeared from over our shoulders and in front of us, as did steaming bowls of miso soup with a crawfish head floating around. We had a deep fried eggroll type thing filled with shrimp and mushroom that came with a tempura dipping sauce. And, Olivia ordered the Uzen roll to finish off our meal. It all got washed down with three large bottles of Asahi.



Not only was the food delicious, the chefs and waiters the nicest people ever, but our seats at the bar also allowed me to stare in awe at the dexterity of the three sushi chefs in charge of the whole restaurant. I wish I had their skills, or maybe just their little hats.