Sunday, January 29, 2006

Japango - Pearl Street Boulder, CO

I needed to try something new last night, so off to Japango I went. Friends and bartenders have recommended this place for a couple of years now, but the mention of an All You Can Eat Sushi deal has scared me off. Walk with me down memory lane so you, too, can experience Japango.....

After entering, I noticed the smell of incense, which is ok unless you can smell it where you are seated to eat. For me, and I'm sure others, the TASTE of food is multilayered - there is the taste, the feel of the food in your mouth, the visual, and the smell. Well, I couldn't smell the incense, but I sure could smell the Urinal Cake! Don't ask me how I know this smell since I don't know, but it smelled like the deodorizing things they stick in mens' urinals - it's a distinct odor that you'll recognize when you smell it. Well, it kept wafting around me off and on for the brief hour I was sitting at the sushi bar. Alright, enough about the smells and on to the food!

I started off with Sake and Plum Wine which they made fairly well, and Edamame, which was warm and salty just the way I like it. Our waitress, and she is being mentioned by name because she was an Excellent Server! (Good servers can be hard to find in Boulder, Colorado, so when someone is excellent, it must be mentioned!) Her name is Mimmy :-) She was professional and attentive. Perfect.

I had the HAMACHI KAMA - Yellowtail collar - which I always order plain since I like to dip in Ponzu sauce. It reminded me of a large Turkey Wing - thin and crispy - not what I usually get. And the ponzu sauce was way too sweet and oily - very odd combination for ponzu even if it is made in house. I wouldn't order this again, but I did eat almost the whole thing!

I also ordered the Tsukemono - Pickled Vegetables - and they get points for giving me such a generous serving! I buy these for home so I know what the retail prices are and that Sushi Bars charge way too much, so getting so much food for a good price made me very happy :-)

Oh, I forgot to mention the GARI! The ginger they serve has that asparatame stuff in it - I hate the taste of that stuff and it makes my throat close up a little bit so I went without. I used the Tsukemono to help cleanse my palatte.

Negihama - yellowtail with green onions roll - was kind of large, but that's good, but it really had very little flavor.

The sushi pieces I ordered are part of my standard sushi bar test - Salmon, Yellowtail, and Tuna. As I say on my website, fish should not be dull looking for that is a sign of aging. The sushi I received was very dull all the way down to the flavor! It didn't taste fishy or smell fishy, but with the urinal cake smell wafting over me, I'm not sure of the smell. This is a perfect example of not so fresh fish - dull in appearance, the texture was broken down slightly, and the sad part is that all 3 fish tasted the same! I could not tell the difference between these fish! It was as if they had been soaked in water, they were that bland. I suppose it was a good thing that the slices were skimpy.

There was a highlight to my visit other than the wonderful server (Mimmy) ... Japango offers some interesting rolls and sushi. For the most part I enjoy traditional Japanese food, but hey, even I can't pass up a cool new combination! They have the sushi dish called El Corazon which consists of Spicy Tuna, Avocado, Jalapeno, Smelt Roe, served on top of a tempura rice cake (uh oh, there's that word CAKE again!)

The rice cake was easily one inch think, so thick it overpowered the other flavors, but as it turns out that was probably a good thing. They put a slice of the dull, flavorless Tuna on top of the rice, then a thin slice of jalapeno and avocado on top of that and drizzled with what tasted like Tsume (sweet eel sauce) over the whole thing. The sweet/spicy combo did not work with this dish. And since the rice cake was so thick I had to use my hands to take 3 bites per piece. I do believe this is where that fishy stinky smell on my hands came from. Even after washing my hands a few times, the stink would not go away.... that smell does NOT go well with Bailey's and Coffee!

I have had this Spicy Tuna served on a Rice Cake before and it was excellent - FRESH Tuna perfectly blended with Dynamite sauce and little tiny pieces of jalapeno and green onions, served on top of a rice cake no higher than 1/2 inch. Perfect!

At one point I looked down and counted 5 plates in front of me:

Tsukemono
Negihama
Sushi Pieces
Hamachi Kama
El Corazon


I didn't count the edamame. The Sushi Chef did not pay attention to how far along we had eaten, and just kept making things and putting them in front of us leaving us to figure out where to put everything. I don't like being rushed and it's not like the place was busy or anything.... From start to finish I was in and out of there is 65 minutes. Now I know where they got the name... Japan - GO!