Camera in the Kitchen: Kaze
By Rachelle Bowden in Food on Oct 10, 2006 4:24PM
1st Course, Lobster Soymilk: Lobster miso & soy-apricot soup finished with enoki mushrooms, black tiger shrimp, beets & truffle oil
We recently moved to Roscoe Village, and one of the things we've been enjoying is sampling out all of the new (to us) restaurants in our neighborhood. A couple weeks ago we had reason to celebrate, so we decided to try out Kaze, a sushi restaurant on Roscoe that has gotten many accolades. We'd heard Kaze was good, but we'd also heard it was overpriced, so we wanted to find out for ourselves.
2nd Course, Nigiri Sushi: Tako - Grilled baby octopus served with a homemade cherry tomato, crushed almond & spicy tobiko sauce; Katsuo - Bonito topped with a puree of garlic-infused enoki mushrooms & tomatoes garnished with picked onions & friend garlic; White Tuna - East coast tuna topped with a banana-wasabi puree; Sake - Salmon topped with enoki mushrooms, Japanese white pepper & luxurious truffle oil; Ika - Japanese baby squid topped with a spicy tobiko sauce. Pairing: Castagnoio Barberani Orvieto Classito - Italy 2002.
Lucky for us it was a Tuesday night, and Tuesday nights at Kaze mean they have a tasting menu you can get. Even luckier, they had just changed over to their new fall tasting menu and were excited to hear what we had to say. The tasting menu is $45 and includes 4 courses and 3 pairings.
3rd Course, Sashimi & Makimono: Conch braised in a radish & lemon sauce served with shredded basil & softened daikon; Soft shell crab, fresh basil & avocados wrapped inside out topped with a mixture of snow crab, scallops, tobiko & a spicy red wine sauce. Pairing: Junmai - Yome-Iri-Bune
A description of each course and its pairing follows each of these photos. Chicagoist found the Nigiri Sushi course to be our favorite, although we enjoyed the flavors of all of the courses. We thought that the quality of the ingreadients at Kaze was superb. At the end of the night we were fully satisfied but still had room for dessert, so we tried out the asparagus pudding.
4th Course, Entree: Oysters, sea bass, tofu & cabbage in Macku's spicy & creamy kimchee stew. Pairing: Franco M. Martinetti - Sine Cura - Italy 2004.
While we thought that the tasting menu was fairly priced and gave a great showcase of what Kaze is about, if you're a hurly burly (wo)man, you may not be satisfied. Our date was still hungry when our meal was complete and ordered a hand roll instead of getting dessert. The tasting menu was a good sampling of everything, but if you're extra hungry, you might just want to order off the menu.
Dessert, Asparagus Pudding: Asparagus pudding in strawberry puree with a touch of Hennessey cream & chocolate syrup garnished with fresh raspberries and whipped cream.