Trust Me.

Dear 27,
Here near LA, sushi places are everywhere. In strip malls along Ventura Boulevard there are supposedly (in Iowa I would probably not trust a strip mall sushi joint, no offense to you Des Moines) the best sushi places you can find. So with the help of Gwyneth Paltrow (I realize how this sounds) and a nudge from Gary Caplan, I veered off my usual path to the Galleria and hit up Sushi Nozawa for an early dinner and what was to be the strangest, most delicious sushi dining experience I've had to date.

I walked in to a completely empty restaurant, no music, but a stern looking sushi chef behind the counter. I went straight for the sushi bar and was told I have "no choice" if I sit there. Once I realized the Chef and his assistant, Antonio, weren't going to laugh at any of my jokes, I stuck to enjoying the non-stop stream of no-frills sushi. Chef Nozawa has another spot called Sugarfish that told me this "Trust Me-style of Sushi" is his "interpretation of the centuries-old Japanese tradition called omakase, where the master chef determines the menu."

 

While he wasn't a chatty man, Chef Nozawa shared that this restaurant had be open for 23 years and that since coming to America in 1977, he has stuck to his traditional Japanese way of sushi making. He reminded me, "Sushi. One bite. No sauce." Here's what the chef determined would be my abundant menu:

-Tuna (I think it was baby tuna, which is weird, but was utterly delicious)
-Toro (did you know that's the belly of a Tuna?)
-Yellowtail
-Albacore
-Crab hand roll
-Cod. (Yes Cod. I thought cod was used in fish sticks, but it was buttery and delightful.)
The Trust-me sushi method left me with a hefty check, but was well worth it. Even Nicole Richie thinks so.

xo-LP