2 posts tagged “morimoto”

I love the original Iron Chef. Iron Chef America is a poor substitute, but I'll take what I can get. I hate that we'll never see a natto or durian episode, but I can live with it. I know that Food Network's audience is not really into "icky" stuff. But good lord - I was watching the sablefish episode today, and they cut the heads off the sablefish, according to Alton Brown "so we don't have to look at their faces". Are you kidding me? The fish head is the best part of any fish - especially the cheeks. Just think of the interesting things Morimoto could have done with that. Fishhead stew, anyone?

By the way, I remain really IRKED that Food Network keeps dubbing over Morimoto's voice, especially when he's speaking ENGLISH. It really irritates me, especially since his accent is not unintelligible.

Today is our last day in Philly. Overall, my impression of Philadelphia is positive, but I wish people in general were a bit more friendly and communicative. It's really disconcerting, since I am so used to people just being automatically courteous and polite.

Foodwise, it's been pretty great.

We ate at Morimoto's for lunch on Friday. How could we come here and not dine at an Iron Chef's restaurant? The interior was awesome - it looks to me like a futuristic diner, and the atmosphere was a lot more casual than most fine dining experiences I've had. The interior actually reminded me a lot of Clockwork Orange (design-wise, not plot-wise, thank god).

We ordered some non-alcoholic drinks. I had a tangerine orange thing that was pretty neat, and Mark had a Calpico drink infused with some citrus and cilantro. The Calpico drink stuck in my head because I used to buy it a lot back in college, back when it was marketed as "Calpis". They changed it to Calpico some years later. It's a very sweet, milky drink, and I did not even think about mixing it with anything, but maybe we'll try recreating this drink later.

I ordered a sushi combo, specifying no octopus (I got served octopus anyway). You get a lot of sushi for the price, actually. I wish I had specified more rolls. I try to be an adventurous eater, but there are some things I just can't bring myself to try or like. I even got a piece of toro, which was delicious. While I was waiting for my sushi plate, I ordered a tempura appetizer. This was DELICIOUS.

The tempura came with a gorgonzola cheese sauce, which was delicious, but a bit much, I thought. All the tempura pieces came on barbecue skewers. The piece de resistance (is that how you say it?) was the bacon wrapped around some mozzarella tempura, though. That was tempura nirvana.

Mark got the five course tasting menu. Our favorite was the starter - toro tartare with this yummy sauce. It was delicious. Another great one was the rock shrimp tempura. You know, I'm not a big fan of shrimp - I'll eat it if it's there, but it's not my favorite thing in the world - but I couldn't stop sneaking pieces of this dish. The rock shrimp was so sweet. The main course, which was Chilean sea bass, actually tasted like my dad's fish, with the black bean sauce layered on top. Mark felt the sauce overwhelmed the flavor of the fish a little too much. But overall it was good.

And of course we went to go get cheesesteaks. We got them at Pat's, instead of across the street at the gaudy neon-covered Geno's, because Geno's is run by racist bigots who sell stuff like t-shirts that say "I'm an American because I order in English". Our Philly friends informed us that Geno's had actually hired an Italian worker a few years back to deal with Italian tourists. So order in English unless you're a white European.

But back to Pat's - it was actually more expensive than I thought it would be - around $7 for a cheesesteak with onions. It fulfilled its purpose, though - cheesy, low-grade meat, and huge.

There's other stuff, of course, but it'll have to wait. Time to get breakfast.