We're wrapping up my Seattle trip. I know you're all really sad. But, I thought I'd end on my most extravagant meal there - maybe ever.

We went to Sushi Kashiba. Sushi Kashiba is the most recent restaurant from Shiro Kashiba - a legend in Seattle.

To Chef Shiro Kashiba, it feels like it was just yesterday. But in 1970, Chef Shiro introduced the city of Seattle to sushi when he convinced his bosses at Maneki restaurant to build Seattle’s first sushi bar. Chef Shiro had just completed years of grueling apprenticeships at Yoshino Sushi in the Ginza district of Tokyo, training hard alongside his senior supervisor, the world renowned (and now cinematically famous) sushi maestro, Jiro Ono. But unlike his contemporaries, Chef Shiro had his eyes on America. Chef Shiro was convinced that he could import the Edo-mae style and “shun” philosophy of Tokyo to the extraordinary variety and delectable seafood offerings of the Pacific Northwest. He was right. After working at Maneki, Chef Shiro opened his first restaurant, Nikko, in the International District. In 1992, he sold Nikko to the Westin hotel chain and opened the new Nikko at the downtown hotel location. For Westin, Chef Shiro served as Executive Chef and helped open several properties throughout the Americas. After his first “retirement," Chef Shiro opened Shiro’s in Belltown in 1994. Shiro’s became a smash success and was one of the pioneering restaurants to usher in Belltown’s revival as a hot dining spot in downtown Seattle. In 2014, Chef Shiro sold his remaining stake of Shiro’s to the I Love Sushi group which operates it to this day. Nominated twice for the James Beard Award, Chef Shiro has cooked for Japanese Prime Ministers, masters of the arts, star athletes, industry tycoons, and has shared his knowledge and experience with local colleges and universities. Chef Shiro’s dishes have also been served in the First Class cabins of Japan Airlines and United Airlines. But what Chef Shiro enjoys most is preparing and explaining the intricacies and detail of the delicious item he has just served to the customer seated in front of him at the sushi bar.

For the first time in my life, I splurged on the Omakase, which consists of many courses at the chef's choosing. It's expensive - into triple figures - but a memory in the making.

Omakase menus change daily based on what's in season, what's available, or maybe even who happens to be sitting next to you at dinner. As in life, every day is different, and no meal is exactly the same. An omakase dinner is expensive, but here, as it progresses, its value becomes incalculable. Several courses featured different varieties of the same fish, some from different parts of the world, all served next to each other on the same wooden board. Eating them in progression allows you to experience the range of flavors and possibilities that reside within a single family of fish (The Stranger).

The hard part is, I cannot tell you everything we ate. I know we had white tuna, blue fin, fatty tuna, scallops, prawns and a host of other things. Here's someone far better at sushi than I am. We started with that triple-item dish that had oyster and fish and a jelly thing.

Then, we moved to that hand roll, which I had never had before.

Then, a beautiful spectrum of nigiri. This was delicious and fresh.



Then, this bowl of egg custard.

Then, even more sushi and look at that prawn!

And, oh my god more.

Plus this little cake thing that was vaguely sweet to end on.



This was so fun, so cool to experience and sooo much food.

Not sure I'll ever be able to afford this again, but it was cool to try all the different items, eat fish as fresh as it can be and learn what I liked and what I don't.

For the most part, I liked everything. Some of the roe or sea urchin or things I haven't experienced quite as much took some time to get used to the texture.

But, overall, a very cool experience well worth it to expand your boundaries.




Grade: A

Lava cake is never my first choice on a dessert menu. I think it's overdone, nothin special - and above all - I simply don't love chocolate cake. Just not my thing.

So, I didn't have high expectations for Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery. But I had friends who recommended it, so I thought I'd check it out.

This. Was. Life-Changing.

Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery crafts organic, classic American comfort desserts and other original and innovative confections. We were founded in 2008 by Autumn Martin with the dessert that gave us our name: Take-n-Bake Molten Chocolate Cake in a Mason Jar. The idea for the “take n bake molten chocolate cakes” came from a dessert Autumn created for a charity dinner. The cakes were so well-received, the guests practically fell out of their chairs and the orders started rolling in. Autumn was working as Head Chocolatier of Theo Chocolate at the time, but decided it would be fun to start a little side business. And so Hot Cakes was born. Autumn left her much-loved job at Theo Chocolate in 2009 and headed to Spain for a 4-month stint of organic farming and rock climbing. Upon her return home in 2010, she focused 100% of energy on slowly building up the Hot Cakes brand which is built on supporting local and organic farming through the creation of fine, innovative desserts.

We walked in, saw the super cute rustic-chic space and I looked over the menu. I actually looked at some of the other desserts - like a creme brulee or vanilla rhubarb bread pudding or a nutella brown butter milkshake (my gahhh). But, I was determined to try a molten chocolate cake.

The S'mores stuck out to me - smoked chocolate cake, campfire caramel, homemade 'mallow and graham, vanilla ice cream. The woman working the counter made sure to warn me the cake is smokey and even gave me a chocolate morsel to try before I committed. It was excellent - and smoky sweet - so we continued on.

After about 20 minutes (they take a little extra to bake), I was delivered this plank of wood with three perfect elements - the ice cream with graham cracker sitting in a pool of caramel, a whole graham cracker, and this smoky lava cake with homemade marshmallow on top.

This is out of this world. The cake is smoky and just a bit sweet, the homemade mallow is beyond good, the ice cream and homemade caramel are just phenomenal. The combination of sweet and smokey and creamy and crunchy - it was just magnificent. This is one of my favorite desserts I have ever eaten.

My only complaint is that the photo booth inside ate my money and didn't give us photos :(



Grade: A