Tomo Asian Bistro: Putting the "zen" back in Zena

Patience and Zena: officially now in the same sentence, but only this once.

Deep breath as I entered Tomo, located in another attractive strip mall in Slingerlands. It smelled good. The place was busy, and got busier, a surprise early on a Tuesday night. Once seated I gingerly turned over a few grungy menus and ordered hot tea, which came quickly but not with the sugar and a spoon I had asked for. I waited to see our server again, and I asked again, and waited, and asked again, and finally got what I wanted but by now the tea was lukewarm, but then again, so was the next refill. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

Close your eyes. Center your ch'i.

Busy sushi chefs

The Hot and Sour Soup ($2.50) was rich and delicious, with lots of variety (mushrooms, tofu, scallions, etc.) and a gentle hit of heat - it a generous serving at that. It thought it needed more sour so I asked for extra vinegar (eventually) when I got the server's attention. I'm sure by this time she must have found me quite annoying (she was busy working the whole dining room solo) - most people do, but I digress. Two deep breaths. Focus on the soup.

Regular Rolls special with miniature wasabi

Now where was I. Right - food. On Tuesday you get (3) rolls for $10 - a real deal. The Spicy Salmon, California and Tuna rolls ended up being a lot of food, and mostly very tasty. True to form, I took three deep breaths, impatient to eat more, and had to ask for more wasabi, once I had someone's attention, but it came quickly. Zena loves heat, FYI.

Thai Curry with Beef - colorful!

FF loved her Thai Curry with Beef ($11) - baby corn, mushrooms, snow peas, carrots, water chestnuts - nice variety, nice sauce - nice balance of heat and sweet and salty. Jaguar enjoyed her Panang Curry with Beef ($12), a different curry, lots of broccoli, peppers, and coconut. Both were presented in large bowls - very attractive. So we recommend the curries - brown rice is available for an extra $1, which we appreciated.

Panang Curry with Beef - lots o' broccoli

Tomo seems popular with the locals, and is very affordable. I think the food is really good. Sigh -  (three deep breaths) -  the waitress was lovely and patient, unlike yours truly, but she could definitely have used a hand. That is NOT enough, though, to keep me away next time I'm in the food desert known as Slingerlands. (:

Zena, Goddess of Fire

Gratis pineapple chunks finish the meal 

Kuma Ani Has Arrived on New Scotland Ave.

New Scotland Ave. is blessed with a bounty of nice restaurants and this recent addition is no slouch.

The restaurant offers a sushi menu for a modest fixed price and you can order as much as you wish.  The menu has a few sections so that you can order appetizers and then several categories of sushi. My choices all proved to be nicely made and well-balanced in terms of proportion of rice to fish and nicely seasoned.  The pieces are small, which suits me.  I watched a party of five order platter after platter and wondered at how much young folks can put away in a meal.  My platter was small, but there was sufficient pleasure for me.

During a subsequent visit I wanted to be sure to make selections off the regular menu and noticed that the prices there are also quite reasonable. So I chose the miso soup, hamachi collar and the extravagant lobster mango salad.  My companion chose a salad, tempura shrimp and vegetables and the whitefish don   (rice bowl).

We both enjoyed the hamachi collar very much and I recommend it highly.  It's grilled and with both ponzu and lemon as condiments it's very easy to concoct a beautiful fish appetizer.  The tempura was  well prepared with a delightful light crispiness. The whitefish katsu don consisted of mellow rice with various vegetables on top including sautéed onions that added a beautiful sweetness and a subtle sauce topped with a perfectly fried filet of the delicious mild whitefish.  It's supreme comfort food.

The decadent lobster mango salad is not only presented in a lovely arrangement, but it is a very good balance of sweet, seafood, creamy mayonnaise and roe.  The varieties of texture and contrasts in flavors make it a great dinner salad.

There is much, much more on the menu to explore. http://www.kumaani.com/menu.html  So my recommendation is that you go beyond the sushi if you can and see what else they have to offer, and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The decor is spare but comfortable with a good amount of blond wood and well-placed lighting. The service is polite and attentive and in my experience care is extended to make sure that orders are accurately taken and delivered.  As you can see in the photos, presentations are professional and aesthetically considered, which I always appreciate.

Review by Susie Davidson Powell in the times union: 

http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Seriously-good-sushi-at-Albany-s-Kuma-Ani-6307112.php#page-1

So Susie and LorreBob say:  check it out.

