File Under DUH!

 

Tyson Cole, chef-owner of Uchi in Austin was honored last night at the James Beard Awards, in an unusual tie with Saipin Chutima of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas for Best Chef: Southwest.

 

Austin chef Tyson Cole honored in Beard Awards | Eats Blog | dallasnews.com

Eating Austin: Uchi

Better late than never, here are the pictures of another fabulous meal at Uchi.

Oysters, the variety of which are no longer on their daily menu.  So I can’t tell you what they are.

sakana carpaccio sliced daily selection of raw fish with citrus and olive oil

fresh salmon sashimi – soo buttery, soo perfect.

machi cure maplewood-smoked baby yellowtail with yucca chips,  asian pear, marcona almonds and garlic brittl

avo bake creamy baked tiger shrimp and krab, served in an avocad

brie ringo tempura fried brie with apple chutney and crisp

foie nigiri     foie gras٠quino

wagyu short ribs -  I forgot to take the picture until we were almost done with it.  Yes, those are yolks.

shima aji crudo white trevally٠black sesame٠flowering leek٠ginger

bacon steakie niman ranch pork belly with watermelon radish, seasonal citrus and thai basil

Sushi Dallas

I know I shouldn't read stuff like this -- specifically the comments. I'm ok with the DMN snubbing my beloved Piranha. I'm used to it by now. But the comments just prove that only the elite, like myself, should be allowed to offer up opinions about food.

Some of the more egregious comments:

Posted by Debra Dreyfuss @ 2:48 PM Mon, Jun 09, 2008
MR. SUSHI!!! we have been going there for 20+ years. always the freshest fish and definitely he best salad dressing of any restaurant in this city. good value, too.

SALAD DRESSING??? That's how you judge a sushi restraunt?? And the place is called Mr. Sushi. How serious can we take this place?

Posted by CCB @ 3:17 PM Tue, Jun 10, 2008
Truly agree that all the above listed sushi houses are great, but I am amazed that the little- 80's style SUSHI ON MCKINNEY is not on the list! Yes it is small, hard to park in, and across from the obnoxious Knox Street Pub, but the service is one of the friendliest that I have ever had- and of course the sushi is amazing! Great food for sushi novice, but still creative and amazing for the sushi connoisseur!

Really?? Really?? I would rather eat sushi from Krogers that has been left on the dashboard of my XTerra all day on the hottest day in August. This is easily the worst sushi I've ever had.

Eating Dallas: Zushi Sushi

I should have known when I saw that this place comes from San Antonio that I was in for mediocrity. SA is not exactly know as a gastronomic epicenter. The restaurants down at the river walk basically rob the tourists bland.

This place is gigantic. I think you could put both Piranhas, Tei Tei and Teppo in it and still have room for My Martini's bar area. And it pipes in the ubiquitous dance/techno music all "trendy" place must beat their patrons down with. Seriously, if I want to hear that crap, I'll go to a craphole bar like Candleroom. Well, if I could get it, that is.

We started off with edamame, of course. Curiously it was dusted with regular table salt and not the usual Kosher or sea salt. Secondly, it had obviously just come out of the microwave. It had the same damage done to it as when I put my green beans in too long.

Well, really who cares about edamame any ways. How was the raw fish? We got white tuna, hamachi (yellow tail tuna) and fresh salmon sashimi. The fresh salmon was large and thick and buttery. Definitely the best of the three. The white tuna was somewhere between ok and flavorless. It lacked all of the subtleties one gets with the white tuna at Piranha. And the center was very cold; as if it hadn't been completely thawed. Finally the hamachi was unlike any hamachi I've ever had. And I don't mean this in a good way. It was very fishy and still had the skin on. I'm not even sure now it was hamachi.

We then got two rolls -- the bora bora and the yummy yummy. Unfortunately their website has not been updated with these rolls so I'm unable to properly describe what was in them. The bora bora had tempura shrimp, avocado, cream cheese topped with a sriracha sauce and another sauce. The first bite was tasty. But with every successive bite, the cream cheese became overwhelming. The yummy yummy also had tempura shrimp and was topped with eel. And for something with eel, it was fairly flavor-lacking (sorry, I have to come up with new ways to describe bland and flavorless). Both rolls were a bit of a chore to finish.

Oh and this place is very proud of their sushi. 2 people drinking only water were set back $65. Some of these problems may be attributed to going for a late-ish lunch on Labor day. But the the quest for sushi in Dallas of the quality of Piranha continues.

C-

3858 Oak Lawn Ave. Suite 145