Tamako Part II

Yes, after many repeated visits to Tamako, here I am again ranting and raving about their food again. These few times though, rather than being conservative and ordering the usual as I wrote in my previous post; teriyaki don, bento set etc., we went ahead and tried other kinds of sushi and dishes. Glad to say, we have found another gem!

The other time round, I chanced upon the best Inari sushi ever in this restaurant. This time, I found something even better! Please allow me to introduce you the best Unagi Tawara (or Gunkan for some of you) I have ever eaten.



I dislike unagi. Really. Whenever I have them at some other restaurants the unagi are usually filled with pricky bones and the meat is so rubbery that it's impossible to bite them into half. In addition, the impression unagi leaves me are thin, white slabs of tasteless meat due to stingy amount of sauce used. This Unagi Tawara, however, had me at the first bite. For $2.20, you get a huge, thick piece of well marinated and generously sauced unagi atop sweet, sufficiently vinegared Japanese rice. Thats not the focal point yet. Check this: When you pop the whole sushi into your mouth, just push it against the roof of your mouth and the Unagi is sooo soft that it simply smashes into a paste. No kidding, thats how soft and good it is. Combined with the sweet, juicy rice and generous amount of sauce which sometimes flow to the bottom of the sushi, it is a gastronomic climax. Not exagerating! Even Qin who was skeptical became a convert after the FIRST bite! Besides, they really took the time to remove all bones so what you get in the end is a good, tasty, fuss-free piece of sushi which I simply can't stop complimenting (and ordering!)

Just yesterday, we popped by the place again and ordered Soup Gyoza, California handroll, Ebiko special, Sake Mayo Sesami and of course, Unagi Tawara which has become a main staple in our orders.



The Gyoza soup is very tasty and have been brewed with either pork or beef as there are bit of meat in the soup. Very thickly flavoured. The gyoza was also quite good although I can't really make out what's inside. I suspect that its mashed up vegetables with shrimp as the gyoza was very soft. Soft skin and soft filling. Yes, I like soft and melt-in-your mouth stuff :)



I felt that the rice yesterday deteriorated though, it was abit drier and the vinegar added was not enough therefore not producing "sweet" rice. I realised that the amount of rice vinegar is very important. Put enough and you get moist, heavenly "sweet" tasting rice, too little and you get dry and slightly sourish rice as with most Japanese restaurants. The rice had an impact on the California roll and Ebiko special which tasted just average. The Sake Mayo Sesami still tasted very good though. Cooked salmon mayo at the center and the entire rice roll covered with sesame seeds making it slightly crunchy to chew and very flavourful.



Ah ha! Luckily the Unagi tawara saved the day. This time we were smart enough to order 4 servings at one shot rather than ordering them one by one. The dry rice did not have an impact on the Unagi because it's so moist and wet that it literally just soaked the rice! We had to agree (again) that its the best Unagi sushi ever.



So the rice in Tamako may vary which happens very, very seldomly (I actually think it's because of the huge amount of customers yesterday). Doesn't matter because I still love the Unagi and Inari there and its the only place I'm going to have sushi at :)