dresese

Aki

My friend Adam and I went to eat at Aki on Friday. I was intrigued by the thought of Japanese cuisine with little touches of Jamaican cuisine, which is the style of this restaurant. Evidently, the chef used to cook for the Japanese ambassador to Jamaica.

Located in the West Village, on West 4th street, in a stylish little space, which seats probably around 14 people. I had to make reservations, but it wasn't too difficult to get in.

Adam and I got a medium-sized amount of chilled sake, which came in a very elegant little carafe that I neglected to photograph. The sake was excellent, and cost $20, which was slightly pricey, since we could have drunk twice that amount quite easily.

We ordered five appetizers, some hot, some cold. We stayed away from the sushi, mainly because we've had sushi before, and it just didn't seem that exciting. However, there was a few interesting Jamaican-fusion sushi, such as sushi with banana, or heart of palm or other interesting ingredients.

The first appetizer we got was a dumpling filled with tofu and various mushrooms in a light broth. The picture above has a bit taken out of it to show the inside. Well, actually it looked so good I temporarily forgot to take a picture of the pristine dish. The soup and dumpling tasted even better than they looked. The broth was so light, but yet the flavor was assertive and delicious. The dumpling had a filling that was mostly soft, due to the soft tofu, but had other varied textures because of the mushrooms. It was flavorful and fresh tasting.

The next dish we had was yellowtail tuna sashimi, with apple slices and starfruit. This was probably the best dish of the night. The sashimi was perfect, and so naturally tender that it almost melted in your mouth. The crunchy apple and sweet starfruit made a nice contrast, and I thought the whole thing worked well together.

Ah, this dish. My memory is a bit fuzzy. I believe it is some sort of minced fish in a thick syrup. It was very nice, and interesting because I never enjoyed fish this way before. That last sentence was brought to you by Troy McClure.

This dish was a dish with yam chips, fried tofu, and some other interesting things, none of which I can remember right now. I really should take notes or something. I'm such a lazy food-blogger. At any rate, it was an interesting break from the other dishes, and it had a great combination of crispy, soft, and firm textures. Not to mention the combination of salty, mind, and slightly sweet flavors as well. A very interesting dish.

There was also one other dish, but I neglected to photograph it. It was a soup with sake-marinated fish. The fish was firm and had an nice bite of sake to it, and the soup was mild and pleasant.

All in all, the restaurant was great. This is the kind of Japanese restaurant I've been looking for. Let's face it, sushi is boring, ramen and other noodle soups seems only fit for lunch, and in general it seems hard to find a dish that serves modern, inventive Japanese cuisine. This place is a start.