Tomo Asian Bistro for a sushi lunch

In the wilds of Slingerlands is just where a casual sushi joint is needed. And to be fair, this really is more of an Asian Bistro than a sushi joint, with an extensive menu ( use the link below to see it on the web site).  I happened to be taking some vacation recently and so I had the time to mosey out to Slingerlands and enjoy a late sushi lunch. The decor uses dark colors and lots of wood and was put together with care to provide a bit of an upscale atmosphere, so it's a lovely place to enjoy a leisurely lunch or dinner.

There are often dishes that we use to judge the qualities of a restaurant, and for Asian restaurants, mine is the age tofu appetizer.  It's just fried tofu, so the chef has the opportunity to make it something special if they wish to do so.  This is the nice presentation with flavorful scallion and bonito garnish at Tomo. A lot of places just toss it on the plate, so the little extras and pleasing arrangement here told me that I was in for a nicely prepared meal.

I had chirashi because I like to see what chefs do with it - there are many different styles because the name basically means "scattered" and conveys the idea that the fish and the rice are not formally shaped. Until recently chirashi was most frequently served to me in a bowl, but now the trend seems to be to put it on a plate.  I like it best as a sushi preparation because it allows me to combine the amount of rice I like with each piece of fish.  And there are always delightful condiments and vegetables or mysterious (to me) things that are new and tasty.

Although the chirashi plate was for the most part delicious, I wasn't happy to see the problematic "white tuna" as one of the fish.  I haven't gotten into the habit about asking whether it will be there or not, so I simply didn't eat it this time and will continue to try to remember to ask first.

Service at Tomo was attentive and friendly. The staff checked in a number of times to check on drinks and how things were going.

There were takeout orders the whole time I was there, indicating to me that Slingerlands has caught on to their closest Asian location and like it enough to drive all the way to the Price Chopper Plaza to pick up their orders.

The full menu and hours are on their website:
http://www.tomoalbany.com

LorreBob sez: go have a nice Asian dinner in the suburbs!

Crab Stick: Asian Tea House Sushi Meetup

The only thing I hate more than fake superheros is fake food, and I don't mean those plastic grapes that the people I work with would eat if I put a bowl of them in the break room.

No, I mean stuff like Crab Stick - pulverized fish (usually Alaskan pollack) that is reformed with "meat glue" (transglutaminase - an enzyme that reforms the puree into a solid), and maybe starch from wheat and tapioca or corn and vegetable oils and MSG and salt and it's dyed red and then shredded to have the texture of crab. It's the Chicken McNugget of sushi, and is decidedly a cheaper alternative to real crab (or real fish for that matter), which is why we often see it being served in our sushi restaurants. And it's crap.

Which is why the Crab Stick-in-my-throat overload at the Asian Tea House last week was such a disappointment. I was with a group of over 50 people organized by the Sushi Lovers Meetup here in Albany, NY - a lively group of folks who actually LIKE eating sushi with others that LIKE eating sushi and we don't need to listen to your weird "bait" jokes. We arrived and were seated at 6:30, and had our first dish at 7:15 - (45 minutes to chew on fried won tons): a lovely bowl of Hot & Sour soup. It was a bit gooey for my liking but warm and dense with mushrooms, egg, water chestnuts and tofu. It had a sneaky heat and was actually slightly sweet - a first for my tastes - but good.

The hot and sour soup was rich and tasty

Then came the first crab-attack. This dish they called their "house specialty" - Sushi Pizza. It was triangular nacho chips covered in Crab Stick "salad" (tossed with mayo and chili oil [I'm guessing] so it was bright orange), topped with fried panku flakes. It was pretty and also pretty disgusting.

Sushi pizza was pretty and pretty disgusting

Next came a platter of pan-fried spicy won tons filled with chicken. These were salty and garlicky, served with a warm, slightly sweet chili sauce laced with curry powder, which was kind of weird but OK.

Fried won tons filled with chicken

Next was another round of fried things - pork filled dumplings that were really chewy and cold and tasted like garlic. So were filling up on fake crab and fried things. Where's my sushi???

Fried dumplings filled with pork

Two salads arrived at the table - seaweed standard laced with sesame oil and topped with cucumber (actually very tasty) and more of that Crab Stick salad mixture (the salad was exactly what came on top of that "pizza" served earlier), and also topped with fried panku. Yuck.

Above - seaweed salad, and below the "crab" salad. The plates themselves were very attractive.

Aha! Finally a platter of sashimi - tuna (albacore), creamy salmon, red snapper (this was the best of them), yellowtail, and something they call "white tuna". This was NOT tuna, IS NOT tuna: this was Escolar, tasty, greasy, and one of the reasons you might want to avoid it is because it makes you want to go poo. It is cheap fish and not something you want to eat too much of.  Note it is banned for sale in Japan because it is considered toxic. A fish they won't eat but we will??? OK that's a new one.

