Friday was
Keith's birthday celebration, at the East Village sushi outfit
Jewel Bako. The food was amazing, beating out even
Kitsho, and the restaurant was a perfect combination of New York going-out elegance and East Village nonchalance -- i.e. classy without stuffy.
Keith and i both asked for the tasting menu (thankfully this restaurant doesn't force the entire table to follow along, like some). Everything was crazy-good, and the shining star was three quarter-sized slices of monkfish liver, which i had never eaten before. AM (of the
fruit sushi) had recently mentioned the monkfish liver at
Taro Sushi, but we hadn't made it there yet, so it was a treat to find it at Jewel Bako. The liver is pure silky smoothness, like a sushi pâté (which is how everyone seems to describe it), and without the strong organ overtones that make cow liver so
awfully vile unappealing. More than three little slivers would have been too much, though i would still have eaten it.