Hoze Seruda

Website finally up.

2011-08-24T10:33:00.003+02:00

I finally after almost 2 years ended up taking up a site on the web ! Its still simple, just some information on opening hours, mail and adress.

Enjoy !

http://Hozerestaurant.com/

//Hoze Seruda

In search of Awase-zu anno 1920.

2011-08-05T13:23:00.002+02:00

I decided to find the "perfect" recipe of sushi vinegar, for this I needed to go back in time as sushi chefs in the west tends to use sweeter and sweeter recipes.

This started out as a simple quest, and has left me with tons of information and techniques. This has gone from finding the perfect recipe to actually finding the perfect process.

So far what I´ve learned is that you cant just rely on a recipe it needs to be matched with the rice, many say the best rice is sun dried as its sweeter and makes you use less sugar, also what I´ve learned is not only the rice but the vinegar you use, to get the right tangy and sour taste is to mix to vinegars, and one of them aged and what I´ve come up with tangy taste, and a sour vinegar to balance it all out.

This mixture actually makes you add less salt and much less sugar to the awase-zu.

I will put my own twist to these theories and make my own style of perfect.

//Hoze Seruda

Perfect balance.

2011-07-20T10:30:00.005+02:00

Perfect balance between rice and fish is essential. There is different styles to this approach. You always count the ratio of rice to fish. I´ve studied this a bit and found out that many different styles in different areas use different ratios. It all depends where you go.

Lets take Tokyo for example, where the vinegar is more sour and the nikiri (soy sauce used for sushi) is more salty, the ratio of the Ginza style district sushi chefs is as perfect as you could get, in a ratio of 60% to 40% rice to fish.

If you go a bit outside of Tokyo you may find a different ratio of 70% to 30% rice to fish ratio (used for example by Yasuda NYC) this technique can overwhelm the taste of the fish and actually ruin it in some cases. There for 60% to 40% is just the right amount to not overwhelm the taste of the fish.

In my restaurant we use more of a Osaka approach to the rice where the rice is a bit sweeter although we actually use 60% to 40% rice to fish balance, our western costumers are not used to sour rice and salty nikiri.

Although I alter my recipes for my western costumers, it does not mean my costumers will not be able to enjoy sushi with a Tokyo sting in the future. Gradually teaching them how to eat sushi, I will gradually change my recipes, this takes time and dedication to one self and to ones costumers.

Perfection takes time.

//Hoze Seruda

Perfection approach is a partnership.

2011-07-18T16:04:00.006+02:00

The art of sushi is simple yet complicated as there is many "rules" as to eat, make gestures and even ordering it. I am astonished as for one to reach perfection as a sushi shokunin the costumer also needs to perfect the "rules". Without this partnership between sushi shokunin and costumer, perfection can not be reached.

This is not an imply but believe.

//Hoze Seruda

Tostu , misobuttah, toro, uni , negi & kyabia !

2011-07-08T11:43:00.003+02:00

I´ve been dreaming, and actually craving to make this a dream come true. It´s a crunchy bitesize toast of fluffy bread with misobutter, topped with chopped toro, rich sea urchin, some finely chopped chives and sturgeon caviar.

I know I know.. its a $60 toast.. (at least) and its not bigger than my thumb. But when I get the craving for it I just can´t stop until its finally eaten and enjoyed in my mouth, and served to other costumers for a life changing toast.

I crave I make.

//Hoze Seruda

Re-inventing innovation.

2011-07-01T13:37:00.003+02:00

I´m soon at that level where I need to re-invent myself.. Like an outgrowth of my shell. "HOZE" is just a step and a milestone in my life. Not saying I´m going to quit, just upgrade. I feel as that innovation is something you strive for something better, in my case tastier. But in the word there is a deeper meaning. The older I get, the more respect I have for tradition, it feels somehow I´ve been lost in this fusion innovation, when the real innovation lies in following tradition to a point where it reaches harmony. It is then when you can make your own tradition but not forgetting the past of what once was.

