Morimoto Philadelphia

Recently we went to Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia. Located on Chestnut between 7th and 8th, the nondescript front makes it easy to miss.

We ordered the omakase tasting menu and liked it, but weren’t as impressed as we thought we should have been. The only sake we got to taste was the Morimoto Junmai, and the food completely outshone the drinks. I would like to go back and order a higher priced option to see what changes–the quality of the drinks, food, or simply the quantity.

Tasting menu:

1. Bele Casel Prosecco, with tartar chu-toro with caviar and fresh wasabi. I was so proud of myself for loving this dish as I am usually not a huge fan of caviar.
2. Huber “Hugo” Gruner Veltliner from Austria and carpacio yuzu hamachi
3. Daniel Gehrs un-oaked California chard with seared hamachi and microgreen salad

I enjoyed the first three dishes and could have called myself satisfied with them but my husband thought they were all too similar. I thought they were fresh and flavorful and not filling at all.

4. Strawberry gele with mint

5. Morimoto Soba Ale with soba carbonara–this combination of drink/food didn’t really fit together as both were very heavy. But this was our favorite dish: soba boiled in green tea and served with scallops, bacon, Parmesan cheese, and edamame.
6. Ratzenberger German Reisling with black miso cod–this was my husband’s favorite, served with pickled daikon and black beans. I was a little put off my the fishy taste of the cod.
7. Morimoto Junmai sake with nigirizushi. The rice was perfect. By this point I was stuffed and couldn’t finish the 5 pieces that were served.
8. Domaine de Coyeux Muscat from France with no-flour chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse, white and black miso sauces.

We had differing opinions of the dessert. I thought the cake was amazing just by itself but I did not enjoy the miso sauces with it. Usually I love the salty-sweet combination, but the taste of the miso was too strong for the chocolate.

I would recommend Morimoto to anyone, but if we go back, I’d like to sample some of their specialty dishes and especially peruse the extensive sake list they have available.

Top Rosés: Francis Ford Coppola Sofia

The Rosé party is long over, but I am finally posting the last few wines from that event. I thought the top wines from our tasting deserved a little more attention than the others, so I will post each one separately.

This week is the Sofia Rosé from the Francis Ford Coppola winery. This is a really soft, delicate wine, with all the flavor characteristics claimed by the company website. Lots of rose petals and strawberries, cherries and raspberries. For me it was more raspberries and rose petals than anything else. This is something I find a little strange, because the wine is described as 100% Sonoma Coast pinot noir. The Sonoma Coast region is probably one of my favorite wine regions on Earth, and certainly in the U.S. The wines, and especially pinots from that region, have this incredible quality that I always find myself short of words trying to describe. They are also one of the first wines I could immediately identify on first sniff. This wine had none of those Sonoma Coast qualities.

Don’t get me wrong, it was excellent juice, and I’d be delighted to open another bottle sometime, but in terms of smelling or tasting like Sonoma Coast fruit, it fell flat. The other area where it came up a little short for me was acidity. A perfect rose should have an excellent balance of fruity and acidic qualities. This wine has the fruit down, and in spades, not overly fruity like juice, but certainly noticeable and contributing to the overall presence of the wine. For me it was just a little shy on the fruit end of things.

I probably would have been more glowing about this wine if I had not reviewed the technical notes on the Coppola website. Having seen where the pinot juice is supposed to be from I now feel like I’m being a little hard on it, but if you are going to claim a specific viticultural region, it should at least carry the primary qualities of that region.

All in all an excellent offering from California, and certainly a bottle I would not hesitate to enjoy again.

Review: John & Kiras

John & Kiras is a local company that produces high quality gourmet chocolates and also contributes to philanthropic projects. They are famous for their Garden Mint flavor, which is made with fresh mint that is grown by a local Philadelphia elementary school. Garden Mint is my personal favorite, and whenever I taste their mint chocolate pieces, I can taste the fresh, sweet, and clean flavors. The fact that the mint is grown and purchased from a local school makes me feel less guilty about eating it!

Other flavors from John & Kiras include Raspberry, Honey Lavender, and Pistachi-Oh! Every one of the chocolate flavors that comes out of this company perfectly showcases the main ingredient. The textures are perfect–a bit truffle-like but firm, and the chocolate has a creamy but tart quality to it (more European than American). Each flavor has its own specific design on the top of the piece, so you know which flavor you’ll be trying!

You can purchase John & Kiras chocolates directly from their website, and they often have seasonal specials. The most unique aspect of this chocolate producer is their conscious effort to give back to the local community in as many ways as possible. They are also reaching out to other urban communities to continue their Project Mintpatch.