Real Sushi Porn: Getting Some at Sushi Yaro

It's summer, so ed (from Yuma) has time to share a meal with you. In San Diego. Back on March 31. Kirk and Cathy will blog again for you soon. 

There are several reasons for the title of this post. I have done picture centered posts with similar titles on sushi at Sakura and at Sammy Sushi (RIP).  Kirk tells me those posts still get a lot of hits (along with Lolita's Tacos), particularly from people who do not seem especially interested in the San Diego food scene. Second, I find sushi sexy and beautiful to look at. Third, I forgot to take notes on the wonderful meal that I ate, so this post depends upon some pictures and my incomplete memories of the food. The final reason is the last picture in the post is XXX or at least RRR rated. Proceed at your own risque.

I began my meal by ordering a large bottle of Orion, a pleasant beer from Okinawa that I had never encountered before:
Now that we have a beer, let me provide some background to my visit. Stuck in the desert, I had not had good sushi for months and months. You can't always get what you want, like Mick says, but can always get what you need – and I needed lots of excellent raw seafood real bad. Imagine my delight when this large clamshell packed with chunks of fresh aoyagi arrived in front of me:

I can't recall the last time I was served so much clammy goodness all at once. The texture was not chewy, crunchy, or soft — like goldilocks' perfect porridge, it was just right.

That clam should give you a hint as to why I was at SushiYaro and not some other purveyor. The seafood available is always carefully selected and often truly outstanding. After all, Sammy (of Sammy Sushi fame)  is the itamae. I have enjoyed his sushi since I first encountered him back at Katzra, when I didn't even know his name. He has always served me good quality fish. Such as this maguro:

And this (hamachi???):
And this hirame:

I also must confess that I sometimes I am in the mood for the atmosphere at the sushi bars that Sammy has run. Nobody would confuse SushiYaro with a Japanese museum. Sometimes it gets loud, and people  are encouraged to have fun. Sammy is happy to turn his television onto a World Cup game or, as on the evening of March 31, the opening game of the major league baseball season.

And what could be better than drinking beer, watching baseball, and eating such wonderful things as aji (Spanish mackerel) or fresh oysters?:

The Spanish mackerel was sweet, fresh, and rich. The oysters had a touch of ponzu sauce and a contrastive crunch of masago (or is that tobiko?).

Speaking of crunch, what possibly could be more crunchy and tasty than the head of a sweet shrimp (ama ebi)?:

To me, it seems paradoxical that sushi bars always serve the tail of a sweet shrimp before its head. So for this post, I've arranged the ami ebu pictures in anatomical, not chronological, order:
This particular sushi feast was particularly excellent because I had warned Sammy that I was going to be there and that I was interested in some of the real good stuff. So several things that evening were truly special. Look at this salmon belly:
Completely creamy. Butterly unctuous. Divinely delicious.

Toward the middle of the meal, I was served miso soup with clams. The clams were a nice addition (and I think Sammy knows I love clams), and the miso broth was intense with pronounced dark miso flavors:
One of my really favorite dishes of the evening was the kuzunoko (herring roe):

I had never had this presentation where the mass of crunchy herring roe is attached to a thin slice of saba (mackerel). The mackerel adds a fishy oceany flavor to the wonderful texture of the roe.

Similarly, the ankimo (monkfish liver) on this evening lived up to its reputation as Japanese foie gras. I don't know where or how Sammy procured this, but I've certainly never had better – and usually have had much worse. This was rich and smooth, mildly flavored and very lightly seasoned (with mirin?):

To be honest, I don't know how I could keep eating, but I did – everything tasted so good. The mirugai (giant clam) was fresh, crunchy, and clammy:

It reminded me the the meal had started with the large clam sashimi, and it also reminded me of those good old days when giant clam was so inexpensive that it was standard in most six or eight piece sushi combinations. Which reminds me that I am getting old.

At this point, to cleanse my palate, Sammy gave me some Japanese pickles (tsukemono). Though both were pickles, the two types had contrasting flavor and texture profiles. Together they were tart and refreshing: 
And then my meal finished with the perfect dessert, uni:

Looking back over my pictures, I can't believe I ate so much sushi. And it was an exceptional meal. While I have had some outstanding sashimi and sushi at Sakura and Kaito, for my palate at least, this was as good a sushi feast as I have had in San Diego. The only negative thing I remember from the evening was that the Dodgers won. And that certainly wasn't Sammy's fault.

As I was finishing up – and enjoying a small glass of cold sake – I watched as Sammy made the most unusual sushi roll I have ever seen. It was true sushi porn (move the kids away from the computer screen NOW). So if you are in a basement in Bratislava scrolling through this post looking for pornography, here it is:
"What you call it?" I asked. "It's a WTF roll," Sammy said, and that seems appropriate.

Sushi Yaro, 7905 Engineer Rd # C (where Sammy Sushi used to be), San Diego, CA 92111-1930, (858) 560-1782, cell (858) 442-0212.   www.sushiyaro.com