I think that the "costumer is always right" thing has been taken way to serious. Let me ask you, do you think the costumer know all the hours you put in just making one piece of nigiri ? Has the costumer worked his ass off in the kitchen for the last 10 years ? The answer is NO.

So how can it be that the costumer is always right ?.. Need to remember you cook for yourself and no one else. It is your heart, spirit, and soul that makes your costumers to enjoy your food, your dedication your passion, not the saying of a "costumer is always right".

For you to express your food as you want it to be, you need to teach and preach to your costumers so they understand the work and passion you put into doing this handcrafted artwork. You need to set the rules not them.

I´ll end this post with a quote :

" I'm not going to go into details as to why you have to accept these rules as a customer but I'm a firm believer that in order to be respected, you have to be respectful. The creator knows how to bring the best out of his/her creation, therefore do as you are instructed and you'll be able to get the most out of your dining experience. " - Review of " Sushi Mizutani " by Tung999 at Trip Advisor.

What will come next for HOZE ? Only time will tell.

//Hoze Seruda

Thunnus Maccoyii.

2011-06-23T12:09:00.004+02:00

A lot of things have happened since NYC and I´ve not been able to write until know., lets start with the more recent happenings. Two days ago I was delivered a southern bluefin tuna, never have I cut up a whole tuna but it came just natural to me, although I have seen tuna before being cut open never have I seen a tuna with this meat, it was build different from an atlantic tuna, and it was just the best tuna I have ever had.

Although I enjoyed cutting up this tuna my long time shoulder issue broke down on me yesterday and neck pains have given me a hard time these last days. But I´m a soldier, I keep working ! Thats kokoro for you. Anyway, Everyday you learn something new and this tuna really got me to a long time dream, this is just the first one, in the future there will be more monsters to tackle ! Trust me !

Tuna vs HOZE 1-1 (Draw)

Oh.. if you wonder where this tuna is from then check this website. http://www.cleanseas.com.au/fish/tuna.html

//Hoze Seruda

Sake Bar HAGI NYC

2011-06-23T11:36:00.002+02:00

Located in a side street by time square, you will never guess the food could be so good here, I was truly inspired by the food here the staff is so nice and it really feels like you are stumbling into another time and space ! You here staff yelling orders in japanese, you see happy asians drinking beer and having great food, what more can you ask for ? Well.. the wasabi shumai, this is why you come here. Oh.. and the deep fried eel with yuzusalt..and oh ! The binchotan plate with different delicous sticks with wonderful meat ! Well, EVERYTHING is good here ! We really tried it all ! 3 nights we swift in, and rolled out. Happy and full everytime for less than 50 dollars each night with at least 15 dishes a lot of beer and sake. I wont tell you much of this place just that if in New York you just MUST come here. Have the experience. TRY everything ! You wont be disappointed.

This is what you do, get downstairs, enter the door, take a pen and write down your Name, Number and how many you will be dining. As soon as there is a table ready they will call you. Enjoy.

//Hoze Seruda

NOBU NYC

2011-06-23T10:55:00.002+02:00

Ahh.. NOBU, I have all the books, read almost all the articles, watched every single piece of clip, yes NOBU has been with me for a long time, many may think he is mainstream and so on, but after dining at NOBU I must say I was very pleased.The sushi off course was´nt that special but the signature dishes where as I expected, perfect ! The dishes came with a flow, and the restaurants system is flawless.

