Okuyama no Sushi

I rallied a group of six (Kylee, Joe, Kumar, Lydia, Caitlin, and myself) to venture into Óbuda for what I heard was Budapest's most legitimate sushi.  Óbuda is a historical section of Budapest, literally "Old Buda."  Óbuda, Buda, and Pest fused in 1873 to form the city of Budapest.  Our destination was Okuyama no Sushi.  I had read a number of positive reviews, and I also had faith in the fact ethnic restaurants with atrocious websites tend to be authentic, if not extremely polished.

Indeed, we arrived at Kolosy tér, walked through the courtyard and downstairs to the basement to find Okuyama-san and his comfortable Japanese restaurant.  The dining space was fairly small, but didn't feel cramped at all, even filled nearly to capacity.  They give their tables, which provide seating for 25 - 30 at the most, plenty of space.  We all ordered sushi, but Kylee, having never tried sushi before (or fish outside its "stick" form, for that matter), was a bit apprehensive.  We steered her toward the California roll, which we hoped would be a success.  Kumar and I both ordered the small nigiri-and-roll combo, while Lydia, Caitlin, and Joe each ordered individual rolls.  Joe was perhaps the most adventurous and ordered the squid roll.  The house menu is mostly classic sushi: nigiri and basic, one- or two-ingredient rolls.  Definitely not abreast of the American souped-up maki sushi movement, which according to your sense of purity, could be good or bad.

A delicious bowl of miso soup (plenty of substance -- sprouts, kombu, scallions, tofu, and a mushroom or two) and a bottle of cold sake for the table helped the fairly short wait pass quickly.  I hadn't ever tried sake before but enjoyed it.  I thought the flavor was very gentle and a little bit like flowers.  Good, even thought it was a bit too sweet for my taste.

My sushi came with a single avocado-and-salmon roll and five pieces of nigiri:  salmon, shrimp, tamago (sweetened egg omelet), and ... the last two.  By sight and a little research, I'm fairly sure one piece was just shiromi, or seasonal white fish (or possibly it was white tuna, but I don't believe so), and the other was scallop.  I'm tempted to digress into commentary on my sushi research, but I'll save that for the postscript.

The reactions:  I enjoyed my sushi thoroughly and thought it fairly high quality, especially for a landlocked country without much interest in sushi.  I believe I read in a review that Okuyama-san flies his fish in freshly from abroad.  The scallop nigiri was very interesting -- delicate to the point of melting, a bit sticky, very moist, and semi-sweet.  The tamago was good:  I've always been intrigued, as it is a bit of a stand-out, both aesthetically and in that it is not fish, but I've never ordered it before.  This will probably join the group of my sushi regulars.  Joe was not such a fan of his squid roll, nor was anyone else at the table but me... I didn't find it thrilling, but the texture was interesting.  Not as rubbery as octopus, but like an extremely dense block of gelatin that chews (without difficulty) into a more watery gelly.  The flavor is there, but I can't say much about it... extremely light and non-offensive.  Kumar gave rave reviews to his plate, the same as mine.

Kylee, our sushi virgin, began her adventure with a dab of wasabi on the end of a chopstick.  So little, in fact, that I wasn't sure she'd get the taste.  I suppose I should have introduced the fact that Kylee dislikes spicy food of all sorts (she claims bell peppers are hot), as she did, indeed, get the taste.  Quite the reaction, and Lydia suggested some pickled ginger to ease the heat.  Unfortunately, pickled ginger has a kick of its own, so I'm not sure it really helped the situation.  Anyhow, on to the first bite of California roll.... not so favorable.  I should say this was a bit unusual by my experience of California rolls: a big, silver-dollar sized roll with a fat, thumbnail sized chunk of avocado at the center along with a piece of imitation crab stick.  Kylee was opposed to, I think, the texture of the nori on the outside of the roll, and perhaps the big chunk of avocado, too.  The salmon roll produced a similar reaction, but Kumar kindly offered half of his salmon nigiri (it takes a very generous man to share his nigiri), which she proclaimed the best of the three she tried.

One reviewer noted online that he often sees a table or two of Japanese people when he eats at Okuyama no Sushi, which he said he rarely saw at other Budapest sushi restaurants, and indeed, three Japanese men were enjoying a long dinner and conversation at the table next to us.  They seemed to have been there long before we arrived and stayed even after we finished our hour-plus dinner.  I liked the restaurant a lot and will be back.  The portions are a little on the small-and-expensive side, but not unusually so for sushi (they perhaps seem smaller and more expensive under the lens of Budapest's $2.50 street gyros and nearly-free produce).

To follow up on my sushi research, Slashfood has a fairly informative series on sushi basics.  Among other things, I learned that sushi purists dip nigiri fish-side down, in order to not sully the sweet, vinegared rice; that sushi purists also don't mix wasabi into the soy sauce, but rather apply it directly to the fish; and that picking up nigiri with your fingers is acceptable.  Info potpourri:

Katsoubushi is a dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna that becomes almost wood-like and is shaved to produce shavings for dashi, the broth that is the stock for miso soup.

Real wasabi is awesome but unfortunately no one serves it (to wit: the site claims that even in Japan, only five percent of sushi shops use real, fresh wasabi).  The link also elaborates on the don't-add-wasabi-to-soy-sauce point, from the opposite perspective:  real wasabi is expensive and hand-grated, so diluting it in soy sauce is seen as a waste.

Finally, gari, the pickled ginger which accompanies sushi (and which I happen to adore), is naturally light brown and is of higher quality when served this way, as opposed to bright pink.  I think it's delicious either way, but the light brown gari served at Okuyama no Sushi was definitely softer and a bit different in flavor than the typical pink stuff.