Yesterday marked five years for me and Conrad as a couple. Five. Each day I move deeper and deeper into uncharted territory - I'd not dated anyone before him for more than six months. Happily, it's not a scary venture, not at all.
Two things I will not do in this posting:
- Rhapsodize about my love for the man and all the good things he embodies. Assume both, please.
- Discuss the quantity of wine we consumed last night.
So, let's talk of food. Though we stopped in to Yoshi's for dessert and to finalize plans for tonight's dinner, we decided to finally take advantage of a gift certificate to
Tsuki. It's been a couple of years since our first visit there - one drawback to all the fine dining in Chicago is that if a place is not incredibly convenient or anything less than deeply cherished, we don't always remember to go there more often - and the gift certificate was soon to expire otherwise. We like sushi anyway, so what the heck?
We ordered a bottle of
Conundrum and opted for the chef's course. Curiously for us, we devoured the first course (slices of yellowtail topped with ceviche sauce and cilantro and with citrus obha sauce) without thinking to photograph it. Fortunately for all of you, we took photos of the rest!
Oyster shooters and shots (fresh oyster in a ponzu shooter with a shot of Ginjyo sake).
Horse mackerel served three ways.
The same horse mackerel skeleton that had been skewered on the sashimi plate, cut, deep fried, and salted.
Botan Ebi (sweet shrimp), smoked duck, Chu-Toro (medium fatty tuna, from the cheeks, I believe), and Tobiko Wasabi (flying fish roe tinted and flavoured with wasabi). Not photographed were the deep-fried shrimp heads presented to us after this course.
Tako spicy tuna (marinated octopus maki topped with crunchy spicy tuna and drizzled with wasabi mayonnaise) and spicy pine nut tuna (spicy tuna maki with pine nuts, pistachios, and rosemary, topped with with white tuna and giner paste).
Favourites? Tough question. I admit to loving the fried ones - the mackerel head and bones as well as the shrimp head. I am a huge fan of the sweet shrimp as well ever since I first tried it at a restaurant in Victoria some 3 years back. I would also laud the spicy pine nut tuna for really conveying the meatiness of the tuna. With the rosemary and nuts mixed in, the tuna almost seemed like pork or some other meat.
Conrad is having a good long morning in bed, which is fair because we didn't go to bed until after midnight. I think he liked the bunnies I got him for his anniversary, too. Given how wound up and overworked he's been lately, I was so relieved and delighted that we were able to have a mellow evening of good food and wine. He's 50 today, you know. Quite a weekend of celebration for him!
To close this entry, a blurry shot taken in the cab over to Yoshi's....
The iPhone photo doesn't do them justice, though perhaps a better photo might not help any squeamish readers. They were hot out of the oil, though, and very good. It reminded me of a similar thing we enjoyed two years or so ago at the same restaurant involving the fried skeleton of horse mackerel. Also tasty. A nice echo of that particular night.
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