The Son of Neptune

If you are a fan of Iron Chef America, then you must be a fan of Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.  Chef Morimoto only has a few restaurants, so whenever I'm in the neighborhood I feel obligated to take advantage of the opportunity.  This time we were in Napa, California so a late night stop into Morimoto Napa was in order.

We had been here once before and yet somehow I had forgotten how loud it is inside the restaurant.  The decor is beautiful, but it allows for the sound to reverberate off of the walls making your own table conversation difficult to hear.  But your mouth will be too busy eating the decadent food that you won't mind.

The first thing I ordered was the White Lily which I think is The Best Drink On Earth Period.  I had the non-alcoholic version at Morimoto in Manhattan, but have made sure to have the hard version the two times I've been to his Napa location.  The drink is so subtle and so tasty and I think there should be more yuzu products in American markets as yuzu is the perfect citrus fruit.

White Lily (shochu, calpico, yuzu juice and fresh lemon)

This time we started with the hamachi tartare having tried the toro tartare on our last visit.  The presentation is the same, just different fish.  The whole dish comes on a bowl of shredded ice to keep everything cool.  You scoop a little bit of fish on your shovel (the silverware that comes with the dish) and then dip it into any of the six available toppings: nori paste (yum!), wasabi, sour cream, chives, guacamole, rice cracker balls).  Its up to you to come up with all of the various combinations available.  Personally I love the nori paste with a little wasabi and some chives. My husband and I seem to make a game out of this with our various shovel designs in the fish and the constant competition to gather up the others remnants on the side.

hamachi tartare (wasabi, nori paste, sour cream)

My husband knowingly ordered what I had eaten on our last trip, but it turns out that I ordered the same thing he had previously ordered as well.  I guess you can say we are creatures of habit.  All I knew was that tonight I wanted beef, so I ordered the surf and turf so that I could still take advantage of having Morimoto's fish.  The dish was divine, but strangely I preferred the veggies beneath the steak.

surf and turf (snake river farms wagyu, hamachi, black garlic, nuoc cham)

Since we're big lovers of Korean food we had to try Morimoto's kimchees, again not realizing that we had already done so on our previous trip.  Well, at least it was a pleasant mistake.  There were three different kinds of kimchee: cucumber, which was not as hot as it always seems to be in Korean restaurants; radish; cabbage, but not the traditional kind.  Admittedly I was disappointed that they didn't offer the traditional cabbage kimchee, but I wasn't exactly in a Korean restaurant so I'm not sure what I was expecting.

morimoto kimchees

And below is the heavenly dish I got to enjoy on our last visit.  Its like a Japanese cioppino, but so much better.  Be prepared though, as the shrimp comes with heads included.  I have to admit I was envious of my husband's meal, and yet saddened that Morimoto doesn't have a restaurant in Los Angeles as this is the dish that I would want when its cold and I'm not feeling well.  I think this might be the Japanese equivalent of Jewish penicillin.

seafood toban yaki (lobster, king crab, mussels, clams, sea scallop, red miso sake broth)

For dessert we finally varied from our previous experience and ordered the yuzu souffle because we both love yuzu.  If I recall correctly I think our server even told us that it was gluten free, so take a note all of you out there who suffer through a gluten-free diet as you won't be suffering on this night.  And because it isn't made with flour it cooks rather quickly, so if you're tired and don't want to wait the traditional twenty or so minutes for a souffle then you are in luck.  The only flaw with the dish is that its simply too small.  I wanted more even though I was stuffed to the gills.

yuzu souffle (boysenberry ice cream, lemon sugar tuille)

Any time you are in a city where there is a Morimoto restaurant I have one instruction for you: Go.