Chaya Downtown L.A.- My First Uni

As a little kid I was a very, well, boring eater. Cheeseburger? Plain, no ketchup, no mustard, no lettuce, no nothing. I distinctly remember telling someone that I thought ketchup was gross. Even though I had never tried it. Salad? Heck no! And DEFinitely not with dressing. Vegetables were not my thing. I was a meat and potatoes guy. Literally. I ate broccoli begrudgingly, okra on orders only, and peas under protest. I thought Indian food was too spicy and raw fish was for the birds.

This was me until I was out of college. Once I graduated it was like I had passed through some lame food barrier. I don't know what the heck changed in me but suddenly I couldn't get enough greens, cooked fish was too warm, and I put hot sauce on the nuclear holocaust hot-wings. There was, and to this day nothing I won't try once. Well maybe one, D knows what it is. It starts with a B and ends with a half formed baby duck. Maybe I draw the line at fetuses.

This new found love for new found food brings us to last weekend. It was our friend's birthday and we were going to Chaya in Downtown L.A. Chaya is one of a slew of Asian fusion restaurants that seem to be showing no sign of being played out. Chaya leans less heavily on the fusion side though. It's more of an upscale contemporary restaurant with a sushi menu. They use yuzu and ponzu. Kobe beef carpaccio is there. They have classic Italian fare, paella, and sea bass.

Hmmm, now that I think of it this place was a real hodgepodge of cuisines. Kind of like the chandelier they had in the lobby built of cheap, plastic, Asian made toys, utensils, and various and sundry colorful items. No fusion but it seemed to work.

Looking at the menu I was really excited to finally try two different things that rarely show up on a menu that I feel comfortable ordering them from. Uni(sea urchin roe), not so rare, and pan roasted sweetbreads(thymus gland in the throat of a calf), more rare. I ordered the Uni sashimi as an appetizer and the pan roasted sweetbreads with herb grilled gulf shrimp as my entree. I was really stoked to have these offal(sorry couldn't resist the pun) items checked off of my "must try list."

It was not to be however. I was thwarted by our server when he informed me that they were out of sweetbreads. Out of sweetbreads? I didn't think that would be something there would be a sudden run on but never the less I had to settle for uni, a scallop roll, and one of my all time favorite sushi picks, unagi(freshwater eel).

Everything came all together as an entree and the presentation was beautiful as you can see here. The portion of uni was HUGE!

Sorry about the pics the lighting was really low and I was with people who would think I was REALLY weird if I started snapping multiple pictures of my food. The couple that I did take had already drawn some odd looks from the guy seated across from me that I had just met.

I went for the uni first. Using chopsticks I picked up the first piece and just let the flavors mingle around in my mouth. All I can say is wow, if you love seafood, I mean, love the fishy, oceany, smells of the sea, THAT is what was now concentrated in my mouth. A pudding of the sea with a bit more substance. I loved the texture, I loved the taste. It was not briny or salty like I thought it was going to be. It just had a concentration of the ocean that was amazing. The other amazing thing? D asked to try it! I knew she wasn't going to like it, but she wanted to try it. D does not like ANY fishiness so, we all know how that turned out. I gave her a tiny piece which she took down quickly. Just as quickly she screwed up her face and turned up her nose and declared it was too fishy. But, "at least I can say I tried uni!" I'm slowly getting her into this seafood thing.

I ended up being the last one eating because I was enjoying my meal. I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that my dinner mates had wolfed down their mostly traditional pasta dishes and were now staring at what I had on my plate with a "what the heck died on there"? look on their faces. So now not only am I the guy that took pictures of his food with a big fancy camera I am now the guy who eats weird food. Oh well, my food was great. The scallop roll was pedestrian and the unagi was great as usual. Can anyone DO bad unagi? I've never been disappointed. Crisp edges soft interior, with a light ponzu on top. And the coup de grace? The uni was every bit as good as I had hoped for. Anyone know who serves some good sweetbreads?