Weekend Getaway + Mori Sushi

Last weekend, my friends and I went to Southern California for a food trip. (Oh yes, according to that website, gemini's like to eat too!) Anyhow, we went to couple restaurant, almost all of them are quite pricey but so worth it because the food taste so good! These includes Mori Sushi, Royal/T Cafe, Daikokuya Ramen, Mikawaya, Sasabune, Pinkberry, Yakitori Koshiji, Harajuku Crepe, Din Tai Fung, Crumbs Bakery, and Phoenix Dessert.

I took pictures of ALL of the food I ate, but I will only post some here, otherwise I'll be spamming the page. I will definitely post some other ones another time later.

Mori Sushi
11500 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
http://www.morisushi.org/

My friends and I each had the omakase, which is a set menu with appetitizers and sushi that the chef recommended that night. It was about 5 appetitzers and 15 sushi made from fishes imported from places like Santa Barbara as well as Japan, and dessert. It was $150/person with tax and tips, but my gosh, it was so good! Here are some of the memorable dishes:

Mori's homemade silk tofu with a bit of freshly grind fresh wasabi from Japan.

Grilled eggplants (one with yellow miso and one with red miso), marinated shitaki mushroom and monk fish liver salad.

Tempura abalone and tempura jalapenos. I never like abalone, but my gosh, this one was really good. It's not hard or super hard to chew on. The batter was light and doesn't feel oily at all! So for this one, you take a piece of abalone and you lightly touch it on the sea salt before you eat. So good!

Sweet shirmp salad with shiso, ikura and dash of tangerine zest.

Seared Saba and fig salad.

Bluefin tuna nigiri. The best tuna nigiri I ever had so far. I usually don't even like eating tuna unless it's in a spicy sauce!

Uni from Japan (left) and Santa Barbara (right).

Tamago! Simple Japanese egg omelette but hard to make right. Left is the not so tradition kind, and the right one is more tradition one and bit more savory comparatively.

There are more sushi, but yes, I don't want to overload on photos here. Oh yes, I must emphasize that Mori Sushi is the only sushi place I'd been to so far that uses fresh
Japan imported wasabi! They grate it at the spot! I never like wasabi, but oh my gosh, fresh ones is actually spicy yet sweet! I love it!

And the wonderful meal at Mori ended with homemade black sesame ice cream.

A tip for eating at Sushi places is that try to get bar seat. Not only will you able to see how your sushi chef prepare the meal, you can also interact with them.

I am going to end this entry with one of my favorite part of a meal...it's not complete without them! Dessert!!!

Mikawaya's mochi-lato, gelato in a mochi! I ordered a chocolate hazelnut one, and omg, I was in mochi heaven! Definitely need to try to make some myself sometime soon.

Harajuku Crepe's green tea crepe with banana, nutella and green tea ice cream. It's a pretty typical crepe but the crepe itself is green tea flavor also! The combination is yummy!

Crumbs' red velvet cupcake. It's definitely a heavier type of cupcake. The cream cheese was overwhelming but the cake itself was light and moist, and I can definitely taste the chocolate.

Phoenix's pudding was definitely innovative. I usually see the mango, coconut and the red bean ones at dim sum restaurant but here, they have black sesame, purple rice, green tea, cappucino, and taro also.

My weekend was super relaxing and satisfying. I can't wait to go back to So Cal!