Tuna, Sea Urchin, Eel, Salmon – Oh My!
By Sherry Li 
August 19, 2010 
11 Comments
This is the second of a series of articles on my trip to China. One | Two | Three
As promised in the first Shanghai article, there shall be food! It would be unlike me if I didn’t devote an entire post to sushi! Two places I would like to highlight (there are more, I’m sure, but I didn’t get a chance to feast there) are Misato, atop the City Hotel on Shaanxi Road, and Wasabi, on Julu Road near Jing’an Temple.
Misato
I had the sushi lunch course at Misato, which consisted of appetizer, miso soup with clams, mini tempura assortment, chawanmushi, and 8 pieces sushi with a half roll for 120 yuan (around $18). I normally wouldn’t spend $18 on lunch, of course, but the amount of food speaks volumes of the value!
The tempura was fried using a light batter and without the grease. The chawanmushi was some of the best that I’ve had in my life and I really like my eggs! What I like most about chawanmushi is that it’s like a treasure hunt. You open up the cover and the steam almost clouds the piece of shiitake mushroom afloat on top of the egg custard. As you dig deeper while savoring the supple and lightly seasoned egg, you find that there are chunks of pork, shrimp, shiso leaf, ginko nut, and yuzu peel. It’s really a dish that is more than meets the eye!8
Before I even got to the sushi, I was almost half full! But I definitely did not want to miss out on the sushi. Just looking at the thick slices of fish was enough to make my mouth water. Rarely will you find sushi of such size in New York (most restaurants give you “bite-size†pieces, which is just a nice way of saying it’s not much at all). Look at that toro! Nicely marbled, plump, and moist. I would say that the half roll of kampyo was a cop out but I thoroughly enjoyed the entire meal!
Wasabi
Tucked away on a narrow street behind a 10-foot wall was one of the cutest restaurants I’ve ever seen. Wasabi is a very authentic Japanese restaurant living inside of a very European townhouse and garden. There was even French music playing inside the dining room. I read about Wasabi in a Shanghai entertainment magazine for ex-pats and tourists. The magazine warned about the high prices but upon perusing through the lunch menu, I found that the lunch prices were very reasonable! Whereas a dinner would probably cost upwards of 300 yuan to 500 yuan per person, the lunch sets, each of which includes appetizer soup, and dessert or coffee, range from around 50 yuan to 120 yuan.
I couldn’t choose between the sushi, or the delicious looking rice bowls, or the special unagi sets that were featured for the season. In the end, I opted for the maguro and uni don (tuna and sea urchin rice bowl) while my friend got the special 3-way unagi set (sounds awesome, already, huh?).
The appetizers came first: a small serving of simmered daikon in fish stock and then chawanmushi (oh how I loved that every Japanese restaurant in Shanghai served chawanmushi!). I’m a huge fan of daikon because of its ability to absorb surrounding flavors and its soft texture after lengthy simmering. The fish stock was light yet flavorful, completely without any fishiness. I even drank the little bit of soup from the bowl! The chawanmushi was a slightly different from Misato’s but was made with precision as well. The egg mixture was smooth and without egg white chunks and was just the right consistency (sometimes it can get too thick and the custard loses its bounciness).
When our main course came, we had to move most things off the table to make room for the big wooden trays! Our entrees were accompanied by freshly made miso soup with tofu and wakame and a small helping of pickled daikon and cucumbers. I was amazed by the size of my rice bowl and the thick juicy-looking slices of tuna! The tuna was a fattier cut so there was a nice marbling and soft pink color to it. It looked delectable! I almost couldn’t wait to take a bit of the freshly grated wasabi (I’m always impressed and pleased when restaurants offer fresh wasabi) and dip the tuna into my soy sauce dish. The first bite was better than I imagined! The fish was moist and juicy, and there was no question about its freshness! I wonder if the chef just teleported it from Tsukiji!
Although there were only a few small pieces of uni, each bite was heavenly! There were two types of uni, a creamier kind that looks like it’s melting and a more solid one that was sweeter in taste. I’m a little ashamed to say that although I love uni to death, I really don’t know the different types. In any case, both were delicious!
My friend’s hitsumabushi set was even more impressive! The description on the menu said that this is a specialty of the Aichi prefecture. The unagi can be eaten in 3 ways: first, plain with rice; second, with thin strips of nori, freshly grated wasabi, and sliced scallion; and third, with a fish stock poured over the unagi and rice (kind of like ochazuke). The eel looked like what you might find at the frozen food section of an Asian supermarket, you know the kind that you can just microwave and throw over your rice for a quick dinner? Well, appearances can be deceiving. The eel and rice came out piping hot, with steam clouding my camera lens as we opened the wooden lid. Upon first taste, I was amazed by how the pieces of fish fell apart in my mouth. The rice is also worthy of note – each kernel was tender and slightly sweet. Eating the eel with the dried nori and wasabi gave it a totally different taste! The freshness of the wasabi brought out the sweetness of the unagi even more! When I poured the fish stock into the rice mixture, I had to force myself from finishing my friend’s lunch!
I left Wasabi with a full stomach and a feeling of extreme satisfaction. I thought I had tasted the zenith of food in Shanghai. I went back a few days later and ordered the steak rice bowl and grilled salmon roll. Because the meat isn’t cooked in front of me, I couldn’t see how the raw meat looked. But when I tasted a piece, it was amazing! It was only seasoned with some pepper before being grilled so I tasted only the meat. Mmm mmm good!
The salmon roll was recommended by the magazine where I read about Wasabi. Just look at it! It’s fresh salmon rolled with some cucumber, then blowtorched salmon on top with some mayo, slice of radish, and ikura. It was an incredible mixture of flavors and textures. Talk about ending my 2-week trip with a BANG!!
I don’t think I’ve tasted Japanese food this wonderful in China. But I was proven wrong when I went to Suzhou. More food in my next article!
Photos by Sherry Li for Appetite for Good.
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OMG Im so hungry!
Great post and beautiful photos.
Look at that bowl of UNI!! Impressed you found this fine quality in China.
Thank you,
Lisa
Thanks!! I loooooove uni, so I was very happy to find such good uni while on my trip!
No thank you to the uni (I have tried it), but everything else looks fabulous! You took great photos!
Thanks for reading! I was very impressed with the food in Shanghai!
More food photos to come in future articles! I have a whole slew of Chinese food photos 
Agree 100% with Lisa. Amazing pics that just made me SOOOO hungry! Well done!
Thanks for your kind comments! More food p0rn to come in the next couple of weeks
You’re pictures are gorgeous, though you’re so much more brave than I. I have had sushi once and have to admit that I wasn’t drawn to it. I will always try everything one time, at least. Now that my palate has expanded, I probably need to give it another go. It looks so gorgeous.
Thank you so much! Lunch is easy to take pictures because of the good lighting… I was very fortunate
Awww, I’m sorry your first experience with sushi wasn’t better. It’s definitely something to get used to. But I hope that you like it more and more! It’s definitely one of my favorite things to eat!
It all looks so good!
Thank you! I’m glad the pictures came out well
awesome photos, and those look like fantastic meals. I’m having trouble deciding which one I’d rather have.