as this photo clearly demonstrates, gomi was great.
(.)
something has been sucking the life out of my blackberry battery lately. i had 1/2 of a battery bar left when i took that photo & it was red. it's just as well, because i was more interested in enjoying the food & friends experience than snapping photos.
luckily, i was in the company of people who had a reasonable grip on the menu. we ordered several dishes and everything was really good with the exception of the cold tofu salad with crab. it wasn't bad, it just wasn't a favorite especially in light of the other dishes.
sorry i can't name all of the dishes or identify the many little trays of pickled, shaved or dried condiments and bottles of flavorful sauces. the servers were pretty specific (with eye contact) about telling us that this goes with this & i tried to keep it together, but in the end i went free-for-all with the condiments, throwing this on that or the other over this.
1) THE EGGPLANT DISH. (in photo). plated beautifully, words cannot describe. i could live on this dish.
2) oysters on the half, finished with fresh cherries. fresh cherries-- you wouldn't think, right? but it was the perfect finish.
3) cod in salty-sour broth (the fish was so tender & it tasted like milk & butter)
4) cold duck on spinach with celery. another table favorite.
5) scallops in sweet broth (we might have let these sit in the hot broth too long, but they were still good)
for these next 2- bring on the condiments & sauces.
6) cold udon noodles with crispy tempura (cold/hot, soft/crispy)
7) mixed rice with octopus & shiitake.
8) cold tofu salad with crab
a word on the condiments. i was...doubtful about some of these because some were an odd color &/or they could not be immediately identified. i assumed they would be strongly-flavored & probably not in a good way, but i was surprised to find that all of the flavors were very subtle & complementary to the dishes.
great food & service, great friends, great evening!
