Fukami Dinner Recap

Fukami was included recently on my Eater PDX roundup of Portland Pop Ups. Fukami currently is popping up at Davenport on Sundays and Mondays only at 7:30 PM at their bar so limited to 8 seats per dinner. On the menu is an $95 omakase menu (gratuity not included, additional beverages available a la carte). In case you were wondering what the omakase dinner might be like, here’s a look at an example dinner I enjoyed in March that includes 19 bite size courses of which a dozen are seasonal nigiri courses.

Small Plates

Onzen Uzura and Shari, soft poached quail egg over warm sushi rice with freshly grated wasabi, shoyu and itogaki. I liked this as a starter that helped highlight the sushi rice that we would be seeing over and over again later with the nigiri.

Mejina Usuzukuri, thinly sliced opal eye with citrus, salt, and wasabi

Spring Salad with Nettle Miso, a salad of carrot, turnip, miner’s lettuce, radish, beet, apple, shiso, nettle and saikyo miso. One of my favorites of the entire evening with its presentation, layered flavors and textures.

Isaki Sashimi with Three line grunt with sesame ponzu, konbu, radish and wasabi

Mejina Tempura with lightly fried opal eye served with salt and meyer lemon. This was perfectly executed in terms of ratio of batter and being light and bright with just the right amount of that lemon needed.

Kani Shinjo Osulmono, Dungeness crab dumpling with fiddlehead and clear soup (soup is poured tableside individually)

Seasonal Nigiri

Hata, grouper from Fukuoka

Renkodai, young sea bream from Nagasaki

Sayote, needlefish

Umazura, filefish from Nagasaki

Kamasu, Red barracuda from Chiba

Aji, horse mackerel from Toyama

Hotaruika, firefly squid from Toyama

Masaba, chub mackerel from Toyama

Sakura Masu, Ocean trout from Hokkaido

Kanburi, winter yellowtail from Ishikawa

Uni, sea urchin from Hokkaido

Sweet Small Plates

Tamago, egg omelet

Azuki Ice Cream, red bean ice cream with sesame twill

As you can see, this adds up to a lot of courses, and as with most omakase, you should be pretty open to being adventurous. Unlike Nodoguro’s Hardcore and Supahardcore, Fukami is relatively easy to get into – the tickets still must be purchased/paid for beforehand via Eventbrite, but they don’t sell out for the month in a mere couple hours like Nodoguro, so check it out if you are looking for an intimate and high quality kaiseki experience.

I rarely order sushi or sashimi by the piece anymore- I prefer omakase and letting the chef decide and trusting that they know what is the best that day. I also don’t really eat rolls anymore – partially to reduce the number of calories and just because I focus a lot more on tasting the fish. You can see here that Chef Cody really highlights the beauty of the fish with each nigiri course – letting the fish take the spotlight.

What about you – do you order omakase, or what are your favorite type of sushi, what sashimi or type of rolls do you like to order?