We had the prix fixe omakase menu for 100 dollars and then 3 other dishes before getting the dessert from the prix fixe. It started with oshibori and then a dish of NOBU´s famous tartar with big eye and bluefin toro with caviar, eaten with a wooden spoon, while it was a bit spicy it married well with the fattiness of the fish, the dish is ended with a fresh yamamomo berry. Next dish was the new style sashimi served for us with striped seabass and spinach, it was rich and the fattiness of the fish really went well with the oil. Next dish was tataki tuna salad with matsuhisa dressing, I´ve made this before, and it was just like in the book, Couldnt be more happy ! The next dish was my favorite dish of the evening, rock shrimp tempura ! It was so creamy, and had a delicate taste of yuzu, absolutely delicious and complex in many ways..such a simple dish with many qualities. Next dish was NOBU´s utterly famous black cod with miso. OMG this was really moist and perfectly done, it was braised to perfection, served with some unknown pickle (to me) and deep fried shiso. The last dish of the omakase (before the dessert) was sushi and miso with asari clams. The soup was as good as any good place, and the sushi was a bit mainstream with what I believe the americans favorite rice "NISHIKI". After this our waiter asked us if we would like to have something else from the menu, I had to try some of the dishes that I´ve been drooling about for a while in the books so I ordered the tiradito, the yellowtail with jalapeno and the fluke with dried miso ! All three was good, especially the fluke with dried miso ! At last the last dish, A small bento box comes and it is set in front of us, the lid is still on and then is removed to reveal the dessert, warm valrhona chocolate souffle cake, shiso syrup, white chocolate sauce and green tea ice cream. Good finish and the amazing shiso syrup I will use for my own creations ! All in all, NOBU. Wonderful expierence, dont come here for the sushi though, come here for the dishes and a good time, its laid back fine dining. Love it.

//Hoze Seruda

Momofuku Ssäm Bar NYC

2011-06-16T10:08:00.002+02:00

Momofuku you will find downtown, although if you think it will be packed then you are mistaken ! Its very laid back and the staff is as down to earth they can get. Its like visiting a local "chiringito" (spanish word for local pub), I dont know about Ko or any of the other locations that surrounds Momofuku, but ssäm bar is like I said, very laid back. We were lucky enough to get to order the prix fixe lunch (visiting 3 days later, the prix fixe was gone and instead local pub food style served on trays..wtf ?!) This review will cover both visits.

It seems the staff has a dresscode you could call "black t shirt and jeans" no matter what kind of t shirt, it can have any typ of logo or whatever, as long as its dark. This is what I remember.. anyway the menu consisted of a prix fixe with different things to chose form, I cant remember exactly what we ordered but we ordered all kinds of different stuff. The famous buns with pork, where okay, you can get better elsewhere, the only thing that stands out there is how the bun is made, the folded version makes it a perfect sandwich ! I remember having shochu (?) Some Momofuku winter something something, very silk and served cold on a shochu glass. On the side you are served sriracha (for the food), I remember having a corvina with kumquat slices, drizzled with lemon, some puff rice balls and cilantro, this one was subtle, very good. The kumquat really lifted this dish ! The next one was a toasted bread with pancetta or something in it, topped with a large poached egg, later fried, served with a rocket salad also with pancetta. Although I dislike egg (especially poached) this dish was very very good, It was like something served when one was little, only that this was 10 times better ! The next dish was so good it gave me shivers.. I cant exactly remember what the deep fried protein was, but it married perfectly with the almond silky sauce, peanuts and the crunchy lightly tossed cabbage pieces ! I never thought almond sauce and deep fried food could go so well together. It really gives deep fried food a gourmet feeling. For dessert we got some parfait with honeycomb, nothing I really can say it.. it wasnt memorable at all. Although very cool with the honeycomb ! The next dessert was another matter ! It looked something taken from a Star Wars movie.. haha, little dots of nougat cream, a row of chocolate crunch, a swipe of beet sauce and ice cream made of goat cheese (?) These combination was unbelievable. I wish I had more of that ice cream though.. never thought beet and nougat would work, but let me tell you, it was a wow moment. As I didnt know if we where to revisit Momofuku I ordered one last dish, it was geoduck with a cucumber sauce I would like to remember.. and some mustard seeds (?) although subtle, this dish needed something else to step it up a notch, maybe not in taste but in consistency, I would maybe had made the cucumber sauce a granité ? That would have refreshed it alot !

