Taking a Hungarian Sushi Lover to One of the Very Best Restaurants: Ryuji Works Through the Head Chef's Omakase

Ryuji introduces Otto as someone from Hungary who loves sushi so much that they went a step further and settled in Japan for it. Otto currently lives in Tottori, right next door to a fish shop. Otto first ate sushi 15 years ago in Hokkaido, and said that being able to come to this restaurant with Ryuji 15 years later felt like a matter of fate and luck. Otto is 29, and Ryuji was surprised to learn that Otto is 10 years younger.

According to Otto, they have eaten all kinds of sushi but may never have been to a restaurant this prestigious. What Otto usually eats is mostly Tottori sushi, which is very good, but because it uses locally landed fish, some of it never makes its way around the country, while some toppings simply aren't available in Tottori. As an example of something unique to Tottori, Otto mentioned mosa shrimp, which spoil quickly, and the head chef replied that they knew it well.

The first piece served was tuna, eaten with salt. Otto first praised the rice, which, according to the head chef, is grown completely without pesticides. As for the tuna, Otto described it as seeming to melt even before it reached the mouth, with a noticeable richness of fat, and the head chef agreed, saying, "Today's tuna is a winner."

Asked about opening straight away with tuna, the head chef pointed to changing times. In the past, a typical course served small dishes first and only brought out the sushi once guests were already getting full. But this is now the era of "omakase," and since guests come because they want to eat sushi, the thinking is that it's better to serve sushi first. The head chef said they have run the restaurant this way for a little over 20 years.

Ryuji introduced the head chef as "so professional they even go to conveyor-belt sushi places," and the head chef admitted it is part of their research. From there, the conversation turned to conveyor-belt sushi in Tottori. Otto said there is a chain so good that it beats non-conveyor sushi restaurants, with people coming from the Kanto and Kansai regions just to eat there. Its name, apparently, is "Hokkaido," despite having nothing to do with Tottori. Ryuji showed interest, and they talked about going to Tottori with Otto as their guide.

The next piece came with salt as well as a special sauce made from the sake lees of the sake "Juyondai." Otto said they often make kasujiru (sake lees soup) at home and cook quite a lot of Japanese food, including grilled dishes using sake lees. Otto's favorite is anago (conger eel), and when Otto mentioned making anago kebabs too, Ryuji laughed and said, "That might be better than a regular kebab."

The flounder had a firm bite, and the filefish was also well received. Asked what their favorite sushi topping was, Otto answered otoro, prompting Ryuji to say, "How young."

The piece the head chef said "I want you to eat today" was crab from Taiza in Kyoto. The head chef ranked it at the top among crabs, attributing this to how close the fishing grounds are: boats can go out and come right back, so the crab is very fresh. The crab served was a small one, with one crab making two pieces, meaning each piece was half a crab. Otto said they like small seafood and remarked that the yuzu paired well with it.

Otto said they had been looking forward to the cutlassfish that followed, since they had only ever eaten it in Korean cuisine. On tasting it, Otto was surprised: "I didn't know it could melt like this."

The botan shrimp was extra-large, and Ryuji said they didn't remember ever having one that big at this restaurant. According to the head chef, cutting it in half with a knife changes the flavor, so the whole shrimp is served as is. Otto said it rivaled the budo shrimp they had eaten the other day.

Following the top-level crab, a piece topped with caviar was served. The head chef said it was fine to mix it all up into a mess. Otto felt the caviar's harshness wasn't too strong and didn't get in the way of the topping, describing the head chef as using caviar like a seasoning, like "Ajinomoto." Ryuji rephrased this as "natural Ajinomoto" and "black Ajinomoto."

Otto said an acquaintance in Tottori had started farming sturgeon for caviar. Otto had wanted to give some to Ryuji, but it will still take years—Otto has heard it will be four years from now. It also came up that sturgeon around 10 meters long were once caught in Hungary.

From a conversation about wanting to see foreign fish made into sushi, Otto talked about the first Japanese cookbook published in Hungary. At the time, foreign fish weren't available, and on top of that, Hungary is landlocked, surrounded by other countries. So the sushi in the book was all freshwater fish: carp, sturgeon sushi and simmered dishes, and catfish sushi. Catfish is a high-end fish in Hungary, and the recipe apparently called for eating it raw.

When the question came up of whether it's safe to eat freshwater fish raw, someone said that basically it isn't, while the conversation continued that there are examples of it being eaten raw in Japan too, such as carp arai. Ryuji said the author had probably been to Japan at least once, but a single visit isn't enough to see the essence of it, likening the book to something written with zero days of training. That said, someone also pointed out that, like Napolitan spaghetti, something reasonably tasty can sometimes come out of home cooking.