Red snapper (front) and then from left to right: tuna, salmon, "white tuna" and yellowtail

This was promising, but the next platter was not sushi as I had hoped, but a plate of "rolls", and there was more of this Crab Stick in or on everything. I thought the mortals we were sharing the table with were more discerning about their sushi, but they dove into this stuff with gusto. Or maybe they were just really really hungry. By this time I'm picking out the Crab Stick. I asked myself, Self: what were they hiding under those mounds of Crab Stick salad??? It's like Uh-merican food buried under cheese. The presentation was shoddy and gooky looking.

Crab stick in the roll on the left and mounded on top of the rolls on the right. Who knows what's under there.

Then "jalapeno shots" - a bit of raw tuna, fresh jalapeno, vinegar, sweet. I liked it very much.

The next platter was........................ and we waited over a half hour for it.............................wait for it.....................  was more of what we just got (see the ones with the little dots of sriracha pepper sauce?), and a shrimp roll with avocado and Crap Stuck Crap   Crab Stick that was bready and even had a fried won ton in the middle, and bland, and weird. AND, TAAAAAAAA DAAAAAAAA --  FINALLY, 12 sushi (which is plural of sushi) also on this platter. The 6 of us at our table quickly devoured these and were left wishing there was more.

Weird shrimp roll had more of that Crap Stuck Crab Stick in it.

And we waited and waited and another platter of sushi eventually arrived and it was very good. Thick pieces of red snapper, silky smooth salmon, earthy yellowtail. No tuna. Nothing fancy. The rice was decidedly sweet but properly prepared. I would LOVE to have eaten more but we had now been there almost 3 hours, we were tired and I still had the forces of evil to deal with overnight, and we were hungry when we arrived and ended up filling up on fillers, and it was time to go. 

The sushi, when it finally came, was delicious

Bottom lines: the service was friendly but way too slow, and there certainly wasn't enough help to manage the room properly (dirty dishes were left lingering, water jugs needed filling, etc.). We were told that the restaurant was overwhelmed with such a large group (even though we were expected, albeit a few more than originally planned), but I am suspicious that maybe the long wait for the sushi and the cheap eats beforehand ensured we were full and too tired to eat much more than the sushi that was offered at the end. OR it could be they just didn't have enough fresh fish to go around. Or both. Anyway, they're bottom line goes chi-ching with cheap eats and fillers and long waits ($25 per person including tax and tip IS a deal, but that still doesn't meat I want to eat junk food). My unasked for advice?  Go and try the sushi and sashimi in the dining room proper but be wary if you are planning a group event.

And no doubt there were sushi snobs in that room full of Sushi Lovers, but nobody complained about the food, just a bit about the service (and online/later), and they enjoyed each others company. So I kept my big mouth shut, which for me isn't an easy thing, and I saved my valued opinions (HA!) for Albany Dish.

The Sushi Lovers Meetup really is a nice bunch of folks.

Zena, Goddess of Fire

PS: I hate plastic tablecloths except on a picnic table.

Meeting Up at Samurai Sushi

The Albany Sushi Meetup made a special evening of gourmet sushi at Samurai Japanese Restaurant after one of our organizers had an extraordinary experience there during the summer. With some advance planning and a decision on the prix fixe the group of 20 allowed the chef to serve his choice of delicacies.  This is a group that has been eating sushi together for several years, so there were high expectations and high spirits as the crowd gathered in the sushi bar area. Going to dinner with a group of 20-40 other sushi lovers truly enhances the experience, especially once the introductions are made and people warm up and the sushi starts arriving at the tables.

The hibachi grill in the next room was in full swing and announced the entrance of Zena, Goddess of Fire with a huge ball of flame.  Once the Goddess was seated and introductions were made, the evening's banquet unfolded, course by delightful course. Our table companions were a great young couple who are new to the Meetup and who love sushi - so we had a great basis for conversation.

I, like most of the sushi lovers in the room, have found myself going for the same sushi flavors after awhile, and so handing the choice over to the chef was an adventure worth taking.

Below is the lineup of courses:

Tom Yum Soup

Crab, seaweed and octopus salads - wakame with the octopus and a delightful salad.

Fresh scallop with fresh wasabi and lemon - adorable lights under the shell cheerfully twinkling and changing colors.  That is FRESH wasabi on that slice of scallop and the curled darker pieces are the membrane.  This had so many things going on that the four slices were gone before we knew it, but each slice allowed us to experience this dreamy shellfish in a different combination.

Sea urchin - one serving of uni per table was enough to give us all a plentiful taste.  I had not had uni for about 20 years, so it was a great walk down memory lane.

