Best uni in Chicago

I would like to get opinions on the best place to get uni in Chicago, for me I think the best I have had to date was at Katsu. Also, any places that are using uni in other formats other then standard nigiri? Is there any place that does something like an uni chirashi?

forzagto wrote:I would like to get opinions on the best place to get uni in Chicago, for me I think the best I have had to date was at Katsu. Also, any places that are using uni in other formats other then standard nigiri? Is there any place that does something like an uni chirashi?

Funny you should ask--I had a lovely chirashi combo of good uni and ikura at Tampopo for lunch on Wed. HUGE portion--3 whole (massive)pieces of uni and about a half a cup of ikura--for $20--all was super fresh and delicious!

Also, Macku on Clyborn has super fresh uni. Chef Kaze does a handroll with uni and octopus that is terrific.

forzagto wrote:Is there any place that does something like an uni chirashi?

I'm guessing you saw No Reservations in Hokkaido. In the first couple of minutes, of an overall interesting episode, Bourdain has uni and ikura on a bowl of rice. As us BBQ guys say, it done flung a craving on me, and Daniel at Tampopo was kind enough to prepare as asked even though its not on the menu.

I requested plain rice, Boudreaulicious sushi rice and our other dining companion went with nabeyaki udon.

Tampopo, Uni/Ikura on rice

cell phone picture

You read my mind about No Reservations, it got my craving going. That picture is awesome, I'm going there tomorrow to give that a try. Thanks

I'd agree that Katsu has the best uni I've had in Chicago.

In my experience, uni is one of those foods that should be eaten as soon after it's harvested as possible. For years, I had absolutely no idea how uni could taste until I tried it in a few different locations near an ocean. The best uni I've had tasted clean and like the sea. It was delicate in texture, but still held together. It seems that when it sits, it develops a depth of flavor, almost a funk, which while not disagreeable, just isn't the same as the fresh version. The texture also seems to change, with it becoming runnier. All this is to say that if you're on a coast and fresh uni can be had, get it!

I rarely order uni any more because I know it'll just get me craving what I can't easily have.

Ronna

REB wrote:I'd agree that Katsu has the best uni I've had in Chicago.

In my experience, uni is one of those foods that should be eaten as soon after it's harvested as possible. For years, I had absolutely no idea how uni could taste until I tried it in a few different locations near an ocean. The best uni I've had tasted clean and like the sea. It was delicate in texture, but still held together. It seems that when it sits, it develops a depth of flavor, almost a funk, which while not disagreeable, just isn't the same as the fresh version. The texture also seems to change, with it becoming runnier. All this is to say that if you're on a coast and fresh uni can be had, get it!

I rarely order uni any more because I know it'll just get me craving what I can't easily have.

Ronna

Coastal or not, uni can be kept live on ice for some time (maybe not so long as oysters or clams, but still). There's no reason Chicago can't have fresh, because it was alive a minute ago, uni. Though I agree it's not common around here. Also, while I'm an uni lover, I'm no expert and can't explain this, but in my experience even pristinely fresh uni can be mared by a thin texture and sulfuric funk. I had a run-in with one such critter at the Oyster Bar in NY not too long ago. I assume it had to do with the season, water temp, origin, or some such thing. So, not only do you need freshness, you need someone who knows how to pick em and use em, like Katsu.

JeffB wrote:

REB wrote:I'd agree that Katsu has the best uni I've had in Chicago.

In my experience, uni is one of those foods that should be eaten as soon after it's harvested as possible. For years, I had absolutely no idea how uni could taste until I tried it in a few different locations near an ocean. The best uni I've had tasted clean and like the sea. It was delicate in texture, but still held together. It seems that when it sits, it develops a depth of flavor, almost a funk, which while not disagreeable, just isn't the same as the fresh version. The texture also seems to change, with it becoming runnier. All this is to say that if you're on a coast and fresh uni can be had, get it!

I rarely order uni any more because I know it'll just get me craving what I can't easily have.

Ronna

Coastal or not, uni can be kept live on ice for some time (maybe not so long as oysters or clams, but still). There's no reason Chicago can't have fresh, because it was alive a minute ago, uni. Though I agree it's not common around here. Also, while I'm an uni lover, I'm no expert and can't explain this, but in my experience even pristinely fresh uni can be mared by a thin texture and sulfuric funk. I had a run-in with one such critter at the Oyster Bar in NY not too long ago. I assume it had to do with the season, water temp, origin, or some such thing. So, not only do you need freshness, you need someone who knows how to pick em and use em, like Katsu.

