Nodoguro dream journal

Sea Urchin Porridge, Smoked Cheese Pig, Damn Fine Cup of Coffee. These are some of the dishes from our very first Twin Peaks dinner in early 2015. Aside from Murakami, this was probably one of the most exciting themes for me. The menu design was done using word association from all the food related words and phrases in Twin Peaks. As a kid, I wanted to work in theatre or be a filmmaker and I was obsessed with the work of David Lynch. For this to become such an important dinner for the identity of Nodoguro meant a lot to me.

It has been about 4 years since our last post. Quite an interesting trip it has been. We have a lot to catch up on, but this is the first of many to come!

January was Izakaya month at Nodoguro. It was such a fun menu. The point of focus was creating the more assertive tavern fare while maintaining identity and respecting all of the existing limitations. The result was a menu that was comforting and familiar, but very clearly Nodoguro style. This is our rice course, which was basically a Chazuke. It was made with Sasanishiki rice and Sake and smoke treated Sockeye Salmon. The Chazuke was topped with baby aka karaine greens, katsuobushi, kizami nori, and popSoba, finished with a luxurious tea scented Dashi. This was one of my favorite rice courses of the year. Super fun.

This is the Yakizakana course from the Glitter menu at Nodoguro. Local sable fish marinated in liquefied sake lees and smoked over cherry wood with roasted chestnut miso and pickled icicle radish. After the cold smoke the fish is air-dried and aged. This dish started as a fun alternative to the Miso Black Cod, which has nearly become a menu requirement for any Japanese restaurant, but it has evolved into a Nodoguro signature move.

Auspicious Sea Bream from the glitter menu at Nodoguro. Winter citrus, pickled persimmon, and shredded kelp

This shot is the sunomono course from the Glitter menu at Nodoguro. The glitter menu was our end of year menu and all the dishes were inspired by Osechi ryori. This dish was based on Kohaku namasu. Pickled lotus root, seasoned carrot, and poached Dungeness crab.

Spring is nearly here once again. It is one of the most exciting moments of the year. I love to watch the flowers bloom and life begin once more. This year it is even more special. Nodoguro began last spring and has completed one full cycle of its life. It has already grown and evolved in unforeseen ways and I expect it will continue to do so. Thanks to all of you for being part of it.

We have added omakase sushi at nodoguro on Sunday nights!!

I have been a bit busy here at Nodoguro and this blog has been neglected, but I plan to catch up quickly. Lots of new things and 8 full menu changes to share.These are shots from our October menu.

Seeing this variety and quality 8 months after our first seed plans wildly exceeds expectations.

We just served our final week of Haruki Murakami themed dinners at Nodoguro. We had lots of rich food descriptions to inspire the dishes from Murakami and great produce to work with! This has been so much fun. More highlights to come as we prepare for September and Totoro!

Some highlights from the Nodoguro Firefly series of dinners.

Our July Tanabata themed dinners are now underway. We have been transitioning into midsummer quite smoothly. We have enjoyed the first baby japanese cucumbers and summer burdock, which were the stars of our sunomono course. We served the first oregon mackerel and sardines of the season, offered our first meat course, and saw the first mature mustard greens and mizuna from the farm. We have been having lots of fun creating dishes from what is at its best. We are very much looking forward to what August brings.

Our next set of dinners at Nodoguro are underway. We have had a lot of fun putting these dinners together. The sourcing has been the greatest adventure and taught me (more than ever before) to expect surprises. The availability of local seafood is the other driving force of the menu at Nodoguro. Initially, I hoped to forecast what would be on our menu about a week in advance, but two days has been more realistic for local seafood. Our menu is at the mercy of the weather until the ingredients are actually off the boat and headed to us and we have dealt with a couple “day of” surprises. For this set of dinners, we are focused on the contrast of fresh bright flavors against more big, smoky, and fulfilling flavors. We have created some fun dishes and more big menu changes are coming up.

For our spring dinners, we let the available ingredients dictate the look of the menu we offered. We hoped for a single element or idea to shape the dishes into an expression of the our style of cooking, season, and location. My favorite dish that we created on this menu was born from last year’s Shimonita leeks flowering and starting to go to seed. Our obsessive reverence for the Shimonita can be referenced in earlier blog posts if you would like to know more about them. These Shimonitas were little more than sprouts 15 months ago, but some of them remained in the ground all the way through the winter and spring to produce this compact and intense delivery system for the flavor and aroma of the vegetable. From this sprang the idea to create a unique version of Miso simmered Mackerel, which was the staff meal obsession of my early days in the kitchen. We combined a deep dark hatcho miso with ginger crisps, Shimonita flowers and shoots, and boneless Mackerel steaks. No one commented on the Mackerel’s lack of bones, but it was worth every bit of effort to remove them.

Stop me if I say this every year…This has been the best spring

Thanks to a certain Japanese celebrity chef, Miso Black Cod has become a symbol. The black cod has become the yard stick used by some guests to measure the quality of a japanese or “fusion” menu and often a go to for the uninspired kitchen. Due to the stigma I attach to this dish, we had avoided preparing it altogether. However we are in the northwest. Not utilizing black cod, gindara, sablefish, or whatever you want to call it, is missing an opportunity to make the most of our local bounty. Our black cod comes fresh, glistening, and vibrant from the coast, not a grey/yellow, freezer-burnt mess. The trials began to create a dish that is unique and reflective of my style and philosophy, but is not too unfamiliar to those guests holding rulers. After much work and constant reworking we came up with a signature preparation for our local jewel. The cod is cured in sake lees, salt, and sugar. Then it is smoked, broiled, and finished. In the end, this dish has captured my love of our local ingredients and japanese cooking technique and aesthetic.