Postby SauceSupreme on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 - 11:59pm
After the whiskey event, my drinking and dining companion and I moseyed over to Murata. While it's not perfect, I still prefer the atmosphere much more than Hiroshi.
The star of the evening was the kani zosui, an egg and rice porridge with crab meat. Egg and crab are one of my favorite combinations, as they're both just ever so slightly earthy and creamy and sweet, and the saltiness combines well with the egg as well as the luscious texture of the rice porridge. The price might put some off (all the zosui dishes at Murata are in the $13 range) but it's an awesome rendition.
The other non-nigiri items we got were the hamachi sashimi and broiled squid with ginger. A couple of the nigiri items stood out. One was the hirame (flounder). Though underdressed, flounder is still one of my favorites, even more so than toro, and though it could have used a touch of yuzu or something, it's still plenty delicious on its own. The other was the unagi (freshwater eel), which has always been one of my favorites at Murata.
I'm slowly making my way through the various cooked Japanese items around town, and Murata was a great place to start. The cooked menu is quite voluminous so it's going to take me a while, but I'm eager to visit it again.
Postby chefken on Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:04 pm
I don't know what it is about the unagi at Murata, but it kicks any other restaurant in town.
I've done Murata's multi-course Kaiseki dinners about 5 or 6 times over the years, and it's always been different and always contained one or two cooked dishes that have been terrific. One time there was a stew that contained this amazing Asian stuffed cabbage. Another it was an apple that had been hollowed out and filled with fresh crab, egg and green onions and then steamed and it was unbelievable. We also once had a whole cold cracked cooked crab with a really nice, light dipping sauce. After we were done with it the server told us that it's sometimes traditional in Japan to take the outer crab shell, fill it with sake and boil it on one of their burners in the kitchen, scraping all the gunk into the sake, then drinking it all hot from the shell. Amazing and a high I enthusiastically recommend.
Murata is, IMO, far and away the best and most authentic Japanese restaurant in town, albeit expensive. But I've never been less than impressed with the breadth of their menu and if you select from the specials board and are adventurous there are inevitably things that are new and different and delicious. I like Hiroshi, but they are glitzier and more trendy and more pan-asian and sometimes a bit too many ingredients and muddled flavors, though sometimes the effect can be dazzling.
Everything below those two restaurants is a steep drop, IMO.
Postby SauceSupreme on Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:56 pm
I'll agree with that. Their unagi sauce is far less cloying than most.
Postby Flynn on Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:09 am
There may be another worthy of consideration, but further visitation needed.
Murata is still the fish quality champ in Portland, across the board.
Postby SauceSupreme on Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:04 am
Here's a pic of their anago (sea eel). It's dressed with just enough of the sauce to add sweetness, but not so much that it feels like I took a bite out of a Yoshinoya bento bowl.
