Before we leave for our end-of-year trip every year, usually to Australia, Chris and I have a special meal to celebrate the year, and this year, we went to Uogashi, a Japanese restaurant that literally means “fish quay.” Their original location was in the East Village but sadly burned down, and lucky for us, they relocated to a spot in Midtown West, a short walk away from our apartment. They were famous when they first opened for their cost-effective, high quality lunch specials and their chawanmushi, or their steamed egg with various fish roe. We came in for their chef’s special tasting menu at the counter and enjoyed the best catches locally and from Japan, mostly Hokkaido.

It was probably one of the very first sushi restaurants we ate at where the tasting menu had no salmon at all. They did have two notable pieces of toro: one medium fatty, and one super-fatty (you could see all the fat outlined so clearly! There were HUNKS of them!). The chawanmushi was perfect — I always love how eggs are done in Japanese cuisine. And the end dish of black sesame ice cream was perfect and so refreshing and light.

Funnily enough, a double date couple came in with a white man who was clearly very skeptical of what he was eating. They sat at the sushi counter, where it’s required you participate in a tasting. He loudly insisted that he order a la carte, when he was lightly informed that at the counter, they had no choice but to do a tasting menu. Chris started swearing about it. None of us are tolerant of pickiness, but especially at high end restaurants like these.

Some people really need to grow up and get their taste buds to grow up, too.