I'm definitely no expert. It's just that the few times I've had uni on a coast (Vancouver, BC and Tokyo's Tsukiji Market), it was nearly a different food. Perhaps I'm not eating it at the right places in Chicago, but in my experience, the uni I've had in Chicago (unfortunately) hasn't been as good.

Ronna

That makes sense because where you ate uni, a skilled Japanese chef was in the kitchen working with great product. The urchin that sucked in NYC (at a place I love, no less) was from Rhode Island according to the sign and was cracked open by a hardworking guy who mostly schucks oysters and clams in a workmanlike manner but is not Katsu or the person who handled your food in Tokyo or BC, I'd bet. Those dudes probably wouldn't have taken the crate of uni that morning and they definitely wouldn't have served it after popping them open. You could substitute "ramen" or "yakitori" or several other words for uni in your anectdote and it would still make sense. My only point was to support what's already been said and add that even fresh from the brine doesn't ensure good uni, unfortunately.

PS, I have purchased live uni here in Chicago within the last year but I'm sort of blanking as to where at the moment. I'm 75% sure it was the fish counter at Caputo's on Harlem. Still had some spring in their quills. Very good, I do recall.

Uni is like orange juice, only fresh will suffice. Anything else is a pretender.

REB wrote:I'd agree that Katsu has the best uni I've had in Chicago.

Katsu is the best in Chicago not only for uni but all things sushi and sashimi. Tampopo's uni/ikura combo was tasty, scratched the itch and easier on the pocket than Katsu.

I'm a big fan of Tampopo for Ramen/Udon, but I've never tried their uni (or anyone's for that matter). Is it just another type of sushi/sashimi, or is there some specific about it that makes it unique?

Uni is sea urchin roe (eggs). At its best, it transmits the essence of the sea. Fresh uni is characterized by firm, well-defined eggs. Less than fresh, the eggs lose their integrity and the whole thing turns into a corporeal blob.

The best uni I've ever had was probably in New York at Yasuda, though the fine (and much larger) specimen at Katsu in Chicago was a close second, if not a tie.

I've had very good luck with uni at Ginza on Ohio in Streeterville as well.

When I was in Dirk's last week, he had a display case full of fresh urchins. You can't get much fresher than opening one up yourself and scooping out the goodness. Uni on the hoof, so to speak.

JeffB wrote:That makes sense because where you ate uni, a skilled Japanese chef was in the kitchen working with great product. The urchin that sucked in NYC (at a place I love, no less) was from Rhode Island according to the sign and was cracked open by a hardworking guy who mostly schucks oysters and clams in a workmanlike manner but is not Katsu or the person who handled your food in Tokyo or BC, I'd bet. Those dudes probably wouldn't have taken the crate of uni that morning and they definitely wouldn't have served it after popping them open. You could substitute "ramen" or "yakitori" or several other words for uni in your anectdote and it would still make sense. My only point was to support what's already been said and add that even fresh from the brine doesn't ensure good uni, unfortunately.

PS, I have purchased live uni here in Chicago within the last year but I'm sort of blanking as to where at the moment. I'm 75% sure it was the fish counter at Caputo's on Harlem. Still had some spring in their quills. Very good, I do recall.

Most of the uni sold comes already picked from the shell attractively packaged in wooden forms with plastic covers as the Japanese have taught suppliers around the world how to do to the Japanese standards. Very little is actually picked at a restaurant by a chef. Count your self lucky if you find a sushi chef in the Midwest who is picking uni from the shell.
So first ask your chef or fishmonger what form of uni they have and as sold in most Japanese and other markets, if in the wooden tray, then it has been picked some days before. I only purchase picked uni at Mitsuwa and if served uni of questionable taste in a sushi bar or restaurant, I send it back.-Dick
BTW I don't know if Katsu picks his own uni as i have never observed him cleaning a sea urchin.

budrichard wrote:Most of the uni sold comes already picked from the shell attractively packaged in wooden forms with plastic covers as the Japanese have taught suppliers around the world how to do to the Japanese standards. Very little is actually picked at a restaurant by a chef.

This is how Yasuda gets theirs too. As Yausda-san told me himself, the uni he gets is consistently fresh. And then he grabbed some from a wood form tray as budrichard describes it. I had asked him if the uni was good/fresh and he basically replied: yup, as always.

I believe he said he got his from Maine, so it wasn't like the boat had just pulled them from Long Island Sound.

The uni at Yasuda is definitely fantastic, and I've never had anything close here. In addition to Maine, I beilieve he also gets uni from Santa Barbara.

I thought I heard somewhere once that the best uni comes from both of those locations, with Japan importing quite a bit of it.

