2 March: In the late afternoon we went to visit Caspar (Stracke) in his studio in Brooklyn, just by the Brooklyn Bridge, and watched a beautiful sunset from the window (Yes, it was 17C at nearly 6PM - it was really warm in New York!) Then we hit the local bar for a "quick" drink, and then back to Manhattan to meet Fast in East Village for a serious sushi & sake crawl.

First Station: Mie on... God, which Avenue was that on?



Our first toast with Otokoyama, a sake from Aomori. Dry and light but lacked any distinct flavour.



And to go with it, slices of "briefly broiled spanish mackerel, with grtated ginger & spring onion". Similar to seared tuna. Very nice. Apart from this, we thought we'd ordered a "uni & shiso maki" but the chef obviously misheard us and gave us a "ume & shiso maki" - pickled plum rather than sea urchin. Oh well...
Two dishes with 300ml sake here came to $32 inc. tip.

Second Station: Hasaki on East 9th.



Fast ordered this grilled eel in sweet sauce wrapped inside cucumber slices. (Similar to the sea urchin & squid roll I had a couple of days earlier - yes, it's the same restaurant.) Absolutely delicious.



And the assorted shellfish sashimi I ordered was just as yummy.



See the "mmmmm, that looks gooooood" look on Fast's face? ;-)
I can't remember what sake we had here, but with a small bottle, the bill came to $49 inc. tip. Definitely worth it, the food was absolutely the best.

Third Station: Takahachi on Avenue A



We had a spicy (green tabasco??) octopus salad and a mixed seaweed salad. The sake was a milky one from Gifu, which turned out to be surprisingly fresh. The bill came to $34 inc. tip.

Fourth Station: We've had enough Japanese food, so we walked around a bit in search of somewhere we could have a drink. I was surprised how many bars in the area were already closing at midnight. We settled in at Forbidden City on 13th/4th, where they had a selection of sake. We went for two different ones - don't ask me which, I honestly don't know any more!



Do you remember my photo from Japan last year, where they poured the sake right up to the rim of the glass so that it was overspilling into the dish underneath? At this joint they served sake the same way, except the dish underneath was so shallow it was quite difficult to sip the overflow without spilling it onto the table. Kousa, Fast and Usako doing their best in this picture...

Fast had brought a bag of wasabi peas for me, which we nibbled on while we drank the sake. And then we started taking those photos with the plastic bag...







We went to this bar for "just one more sake", ended up having three each (I think), and suddenly it was past 2:30 so we decided to say good night. I have absolutely no idea how much we paid here...

Thanks, Fast, for being an excellent guide and a fun companion to get plastered with.

PS. We had 3 hours to kill at Boston before boarding our flight, and I was relieved to find a pub right opposite the Icelandair & British Airways gates where one was allowed to smoke. Drinking pinot grigio and chain smoking, I chatted to a friendly Boston guy who was on his way to Ireland/Scotland, about sushi among other things :-)

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