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Posts Tagged ‘Sea Urchin’

Matoi Sushi – The Uni is Still Alive!

Posted in Coquitlam, Dinner, Japanese, Joyce, Restaurants, Seafood, Sushi, tagged Chicken Karaage, Chopped Scallop Roll, conch, Matoi Sashimi, sashimi, Sea Urchin, sushi, Tempura, unagi, Uni, Yaki Udon on April 8, 2015| 1 Comment »

My family and I used to frequent Nagano near Coquitlam Centre a lot, before it’s closed temporarily due to a fire. Since then, we have been going to Matoi at Sunwood Square by Lougheed Highway.

Food

This time around, in addition to our usual staple, we also tried a few new things. First, Fresh Sea Urchin (uni). I mean, the whole thing! If you follow me on Instagram, then you would see the video of the live sea urchin as it arrived at our table. The flesh had some natural sweetness, not stringy, and didn’t have the unpleasant fishy taste that some may have. It was served with strips of nori (seaweed), and with a few drops of soy sauce, the taste of sea was accentuated. It’s not cheap but definitely an occasional treat that’s worth every nickel (as we phased out our pennies hehe).

Usually Japanese restaurants serve Beef Sashimi almost tataki style, with a quick sear on the outside. Not here. It was straight up slices of raw beef, and with a dip into the yuzu based sauce, you can actually taste the beefy flavour. Our order had some nice marbling, so the meat slices just melt in your mouth. I was hesitant about the 100% raw beef but it was actually really good.

We usually add conch to our soup, so Conch Shell Sashimi was a first for all of us. (more…)

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Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar feat. Unsung Heroes Festival

Posted in Culinary Events, Dinner, Joyce, Seafood, Vancouver, tagged Periwinkles, Sea Urchin, Sustainable Seafood on February 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

After doing the research for my last post, I was intrigued by some of the menu items. One of which was Blue Water Cafe’s Unsung Heroes Festival that took place through to end of January. If my memory serves me right, I went to Blue Water once years ago, before my foodie years. At that time I didn’t quite know how to enjoy good food. So when I got a hold of a $50 gift certificate for the restaurant, I invited a friend along and gave it another try.

Food

While the food quality didn’t disappoint me, it didn’t wow me either. For a restaurant with such a good reputation, to me it’s somewhat a let-down. Don’t get me wrong. I think the Unsung Heroes idea was brilliant, but the execution of the menu wasn’t bold enough. How so? Read on.

Before we started munching on the food, we each ordered a drink of Jacob’s Ladder and Bread. Jacob’s Ladder was a very refreshing drink, flavoured with herbs and botanicals. The julienned cucumber garnish on top of the crushed ice was crunchy and ice cold. Bread came with two spread, seaweed butter and red chili pepper & chick pea spread. I found the seaweed butter rather ordinary; I couldn’t really taste the seaweed. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the chick pea spread. The chick pea was grounded finely and the texture and flavouring was just right on the bread. Wish the bread crust was a bit softer, though.

For the two of us, we had three dishes. First, a Sashimi Platter that had 14 pieces of fish including Sablefish, Amaebi (raw sweet prawn), Albacore tuna, Sockeye salmon, Red tuna, Scallops and Hamachi (yellow tail). Initially we were going for a separate order of sablefish, but since it’s included in the platter, we opted for this instead, giving us the opportunity to try a variety of sashimi. The sashimi were overall quite fresh and tasty. First time trying it, the sablefish was silky, very sweet and soft. I wish each type of fish came in pairs, though, so we could split it easily.

Then we picked out two items from the Unsung Heroes Festival. The Periwinkles were an interesting treat. There were a good 40 something periwinkles in the bowl and it’s a rather time consuming dish. Why, you ask? (more…)