...all makes sense and is just more confirmation that the coastal seafood theory is dated in 2011 when the best generally comes from wherever and ends up where the money is, overnight.

On the other hand, to summarize: live uni is available, including in Chicago; it can be damn good, obviously; but live doesn't equal good, especially if the person handling it is doing it wrong.

Habibi wrote:Uni is sea urchin roe (eggs).

It's often referred to as sea urchin roe, but uni is actually the gonads of the sea urchin.

It's actually quite difficult/impossible to judge the quality of the uni before cracking the sea urchin open. For that reason, live =/ good. While freshness is important, IMO the best uni is not live because it has already been pre-graded and sorted into premium vs lower quality batches.

After moving to SD, I came to realize how great the local uni is. SD and Santa Barbara really produce terrific stuff - not necessarily better, but definitely equal to (and different from) the famed Hokkaido uni.

We had uni on oysters at ING this week. Fresh oysters, with some sort of foie gras on it, and uni on top. I am not an uni fan and I liked it. They served it with a glass of smoke and poured beer into the smoked glass. Fun! Though I liked the beer better with the pork buns than the oyster dish.

JeffB wrote:...all makes sense and is just more confirmation that the coastal seafood theory is dated in 2011 when the best generally comes from wherever and ends up where the money is, overnight.

Is it? Most of "the money" is still concentrated on the coasts, which would imply to me that less seafood of high quality makes its way inland, reinforcing the belief that you can't get good fish here, further driving down demand, further reducing the amount that is brought in...

JeffB wrote:

REB wrote:I'd agree that Katsu has the best uni I've had in Chicago.

In my experience, uni is one of those foods that should be eaten as soon after it's harvested as possible. For years, I had absolutely no idea how uni could taste until I tried it in a few different locations near an ocean. The best uni I've had tasted clean and like the sea. It was delicate in texture, but still held together. It seems that when it sits, it develops a depth of flavor, almost a funk, which while not disagreeable, just isn't the same as the fresh version. The texture also seems to change, with it becoming runnier. All this is to say that if you're on a coast and fresh uni can be had, get it!

I rarely order uni any more because I know it'll just get me craving what I can't easily have.

Ronna

Coastal or not, uni can be kept live on ice for some time (maybe not so long as oysters or clams, but still). There's no reason Chicago can't have fresh, because it was alive a minute ago, uni. Though I agree it's not common around here. Also, while I'm an uni lover, I'm no expert and can't explain this, but in my experience even pristinely fresh uni can be mared by a thin texture and sulfuric funk. I had a run-in with one such critter at the Oyster Bar in NY not too long ago. I assume it had to do with the season, water temp, origin, or some such thing. So, not only do you need freshness, you need someone who knows how to pick em and use em, like Katsu.

I think the sulfuric funk you are referring to may have been the taste of preservatives. Even sourced from the same purveyor, uni can have different grades and prices. At higher price is the uni without preservatives, and it has to be used within several days. The cheaper ones usually have preservatives such as potassium alum. It leaves a slightly unpleasant, almost metallic, aftertaste. If a sushi restaurant receives shipment once a week, chances are they would need the uni to contain preservatives. I haven't had uni at Katsu, but I've had it at several Japanese restaurants in Chicago, and they all have that aftertaste. My most recent experience of uni without that aftertaste was at Kuruma Zushi in New York. Personally I think it makes a big difference.

If you have access to Mitsuwa, that's where I get my uni when I crave for it (I make my own sushi rice at home). It's fresh but you have to use it within 1 day.

"The cheaper ones usually have preservatives such as potassium alum. It leaves a slightly unpleasant, almost metallic, aftertaste."

Can you supply a verifiable reference for vendors that supply uni with alum to sushi bars?

I have eaten uni at Katsu and have detected no aftertaste as well as Kuni's in Evanstan and a few other sushi bars in Chicago. As you do, i purchase my uni for home consumption from Mitsuwa.-Dick

Sulfuric funk was describing a live East Coast uni from the Oyster Bar in NY. I've tasted the same more than once, live and pre-packaged.