Second visit there was no service at all, it was like entering a school cafeteria.. ?! You order at a counter, then you go pick your food on a tray and sit down to eat.. this really destroyed the whole expierence of eating here.. We had some pork buns and the Foie BLT. Believe it or not the buns where not as good as the last visit, and the BLT..well, it tasted only foie, but not in a good way. To say the least we longed for that first time..

//Hoze Seruda

Le Bernardin NYC

2011-06-10T11:13:00.006+02:00

Le Bernardin, the god of seafood in NYC..3 michelin stars.. runned by the famous Eric Ripert !

WOW ! Such bullsh...t ! It just isn´t worth the three stars if you ask me.

Lets start of by saying that michelin stars are given to food and food only, though this is accompanied by an experience, a journey and what story the chef is trying to tell through his food.

All I got was a messy staff, no personal attending, messy made food with spines in my fish ! Yes SPINES ! No apology, no nothing ! I even asked for talking with the chef as the spine accident did´nt cut it.. !

All I can say is that the food was just not that good at all, it was like they where trying to do Japanese style dishes without actually accomplishing it.

I´ve been to places in Sweden that serves better food than this for much less.

Le Bernardin is just mere talk. Very very very disappointed. If I get my hand on Ripert I will give him a slap or two. He really needs to go over what he actually is serving !

//Hoze

Sushi Yasuda NYC

2011-06-10T10:45:00.002+02:00

Ahh.. Yasuda, the temple of sushi in NYC, the legendary rice, the perfect rice to fish ratio.. The legendary chef Yasuda... All of it flown out the window.

We start of by the reservation, I´ve heard they´re very strict. When we called they where very strict,

- "Come late, we give the table to someone else."

These are just spooks if you ask me, when we get there the staff is very gentle and nice, no nazi style. We get seated on a table where we can see the whole bar work. Perfect. Although I would have wanted to be seated by the bar, this was perfect for taking pictures. Our nice waitress comes with oshibori, and a paper menu with a list of fish, some of them are marked with red, as they are the chefs recommendation, I just glance at the list and just order the chefs recommendation. I´m just here for the sushi, nothing else.

The sushi is like nothing I´ve seen before, the fish is melded perfectly with the rice, the pieces are very small, but just perfect. Though things are not what the seem. The fish is just not that fresh as you expect it to be, Its not foul, its just good. The rice is very starchy, raspy to the tounge, no smoothness, the fish got a taste of vinegar, I´ve been grudging over this since I ate there.. and what I can say is that it was in my guess the chef using vinegar in his water (for dipping is hands while making sushi). It ruined a lot of the taste of the fish.

The molding of nigiri was just perfekt, airy and just right. They use two kind of rice, one medium grain and one short grain. If this where a "temple of sushi" then they would only use short grained rice. This is just my opinion.

This place is filled with people that wear expensive shirts, expensive watches..yeah you know what I mean.. I didnt see no Japanese at all, beside the staff.

Everything here is just an illusion. Btw. Yasuda has left for Japan. Maybe this has scarred the restaurant.. I dont know. All I can say it was expensive, just above average and just not that sacred at all. Good system though. Japanese traditional for the american palate.

//Hoze

Morimoto NYC

2011-06-10T10:23:00.003+02:00

So.. I´ve dined at Morimoto before, back in 2009, The impression of the food wasn´t that great then either.. the sushi was just "OK", nothing out of the extra ordinary.. The only thing that stands out is the restaurant decor itself.

Anyway. We made a reseravtion to sit at the bar at lunch, thinking as Morimoto is such a popular guy that its going to be packed. We get seated on a empty bar.. ? Two asian young fellas and one what seems very young, fresh out of school american girl har prepping for what seems the night. Our waitress attending us I must say was the only thing that set me in the right mood for this meal as no chef at the bar attended us. We start by ordering a platter of sushi and a bento box with broiled yellowtail(?) I get me a refreshing drink of schochu and sudachi, I actually get a sudachi wedge with my drink that I squeeze in and gives the schochu a really nice citrusy kick !

