Siberian Sturgeon and Sushi

Tonight I decided it was time to get the blog crew back together.  Matt, Christina, and I decided to go to our favorite sushi spot in the East Bay: Jo’s Sushi Bar (jossushibar.main.jp) in Pleasant Hill.  While you haven’t heard much from us lately, I have a few posts stored up from the last month. They are awesome and will be up soon, but we’re going to write up a fresh one from tonight’s dinner.

I brought a jar of the Siberian Sturgeon from Mote (mote.org) as right now it is my favorite. It has a wonderful finish: sweet and creamy.  Jo is the absolute man and I have wanted for him to pair caviar with a whitefish, any whitefish, for a while.  We pulled up to the counter and decided to start with a seared albacore in a ponzu sauce. It was a solid beginning to the night.

Chistina loves Ikura grade Salmon roe so she snuck that in. I threw in a Hamachi Kama order just in time as it was one of the last two and some agressive sushi eaters walked in and ordered two right after we sat down. Whew!

We were told that the Aji was very good tonight so we went with that. The kama rolled out as we bantered with the guys next to us about how we were happy to have “stolen” this one out from under them.

I asked Jo to taste the caviar and choose a good pairing.  We were brought a wonderful pairing of Suzuki (Sea Bass) topped with the Siberian Sturgeon.  The finished product was definitely the home run of the night as I believe the pictures speak for themselves.

The fish was perfect compliment to the sweetness of this particular roe.  Staying true to Caviarblog’s love of roe, Christina decided to end with a Tobiko hand roll.  It had a nice crunch and made her quite happy.

We kept Jo way past his bedtime as we discussed the caviar he would be trying later. Jo works very hard to bring in only the best, highest quality fish which is why I will always frequent his spot in Pleasant Hill.

-mike