Cherishing My Chirashidon

Nope, that isn’t wagyu steak you’re looking at. Life would be too good if it was.

Of course, that doesn’t mean this dish doesn’t kick butt in the “good living” department. Despite its cartoonlike good looks, this Japanese import packs a protein-heavy punch, sans that sagging feeling in the tummy. (Not to mention the wallet.) If you look closely, you’ll see slices of tuna and salmon sashimi, kani, ebi, plus some tamago for a little dairy goodness. If you take out the rice in this dish (yes, you gotta have your carbs still), that’s 99% protein for you already.

As a tuna/salmon fan, the mere mention of the sashimi duet in the menu description was enough to compel me to forgo my usual order of Philadelphia Rolls. While the kani was pretty flavorful, I couldn’t tell how good the sashimi was coz I got to the resto pretty late and had taken my sweet time taking photos of the dish that I didn’t realize the place was closing up in a bit. In my haste to wolf down my meal so the resto people wouldn’t think I’m holding up the place and bring out the Yakuza on my click-happy arse, I accidentally put too much wasabi in my sawsawan. Yeah, you guessed it, my mind imploded. I saw stars, haha. That was some pretty good wasabi. I had to slow down a bit and resist from drenching my sashimi in the soy sauce mixture, but being a true-blue Pinoy, I just couldn’t let a good sawsawan go to waste.

The –don appended in the name of the dish of course denotes the presence of rice in this bowl. I have to admit my curiosity was piqued even more when I spotted the words “vinegared rice” on the menu description. I wondered how that would turn out. As I guessed, the rice was a little sweeter than usual. And a little more moist, of course, as Japanese rice usually is. It was quite filling, although I have to add a caveat that this might be a preference and proportion issue with me. Rice fans might find this a bit wanting but to be sure, anything that has the heads-up “healthy!” plastered next to its name in a menu means that the dish is gonna be stingy in the carbo-loading.

So the dish had some other surprise that I can’t name. There’s a fruit in there, that yellow little thing. I’m sure it’s nothing super exotic; I’m just a total ditz when it comes to fruits. The only things I eat are bananas and mangoes. Anyway, the yellow fruit was a surprise coz it provided an acidic contrast to the sweet meatiness of the fish. Upon first bite, I thought I would be disappointed coz the photo on the menu looked like it had mango in it. But it was a fitting component of the Chirashidon, somewhat serving as a side dish unto its own. Darn, if the store wasn’t closing up I would have asked the waiter. As it is, the investigation into the matter of the mysterious fruit will have to wait until my next visit.

On the whole, I think this is what exciting, healthy eats should be like: heavy on the goodies (protein, vitamins, what-have-you) while staying true to the flavor of the main ingredients. Put in some head-bangin’ wasabi and you got yourself a keeper. Next time, I’m trying their wasabi ice cream for that ober-da-bakod wallop.

Chirashidon (Php165)
Sushi-Ya