Hamachi collar with the most wonderful fish sauce in the world.  This was a great cooked course and provided a whole treasure chest of flavors.  Then there was the sauce.  Oh my.

The man in the photo below is JP giving us the rundown on the platter, which served as the "main" course.  We were almost defeated at that point, but when the party is all about sushi, one soldiers on for the cause.  

In spite of having to serve 20 sushi lovers the same sushi dishes at the same time all evening, the wait staff was very cheerful and helpful. They were prepared so that even the platters could all arrive at all of the tables at the same time - that's an organized staff. They didn't rush, and they did their best to keep up with drinks and sundries and to explain and introduce what we were getting. There were breaks between courses that allowed for conversation and a pause to recover one's palate and prepare for the next course, and that gave the staff time to clear dishes, refresh drinks and keep on top of what everyone needed.

We should all definitely start demanding fresh wasabi with our sushi instead of the paste, by the way. We all saved our little dishes of wasabi in order to dip and slather it over various kinds of fish and I for one will seek it out in all future sushi evenings. It's funny how over the decades of sushi in America the range of what is served has narrowed to a few standards.  This dinner was a great reminder that sushi exotica is still possible.

Sushi and Sashimi Platter of classics:
The shot glass in the middle is an oyster, quail egg and scallion with a heavy drop of srirachi.  After the staff poured a thimble full of hot sake on top it was ready for shooting.  We did.  It was a burst of about fifteen separate and combined flavors.  The oyster was magnificent and the last flavor.

Ice Cream and Bananas

After groaning that we couldn't eat another bite, we caved in to the ice cream and bananas dessert. Zena, Goddess of Fire had to save several overwhelmed diners. It was a light ending to an incredible night of foodie adventure.  There were enough delights to tweak even the hardened sushi veterans in the group, and the crowd dispersed among exclamations about one course or another as people talked over their favorite dish of the evening. We groused about how much there was, and if I could do it over again I'd give the customers more control over the quantities of what was served. 

As we wandered into the night Zena took me under her protective cape to make sure I got into my ride safely, although the poor darling was like one of those bees that drinks all the sweet pickle juice from the picnic table.  I don't know what exactly got saved later that night, but I think she might have taken one of the fire chariots instead of taking off to her next destination a la Wonder Woman.

Bryan Fitzgerald reviewed the hibachi side of Samurai in the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/A-bunch-of-real-cutups-5796952.php 

We're baaaaaack

Dear readers, what with all that saving the world stuff that Zena, Goddess of Fire does and my couch potato   vacationing the blog fell to the bottom of both our lists of Things That Must Be Done. But now we are committed to getting back to our food writing and we have some great dining and posts lined up for your reading pleasure in the coming weeks and months.

My latest sushi adventure with the Albany Sushi Meetup Group was at Blowfish, a new all you can eat sushi place in Guilderland, at Johnston Road and Western Ave. in the Town Plaza. They have taken over some of the space for what used to be a Chinese buffet and started a small Chinese buffet and Blowfish.  The new Chinese buffet had just closed and is apparently undergoing a re-structuring according to the signs we saw as we entered Blowfish.

The advantage of the sushi meetup is that the host of the the meetup usually negotiates for a nice price, since the group can literally fill the restaurant for the evening. At Blowfish we had 42 group members and completely filled the tables in half the dining room plus three or four more in the other half.

It became apparent early on that the Blowfish staff and chefs didn't grasp the situation and had not thought out how to handle so many people at one time, so we had fairly spaced-out service to say the least.  Our table didn't get sushi for 90 minutes. Thank heaven that the company was excellent.  Both my outings with this group have been blessed with very pleasant company, and to me that is at least half of why I value a restaurant experience.



The service for the all you can eat choice involves filling out an order sheet that has two parts, one for the appetizers and one for the sushi. The staff brings out more sheets as they become aware that you have eaten most of the sushi on your plate. This way you can enjoy the meal at your own pace, which is what I like.

This is not flashy or exotic shushi, but will serve when your appetite for the delicacy is primed. I  appreciated their care in preparation, especially since they were under a lot of pressure, and I also appreciated that they didn't skimp in any way with the rice. For me, the rice doesn't complement the fish if it is too cold, or too dry, and they consistently take the time to make good rice in delicious combinations. The pieces were on the small side, which I prefer. They also take great care in design and presentation with each plate, even when they've got a full dining room, so I give them my admiration for not buckling to pressure and just throwing the sushi around. I'm not one to be hankering after more and more exotic sushi combinations, so Blowfish is a good match for my idea of a good sushi dinner that allows you to order a little, then order a little more, and then maybe a final couple of pieces.

