Twoin treated me to a pre-birthday dinner at Hiura yesterday (that’s one heck of a treat; thanks Twoin!). We walked in at around 8pm and when Hiura-san saw us, he looked down at his fish case and shook his head because he knew two big appetites had just arrived. Uh-oh, did we come on a bad night? Apparently he had been really busy, even at lunch, so he was running out of a lot of different things. He had just gotten some west coast sea urchin, but he showed us the texture was somewhat runny; not tight enough to make the uni tempura we love so much. We could see he was feeling somewhat apologetic that he might not have the very best of his favorite things to serve us, but he just sighed and smiled and you could see his mind got right to work on how he was still going give us another meal to remember.

He started the sushi parade with what he knows is one of my favorites- fluke fin. It was his last 3 pieces. In fact I noticed that he gave me two pieces of the fin and gave Twoin one piece of fin and one piece of regular fluke sushi. And by regular I mean the cut of the fish was from the standard part of the fillet, but by no means was the quality of his fluke just “regular”, it is always extraordinary. As he prepared our next several courses of sushi he was constantly thinking ahead; calling out instructions to his son in the kitchen, and informing the waitress to 86 the hamachi, the last 4 pieces which he was saving to serve us towards the end. You may be getting tired of my saying it, but I can’t say it enough- the sushi at Hiura is incredible. He serves a number of different varieties of fish that if you didn’t have the freshest and very best, it would probably taste pretty bad. I have developed a fierce liking for things like shimaji and kohada there. The fresh ikura is so different than the fishy goo-sacs you get at pedestrian sushi places. And when you sit at the sushi bar and leave yourself in Hiura-san’s hands, he makes sure you get the best of the best.

We got some personal treatment with our sake too. It’s BYOB, but normally they provide us with an ice bucket for whatever we bring. They ran out of ice buckets last night, and seeing that, Hiura asked us to hand him our bottle, which he took to the back and placed in his blast freezer and returned with a carafe of sake he said was from his own stash. Nice! It was a completely different flavor profile from the sakes we usually have. This one was unfathomably clean, almost flavorless on the onset, but had plenty of rice-y flavor and aroma on the finish. Awesome.

Meanwhile, the waitress borught out what Hiura had asked his son to prepare for us- a plate of unagi, but not like you think. It was fried eel backbones and two little nubs of eel stomach tempura. Wow. “Very dangerous” Hiura-san said of the stomachs, and I don’t know if he was joking or not, but heck, whatever he was going to serve, I was gladly going to eat. And it was fantastic. I’ve never had anything quite like it. Warm and moist on the inside, it tasted a little minerally, a little liver-y, and had a pleasant tinge of bitterness as well. With a little added saltiness from dipping it in soy sauce, it had a wonderful savory flavor profile that went really well with the sake. And so did the eel backbone, which Hiura serves, unlike the small little one-inch bits we had a month ago at Yasuda, as long complete pieces. Absolutely delightful crunchy bits of goodness. Frito-Lay could learn a thing or three from these.

So the glorious sushi kept on coming and it was all spectacular. We finished as always with a couple pieces of the refreshing little baby-scallion-like sushi which I’ve learned is called menegi. Oh, but we werent really done yet. He told us that his son makes some great soba which is not on the menu, but he could make for us if we were still hungry. And as I said before, if he wants to serve us something, hells yeah want to eat it!

As we waited for the soba to be prepared, more personal treats ensued. First, some fresh japanese cucumbers his wife picked from their garden that day. Served with a little bit of gooey dipping sauce which appeared to be made from natto but was salty and sweet in a way that plain natto is not. I think it’s fairly common because I’ve had this at Hajime before too, so I should know what it is, but I don’t. In addition to that, he gave us each a little mound of special sea salt for dipping too. But really, those cucumber pieces where so crisp and fresh tasting they really didn’t need any adornment to be enjoyed. So refreshing. Then he gave us several pieces of takuan, the traditional yellow japanese daikon pickle. But these were not the radioactive yellow that you normally see in sushi restaurants. This was a pale gold, but the flavor, oh the flavor, was SO different than any takuan I’ve ever had before. This actually tasted like a vegetable, not a candied abomination. He explained that this particular type is much more expensive, but like most things he serves, once you’ve tasted what it’s supposed to be like, you will have a hard time swallowing what you were used to.

And so finally, the soba arrived, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It was cold soba, served in the traditional way, noodles served on a little bamboo mat with little flakes of seaweed garnishing it and a personal bowl of the dipping sauce on the side to which you add scallion, grated daikon and wasabi. It turns out this was cha soba, where the noodles are green because the dough was actually made with green tea. Not surprisingly, the noodles were absolutely one hundred percent spot on perfectly cooked. I mean, just imagine what your dream texture for soba should be, and this was it. It’s that point just on the softer side of al dente that makes every bite feel substantial but not undercooked. The sauce was deep in umami flavor, probably a bonito broth based, with nicely balanced tones of saltiness from soy and sweetness probably from mirin. It went so well with the noodles on this summer day, it was just fuggin amazing. Delicious and refreshing. It will definitely become a staple for me whenever I eat there from now on. I will probably dream of that dish for the rest of the summer. What a way to round out another kickass meal from Hiura.