A belly full of uni

I am a lucky girl: Two wonderful dinners in one weekend. Yesterday, it was an Italian restaurant in Brentwood called Osteria Latini. Great thanks to Erin's boyfriend, Naveen, for treating us to the meal and choosing a delicious wine - a 2001 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon. My entree was linguine prepared with "tuna eggs," garlic, and olive oil.

I'd never had tuna eggs before (though I would advise the chef to call it "roe" on the menu instead). But I think I have the dish figured out. The linguine was a rich, yellow homemade pasta cooked al dente and tossed with the olive oil, garlic, and what appeared to be shavings of tuna roe. I think the roe was cooked and smoked so that it was hard, and then grated to make flavorful shavings for this distinctive pasta.

[Aha! My friend Google has just solved the mystery. And reminded me of the name of my dish: Linguine alla Bottarga. Bottarga = dried and salted roe.]

The second wonderful meal was tonight with Jason and Jen at Kanpachi, a sushi bar tucked in a strip mall in Gardena. The chef has known Jen's family for years, and treated us like guests in his own home. Leaving the meal to his good judgment, we sat at the bar with happy hearts as he feasted us with a long succession of nigiri sushi. With his own hands, he placed them in couplets on a big ti leaf we each had in front of us.

My only regret was eating a bit too quickly, before I learned that the pairings were done with a purpose. The best sushi I had was of saba, a mackerel that had been salted and vinegared then molded into a small square with rice. I also had a very fresh and melty uni * (sea urchin), the memory of which stayed on my tongue the whole drive home. And a very rich toro (fatty tuna) and soft chunks of purple octopus served with a flavored dipping salt. Another interesting dish, served just in the autumn season, was a delicate mushroom broth in a tiny clay teapot. We squeezed a small lime-like fruit into the broth, then drank little cupfuls until it was gone.

As for the title of this entry, it's because the chef at Osteria Latini sent to our table a free appetizer of uni-and-sea-scallop carpaccio. We had gotten the shaft in terms of seating, so this was his way of apologizing. Like the soft uni on our tongue, the resentment melted away.

* For those who haven't experienced uni, it's a soft, yellowish mass that has both a faint sweetness and the salty taste of the sea. I enjoy it for the same reason that I am in love with fresh raw oysters. Both are so simple and natural that they turn out to be, kind of paradoxically, more of a luxury than the most elaborate soufflé.