Hana-Chomchi...

The 22nd was Hiyoung's third anniversary.  We had already planned to go downtown to watch the third Korean game at the World Cup.  So we went out for our anniversary dinner on the 21st.

We went to Hana Chomchi which is a specialty Tuna sushi restaurant.  Hana Chomchi means "One Tuna."  What makes this special is that it serves only Tuna in different cuts similar to how we cut up a cow and relish the different flavors and textures.

Review of One Tuna...
The presentation was great.  We ordered the house special which is a variety of cuts.  Usually the tuna used in sushi is the large fleshy uniform part of the body.  The parts given here are the parts around the head, hearts, fins, and tails.
We were started off with lotus root (I think) and raw crab that Hiyoung slurped eagerly out of the shell.  I on the other hand could appreciate the flavor which was a little salty and similar to other seafoods, however anything that has the texture of snot and a not entrely unlike tast will make me gag and I fought to hold it down.  But I did.  I am here to experience new things and I try to jump in with both feet... but I reserve the right to back out with all my limbs.

These next two cuts are the area around the gills and around the heart respectively.  (As an aside, the wasabi used was freshly ground wasabi and not the usual goup.  Of course this may not be an improvement but it makes it feel fancy.)
The part around the gills was the best. The meat was pretty hard and marbled with fat.
The other one has a great texture and was the meat around the heart.  It had different textures and tastes depending on where you bit.

After that I got tired of taking pictures and decided to just enjoy my anniversary dinner...

We had some other side dishes and additional cuts of tuna.  Which included extra slices of sushi that were served to us as we were sitting at the bar in front of the owner and sushi chef who, apparently, was feeling generous.

Also in Korea they use the bones and etc. parts of the sashimi and sushi fishes to make a stew to serve as the last course.  This is a spicy stew and at this particular place they had the same soup made spicy with spicy peppers that are green so that the soup is clear and not the usual red color.


Hungry?