Best Sushi of My Life

When I visit Matt and Melissa I have some things I like to do while I am here while they work.  I took off around 11 for Fourth Street in Berkeley.  There are shops there I like to wander through but first I ate brunch at Oceanview Diner.  I have been there several times.  They know how to make a soft poached egg without it swimming in water when delivered to my table.  The bacon is crispy and they serve the best home fries.  It is an employee-owned restaurant and the service is a well-oiled machine.  I sat at the counter, next to a photo-journalist who had been sent to take photos of the place.  Besides being a diner they run a bakery next door.  I asked them what pie they were serving today -- key lime and coconut cream.  I ordered a piece of the coconut cream just in case Food and Wine have overlooked this place.  It was okay but A La Mode Pies in Seattle has a better coconut cream pie.  

I poked through the stores I like to visit on Fourth Street and then I went to get my nails done.  When I returned in the late afternoon we headed over to the Berkeley Farmer's Market two blocks from their home.  Matt wears his mask around his neck on a chain whenever he leaves the house.  I bought some tomatoes to bring home with me.  They were too beautiful to pass by.  

I took a little nap before we all headed into San Fran to Hinata.  Matt and Melissa had read in my blog that I had the Best sushi of my life in Banff, Canada.  They took it as a challenge to change my mind.  I decided that I need to write about the "best" often so others can take up the challenge to change my mind on other things -- best helicopter ride of my life, best ice cream of my life, best cake of my life, etc. etc.  Feel free to take up the challenge.

Hinata is an omakase style Japanese restaurant.  Omakase is a Japanese phrase which translates "I will leave it up to you."  They have two seatings a night and Melissa had requested that we sit at the counter where we could watch the chef create our food.  Each nigiri served is a performance that ends in a work of art.  We were seated in front of Chef Gavin, the owner and head chef.  

I admit I was apprehensive about this experience.  Matt is the one who convinced me (at age 58) that I actually like sushi.  But my sushi experiences have stayed within a very small boundary.  I figured I would be eating things tonight that were completely new to me.

Matt ordered a bottle of sake that promised to taste like freshly fallen snow.  We started with an appetizer of ocean trout, Okinawa seaweed and eel rolled omelet.  

Everything is precise and exact and slow so that you can enjoy each moment.  It felt almost reverent.  We began our journey through twelve beautifully created nigiri.  This is the Goldeneye snapper with caviar.

Sea urchin with salmon roe.

Japanese barracuda.

Melissa engaged the chef about how they get their fish from the Tokyo fish market -- it is flown in first class twice a week.  She was knowledgeable enough to have a real conversation with him and it made him more attentive to us.

The whole experience was magical.  Matt ordered the supplement of three more nigiri for all three of us because he wanted to end on the Hokkaido Sea Urchin.  Uni is rich and buttery and exquisite.  

But the chef wanted us to end with the Hakkaido Hairy Crab with melted miso butter and since this is an omakase style Japanese restaurant we "left it up to" the chef.  It was the right ending.  We all closed our eyes and savored every flavor.  

But that was not the end of the experience.  We were brought fish broth/miso soup to end the savory part of our meal.  Then the dessert of sorbet with some kind of crunchy salty morsels on top.  We left sated but not stuffed.  It was the best sushi of my life.