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Morimoto, who?
Masaharu Morimoto, 森本正治, is one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America. As well, he was an Iron Chef on Iron Chef (the original) for two seasons (iirc).
Read more on Morimoto.
After having eaten at Bobby Flay's restaurant, my roommates and I decided to venture into the territory of another Iron Chef, and arguably the best of the four.
Morimoto's has a much more pretentious decour, comparative to Bobby Flay's, which reminded us of Megu, and we were a little disheartened. Extravagant decour has its pluses: the waiters were professional and nicely dressed, and the waitresses were incredibly hot (I wonder who does the interview...), and yet they still pale in comparison to the customers hanging out around the bar area, hoping to pick up a billionaire trader.
Talking about the decour, another thing to mention is their bathroom. It took me three tries to get the door open because of the artsy design. And I know it wasn't only me because other people had trouble with it too. Their toilets are perhaps imported from Japan, as the toilets have "cleansing" and drying functions, slightly weird, but semi-pleasing.
The main menu featured a large selection of hot/cold appetizers, soups, main entrees and sushis, and everything looked fabulous. I eventually settled for a steamed scallop as appetizer, iron chef chicken soup as the soup, and "duck, duck, duck" for the main course. While my room-mates got curry bread, oyster foie gras, wasabi coconut noodles, some huge seafood platter and surf 'n' turf (some sashimi plate and kobe beef).
The food came rather quickly for a restaurant of that size, and the appetizer was delicious. The freshness of the scallop was second to none, and the $14 chicken noodle soup put all the noodles I have tasted before to shame, it was just way out of this world. Immediately, we were extremely impressed, and the price tag suddenly did not seem so ridiculous. We were happy.
We ordered two <insert name of the container> of sake to go with our food, both honoured "Morimoto's pick", and they were excellent. Unlike the sakes I have had before, this sake was chilled (instead of heated), and the slightly sweet taste of the wine is nicely harmonized by the aroma of the gluttonous rice.
Having finished our soups and appetizers, we were eagerly waiting for our entrees. The duck, duck, duck came with a duck leg, some duck skin (similar to Peking duck), five generous pieces of duck breast, a croissant with foie gras butter, a soft-shell duck egg and two types of dipping sauces. Needless to say, it was fucking awesome, best food I have ever had in my life.
The bill came to about $260 for the three of us, pretty pricey, but well worth it.
Next week: Mario Batali.
Thanks for reading 
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Wow. Sounds like an awesome experience you had. You're making me hungry now....
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Sounds like you had a taste of ambrosia, I'm jealous ):
Been living off of chips + salsa and ramen for too long now...
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Wow, I'm super jealous of you.
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the only way I can motivate myself to do well in school is because I know later in my life I want to:
a) travel
b) check out amazing restaurants.
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On February 25 2008 03:07 fanatacist wrote:
Sounds like you had a taste of ambrosia, I'm jealous ):
Been living off of chips + salsa and ramen for too long now...
That's an awesome diet too.
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$260... I wish I had so much money for food. I even feel bad for spending $6 on a burrito =(
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Valhalla18444 Posts
awesome
i have much more respect for morimoto than for bobby flay
flay has his own tv show where he travels around challenging people that he can make their signature dish better than they can, and then the dishes are submitted to a blind taste test
I've seen the show four times and i have yet to see bobby flay win. the last one i watched was him challenging some fat middle-aged american who barbequed a mean spare rib, and flay got wrecked
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I am so jealous, you have no idea.
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Sooner or later, I will go to the Morimoto here in Philadelphia. =]
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my goal in life is now to experience a bunch of expensive restaurants like youre doing.
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On February 25 2008 04:50 B1nary wrote:
$260... I wish I had so much money for food. I even feel bad for spending $6 on a burrito =(
I'm a student too, I only have money to spend when I'm working (every other term). I normally wouldn't go to these places because it's so out of my league, but since I'm only in NY for three months (just over one month left >.<\) and I don't know when I'll come back, I go all out on restaurants.
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On February 25 2008 08:22 YoUr_KiLLeR wrote:
my goal in life is now to experience a bunch of expensive restaurants like youre doing.
They really know their shit, that's all I can say.
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thats pretty damn baller. last time i went to vegas we went to the prestigious picasso, which ended up totalling $150 a person, but that was also well worth it, something people should try at least once.
we were thinking about bobby flay's restaurant, but we ended up waking up at like 1 and our flight was at like 3 =/
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United States22883 Posts
BRAZILIAN RESTAURANT. I forgot the name of it in NYC, but there's a ridiculous one that's like $50 per person, not including drinks. Comes with an extremely elegant open buffet that'd completely be worth the price alone, but you ignore most of it and wait for the main dishes - meat. Tons and tons of meat, on swords, brought right to you.
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/churrascaria_plataforma/
+ Show Spoiler +Plataforma Churrascaria is a Rodizio style restaurant. Rodizio is a method of serving meat that originated in the south of Brazil in the early 1800's. The concept is to serve a wide variety of different cuts of beef - sirloin, baby beef, top round, skirt steak, short ribs, brisket, rib eye; pork - ham, pork ribs, sausage, pork loin, suckling pig; chicken - chicken legs, chicken hearts; turkey - wrapped in bacon; lamb, fish, etc. in succession, to each diner individually right at their table. A meal typically begins with a trip to the gourmet salad bar, which features a variety of vegetables and composed salads in addition to four hot dishes. We also serve a selection of side dishes at your table. The main course, the highlight of the meal, will start when you flip your coaster-sized "chip" from the red side to the green side, signaling the meat cutters you're ready to be served.
