In the Fall 2017 edition of One Life magazine Jen Karetnick delves into Dashi, a new restaurant inside the River Yacht Club, which offers a glimpse into the deft touch of Japanese cuisine. Join her culinary journey into truly remarkable dishes.
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The Power of Precision by Jen Karetnick
If Miami were a person, shed be covered in tattoos and gold body glitter, spewing color into the Atlantic breezes, the eternal flighty grasshopper to every assiduous ant that ever existed.
Perhaps that is why Dashi, which opened in the spring inside the River Yacht Club, is a welcoming sight for patrons who crave less of Miamis culinary show and more of some telling authenticity. Finely attenuated to understated rigor in restaurant design and epicurean execution, Dashi is the opposite of flamboyance. Yet the 80-seat, Miami River-side restaurant, owned by Stephane Dupoux and helmed by Japanese-born chef Shuji Hiyakawa, a descendant of master udon makers and protg of Masaharu Morimoto, makes an enormous impression on all the bodys senses.
Alot of what Chef Shuji Hiyakawa does is subtle and nuanced, but it requires a tremendous amount of sourcing and prep work to deliver a deceptively simple dish, Dupoux says. Ideally, our clients understand and seek experiences that linger on in the mind for days.
I can attest that the Dashi experience does indeed linger long after patrons leave. Days after dining, I was still dreaming about items such as the toro tartar, a fine chop of tuna topped with Russian osetra caviar. The just-coming-to-room-temperature fish and caviar were matched with fragile rounds of baguette made with nori. The pairing was oceanic, big with umami and metaphor, which the chef also strives for with his ocean scallops. There, he actually pours a dollop of Pacific Ocean water imported from Japan into the yuzu juice around the scallop, which is laden with caviar.
Like many of the ingredients, the fish for the sushi and sashimi are largely imported, if not from Japansuch as the familiar hamachi (yellowtail) or milder kinmedai (golden eye snapper)then from places like the Mediterranean, New Zealand, California and Alaska. The differences in available fish and seafood make the sushi and sashimi menu a nice change from the norm, but what is really striking is one of the items on the list of maki: a vegetarian roll made with sauteed mushrooms and fried shallots. Tasting at once earthy and buttery, this maki segues magnificently into appetizers such as the beef tataki, which is also garnished with fried shallots and myoga (Japanese ginger) and moistened with a bit of soy. The architectural design of the beef tataki is impressivea carefully arranged pile of beef that looks like a miniature garland of roses around a winning horses neckand apropos, as this dish, with its high-quality raw beef just briefly edged by fire, is a victory for any self-respecting carnivore.
Wagyu beef features in two entrees, one a sukiyaki and the other a shabu-shabu, which means you can cook it yourselfor, as the waitstaff puts it, You do the work. If you prefer to be employed by winding udon noodles in a chiri renge (soup spoon), then go for your protein with the beef udon made with braised short rib. Our server talked us into the spicy seafood udon instead, which was a hit on all angles of the palate and contained plump, frilly clams that were shelled prior to entering the broth. Talk about having the hard stuff done for youthe only thing left to do was experience the rapture.
The chef truly demonstrates his control over noodle-making with the slippery, toothsome udon, but he does just as well with the cha-soba salad, a tri-vegetable dish that showcases not only the thin buckwheat noodles, but also the small groupings of shiitake mushrooms, edamame and shavings of asparagus piled on top. The servers may more frequently recommend the tomato salad dressed with yuzu, wasabi oil and soy-flavored salt, but you cant go wrong with either beautifully constructed plate as a starter on a hot evening or a light lunch on a sunny afternoon.
The servers are particularly educated at Dashi, which is a necessity given the deceptive complexity of the cuisine. They also happily recommend their favorite dishes, from the lightly battered, pan-seared cauliflower served with a rich coconut curry to the diligently trimmed duck breast, a lineup of tender ruby rectangles dusted with five-spice powder and redolent with su-miso (a vinegar-miso dressing). Weve done our due diligence to educate the staff to not only share our vision but also engage our clients in a new way, Dupoux says. We source our products from all over the world and often encourage clients to taste the differences in items that come from different areas.
What this means is that if you want to relax, enjoy the sceneryperhaps watch for a manatee in the Miami River or note whos coming and going from the lounge in the adjoining River Yacht Cluband put your culinary fate in the hands of your server and the chef, its omakase, or chefs choice, all the way. Just be warned: You might not even have room for a little bento box of sweets, let alone more than oneOK, twococktails made with select Japanese Toki whisky or house-made, coconut-infused TY KU sake. Dont say we didnt tell you: Even minimalism adds up over courses.
Dashi is located at the River Yacht Club, 401 SW Third Avenue, Miami. For dinner reservations, call 786.870.5304 or visit dashirestaurant.com.
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