Which means the correct time to eat these porcupines of the sea is either when the weather is hot, or cool, or hot and about to get cool.
Confused? Well, join the club.
All we know is we like to eat these gonads (yes, you are eating the testicles of a sea urchin) whenever they’re swollen (mating season!) and when they taste of the sweet, briny sea — not of a muddy, brackish tidal pool.
We also know we love them whenever Ramir DeCastro is whipping them into shape at Yonaka.
And when he decides to encase them in a dashi gelée, and serve it with a piquant calamansi creme fraiche — accompanied by little bundles of Alaskan king crab (wrapped in uni crepes) — you know you have about the most ingenious little surf & surf & surf jelly plate on the planet.
About everything DeCastro does floats our boat, but these were something special…and a good measure of just how sophisticated tastes have gotten out in the ‘burbs.
YONAKA MODERN JAPANESE
Yonaka was a revelation last year when we visited. We were pleasantly surprised how fantastic it was and look forward to returning next week.
If you held a gun to my head and forced me to choose between Yonaka and Raku I’d have to go with Yonaka.
Ramir is maybe one of the most ingenious ,innovative chef in this city.
Went to Yonaka in July and it was spectacular in every way. Thx to John and commenters here who reassured me after a nonsense slam of it by one person here. Simply a great place. The restaurant scene in Las Vegas Chinatown is ragingly fantastic.