Sushiso Masa¹ opened one of those rare doors that change outlooks and paradigms – a glimpse into the impossible. It was very much a Plato’s Cave, or Matrix, moment – the jaded diner experiencing life. How could the top tier be mere local maxima? The potential was inconceivable. The results were astounding. And, then, to think there were others, possibly better, in this town? The city was ripe for more exploration.

One year later, a few weeks further in the season, the results were no less enchanting. When you look at man through food, his limits might be revealed by his best pieces of sushi.

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It is the Holidays, a new project is in the air, blog posts are backlogged, and life could not be busier. This post is basically another teaser but I hope the pictures ¹ entice and inspire. The pictures document most of the meal but I was asked to stop when another party walked in.

I will have a lot more to say about this meal – when the post for my second meal comes out. For now, I will say “I have had none better.” I must thank my virtual friend Cathy Ho for bringing this restaurant to my attention ² over a year ago.

It is a temple – that is ridiculously expensive – and it is absolutely worth it.

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The final posts will take awhile but here are some teaser pics. Basic take-aways from this trip? Japanese chefs are not infallible, high-end sushi gets better yet, Luxeat is cool, the Japanese know ice cream, and Thomas Pynchon may have been writing about kaiseki chefs in Gravity’s Rainbow.

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There was a three-way tug of war between kaiseki, sushi, and beef on this trip, each vying for attention and sampling. There was not enough time to sample the innumerable sushi spots, much less the promises of the various breeds and prefectures of wagyu beef. After weighing some possibilities, O’Shima was earmarked for the main Japanese beef experience. Unfortunately, due to the dearth of wagyu options on other menus, it became the sole beef experience.¹

The standard American or Australian wagyu available in most domestic restaurants offers neither the dry-aged beefiness of a well-aged steak nor the tenderness of the mythical Kobe beef from Japan; instead, it is often an overpriced compromise without much reward. If only given those experiences as reference points, my interest would be little. Fortunately, the US and Japan found a compromise in a beef importing impasse and real high-quality Japanese wagyu can now be found in America.

(Above) – A sirloin getting weighed at O’Shima, this portion for two. It is not as marbled as the A10 beef from Urasawa (below.) That is good – it would not (or should not?) be possible to eat a steak of A10 – far too rich.

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Ryugin might be a restaurant with an international identity crisis, known more for wild experiments than quality, but this meal showed that a fascination with the modern can possibly¹ inform and augment tradition. The endless debate about molecular gastronomy’s end game continues but only a few people defend the knowledge gained from the experimental process as an end in itself. One could say that the new ideas and investigations are a constant search for a greater truth about ingredients, food, and the layers of meaning we have affixed to fine dining. Chef Seiji Yamamoto may entered a “more traditional phase” ² now and this meal could be held up as a result of the toil of inventiveness.

Ryugin popped on my radar when Chef Michael Cimarusti (Providence, Los Angeles) mailed me a DVD of Yamamoto performing cooking tricks that resembled a hybrid of Homaro Cantu’s (Moto, Chicago) high-tech-ery and Adoni Aduriz’s (Mugartiz, a favorite of mine) more organic approach. Indeed, as I did more research, I learned that Yamamoto and Aduriz were great friends, citing each other as influences and inspiration. The food at Mugaritz has an underlying Asian twist and it is possible to see how the two could find common ground to push each other further.³ A few inquiries found that, while experimental, Ryugin still had the Japanese attention to ingredient quality. The restaurant seemed to be at the forefront of an Eastern response to the largely Spanish molecular gastronomy “movement.”

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