I missed the second Seattle food blog get-together, but was really excited to attend the third one—hosted by Kate and Tara from Accidental Hedonist. They chose the location of Mashiko in West Seattle for a Japanese Omakase meal.

In attendance were:
Accidental Hedonist
Orangette
Margaritas and Mad Hatters

We ate our way through nine courses ($40 per person) and finished almost every dish!

  • Rockfish sashimi—This was too fishy for my taste and had a very tough, chewy texture, but most everyone else really enjoyed it.
  • Oysters—These were outstanding, really fresh oysters topped with just a touch of ponzu sauce and a dab of roe.
  • Ono salad—Like the popular tuna sashimi salad, but oh so much better. Made with ono (a very palatable, mackerel-like fish), pine nuts, avocado, fried chow mien noodles and seaweed salad, dressed in a soy / sesame oil / ponzu sauce.
  • Sautéed pea shoots with mushrooms and walnuts—Very un-Asian tasting, but really good, with giant, tender shitakes.
  • Scallops—The whole table gasped when the waitress brought these out. They were halved scallops, stuffed with a spicy, mayonnaise crab mixture, wrapped in… PROSCIUTTO! Beautifully topped with roe and a single chive.

  • Sushi platter—A giant platter with three types of sushi:
    Toro with capers and onion—Melt in your mouth fatty tuna with an unusual (for Asian cuisine), but great combination of chopped onion and capers.
    Saba with pickled mustard greens—I’m not a saba fan, so Zach was so excited to eat my piece, but this was so good I ate almost all of it. Tender saba, with a really light flavor.
    Lightly seared swordfish with spicy crab mayo—My least favorite of the three, only because I didn’t care for the rubbery texture of the swordfish.

  • Tempura salmon roll—A gorgeous, large roll filled with salmon and asparagus, then coated with tempura and flash fried.
  • Hamachi—Hamachi (Yellow tail) breaded in panko then deep fried and served with a rich, luscious miso sauce. Very good, but I thought the fish was a touch overcooked.
  • Roll platter— I think we all agreed that we didn’t need more food, but we were hoping this last dish would be the green-lipped mussels and we didn’t want to miss out. There was a fairly standard avocado roll, an unagi roll with a tissue-paper thin outside skin and a whitefish roll with shiso and pickled plum paste.

It was a lot of fun and very, very delicious. Also a really a great deal considering the quality and quantity of the food. I can’t wait to go back… Thanks Kate & Tara!





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