Lazy Sunday Brunching and Munching: Takashi!

Brunches are one of my favorite things in the world! There's just this magic window in between breakfast and lunch that allows a wide range of culinary/eating possibilities. The other nice thing is that you mentally trick yourself into believing that you're eating for two meals, so you don't have misgivings about eating large quantities of food...at least that's the way it works for me.

In any case, my friend told me about Takashi (which by the way has a Michelin star to its name), which has noodle brunches every Sunday, where the noodles are handmade, apparently. I always love noodles, so off we went.

One thing that I must say before I start writing about Takashi is that you (the reader) should not think about it as a Japanese restaurant. I wouldn't call it fusion either. I would instead say that it is an updated/modern approach to traditional dishes, which attempts to retain the essence of tradition while playing around with a few elements of presentation or cooking approach. More...Modern Asian, I would say.

Tempura (shrimp, shi-shito peppers, kabocha squash, tofu): The batter was surprisingly light and a bit airy, which was a nice touch in contrast to the heavy-handed panko crust of other tempura I've had (which I invariably peel off my shrimp because don't want to eat it). Aside from the crust though, the tempura was just like any other.

Pork Shu-mai: I definitely raised an eyebrow (in my head) when I saw this on the menu, because this is definitely a Chinese dish, and I'm always very skeptical whenever I see places that attempt to cook cuisines that are not their own, or "spin" authentic dishes and call them fusion (especially for Asian food). Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised with the delicate nature in which this dish was presented and prepared--the shu-mai wrapper was very thin, and the main meat part was substantial and juicy (but not oily, which is sometimes the case with dimsum). Hmm, probably the only objection that anyone could make was that the price of the dish was not necessarily proportionate to its serving size.

Gyoza: I guess you could say that these are the Japanese equivalent to the shu-mai earlier, and were served with a chili-soy sauce dip. Yeah, these were good. Nothing particularly interesting or groundbreaking though, except that the bottoms of the gyoza were not burnt (as they sometimes are).

Pork Belly Snack with Hot Mustard: Anita ordered these, and said that they were good. Probably trying to evoke the traditional Chinese dish where you eat braised meat on a steamed bun like an open-faced sandwich.

Hokkaido-style Ramen (with miso, braised pork, bean sprouts and wakame seaweed): At $13 for a bowl of ramen, perhaps it's a little on the pricey side for a bowl of ramen, but I thought it was a decently good bowl of ramen. Wasn't mind-blowing or anything, but it was executed properly using high-quality ingredients. The noodles themselves were delicious--I've never had ramen that tasted this fresh--normally, when I eat ramen, the noodes are very soft and on the soggy side, but these noodles had a bite to them, and you could tell that they were not of the pre-packaged variety. As for the broth, it had a strong miso base to it, and was very hearty...which is interesting because the broth was not meat-based. It had a decively bold flavor and went nicely with the toppings (braised pork, bean sprouts, wakame, corn). Although the broth got heavy after a while, the corn was particularly effective at "breaking" the flavor a little because it was fresh, and added a touch of sweetness that I welcomed.

By the way, the picture is not an exaggeration--the bowl was quite large--I ended up taking some of the ramen home and ate some of it the next day...the noodles were not soggy and still had texture, surprisingly.

(Note: I tried other people's ramen and udon broths, which were either vegetable-based or dashi+soy-based, and theirs were substantially lighter than mine, so I think it just depends on what you feel like eating.)

Graham Cracker Ice Cream: Yum. Even though I was full, Tiffany was raving about this ice cream, so I had to try it, in the name of good food. She wasn't kidding, this ice cream was amazing. Although it was a tiny scoop, it was delicious. The ice cream was not too sweet, very creamy and had large graham cracker crumbs mixed into it, so it wasn't just like eating vanilla ice cream with a bunch of graham crackers mixed in--the ice cream itself embodied the essence of graham crackers. Mmm.

Green Tea Ice Cream (the one at the back is graham cracker ice cream as well): So, in the name of tasting and sharing food, I had a spoonful of this from the other people at my table who ordered it. Normally, with green tea ice cream, it's sometimes too sweet. This was not the case with Takashi's green tea ice cream. It had a very strong matcha flavor to it, so you had the undertone basis of green tea which was complemented by the smooth creaminess of the ice cream itself. Also delicious.