Sushi-Ko

"I'm heading over to Sushi-Ko around 6, want to join me?"

When I heard those words yesterday, I knew things were looking up. I'd been having a bad week, and few things improve my mood like Japanese food, the source of so many of my comfort dishes.

Perched on seats at the sushi bar in front of Executive Chef Koji Terano, we put ourselves in his hands. "Some sashimi, some sushi, some small dishes, some cooked food ... whatever you want to serve us," we said. Koji smiled.

We started off with a glass of plum wine to whet our appetites, and opened our bottle of champagne when Koji placed our first dish in front of us. According to him, champagne pairs well with sashimi. And it turns out, he's right. Our first course was a sashimi presentation of hirame (flounder) topped with engawa (flounder fin) and lightly sauteed ankimo (monkfish liver), topped with American caviar, micro-scallions and a sauce of ponzu and grated daikon. The combination of flavors and textures was incredible, and I probably could have gone home happy after finishing that plate.

But no, silly girl. Thankfully, the time for going home remained hours away. Koji next presented us with a sashimi plate, a selection of hata (grouper), hotate (live scallop), sawara (Spanish mackerel), and big-eye tuna, accompanied with seaweed, daikon, radish, and carrot. What was most remarkable about each of these fish was its texture ... the grouper, with a little bit of chewiness; the smooth scallop; the silkiness of the mackerel; and the melt-in-your-mouth nature of the tuna. I was also surprised at the mildness of the mackerel ... I always enjoy mackerel, but the slightly strong flavor I expected was not found in last night's dish. That explained why Koji suggested we eat the mackerel before the tuna (although he agreed it could go either way) ... neither fish would really overpower the other.

The simplest dish came next, a lightly cooked lobster tail topped with bottarga (salted dried mullet roe). This course underwhelmed both of us, but it was probably meant to transition us from raw to cooked, and that, it did well.

Next, we were presented with a cooked dish, tuna three ways - tuna jaw, tuna cheek, and fatty tuna jaw, served with four accompaniments - a salt/chili flakes/black sesame seeds combo, fresh grated wasabi (from South Carolina, who knew?), a yuzu-jalapeno dipping sauce, and lemon. By this point our champagne was gone, and we paired this dish with a burgundy - a perfect match. The jaw presentation was fatty and gelatinous, and a dip in the salt mixture followed by a touch of lemon made each bite perfect. The cheek almost reminded us of a South American pork dish, especially when enjoyed with the yuzu-jalapeno sauce. And the fatty jaw ... it was grilled, with a crisp outside and melting inside, and to my taste needed no accoutrements whatsoever. It was at this point in the meal that my dining companion made his true feelings known. "I love you," he said to Koji. "Me too," replied Koji.

The tuna dish was delicious, but to me most important for its educational value ... that such different flavors and textures can be coaxed out of different areas of the head of the same fish was phenomenally interesting to me, and gave me a whole new appreciation of the skill that goes into butchering and dish-planning.

So. Not. Done. I have to admit, at this point I was close to throwing in the towel. But I persevered, and I'm glad I did, because in terms of flavor, the next course closely rivaled the first for "favorite dish of the evening" in my book. Koji brought us what he called his "fish and chips soup" - a broth thickened with kuzu (a Japanese root starch) and filled with pieces of seafood (I seem to remember crab, but I'll admit that my memory begins to get a little hazy around this point of the meal) and seaweed. Floating on top was the fish and chips -- lightly fried pieces of flounder, and sweet potato chips. My words can't do this justice - it was just perfect, and perfect at that point in the meal. My excitement about the soup was obvious, and it spurred a conversation with Koji about one of my favorite food memories from my travels in Japan -- the yakimo trucks driving through the neighborhood, selling roasted Japanese sweet potatoes as delicious snacks. The sweet potatoes in Koji's soup were American, but they still invoked a memory from seven years ago, making the dish taste that much better to me.

"We've still got to get rolls," my friend leaned over and said to me. I smiled weakly back. "Right." So we did - a white tuna and jalapeno pepper roll, and a roll filled with fatty tuna, shiso leaf, and radish. They were delicious, the jalapeno pepper adding a great zest to the first, and the shiso leaf a nice clean flavor in the second.

I only wish I had still been hungry.

Sushi-Ko
2309 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
202-333-4187