On to the sushi.. I thought by sitting at the bar we where going to be served personally by the chef and served one piece at a time, what I get is a platter of sushi, dry rice, smelly fishes and some of them really off. VERY disappointed coming from a place like this ? Come on.. ! Right after this we get the "Bento", a bland sallad just sprinkled with some yuzu, I would have added some dried miso and olive oil, would have given it the right kick. We get a miso soup, nothing ordinary.. some deep fried veggies, dry and not good (not fresh with other words) some pieces of sushi and the yellowtail.. it was fishy, with bones and absolutely horrible.....

I must say this establishment is running on Morimoto´s name and nothing else. As far as I know Morimoto has left the building for some warmer climates, Waikiki is getting a lot of attention.

All in all, Morimoto NYC should put out of its misery.

//Hoze

NYC Culinary overall review !

2011-06-07T13:48:00.005+02:00

I´m back ! Things have been put in motion and I´ve had a lot to do these past few weeks ! But now I´m on to write an overall review of my experience in New York City ! I brought with me a whole new perspective on things, both good and bad.. !

Here goes.

Sushi of Gari

We run late from the airport.. rush hour in New York is something to expierence OMG. I feel a bit worried and I dont think we´re going to make it.. my reservation is at 7pm but we get to the hotel by 7:15pm ! As soon as we arrive we runt to the concierge that calls Gari for us and explains our dilemma, they adjust our reservation to 7:45 ! Still rush hour and nowhere is a taxi to be found.. ! We arrive at Gari by 8:15pm.. never have I been so late.. ! We think our reservation has been canceled but when we get there they say "Hey ! Welcome !" We have been expecting you two ! I guess they knew who we where looking at our frustrated faces ! I look over to the sushibar where I originally had made my reservation and there it was, to empty seats with a small sign saying "reservation". Wow.. most kind. Getting in to the dining room is a bit of a hassle, you have to squeeze yourself through a very small passage going sideways, wich for me is fine.. but thinking overweight people or disabled people will have a VERY hard time to get through.. ! Finally we get to our seats.

You can see the sushi chefs working in harmony behind the tiny counter, although stressed and taking 5 second naps between courses ! Very funny to watch. We order tap water as I consider this is the way to really enjoy the taste of sushi, pure and simple. After a long trip I just had to get me some alcohol, so I ordered a small glass of umeshu, sweet and light, ever so gentle. We order omakase, We get a hot towel called a oshibori and the towel stays with us the whole dinner (nornally just for cleaning your hands and taken away from you right after), 10 pieces follow of avan gardo style sushi, start out with "Snappah" as the sushi chefs says, Snapper with ruccola, pine nuts and fried lotus chips, next piece to follow is "chutoro" with a bitter shredded stuff that really balanced the sweetness of the melt in the mouth chutoro piece, next piece, a piece of crableg with torched uni on top, Next piece is a konro grilled striped bass that was melt in the mouth with a smoky touch, then came the salmon with grilled tomato on top, Ama ebi with ceviche salsa, Akami part of tuna with tofu sauce, a piece of what I believe was buri (hamachi) with a kind of dried seaweed, I cant remember all of them but I think I got me some uni also that was rich in flavor and sweet with seawater taste. This ended the journey of Sushi of Gari for us, sitting at the bar was a really fun dining expierence as we got to talk food with our fellow comrades sitting by the counter and getting our food served from the chef.

Even if Sushi of Gari wasn´t my cup of tea, I would recommend it for people that what to taste something extra on there sushi. Overall, the staff was friendly, and judging from the rice these sushi chefs knew exactly what they where doing.

Next review will be on Morimoto !

