Sushi Omakase at Ishi (石)

I've not had time to sit down for any sushi omakase dinner at the restaurants. Luckily tonight's 6.30pm dinner was early enough so that I had plenty of time after to sort out some deadlines. Dinner tonight was fixed at Ishi (石) at Intercontinental Hotel, Robertson Quay. 

My meals at Ishi have always been quick lunches. Even so, I've skipped that for a while. I haven't stepped into Ishi since Chef Maasaki Sakashita left and started his own namesake joint. Hurhurhur. Tonight's meal with J was very enjoyable. We were attended to by a young and earnest chef from Shikoku.

The chef's strength (or maybe the restaurant's) isn't in curing/treating shiny fish. It's a commendable effort, but not impressive. When faced with a diner who has no interest in any cut of maguro, most chefs are hard pressed to find shiny fish, and most end up giving me non-shiny fish like the in-season suzuki and then a fukko. The kinmedai was good, and the nodoguro were lightly seared with binchotan. Nice presentation, and searing the fish lends a slightly different flavor to spice up the meal. I didn't mind that at all.

I appreciated the chef accommodating many diners' preferences in having a smaller rice to fish ratio in our sushi. That helped tremendous.ly For a sushi omakase meal, six pieces of sushi are too unsatisfying. 12 pieces would be tough for me unless the amount of rice is halved. Hurhurhur. The sushi rice was vinegared nicely and provided a balanced foil to the fish. I was wondering if the kitchen would tweak the amount of vinegar in order to compensate for the less rice used. Nope. They managed to balance it nicely.

I was surprised by the appearance of keiji sushi. The stars of the night for me were the botan ebi sushi peeled and formed in front of us, and the warmed monkfish liver blended with pickles and wrapped in seaweed. The miso soup was lovely because the botan ebi's head was used in the stock. Of course I took an antihistamine before this meal. I'm not dumb.

For the finisher, I took the 'normal' rice bowl of ikura and bafun uni. J opted for the 'special' rice bowl which included snow crab and negitoro. We were tickled that the chef showed us how much rice formed the base before he layered the ingredients. 

I prudently only had 180ml of sake. Nothing more. J wasn't going to help me out, so this volume of alcohol was fine. Hurhurhur. I was perfectly sober to continue with crunching papers later in the night. I couldn't resist having an umeshu-soda on ice to end the meal with.