Ukiyo, Indianapolis

Delighted to have Chef Neal Brown design an omakase for my friends and I. He manufactured a narrative from his work at the long, lamented L'Explorateur through his latest explorations at Ukiyo:

stories ganked from my FB:

What's the kick of a snare drum, how many howls on a naked mike make a concert? A nightcrawler, an aficionado of Indianapolis, this one makes these boring ass highway runs in the passenger seat of a tired rental car with a wet trunk what makes us special. Chef Neal Brown attended to my party of very special people. He worked his ass off. And, his staff, too. I remarked he has this through-line of culinary exuberance. You know, "I was dancing when I was 8". He got this narrative by the balls last Thursday. L'Explorateur and H2O and Ukiyo and his server with her alchemy. We got a real story. Hats off to you, Neal Brown

the omakase:

met at the door with sparkling HWH sake

white miso soup with enoki mushrooms and house pickled? bamboo shoots

shochu highball with extra citrus

amuse of glazed mountain yam

scallop ceviche black lotus root fried plantain

white wine, perhaps a txakolina

sliced apple and scallion salad

sake, dreamy clouds

tuna, snapper, almonds

3 Floyd's War Paint Salmon Pants

pork char siu steamed buns w/scallions

sake, Wandering Poet (my favorite sake, ever, my introduction to good sake, originally-
served in a box at L'Ex, I know sake boxes are divisive, but, I fucking like them)

hamachi carpaccio chile oil fresh horseradish(the dish that is forever synonymous with L'Ex and Chef Neal, he, himself acknowledged he would like to be remembered for any of his plethora of dishes, but, fuck it, if you are remembered at all, might as well be for this delicious bitch). We could scarf this all fucking day long. Addendum, why this is remember-worthy: tender, tensile hamachi, sashimi, sliced by someone who knows what the fuck, and the sublime chile oil, and the copious horseradish, which might seem an amount is...an alchemy occurs, the delicacy of the hamachi subdues the fresh horseradish.

Server cocktail: Hendrix Orbium/wormwood/plum syrup/sake...
I didn't catch the rest of it, suffice it to say: night in a deciduous forest with sad ghosts(in a very good way)

highlight(for me): manchego/uni, noodles, soft boiled egg
fuck you umami, I have umami fever, it is raining umami

Biga de Luberri Crianza

short ribs scallions rice negi

my heart liquified, my spine spilled into my chair, I gazed at my friends and sighed

dessert:

another, let's call it a hot toddy, created by our main server
Japanese green tea, Japanese whiskey, sake, etc.
green tea cake enrobed in dark chocolate with Luxardo(I'm guessing) cherries

The dark wasn't the half of it, we were what the night wished and wandered out into it, the it a warm thing by this point, hungry for us as we were hungry before
and hungry again, soon

Ukiyo and Neal Brown are engines at this point shining, burning where fifteen years ago you might have thought, what the fuck's up with this city? Now, nod your head and just go with the flow. It is a delicious way to live.