- Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Bangkok, Thailand
and I think Bangkok is one of the best cities
outside of Japan for Japanese food.
And so today for lunch,
I was invited to a restaurant called Umi,
which is one of the best Omakase Japanese sushi restaurants
known for very seasonal fish and ingredients.
Today they got a big chunk of fish,
a special chunk of fish which comes from a giant maguro,
so that's the special event.
The restaurant is at Gaysorn Plaza.
I just got here.
I'm very excited for sushi today for lunch.
(smooth techno music)
You ready to eat some sushi, Ying?
- Yes! (laughs)
- We just arrived to Gaysorn Plaza.
(smooth techno music)
Ying, What floor are we on?
- The first floor.
- Okay, oh yeah, first floor.
It was kinda tricky to find it.
First floor, Gaysorn Plaza,
and then you come all the way to the back corner
and it's kind of just like a little hidden door,
but very beautiful Japanese...
And yeah, just kinda hidden back here.
So this is the spot, it's called Umi.
We are just in time for lunch.
(soft upbeat music)
(speaking in foreign language)
The fish just came in today
and it's gonna be a lot of tuna today
and they were just explaining to me about the whole tuna.
How the tuna is caught, it comes directly from Japan
from a very well-known supplier.
(smooth upbeat music)
Okay, first opening course, little fish on top,
and then there's a vegetable on the bottom there.
Mm, and it tastes like vinegar, slightly sour,
and with that very crunchy fish, that's awesome.
Oh this one is the skipjack tuna?
Skipjack tuna, which is just slightly marinated,
beautiful and even the spring onion
and the ginger is from Japan, beautiful.
Yeah, and just that tiny little dab of green onion,
but it comes, you taste it so vibrantly,
and that fish just, it's so smooth.
Okay, next is Kawahagi, this is leather fish.
And you can just see how fine the detail is.
There's just a tiny, tiny...
These are Japanese spring onions on top
with maybe some sesame seeds
and then there's like a little jelly on the bottom as well.
All the sesame seeds
and then like wrapped up in this jelly sauce.
Mm, the sesame seeds and spring onions
really come in nicely.
- [Man] Cheek bone of the fish, cheek meat and the tuna.
- [Mark] Oh wow, and it's cured?
- Um yes, we age them actually, we aged them
for about six days.
- [Mark] Wow, that one is beautiful, the marbling.
It's an aged blue fin tuna,
and just beautiful fatty marbling.
(slow relaxing music)
That's amazing.
Is that a radish sauce on top?
Yeah, just this light radish relish almost.
It's so fatty and juicy.
(soft upbeat music)
This one is abalone?
- [Man] Yeah.
- Abalone with, what type of sauce is it?
- [Man] Just the liver sauce. (coughs)
- Oh that's the liver sauce?
The abalone with liver sauce. - Right.
- Okay, awesome.
Abalone in it's own liver sauce.
The liver almost looks like mustard.
Like it's got that slight yellowy color to it.
- [Man] That sauce, that sauce.
Sauce okay.
- That's awesome.
That liver sauce really rich and almost kinda sticky.
And then with that abalone is sweet and almost spongy.
You wanna wipe up all of that liver sauce.
(speaking in Thai)
(Ying laughing loudly)
We all wanted a little bit of rice
to finish off all that liver sauce.
(slow upbeat music)
Stunning.
(slow upbeat music)
- [Man] Komakata, it's a monkfish liver.
- [Mark] Monkfish liver.
Oh it's seasonal, okay.
How is it?
- You need to try it by yourself.
(everyone laughing)
It's the best thing.
- [Mark] Is this a winter fish?
- Right, just winter.
- [Mark] And they all tried it, they said it's amazing.
Yeah, it looks beautiful with a little dab of wasabi on top.
(slow upbeat music)
Wow, yeah. (speaking Thai)
It's so creamy.
Is that like a little bit of yuzu?
- [Man] Yeah.
- Or the citrus?
Slightly taste the yuzu in the wasabi.
Wonderfully creamy and custardy.
(speaking in foreign language)
Okay, next dish that we're having
is called Shirako, which is cod sperm.
And I remember the first time I tried this in Japan
I actually didn't know, didn't know I was trying it
until I posted it and then somebody mentioned that,
but it's really good.
Again, this you can smell the...
You can see the little fish on top.
And yeah, it's a popular winter dish item.
At first you think it's really creamy, really rich,
but then it sort of like dissolves in your mouth.
It's awesomely good.
How big was that fish?
- This one is about 180 kg. - [Mark] 180 kg?
- This one is from Big Maya,
it's like the area between Hokkaido and the Mainland.
- [Man] This is the meat. - [Mark] Ah, okay.
- [Man] So basically we gotta try this one.
We gotta try the one with the age for like seven days.
- [Mark] Oh, that's the...
(bouncy techno music)
Just unwrapped the chunk of tuna.
That is beautiful, you can just see the layers
and the different grids and the belly part
have it goes from dark to lighter color.
But what's awesome is that it's just us eating here today.
So we can film and make a video.
And yeah, just have fun as you're eating.
But, okay now we're getting to the serious tuna.
What is that part?
- [Chef] It's the black part.
- [Mark] Oh, thank you!
- [Man] You need to understand, this part right here.
- [Mark] 3D, wow.
- [Man] Whoa (grunts).
- [Mark] That's the chunk comes from that front belly part.
- [Man] So basically this is...
What ever is here, it's right at the bone.
So the black, you take it out.
- [Mark] So that's from that section.
This section right here.
- [Man] Yeah, this section is this.
- [Mark] You see the chunks of fish
but you're not sure exactly where they come from.
So that's awesome that we have a 3D Tuna Model.
And so the second that he's cutting up right now
which is, that's where you get
a lot of the main pieces
comes from the front belly bottom section.