//Hoze

NYC in 2 days.

2011-05-10T09:47:00.006+02:00

Sry I havent had time to write for a while ! A lot of stuff happening.. I got a new computer (Macbook Air) and still learning how to use it... being a PC user until now, and I can gladly say that I wont be changing my Mac for a PC anytime soon, I´m MAC´ED !

Things that have happened the past few weeks..

I had a visit from the kinjirushi company director (BIG BOSS) and his Europe manager, thanks to my supplier that I should write a big blog entry on ! They loved my work and he offered me to maybe go meet NOBU ! Long time dream ! If things go my way I may also get a 2 week internship with NOBU himself (?!) How cool is that !

I´ve also finally ate at Hello Monkey that is a very popular asian spot runned by Swedish guys here in Gothenburg, I´m going there tomorrow with some samples and recruiting them to my supplier ! The more the merrier (the more the fishier) hehe !

I finally got my Jiro books from Yuiko (my Japanese connection) through my supplier ! They´re all in Japanese.. but there is a lot of pictures .. haha, I´m getting them translated on way or another.. !

HOZE Restaurant BOOK ! One hot topic in my mind right now is this book. It will be done by the end of this year I hope... Lets see if this is true or not. Its such a hassle !

Well New York in 2 days ! First night we eat at Sushi of Gari ! Sushi, Japanese, Italian and French seafood restaurants are my priority for this trip !

Thank you all for your suggestions on places to go ! There is a lot of michelin stars to eat !

//Hoze Seruda

Kinjirushi Kizami Wasabi !

2011-04-21T19:57:00.004+02:00

We get very good quality frozen wasabi from kinjirushi and they also provide NOBU with this kind of wasabi, also this kizami stuff.. ! Didnt know this until I read a flyer, and then googled on it !

In our restaurant we serve it with thinly sliced salmon, salmon roe and wasabi cress/daikon cress or sweet potato chips. It taste just like fresh wasabi but with a bite !

It is expensive but if you are able to find it, I really really recommend !

//Hoze Seruda

Salma loin - Old Grudge.

2011-04-18T12:07:00.003+02:00

You ought the read THIS prior post before reading this one.

Me and Salma haven´t been good friends. I actually dont like hypes and I take my distance from such an overrated issue as SALMA, but as you know, people evolve, get older and wiser (?). I decided to take me a second look at this "SALMA" and went directly to the source. I got a mail just this morning about the perks of Salma loins and I´m actually a bit sold. Though it cost the double of normal salmon, the sustainability and superior process lures me to actually feel better of using this salmon.

I still think it aint superior in taste. I hold my ground on that matter. The thing for me is like I said, the sustainability issue, and the superior process, how the treat the salmon, how they go from sea to package in only 4 hours giving the salmon a pre-rigor advantage. Also using "superior" salmon gives you the security of actually having an even quality of the product itself. The well packaged vacuumed salmon loins gives you 10 days of even taste without deterioration. Skinned, boned and portioned in back loins and belly loins. It both saves you time and saves you money on "wasting" (bones, cleaning etc).

So that the price is actually double means you are paying top quality for an already cleaned product that holds up to 10 days with the same quality all the 10 days through, no bone picking, no skinning and no waste and best of all pre-rigor consistency.

OMG. I sound like a salesman.. What I´m trying to say here is I´m plounging myself into the SALMA pool and I´m going to start serving SALMA at HOZE.

I´ve been offered to market SALMA on the market ! So you may see me with Shingetsu cutting through SALMA loins and offering HOZE creations in a store near you !

//Hoze Seruda

Restaurants to visit when in NYC 2011.

