SUSHI AND I’M
BACK
I’m sitting in front of an empty Word document and all I can
think about is how much I missed this! I missed going out to restaurants,
taking pictures, enjoying the experience, taste and smell food, chatting with the waiters
and the owners, thinking what could be interesting to eat and write about… so here
I’m back, after a (too long) time off, and after many requests to return to writing,
here I am.
Where should I start? Of course I need to give a short
explanation where did I go and what was I up to in all the period that I
didn’t write – in a word, the answer is Mummy. I spent the beginning of my
pregnancy in sleeping, and after that I simply didn’t have the passion to start
explore places, but just wanted to go to eat at the same good places I already
knew. Many times, I just went for a quick
fill… After the little guy was born, I didn’t find the time and will to get
dressed up, get on a train and go to one of London’s fabulous restaurants. So
why am I back now? Because I have some time between the little guy’s nursery
and my other stuff, so why not return to and old and fun hobby?
September is a festive month in our small family. My
birthday, and the little guy’s, and me and my beloved’s anniversary, all happen
in this month. In addition we also celebrated Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year)
with my mother coming to London for a visit. Who am I to miss so many
opportunities to party? I booked us a table in advance (a month and a half
ahead of time) at one of the best-spoken places I heard about recently, Sushi
Samba (link). Some of you might know the name, and some of you might laugh and
say ‘This place has been around for a while… it’s that Israeli guy’s place…’ –
indeed, this is a chain that has a couple of branches in the U.S (New York and
Las Vegas) and even in Tel Aviv – but there’s a difference.
I didn’t visit the New York restaurant (yet), and I’ve been
to the Israeli one when it just opened, and I don’t remember a particularly
cheerful experience. But, and it’s an important But, the London branch takes
many other restaurants for a ride. Just like I would describe a potential
partner to one of your friends – ‘Sushi Samba’ has all the attributes of a
successful match:
Location: Central; View: Impressive-Amazing; Access: Tube
station meters away from the restaurant; Atmosphere: Urban Chic. What’s so
unique about it? The especially quick jump of the lift that takes you to the 38th
floor of Heron Tower (link), and the very special food they serve here. A winning
combination of Japanese, Peruvian, and Spanish food does sound a bit strange,
but who said that marriage between different factions isn’t interesting?
As I mentioned before, I booked the table about a month and
a half in advance, and even so, there were no slots for dinner and also not for
lunch, so we found ourselves at 15:30, after the little guy’s swimming lesson,
on our way to the City, armed with hunger (chlorine always makes me extra
hungry) and quite a lot of excitement in our hearts – it’s been a while since
we went to a place with so much hype.
We got the menus. My mother doesn’t understand what is she
doing in a restaurant that serves sushi, my beloved is busy with the little guy
who’s flirting with all the waitresses and hostesses, and only I am busy trying
to figure out what would be cooler and different from what I had in other
places, without leaving a hole in our wallet (not an easy task). I got full
authority to order what-ever I want! The basic principles at ‘Sushi Samba’ are
sharing platters and no particular order for the dishes – they come as they’re
ready. For 3 people, it’s best to order 2 starters, 2-3 middle courses and one
main. I signaled the waiter and just improvised between my desire to diversify
my experience, my mother’s concerns from raw fish rolled in rice, food that the
little guy could also sample, and something to please my beloved who claims
that sushi is not food. Making all these decisions was quite tiring, but at the
end I was able to find a balance between the requests from around the table.
Shall we begin? For starters, I ordered shrimps tempura in
spicy mayo and black truffles vinaigrette (£ 13). The
dish included many prawns so there were no doubts and no cross-staring as all
people who share the dish put their chopsticks into the plate again and again.
The little guy also got the first taste of shrimp in his life, and it seems we share
a taste for the new and interesting.
The starter that
rocked our world was glazed pork wraps with palmetto, orange and bib lettuce (£
12). You could see the salt crystals on the plate, just one example to the
attention to detail in preparing this perfect nibble. You can’t really start
taking small bites out of a dish that is of the size of a single bite exploding
with tastes, so it’s not worth wasting time trying to engineer the next bite
every time.
While sitting, we are drinking and enjoying a bottle of Brut
that sparkles in our mouth just like a Brut should, without putting any strain
on the taste. Personally, I never got along with combining Asian food and
wines, so I gave up on wine in this meal. Needless to say, my glass looked as
if I’m not drinking at all, because the waiter jumped at me with every sip and
tried to re-fill my glass. A bit scary, but at some point he understood that I
don’t appreciate his stalking…
Another starter was gyoza (£ 12). I have to say that this
was a rather dull dish, that wasn’t any different than other gyozas that I
tried in less impressive restaurants, or in Chinese street eateries that take
themselves seriously and make proper dumplings. Here, it was nice, but not more
than that.
The headline was the main course of this lovely afternoon.
On a tray with steaming hot stones, we got 3 pieces of meat that were scorched
in the most accurate way I’ve seen recently. Those were pieces of rib eye,
reddish chorizo, and another piece of rump steak (£ 42). The meat wasn’t fatty
at all, but was soft and smooth in the mouth. On the platter we got chimichuri
sauce, steamed green leaves, fried bread crumbs (for the crunch), tomato and
pepper salad, and a dream-like beans dish. No need to say that the platter was
destroyed in no time. My mother licked her fingers, my beloved didn’t put his
fork down for a second (and this is hard when you have a 1-year old kid to
entertain/chase/feed etc), and the little guy asked for more and more chorizo
even though it was spicy.
Presentation rules at Sushi Samba, and with every tray of
sushi that passed in front of my eyes (and there were quite a few), my desire
for sushi just grew. Since I wasn’t with in sushi-appreciating company, I
ordered the simple rolls that I imagined will be accepted relatively easily:
One crunchy red tuna roll (£ 12) and two hand rolls with shrimp tempura,
coriander, spicy mayonnaise and red onion (£ 13). The surprise was that the
hand roll weren’t rolled in algae, but it what looked like an extra thin and
transparent omelette. Delicious!! Is it needless to say, everybody including
everybody licked their fingers ?!?
The sweet taste had to lead into a dessert. The waiter
recommended the cheese cake warmly (£ 13). How much can you innovate with a
cheese cake… I thought about it and said oh well. We didn’t feel like having
chocolate (too heavy), and all the sorts of puddings that appeal to the British
crowds aren’t our taste. What did I say before about presentation? I’m sure you
imagined a triangular crumbs cake again, but this is not what came out this
time. The artwork oh sorry… the cheesecake was placed on the table and we
stared at it in awe for a while. The cake itself was placed inside a
transparent sugar ball, which rested on a mountain of sweetened crumbs, vanilla
ice-cream, strawberry jelly, drops of granite, and a gentle orange zest.
It wasn’t cheap, but so worth the price. The four of us had
an extraordinary time, a first class culinary experience, and with no
expectations up front. Very recommended if you’re willing to refresh your mouth
with plenty of new tastes, and if you are not afraid of heights J
Heron Tower
Bishopgate 110
London EC2N 4AY
Tube station: Liverpool st