Also, to the point about the best stuff going where the money is: it's pretty obvious and not worth belaboring, but claiming that the best fish never makes it past the wealthy "coasts," whatever that means, is like claiming that the best watches don't make it out of Switzerland. And a corollary to economic logic below would be that, since the coasts have a concentration of both poverty and tourists looking for seafood shacks, they should also have much more bad seafood than other places, making it that much more difficult to find the good stuff. No surprise: bigger markets, more people of every wealth group, more fish needed at every level to meet the demand. So what. That in no way precludes a buyer standing on the dock in Santa Barbara with EZ access to LAX from serving markets for the "good stuff" in Tokyo, Manhattan, or Chicago. The marginal extra cost of flying food around is just not that big of a deal in 2011, hasn't been for years, and, if Joe Sea Urchin harvester or stone crab trawler can make more money by selling it to a market thousands of miles away in Japan, he won't sell it to you simply because you are standing by his boat in CA or FL with your (smaller) money. What's so controversial about the point that luxury items get distributed to the places that have both a market and the logistics to get the goods there in time? NYC has lots of great fish flown in from Japan (see the oft-cited Yasuda). That's a very long way that highly perishable food is shipped away from the coast of a wealthy seafood-obsessed culture, yet it happens every day.

budrichard wrote:"The cheaper ones usually have preservatives such as potassium alum. It leaves a slightly unpleasant, almost metallic, aftertaste."

Can you supply a verifiable reference for vendors that supply uni with alum to sushi bars?

I have eaten uni at Katsu and have detected no aftertaste as well as Kuni's in Evanstan and a few other sushi bars in Chicago. As you do, i purchase my uni for home consumption from Mitsuwa.-Dick

I only have such references in Chinese. I'm from Taiwan, and this information is well reported and blogged about in Taiwan. I'd have to do some research to come up with English sources, which is no better than what you can do. Suffice to say that I haven't read about this on English-language food blogs or forum. I mentioned it as what I consider common knowledge (where I came from). But perhaps such is not the case in the US, and hopefully people with connections to food purveyors can expound further on this with more authority. I apologize that I cannot be more helpful.

The last time I had uni in Chicago was at Bob San, and the said taste was definitely there.

G Wiv wrote:

forzagto wrote:Is there any place that does something like an uni chirashi?

I'm guessing you saw No Reservations in Hokkaido. In the first couple of minutes, of an overall interesting episode, Bourdain has uni and ikura on a bowl of rice. As us BBQ guys say, it done flung a craving on me, and Daniel at Tampopo was kind enough to prepare as asked even though its not on the menu.

I requested plain rice, Boudreaulicious sushi rice and our other dining companion went with nabeyaki udon.

Tampopo, Uni/Ikura on rice

cell phone picture

I'm not sure you got what Tony had on Hokkaido. The ikura from Hokkaido is treated with shoyu and is different than the regular ikura served in most sushi bars or that one can purchase. The only place and time I have seen this type of Ikura for sale around Chicago is at Mitsuwa during Hokkaido Days. The cost is about $70/#. Every year i purchase a kilo frozen from Mitsuwa, freeze into smaller containers and try to make it last but it usually goes in about 4 -6 months.
But a bowl of chirashi with uni and ikura is still a very good meal!-Dick

budrichard wrote:I'm not sure you got what Tony had on Hokkaido.

While Tony's uni/ikura extravaganza was the inspiration for the order, I don't think anyone expected it to be replicated exactly

boudreaulicious wrote:

budrichard wrote:I'm not sure you got what Tony had on Hokkaido.

While Tony's uni/ikura extravaganza was the inspiration for the order, I don't think anyone expected it to be replicated exactly

I don't quite understand the reason for your Post?

My Post was to make sure that one understood that the Ikura mentioned in Bourdain's show about Hokkaido was different than that usually available especially in the Chicago area. The difference was briefly mentioned on the show but I did not read it anywhere in this Thread.
In this case the Ikura is substantially different, you may not understand why when you first taste the Ikura from Hokkaido if treated with Shoyu in this manner but it is evident that there is something different and that Ikura is better than almost any i have tasted. Browne Trading sells a very lightly salted salmon row that is excellent but the salt in the Ikura from Hokkaido results from the use of Shoyu.
I also pointed out that this Ikura is available from Mitsuwa during the Hokkaido Days, something that I presumed was not common knowledge.-Dick

Nama sugiko is the raw salmon roe still in the sac. Most processors marinate it in salt which turns it bright orange. But in Japan, most home cooks preserve it with soy sauce which gives it a darker color. Some sushi restaurants especially in California actually preserve their own ikura/sugiko.


Mystery Sushi Spot - Ikura by agashi, on Flickr

Thanks budrichard for the Mitsuwa info! I will definitely be on the lookout for the ikura!

CrazyC wrote: Some sushi restaurants especially in California actually preserve their own ikura/sugiko.

If a regular guy like me can do it with salmon from Lake Michigan, I can understand how a sushi place can too.

After all, the fish does the hard part.

Ron