I’d been waiting for my boyfriend’s birthday since February (and not because it’s on the Fourth of July). I think I was more excited than he was. It all started a few days after we’d gone to Vegas and had dinner at Nobu. They serve this awesome yellowtail sashimi topped with jalapeños. Well, Josh loves anything spicy, which most definitely include jalapeños. Another great dish Nobu has is a miso-marinated black cod. So a few days later, I just happened to stumble upon recipes for both of those dishes. I tucked the recipes away for the next few months until a more appropriate time to plan. Like, a time that was way less than five months in advance.
Well finally the end of June came and I made my list of ingredients to buy. “Yuzu juice? What the heck is that? I dunno, but I’m sure if I go to the Japanese market I’ll find it.” So one Saturday afternoon I made my trek out to a Japanese market I used to frequent in Koreatown. Well, whaddya know, that Japanese market? In Koreatown? It’s a Korean market. White girl problems.
I really thought it would be a cinch to find what I needed, until I found myself Google Image searching bottles of yuzu juice and containers of white miso paste. I must have stood in the flavoring aisle for 20 minutes searching different Korean words to see if I was close to finding white miso paste. Finally I went to the pre-packaged soup aisle and found some pouches of miso soup — that had exactly the amount of white miso paste I needed inside! SCORE.
The yuzu juice was a lost cause. I asked where I could find it, complete with pointing to the name of the item on my shopping list, and the woman directed me to the aisle with orange juice. No yuzu to be found. Off to Whole Foods to purchase the fish and sake. And apparently yuzu juice.
At Whole Foods, I wasn’t even looking for it, and white miso paste jumped right out at me next to the refrigerated tofu. How ironic… I got my yellowtail and black cod, then set out to find sake, in the beer and wine section right next to the seafood counter. No sake. Eventually I found they keep it in a cooler by itself next to the sushi counter. And Whole Foods does not carry yuzu juice either. I settled on using lemon juice.
When my wild goose chase was over, I ran home to quickly marinate the cod and get ready for Josh’s Party #1 at the Rainbow Room.
Two days later, we finally got to indulge.
Here was the menu:
Appetizers
Shishito Peppers
Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeños
Main Course
Miso-Marinated Black Cod
Steamed Bok Choy
Simple Sesame Soba Noodles (sans cucumber)
Later this week I’ll be posting about the epic ice cream birthday cake that was devoured before it even had a chance to begin melting. First, you’ll need to make the cookies and cream ice cream — recipe to come tomorrow!