Content area
Full Text
Morton's Worth Visiting for Gift-Impaired Shoppers; OC Flavors Coming to Balboa Bay Club
EXECUTIVE DINING
We tend to think of sushi and sashimi as nearly the same everywhere we eat it. The orders may come with a little classier presentation at some places, but it's easy to generalize the genre.
But as California cuisine has come to represent a vast range of creative cooking, sushi and sashimi can be an enlightened dining adventure.
Another misconception is that Roy's in Newport Beach harks only of top-drawer cooking from Hawaii, home of namesake founder of the upscale restaurant chain, Roy Yamaguchi. Roy's also is where you will find jaw-dropping sushi that takes your taste buds on an Asian journey.
I It happens courtesy of Yamaguchi himself and resident sushi guru, Lorin Watada. Lorin doesn't" present a vast sushi menu at Roy's. Instead, you'll find a few gorgeous creations, including a three-course sushi meal for $35.
Two weeks ago, a group of us took the large front booth of the dining room and tried almost everything. Discerning palates all, this group was fed well on generous portions.
The tuna had a unique spiciness and came delicately topped with hamachi (yellowtail), a little blanket of salmon, a duvet of avocado and a drizzle of ginger-flavored ponzu sauce. Another offering had crab playing off the silkiness of avocado and the crunch of tempura-fried asparagus spears, all wrapped together in paper thin slices of Kobe beef.
We also had a sampling of regional and seasonal Japanese sushi that took textures and surprising combinations of ingredients to a new level.
All parts of the sushi meals are artistic and geometric, adding to the visual impact.
Wanting to leave room for dessert, we left for another time the delicious looking chirashi bowls. These are artistic bowls holding sushi rice and topped with various ingredients (one that Lorin was presenting featured eel, a medley of shrimp and vegetable tempura).
For drinks we began with cold sake and segued to the Bonny Doon "Roy's" Clos de Roy" Grenache/Syrah blend. Love the latter as it has just the right personality for this food without overpowering it, considering that it's a red wine.
Sushi doesn't translate into...