When a large shellfish was served, one person at the table was wary, saying they had a bad feeling about it. The head chef said they had specifically sourced it for that person, urging them on: "You'll definitely like it," "I only serve it when I know it'll be fine." Sure enough, after tasting it, the person accepted that it had no off-odor and was sweet—just as the head chef had said.

Domestic truffles also came up. Apparently, people are reluctant to reveal where they can be found. When it was mentioned that porcini can also be found in Japan, Otto replied that they forage quite a lot of them in Tottori, and Ryuji was impressed by how much Otto knew.

To prepare, Otto had gone the day before to what was said to be the best non-conveyor sushi restaurant in a port town. What stood out by far there was the monkfish liver, so Otto had been looking forward to this restaurant's version. The head chef's monkfish liver was shaped into a round with aluminum foil, and Otto kept repeating, "This is insane."

The sardine had been cured that same day; it was rich with fat yet light, and Otto described it as "fresh." Here Ryuji asked about Otto's private life, and Otto replied that they are single and "actively looking" for a partner.

Otto said the kohada (gizzard shad) had just the right balance of acidity and umami. Otto eats kohada often but finds it too sour in many cases. According to the head chef, the key is in the curing. Rather than curing it the way sushi restaurants do, the head chef cures it the way it's done in Japanese cuisine, with warizu (diluted vinegar), so the sourness doesn't come through as strongly.

Next came tiger pufferfish milt, with the pufferfish used from a live state. The milt is cooked shabu-shabu style in dashi. For Otto, it was completely different from the boiled milt they usually eat. Spring vegetables and wakame were also swished shabu-shabu style, with the wakame turning green when dipped in the hot broth. Ryuji felt the dashi was very flavorful and described Otto's expression as "the face of someone eating something seriously delicious."

The dish called "the most luxurious" of the course was a generous amount of sea urchin mixed into sushi rice and grilled. It lets you enjoy raw and grilled sea urchin at the same time, and you can also wrap it in nori to eat. Otto laughed that there was also a sense of guilty pleasure in wondering whether it was really okay to grill so much sea urchin.

What surprised Ryuji was that it tasted as if there were cheese in it. According to the head chef, nothing had been added, and cheap sea urchin wouldn't turn out like this. Ryuji said that they themselves would probably add cream or butter, and pointed out that without the acidity of the sushi rice, it might become too heavy. The head chef had the same experience: they tried it with plain rice, found it too heavy, and concluded that sushi rice works better. The head chef said the dish used to be very popular with guests, but as sea urchin prices kept rising, it was retired.

Otto asked whether farmed sea urchin is lower in quality, and the head chef replied, "Good question." The head chef said they had heard that the farmed sea urchin now being raised in Hokkaido is apparently sweeter than wild, but added the caveat that they don't know whether the technology has really come that far. Sea urchin farming in which the urchins are fed cabbage also came up. After this, bafun sea urchin was served, followed by murasaki sea urchin.

Otto said they could tell the anago without even looking. It was first eaten with salt, and Otto said it was fragrant, neither too sweet nor too salty, adding, "I want more." Next it was served with sauce, which the head chef explained was tsume made from 100% anago, with none of the starch syrup normally used. Otto said this version might be even better.

Here Otto observed that in Japan, the way of eating is specialized for each type of fish, and said this is unique to Japan. In Hungary, everything is sometimes prepared the same way, with chili peppers and paprika. Ryuji responded that Japanese people have an inquisitive spirit when it comes to food.

Near the end, Otto's favorite, otoro, was served. Otto said it seemed a waste to eat it. The head chef explained that the nori used for the roll is actually meant to be eaten on its own and isn't really suited to rolls.

Saying they could still eat as much as they wanted, Otto revealed that they had actually eaten before coming. Arriving hungry makes everything taste delicious, so Otto deliberately avoided that. Even so, Otto said the food was moving in how good it was. It also came up that the kebabs at Otto's shop are made from scratch, dough included, using the same dough as the fried pizza Ryuji had praised before, and they promised that Ryuji would come for a kebab next time. The meal ended with a dessert of pudding and matcha, which Otto praised for not being too sweet.

Asked for their impressions, Otto said that this year happens to be their 10th year in Japan, and that of everything they've eaten since coming to Japan for sushi, what they had today was, they think, the best. Ryuji was surprised at how high that praise was and said it felt like fate that Otto could eat here in their 10th year. This meeting, too, apparently came about through a connection with an acquaintance made through Hungarian cuisine.

As for the toppings that impressed them most, the cutlassfish and monkfish liver were named, and Otto agreed that those two were indeed amazing. Ryuji said they want to film a Tottori episode next, and the video ends with Otto replying in the Tottori dialect, "Please do come."