The menu from our prix fixe "omakase" dinner at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills,
on August 31, 2002.  There are three price levels for omakase; the higher
prices bring more courses and "higher-quality" ingredients, although the
normal ingredients appeared to be of extraordinary quality.  We opted for
the highest-priced omakase dinner, which was eight courses at $120/person.
With tax and tip, and without beverage, it came to $155/person.  Omakase
dinners have no pre-planned menu, they just feature whatever the chefs feel
is best that night.  As such, this is my attempt at a reconstruction of
what the menu would have been.  

1. Tuna belly tartare with caviar.

   A small round of finely diced toro, with about twenty beads of largish
   caviar on top, in a tiny bowl of slightly nutty miso-based sauce spiked
   with plenty of wasabi.  That bowl was served within a larger bowl which
   was packed with ice; it was garnished with a bright twist of carrot.

2. "New-style" sashimi.

   Shredded pieces of eel, topped with twigs of ginger, sesame seeds, and a
   soy-based sauce.  Came divided into exactly three bites.

3. Sashimi salad.

   A vertical cylinder of (from the bottom:) thinly sliced daikon radish,
   an orange slab of tiny salmon eggs, two pieces of lobster, and many
   cubes of tuna sashimi.  Topped with larger roe, some pink peppercorns,
   some sprouts, and a tasty sauce.  The tuna was so red, it was almost
   purple.

4. Tempura.

   Five small shrimp, perfectly tender, fried in tempura batter and topped
   with a reddish creamy spicy sauce and a few small mushroom heads.  Also,
   a meaty crab claw with a spiced tempura batter.  Served with artfully
   arranged vegetables, including several long thin strips of a translucent
   white vegetable similar to, but much juicier than, jicama, and a stick
   of carrot cut into a flat S-shape and arranged into a triangle.

5. Clear soup.

   A very clear fish soup, with a small piece of fish and a few sprigs of
   green that looked like (but didn't taste like) cilantro.  It was very
   hot, pleasantly strongly flavored, and refreshing.

6. Kobe beef.

   Four 3" by 1/2" by 1/4" strips of beef, brown on the outside with a few
   noticeable grill marks, dark red inside.  The grain of the meat was very
   visible.  It was, of course, incredibly tender and moist; it compressed
   to less than half its height when I bit down on it.  It was served with
   grilled onions, some finely diced garlic, a few stalks of asparagus, a
   couple bunches of unagi (?) mushrooms, and two slabs of a larger white
   mushroom that looked like grilled chicken.

7. Sushi.

   Tuna, toro, hamachi, shrimp, eel, and a big strip of crab.  Again,
   startlingly high-quality fish.  I was glad to have an opportunity to try
   their fish by itself.

8. Dessert.

   Perhaps not very Japanese, but it ended the meal with a bang.  A hot
   chocolate cake, with molten liquid interior, served in a bento box with
   a scoop of very creamy, very cold vanilla ice cream, and two raspberries.