Last, last Saturday (yeah, I know, but I was waiting for Mr. W to load his iPhone photos into the computer) was Eddie’s birthday, so Mr. W and I joined the birthday boy and his brand-new wife Michelle (see above photo) and his brand-new father-in-law Mr. Michelle’s Dad at an Alhambra sushi restaurant. Eddie said that they knew the owner and it was great sashimi omakase, so I was instantly excited. Then I read up on the reviews of Toro Japanese Fusion Seafood and, well, some trepidation grew. The reviews generally raved about the sushi and sashimi, how fresh it is, especially the still-twitching amaebi (sweet shrimp), but complained about the slowness of table service. I wasn’t concerned about service since we were planning on eating at the sushi bar so we’re going to be right in front of the sushi chefs, but I was nervous about amaebi. It seems to be a part of the omakase set and a specialty of the restaurant. I’ve been edging toward being pescatarian because eating animals has been a growing concern on my conscience (ever since my experiences at the LA County Fair last October) and I’d like to be vegan, but can’t seem to wean off sushi. Live shrimp is sitting right there on that cruelty conscience line in my head.

The restaurant was a lot less hole-in-the-wallish than I’d expected. It was actually quite nice inside; clean interior with contemporary decor. Behind the sushi chefs at the bar, a projected slideshow of tropical waters played on the wall. I never saw the final tab as Michelle’s generous father (a weekly regular at the restaurant) insisted on treating, but I have a feeling we easily broke into the $1000s for the five of us. To start, we went through a giant bottle and a small bottle of an exquisite sake, a rare premium that’s hard to find outside of Japan. $200/bottle. Michelle and I, being female, got to sip and savor this sake. Mr. W, however, had to drink it like a man and shoot it, along with Eddie and Michelle’s dad. One time, Michelle’s dad looked over and saw Mr. W sipping the sake on his own and called him out, saying, “What, you don’t have friends?! Why you drink so sneaky like that? When you want to drink, you call out, ‘Hey, friends! Cheers!’ and we drink with you!” And so three shots disappeared into the guys’ throats again. Haha! Course after course of the omakase were handed to us, really unique stuff, like…

…fresh oyster with uni and black caviar. I know I said I’d never order uni again since the last 6 times I’ve had it, I’ve wondered why I was doing that to myself. But I was not going to refuse something that was specially made, and I did not regret it. The uni here was never served alone, so the creamy texture really did add something pretty great to the combination of food on the palate.
This below is amaebi sushi with a piece of uni on top, also delicious. In the bowl is (was) a Japanese potato cut into strips, served with bits of nori and some sashimi. Most of the fish and seafood are so fresh and delicious that no soy sauce/wasabi is needed; the delicate flavors are expertly brought out by light ponzu and lemon mixtures. The chefs advise you when to use soy sauce.

We watched the sushi chef bring out live abalone, slice them off the shell, and serve it sashimi-style to us. I’ve never had abalone like this, SO fresh. It had an interesting tough yet crunchy texture, and is so savory it was almost sweet.

The birthday boy was handed a surprise gift from the sushi chef: lobster dynamite! I’ve never known dynamite to be made from anything but crab and scallops. Wow, what a treat!

Now THIS…is something really special. Toro kama (cheek meat of fatty tuna) sushi. It’s a giant piece of sinewy toro kama layered on top of a fatty melt-in-your-mouth piece of toro kama for a texture treat on top of the wonderful mild flavor of toro, with a swipe of special wasabi sauce. You can order each type of toro kama separately, at $30 apiece. This double layer you see before you is $60 apiece. It was a giant mouthful of bliss. You can’t talk as you chew, but your eyes can roll to the back of your head in sushi heaven, as mine did right after it widened in surprise at the deliciousness I was experiencing. Apparently this is quite a rare specialty; it’s not often the chefs, when they go out to the fish market at 4am to search for the freshest catches of the day, come across such a find. When they do, they call Michelle’s father and alert him, as they did this day that we went. That’s how big a V.I.P. we went with. “BUY it!” he’d told them, saying he was going to have friends join him for dinner there that night.

Now here’s the disturbing stuff to warn sensitive viewers, like me. I have friends who order live sweet shrimp every time they go to a sushi restaurant and it’s fine, but I’m not one of those people. Here is video Mr. W took of just how fresh the amaebi at this place is. The first is the live shrimp in a bowl, about to be turned into sashimi.

I’m going to skip the video in between that one and the following one (because the one I’m skipping shows the chefs physically turning the live shrimp into amaebi sashimi, and I refused to watch while I was there, and I refuse to watch the video now. I’ve never seen this, but if you’d like to see it, maybe I’ll post it due to popular demand. I hope there isn’t a lot of demand.). So this next video shows the shrimp heads in a bowl of ice as “decoration,” and clearly they’re still alive.

And this final one is Mr. W eating his amaebi sashimi (served with black caviar). You’ll notice that he doesn’t realize that uncooked shrimp is soft, so he has, um, some trouble eating this.

*whimper* Are you guys disturbed enough to go Vegan like me? This meal, delicious as it was, was quite the jump start to my following weeks of veganism (which is exactly what I need because I’m aiming to drop 10 lbs before a May vacation).

I was so incredibly stuffed after dinner, I couldn’t believe it. Again, I was glad to be female, as Michelle and I were excluded from this little men’s only gem at the end: male virility seafood shot. Raw oyster, quail egg yolk, gobo root, dunked in special sake and ponzu sauce, topped with chopped scallions and 2 types of caviar. I’ve had something similar to know it’s delicious, but I had no room left after all the sushi, sashimi, soup and ice cream that night.

We staggered over to end the evening with a long chat and visit over at Eddie and Michelle’s new GORGEOUS Pasadena house. I love our friends.