Tojo's, Round 2

I was so impressed by Tojo's that I convinced "K" to go there with me again after we met up in Vancouver. Neither of us were disappointed.

I found out that the Omakase would be the same one I had the last time, so we decided to order a la carte instead.

The first dish was the daily selection of sashimi. There was tuna, toro, sweet shrimp, hamachi, and other fish that we don't recognize. Everything was very fresh. The salmon was one of the freshest I have tasted in Canada (maybe with the exception of Hiro Sushi in Toronto).



Next dish: marinated grilled sablefish. It's sablefish again, and I love it just as much. The sauteed vegetables and sauce was almost the same as the one I had on the fried fish. Very tasty. The texture of the sablefish is buttery and the flavor of marinade is very good. I think it must be a variation of the "standard" miso marinade that everyone is using...



Next one: spider roll. This is a pretty standard roll in many places, but the crab legs are much
longer. Also, it is wrapped in thin sheets of cucumber instead of seaweed. The sushi rice at Tojo's is actually mushier than any other sushi rice I have tasted. I think this is by design, though I do not know whether I like it this way.

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Next one: some nigiri. From top left clockwise: octopus, mackerel, scallop, salt water eel (anagi, less common). Everything was very fresh. The interesting part is that the outer skin of the octopus is actually trimmed, so there is a more delicate mouthfeel to it. It is still a little chewy, but not crunchy.


More nigiri: this is a fish called "three line grunt". Never heard of it before, so we tried. It was good, but I don't have much more to say.



Dessert: we saw two interesting desserts so we ordered both for sharing. First comes the green tea creme brulee, coconut ice cream, and sesame cracker. The creme brulee is actually heavier/more solid than I like, but I think that's a Japanese thing because I remember this sort of consistency for custard when I was in Japan. The taste was good, but I prefer a "lighter" tasting creme brulee like ginger, for example.



The other dessert is a black sesame panna cotta and grapefruit jelly. The jelly was "the essence of grapefruit"...I tried one spoon but I don't have much to say due to my lack of grapefruit experiences. The black sesame taste was relatively light but very effective. It is definitely
lighter than the black sesame ice cream that I like so much. Still, it works very well.



Because we know what we are getting, the meal was perhaps less exciting than an Omakase. Still, everything was excellent and I was very glad that I have another chance to try Tojo's. I am glad I don't live in Vancouver, or I would be bankrupt very soon.