Death by Uni at the Maruhide Uni Club

Wednesday. Septemebr 10, 2014.

10 of us gathered at the Maruhide Uni Club restaurant in Torrance this evening. This place specializes in Uni so we are all looking forward to this extravaganza. Or as the dinner was named afterwards  "Death by Uni"

Original set up was for 12 and reservations had to be made 7 days in advance for the "Omakase" dinner, otherwise the chefs dinner. 2 people had to drop out at he last minute so there was 2 extra
plates of everything on the table to share. At the end of the evening we all were so stuffed that it was hard to get a grain of rice down.

Uni is the "gonads" of the sea urchin. The only edible part. The gonards produce either the roe or milt. There are 5 lobes to an urchin so that is 5 very nice servings per urchin. They also grade the Uni by A, B or C. I am sure we had "A" tonight. All the urchins at Maruhide are Santa Barbara Wild.

Small wine list and over priced. Most of us ordered beer. Found out the corkage is $20. When I come back I will bring my own wine.

This was a 12 course dinner at $90 per person. Do not know what the $120 dinner consists of but I don't know how it could be any better.

Started out the a Dashi pudding with Uni. Slight fishy taste to the custard. A nice beginning but not to sure if I would order this on its own.

Next was a mixed appetizer plate consisting of squid noodles, carrot with uni miso, cured uni on endive, cured uni on toast, marinated chunk tuna and edaname beans. The tuna chunks were the weak part of this dish. I found them very dry The squid noddles were exceptionally good.

Then a plate with Blue Fin (Toro) fatty tuna with miso pepper and micro greens was set in front of us. The tuna melted in your mouth. Almost like butter.

 4th  course was a bowl of Uni cream pasta. Sounds strange but one of the best flavors of the evening.  Sauce was so good. Just needed maybe a sliver of crab or lobster to make it fantastic.

The  most beautiful plate of the evening was set down. A whole Uni shell sitting on a bed of rock salt, a banana leaf with 5 pieces of Uni sashimi with a dab of sea salt and wasabi. The very slight sprinkling of the sea salt added a punch to the rich Uni but  the wasabi over whelmed the Uni.

 Sixth course was a grilled Longostino, split with pickeled diakon and Uni. The Langostino was mushy, almost like it was old. Not the best  and messy to eat.

A small plate of Blue Fin medium fatty tuna along with a seared skin red snapper sashimi was added to the offerings. Very good. And nice break from the Uni

 8th course  was a oven  baked lamb chop, asparagus, snow pea, yellow pepper and Japanese radish with a red wine uni sauce was offered. Good flavor on the chop. As is the newest trend every where the vegetables were almost raw.

Next a plate of tempura was brought out. A Shiso leaf, a Scallop with Nori and two Shrimp. Good but not the best tempura I have had. The Shiso leaf seems to be the in thing at Sushi restaurants right now.

A offering of sushi was presented. 3 large pieces all wrapped in Nori. Salmon Roe, Uni and Blue Fin Tuna. At this point we are starting to groan. The waitress said most people don't get past the tempura course.

The least liked presentation of the evening was a Blue Fin Fatty Tuna Ball Broth. The fish was grainy and terrible flavor.

Dessert was a small dish of Creme Brulee. Topped out the meal very well. Not filling as we were over stuffed at this point. But we did make it past the tempura course which was in itself a feat.

This was an experience dinner. But I will say I did get my fill of Uni. It is so rich and decadent but somehow I feel very over Uni'd right now.