2011-04-12T13:25:00.002+02:00

SUSHI YASUDA
BAR MASA
NOBU NY
SUSHI OF GARI
MORIMOTO
JEWEL BAKO
KAJITSU
SAKE BAR HAGI
MOMOFUKU KO / SSÄM BAR / NOODLE BAR
MEGU
BUDDAKAN
ORIENTAL GARDEN
PER SE
LE BERNARDIN
DANIEL
WD~50
CASA MONO / BAR JAMON
SPOTTED PIG
JEAN GEORGES
MAREA
ALDEA
BOULEY
RED ROOSTER

Sthlm Sushi Tour. "Mystery Toppings"

2011-03-25T10:14:00.006+01:00

At last my trip to Sthlm was an effect. We got to try 4 different places, also called as Sthlms best !

I must say that Sthlm plays on another level and is not on a Japanese streak, Although positive I grew weary of the toppings on every single place we went, what happened to the focus on rice and fish ?

While I have found my religion on traditional shokunin sushi, Sthlm plays it all in on the toppings, korean style sauces and spices, everything seemed like they pointed in the same direction.

A hole in the wall called "Akki". (Best sushibar in Sthlm hands down)

Its okay to follow a trend but to actually try to do the same thing, it just dont cut it for me.

I analyzed the fish on all places, and they all seemed to use the exact same things. While being the biggest city in Sweden they all seemed to buy their fish from the same place.. I guess living in Gothenburg has its advantages.

It also seems to me that suppliers have been playing a chess game with these sushi shokunins holding them in check and not letting them play out of their comfort zone.

My expierence of Sthlm sushi has been like a time machine, I think many places here in Gothenburg will follow the trend of these topping phenomenon, I can´t blame them, as I did the same thing when I first started out, but realized later that what should be in focus is the rice and fish, and not what is on top.

All in all, I was very happy to see that the ambition is high !, and if to use toppings be more creative ! Think of that, that lies underneath your spice, mayo or cress.. !

//Hoze Seruda

Wagyu beef @ HOZE.

2011-03-23T13:15:00.002+01:00

The stakes are higher now, I´m getting hold of supreme ingredients and loving it.
We are full every friday and saturday.

I ordered in some Japanese breed cow meat, thanks to my supplier, the one and only Mr. Hung. I couldnt make it without you ;)

We are serving the wagyu in small cubes, quickly braised in miso sauce, also at times as a nigiri, raw with grated ginger on top. We also serve it thinly sliced and rolled up with shiso leaves and mustard cress that has a taste of real wasabi, brushed with HOZE soy.

Come and enjoy our creations at HOZE Restaurant.

//Hoze Seruda

Kokoro Chef - Gonzalo Allende

2011-03-13T12:22:00.003+01:00

Gonzalo just ended his internship at HOZE yesterday, after 3 months as an apprentice. I´ve become very fond of Gonza-san.

Gonza has what I call passion, kokoro, heart. Its been an up hill struggle to teach him the right way. Making him see things on another level, another perspective.

He has worked in numerous places from Malmö to Copenhagen, though never had he worked at HOZE. His skill was too robotic, It was my mission to bend his beliefs and techniques. But at last I got him to understand and slowly bend him to a full fledged HOZE Shokunin.

As seen yesterday when he managed an OMAKASE all by himself.

Kokoro. I could feel it from him.

Now I send him on his way with his newfound understanding for what sushi can be. As we always say,

"10 years making sushi, not enough, not even 40 years making sushi is not enough".

I hope to work with Gonza in the future, and I hope to see him more expierenced and more ZEN, cause with our motto KAI-ZEN we always strive for improvement.

//Hoze Seruda

Sawa Wasabi + Upgrade.

2011-03-12T11:54:00.012+01:00

We finally got some real wasabi root, straight out of Japan, it wasn´t cheap.. We now offer freshly grated wasabi as an alternate to the freshly grated horseradish, and as of today I get to shred it with a sharkskin grater ! (Doing it with a ceramic grater at the moment).

I haven´t written in a while but thats beacuse we have had so much to do ! Our hangiri broke and is now replaced with a new one, our edobitsu (rice container) is now upgraded to a handmade one from japan, and instead of a plastic bowl to hold the rice, we use a rice net. Keeps the rice light and as it doesnt stick to the net we are able to use the hole lot.