The dining room is both very new and furnished in a minimalist style with light colors, so I kept expecting Hello Kitty to pop up at any moment on accessories or plates.  I like that sort of bare but cheery style, however others consider it a bit austere.

 Their facebook page shows menu items that are not sushi, so I will be heading back to see how they prepare and present other foods on the menu.

LorreBob sez check them out, then come back here and comment.

Sometimes it's all about Having Fun at the Table

About a bazillion years ago I joined or created accounts to websites of all kinds just because it was such a strange world of opportunity.  One of those sites was MeetUps. The site has gone through a truly dazzling number of incarnations in the intervening years and suddenly a few months ago I began to receive emails about Albany meetups. Last week as I was absentmindedly nosing around the site I ran into the Albany Sushi MeetUp and something made me sign up for their upcoming event. I never do things like this. Well, I mean except that time I flew out to Denver to meet up with my 35 closest net friends that I had never met in person, but you know what I'm saying.

It was a sushi dinner at Asian Tea House in East Greenbush.  Basically all you can eat sushi in a private room with a whole bunch of other people who really like sushi. Just the promise of sheer enthusiasm was enough to sweep me into the spirit.  You all know how much of a drag it is to try to eat with people who are obsessed with how much they are not going to eat, or people who are squeamish about half of what is on the menu.  It's simply no fun.  Well, this promised to be a fun night full of delicious fish and rice for a fabulous discount to be consumed with all the warmhearted fellowship of sushi lovers.

All promises were delivered with wasabi and ginger.

We were shepherded into the private dining room in the back of the Asian Tea House after assembling at the bar and ordering our various cocktails, wine and beer, with cheery introductions. Our evening's host had made sure that we would get a good selection of appetizers and sushi, foregoing individual orders.  With 15 in our party trying to order individually would be a logistics disaster for the kitchen.  Two of the ATH staff made sure we had tea and condiments and then the platters began to arrive. As you can imagine at a Capital Region sushi dinner there were very good conversationalists, so as the talk became lively and people were taking photos and newbies were telling their stories, we began to nibble and relish the culinary offerings.

A lovely fragrant and tasty bowl of hot and sour soup was our beginning.  I don't usually eat this soup after many disappointments, but the ATH version was delicious. After platters of crab rangoons, "sushi pizza" and spicy fried wontons came platters of sushi rolls. The chefs draw scrollwork and abstract designs on the platters to make it an artful presentation, which I appreciate. I like the visual aspect of the sushi as much as anything. The talk among the group was just loud enough to make it impossible to hear the names of all the rolls, but we got a very good sampling from their menu.

The conversation took a back seat to a contemplative silence as everyone began to absorb the flavor combinations of the rolls. Then came gentle moans that generally signify "yummy".  My favorite is one of their house specialities called Kiss of Fire, with a delicate slice of jalapeno embellishing the top of each piece of the roll. I'll confess that I was not able to actually eat the jalapeno slice, but managed to make sure that enough of the juice provided a wonderful bright spicy flavor to the roll. The conversation level rose again as people wanted to praise or ask questions or generally fight over select the remaining pieces.  After the roll platters were empty the platters of nigiri and sashimi began to arrive and everyone began to settle in to the realization that there was PLENTY OF SUSHI. The strategizing dissipated. New rounds of conversation, jokes and general conviviality began.

Oh my.

Although my sushi intake remained modest, the experience  was very much enhanced by the company - I was in a sushi swoon and suddenly it was past my bed time. The Albany Sushi MeetUp page soon was filled with photos and comments about the evening - mostly "It was GREAT!!!!!" I agree.  What a pleasant and uplifting way to spend an evening at table.  I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Mizu Sushi

Since I was passing by at lunch time on Saturday I stopped at Mizu Sushi having read about it in The Masticating Monkey.

I'll add my positive review:

Yum!

It's tucked away in the teensy Mohawk Plaza, just opposite Balltown Road on State Street on the eastern edge of greater Schenectady, and it's a teensy spot itself, with a nice dining room.

I was the only customer for my late - ish lunch, which was the sake special.  Goodness!  I have a certain set of favorite sushi attributes and this place hits on all of them.  There is a good proportion between the fish and the rice, the temperature is more like room temperature so that the fish is full-flavored along with the rice and the creaminess of the sake is marvelous, making it a lovely complement to the chewiness of the sticky rice. The special included seven pieces of sake sushi and a sake roll.  It was sake heaven.

Since it's so easy to get to, I'll be returning often.  There's a huge menu to try, including a great-looking lunch menu.