Morimoto!

Last night I took my wife to Morimoto for dinner (personally I like the trifecta of Morimoto, Del Posto and Craft Steak taking up 3 of the possible 4 corners - and basically the entire block - of that section of 10th avenue. A lot of great eating can happen there). It's my wife's birthday, so we braved the freezing weather (maybe Greenland is colder at this time of year) and headed on out.
When we got there, we were lucky enough to meet the man himself. Although I'm not really sure what he thought of my wife telling him that she was "a big fan" of his. (A big fan of what? His battles on Iron Chef? - btw I can't imagine why they still feel the need to overdub his voice on the Food Network - the man speaks perfect English.) Anyway, it was nice to meet Morimoto and he thanked us for coming, so that was a very cool way to start the evening.
We got there a little early, so we went down to the bar to have some drinks before sitting down. I had a glass of Square One Sake (I had never had Sake before and figured this would be a great time to try it) and my wife had a mixed drink (can't remember what it was - but it was citrus-y and served in a martini glass). While we were sitting at the bar, we were able to look over the menu and plan out our attack. In the end, we decided to split everything and try as much as we could.
We started out sharing a couple of appetizers. First up was the kakuni - a ten hour pork with congee and soy-scallion jus. This was easily the best thing we ate all night. So, I guess it was technically all downhill from here - luckily it wasn't that far down. After the kakuni we had spicy king crab - with tobanjan anoli and micro cilantro. This was at the recommendation of a friend of mine. We liked it, but it was the least memorable part of the meal. Next time I'd be more likely to try the Japanese lobster fritters or beef curry bread.
For the next course we split the roasted ocean trout, which was served with miso, truffles, a turnip puree and a nice fat crispy prosciutto chip on top. This was awesome. After all this cooked food, it was time ot move on to some sushi. Hell, we were at Morimoto after all. We both had some spicy tuna roll (which I had just seen Morimoto show Bobby Flay how to make on an episode of Throwdown) and a shrimp tempura roll. They were both excellent, but I enjoyed the spicy tuna best (it's my favorite roll). I also had a couple of pieces of sushi - nothing too out there - just some tuna and salmon, but both were terrific. It was probably the best sushi I've had yet. What was especially nice was that on the salmon, there was a tiny slice of lime, which made it taste really damn good (you took the lime off before eating it).
Oh yeah - with all of this, I was drinking Grüner Veltiner, Forstreiter, "Grande reserve", Kremstal, Austria 2006. I loved this wine and would definitely buy it if I could find it. It was desribed to be as along the same lines as a Viogner. I was looking for something white, and it was either the Grüner, a Riesling, a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay or a Savignon Blanc. I figured I would try something new. It was nice and crisp, but also very fruity without a lot of acidity or minerality. I liked it. Mmmm.
Finally we got some dessert. It was a birthday dinner afterall. We had the white chocolate semfreddo, which came topped with green tea sponge cake cubes and also came with some burnt orange ice cream, candied kumkwat rind and a nice stripe of chocolate down the center of the plate.
My only regrets were: 1.) Not realizing I could have gotten a glass of the Morimoto Aged Sake (and didn't need to buy an entire bottle) when I got my drink. The descriptions of them just sounded really nice. 2.) Not going for the special blowfish sashimi appetizer. I was actually going to go for it, but when I found out it was $50.00 for 3 pieces of sashimi, I felt my money would be best spent elsewhere. We are in a recession after all, aren't we?

NP: Spoonman, Soundgarden