Also, Ruth's Chris is completely overrated and not worth it. They're usually filled with middle aged millionaires getting drunk and laughing about fucking their secretaries, and the waiters are cordial to the point of being annoying and pathetic. The food is good but definitely not exceptional and all sides are separate.
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Osaka27148 Posts
On September 06 2006 20:26 Manifesto7 wrote:Two of the things that my wife and I are both passionate about are travel and fine food. In the summer of 2004, I was both working and studying full time and Yuko was preparing to leave back to Japan. It would be our second year-long separation in our relationship. Unbeknownst to her, I had arranged with work to get the July long weekend off. The day before my perfect day, I showed up at home (In Victoria BC) to surprise Yuko. I told her to pack a bag for two nights, including some formal wear. I did not tell her where we were going. She only found out the destination was Philidelphia when we checked in. The next day was the best day of my life. We got up early and explored some of the best history America has to offer. Because it was around the fourth of July, there were events everywhere, and the sky was cloudless. We took in a baseball game during the afternoon, and then returned to the hotel. I told her to get dressed nicely, and then we walked to the restaurant, Morimoto's. For those of you unaware, Morimoto used to be on the Japanese cooking show, Iron Chef. We were both fans of the show. Our seat was at the sushi bar, where we were able to watch him prepare not just our food, but the food of everyone else. He is a true master. During desert, I dropped to one knee and proposed. She accepted, and free champagne flowed from the Morimoto kitchen. I tipped $100 on a $350 bill, went back to the hotel, and fell into a loving embrace with my future wife. The next day we went back to Victoria. The End.
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I have eaten not at Morimoto's but at Nobu new york when he was the chef there and that meal played a large part in why i became a chef. Me and my current girlfriend went there without reservations and luckly got seated at the sushi bar sitting on the end with Morimoto himself staring at us and personaly making our food (not half bad for just a walk in) we ordered the Omakase which is the tasting menu which comprised about 7 courses (i belive Morimoto's has this as well). Let me assure you that if you can only dine with chef morimoto once it would be a crime to pass this up, though it is a bit pricy as i recall. Later once i went through culinary school i did a stage (unpaid short period of working, common amoung chefs) at nobu 47 when it opened up and it was really interesting to learn alot of the techniques that went into making that meal, i actually made the new style shashimi, the shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce ( the trick is to literaly throw the battered shrimp at high speed into a huge fryer), see the black cod which has been marinating for 3 days in miso and sake... it was really wonderful and made me just that much more sure that being a chef was the carrer i really wanted.
But enough rambling, bottom line, go to morimoto's....make reservations now, plan out the trip, you will not be disapointed...also order the omakase.
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On February 25 2008 11:38 Manifesto7 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 06 2006 20:26 Manifesto7 wrote:Two of the things that my wife and I are both passionate about are travel and fine food. In the summer of 2004, I was both working and studying full time and Yuko was preparing to leave back to Japan. It would be our second year-long separation in our relationship. Unbeknownst to her, I had arranged with work to get the July long weekend off. The day before my perfect day, I showed up at home (In Victoria BC) to surprise Yuko. I told her to pack a bag for two nights, including some formal wear. I did not tell her where we were going. She only found out the destination was Philidelphia when we checked in. The next day was the best day of my life. We got up early and explored some of the best history America has to offer. Because it was around the fourth of July, there were events everywhere, and the sky was cloudless. We took in a baseball game during the afternoon, and then returned to the hotel. I told her to get dressed nicely, and then we walked to the restaurant, Morimoto's. For those of you unaware, Morimoto used to be on the Japanese cooking show, Iron Chef. We were both fans of the show. Our seat was at the sushi bar, where we were able to watch him prepare not just our food, but the food of everyone else. He is a true master. During desert, I dropped to one knee and proposed. She accepted, and free champagne flowed from the Morimoto kitchen. I tipped $100 on a $350 bill, went back to the hotel, and fell into a loving embrace with my future wife. The next day we went back to Victoria. The End.
Awwwww!
I must have missed that post when you first posted it. What a nice way to propose.
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please keep sharing experiences such as these =]
do you plan on going to gordon ramsay's restaurants too?
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United States1654 Posts
On February 25 2008 11:38 Manifesto7 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 06 2006 20:26 Manifesto7 wrote:Two of the things that my wife and I are both passionate about are travel and fine food. In the summer of 2004, I was both working and studying full time and Yuko was preparing to leave back to Japan. It would be our second year-long separation in our relationship. Unbeknownst to her, I had arranged with work to get the July long weekend off. The day before my perfect day, I showed up at home (In Victoria BC) to surprise Yuko. I told her to pack a bag for two nights, including some formal wear. I did not tell her where we were going. She only found out the destination was Philidelphia when we checked in. The next day was the best day of my life. We got up early and explored some of the best history America has to offer. Because it was around the fourth of July, there were events everywhere, and the sky was cloudless. We took in a baseball game during the afternoon, and then returned to the hotel. I told her to get dressed nicely, and then we walked to the restaurant, Morimoto's. For those of you unaware, Morimoto used to be on the Japanese cooking show, Iron Chef. We were both fans of the show. Our seat was at the sushi bar, where we were able to watch him prepare not just our food, but the food of everyone else. He is a true master. During desert, I dropped to one knee and proposed. She accepted, and free champagne flowed from the Morimoto kitchen. I tipped $100 on a $350 bill, went back to the hotel, and fell into a loving embrace with my future wife. The next day we went back to Victoria. The End.
How sweet! 
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On February 25 2008 17:05 tiffany wrote:
please keep sharing experiences such as these =]
do you plan on going to gordon ramsay's restaurants too?
Yes, I do.
My budget is once per week, and I have quite a few weeks left.
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EPT