Very cool!
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] So that one is the Akami?
- [Man] Yeah.
- [Mark] And then chutoro? - [Man] Chutoro.
This part is between chutoro and otoro?
- [Mark] That fish looks beautiful, and this is Umi.
They're explaining me all they use is wild caught tuna.
It's all wild tuna, it's all local Japanese tuna as well.
Had a sushi omakase before
where it's the course, piece by piece,
but never one with this amount
and variety of part of tuna.
So this is a really special experience.
Again, slicing up a different tuna,
and it comes from two different fish,
so you can see the marbling and the different sections
which looks different from each other
because of two different fish.
Some of them are going in marinades,
others are gonna be left as is.
And he's just preparing all the ingredients
and the fish to start making the sushi.
(upbeat music)
First bite of sushi.
Mm, good wasabi in there.
Fish is just perfectly like warm room temperature.
The whole some of it together, yeah that's awesome.
Okay, next one is from a fish called Buri.
And this is the belly part, and you can just see it close
even in your finger you can just feel how soft it is.
(soft relaxing music)
Mm, yeah, that one is awesome.
- [Ying] (speaking in Thai)
- [Mark] It's extremely soft,
but then it has this almost snap to it when you bite down.
All right, this one is horse mackerel.
(upbeat music)
Again, topped with those spring onions.
Oh, that complements it so well.
Okay, it's time to start on the tuna.
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] This one is chutoro, and you can just look
at the vibrancy of that color.
And that's because it's from the very very fresh fish,
which was just newly arrived to the restaurant.
That's the fish he just caught up.
Like even, you can see that gradient on it.
(upbeat music)
Wow!
Oh, that is spectacular!
Literally just melting in your mouth.
You barely need to chew.
And that's just full of flavor.
- [Mark] Shimofuri? - [Man] Yes.
- [Mark] Oh, I didn't even know that one.
Okay, this one is shimofuri which is between
the medium fatty and the very fatty belly.
So it's that stage in between,
and you can just see it glistening.
You could see that the fat strands just weaved through it.
(upbeat music)
Wow, the quality.
Just the texture.
- [Man] (coughs) Aged them for seven days.
- [Mark] Oh this one akami, aged for seven days?
- [Man] Yeah.
- [Mark] Okay, this is that 200?
- [Man] Yeah, 260 kg.
- Akami tuna, the red part of the tuna,
which has been aged for seven days.
Mm, was fatty content but very rich,
still very a deep up flavor.
Again, it's the one between the otoro and the chutoro.
So kind of the fattier, medium fatty tuna.
And then this one is aged for seven days.
Because we had the fresh one of that same fatty content.
This one is different.
It has developed more rich and more juiciness.
Sweeter.
They're both good, just different.
(upbeat bouncy music)
(chuckles)
- [Mark] (speaking in Thai)
Okay, on to the Uni, sea urchin.
Mm, it's so sweet.
It is melted ice cream, so sweet and so silky.
- [Man] This one is very special casing.
- [Mark] Mm, okay.
- [Man] Wow. (soft voice)
(everybody laughs loudly)
- [Mark] (speaks in foreign language)
So what type of urchin is it?
- [Man] These are buffalo.
- [Mark] He just opened up a box filled with uni.
It's a very special type of uni.
It's just blooming.
(upbeat music)
Next up is a little rice bowl with the uni.
He put on wasabi and then some salmon eggs
I believe salmon eggs on top.
You can literally see the uni just starting to melt,
like custardy melting nest on top of that rice.
Mm, that uni is just dissolving
and then has just like a hint of a bitterness
which increases the flavor
and liquefies in your mouth, on your tongue.
Ying, can you hold my bowl?
(giggles)
Thank you.
(upbeat music)
Okay, this one is anago sea water eel.
That zing of the citrus, the sauce,
just the melt in your mouth fish.
And like fleshy, mm.
(upbeat music)
(everyone speaking on foreign language)
- First he put in rice then
he puts in a whole layer of wasabi,
and then like a little handful of minced tuna
of variety of parts of tuna, just chopped up minced.
Oh, this is one of my favorite things.
Yeah!
That is outstanding.
The crisp seaweed, the rice,
just the melt in your mouth minced tuna
and then just the balanced of wasabi.
(upbeat music)
And this is the tamago, the final course.
This is the egg, sweet egg.
This one very spongy, you can feel the moistness of it.
Mm, really nice, has that sponginess
but at the same time it sort of melts down in your mouth.
And that wraps up just an incredible,
incredible sushi omakase experience.
Okay, the tamago is not the ending course
there's some fruit Japanese grapes.
(speaking in foreign language)
(everyone laughing)
It's so juicy, so plumped and just...
All right, we just made it back home
after an amazing lunch.
And what was so cool about that experience, oh okay...
For one thing they weren't actually open
so it was just us kinda sampling sushi and just having fun.
But it was such an education.
I've had omakase sushi before,
a set menu where the chef gives you piece by piece.
But this was really fully based on tuna.
So it was really a tuna experience, a tuna education.
And so Kunat and Kunshin, they really know
a lot about fish, a lot about sushi.
So just having them and the chef was awesome as well.
But then having them explained every piece, where it's from,
being able to really taste for myself
the difference between an ultra fresh piece of tuna
and then aged intentionally piece of tuna.
And then mere different marinades,
but also then just no marinade,
and then just having them all consecutively
that was very cool.
That was an amazing tuna sushi
omakase experience in Bangkok.
I wanna say a huge thank you
to Kunat, Kunshin and Kun Eis for inviting me for lunch.
Thank you very much for watching this video!
Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you.
And if you're not already subscribed,
click subscribe and also click that little bell icon
so that you get notified of the next video that I published.
Thank again for watching, see you on the next video.