Time to try hot sushi spot
TO me, a medium burger, heavy on ketchup, is heaven — but Labor Day requests have been dictating sushi so off I went to Nobu.
Broadway and Fulton is Nobu’s newest incarnation. Owner, Drew Nieporent. Designer,
David Rockwell. Décor cost stacks of yen over $10 mil. Handsome chef, whose name gets pronounced only if you’re from Osaka, gave me lessons:
“Fish, cold. Rice, fluffy. Important must be Fahrenheit 100 degrees, body temperature. Air in between, so not sticky. Washed seven times in soft Fiji water only.” (His hands were wrapped in netting.)
After mixing it up with sugar and salt, air-dried, rolled out, machine-flattened in some seaweed, something you’re told: “Seaweed must be harvested in winter and from Kyushu only.” (Lotsa luck with Whole Foods.)
Chef: “Sushi began 300 years ago in fishing village Edo [now Tokyo]. To keep unspoiled, street vendors near harbor put their catch in vinegar. Rice balls wrapped in seaweed. Fast food.”
Nieporent: “Trucks arrive here 6 a.m., 300 pounds of fresh product daily, with 200 people working here. Lobster and 10 pounds of scallops a day come in from Maine, 80 pounds black cod from Alaska. Fluke, North Carolina. Oysters, Seattle. Monkfish and soft- shell crabs, New York.”
Since Nobu lovers include Beyoncé, De Niro, Kardashians by the krate, Mariah with her latest teenage squid, Dave Chappelle, whose 10 guests ate the whole menu, Leo DiCaprio, who’s into raw tuna with caviar, I had to try their signature black cod with miso marinated three days in white miso paste, sake, wine, sugar, and cooked in a double burner. It costs $36, but Nieporent, sitting alongside, inhaled over $32 worth. So when not eating my black cod with miso, what’s his favorite food? “Hamburger at Tribeca Grill.”