Other things also available to us now is, Yuzu, shiso and Yamamomo berries !

KAI-ZEN !

//Hoze Seruda

HOZE Crew. Apprentice life.

2011-02-25T09:40:00.003+01:00

The last few months I´ve had the most uttering expierence working with my crew, having an apprentice is not as easy as you may think. It takes time and dedication. Learning them all the basics, details and philosophy behind it. There are people asking me if I can make them my apprentice but on your side it takes passion, dedication and a will to learn the hard way. I just dont learn out sushi just like that,

First I teach you how to clean, how to strategize through it all so you become fast. Being fast, clean and know how to put up a strategy is essencial. Then I teach you the basics of rice, this part takes the longest, you have to learn to understand rice, feel it in its uncooked state, learn how to wash it properly with gentle hands, know what happens in the rice cooker, amounts of water, your surroundings, air, weather, density, cooking time, different stages of it. How to give birth to sushi by adding the vinegar mixture to the cooked rice in the hangiri.

These are steps that takes long practice and still today I learn new techniques for making all this. Perfection is something you may not reach. But trying to get there is what its all about.

Kai-zen. Improvement.

//Hoze Seruda

HOZE documentary.

2011-02-22T10:30:00.002+01:00

Costa Rican Life - Woolly Bear Caterpillar from Carl Mezcla on Vimeo.

This is a dear costumer at HOZE who has offered himself to make a documentary about HOZE Restaurant, me and my visions. We are meeting on friday to talk about the layout. I´m super excited ! He was at Costa Rica recently and filmed this beautiful creatures. You can enter the vimeo link and see more of his creations. Very talented I must say and looking forward to work with Carl.

//Hoze Seruda.

HOZE Moribashi !

2011-02-19T12:56:00.003+01:00

I finally got my moribashi ! They are stunning to look at and easy to use, They are a bit longer than my ordinary moribashi though. Better grip with the octagonal handle also. Very pleased !

I´ve been trying out new things like sodium alginate, soy lecithin and maltodextrin, very interesting failures.. hahaha, but practice gives success I guess ! Today I´m trying out frozen spongecakes with the soy lecithin.. ! Failure or success ? Check it out later.. hoho.

Also been trying out new rolls, They just come out of nowhere.. I´ll post some new rolls soon for you to enjoy ! Muhahaha

//Hoze Seruda

2011-02-01T11:18:00.006+01:00

My beautiful handmade Moribashi from Suisin are finally done !

Octagonal ebony handle with silver ring, white buffalo horn on the back of the handle and the mixed buffalo horn bolster between pins and silver ring ! 15cm length on pins, and a wooden ebony saya ! All costume made by my specifications !

They cost as much as 6 pairs of my regular moribashi, but these one are for life !

They will be sent to me this month.. Oh I´m so excited ! My babies are coming home !

//Hoze Seruda

Gourmet Magazine !

2011-01-31T23:00:00.004+01:00

I finally got my subscription from Gourmet today ! I´m on page 75. Although it aint an article it states the best 14 Asian highlights in Sweden ! Only 2 places from Gothenburg where mentioned, HOZE and Hello Monkey !

It says :

HOZE

Hyped Gothenburg sushi with a blank Shiro menu. The chef decides and you eat.

I hope in the future I get a whole article !.. I´ve been subscribing with Gourmet for about 2-3 years now, never thought that I would even get mentioned in the magazine ! The actual magazine will come out in stores Februari 3rd !

I hope foodies from Sweden comes to eat at HOZE while in Gothenburg, I´m planning a trip up to Stockholm to meet my fellow sushi henchmen !

//Hoze Seruda

Salmon activity at HOZE !

2011-01-27T23:34:00.002+01:00

Today we had a company of 10 people that we gladly had a lesson about sushi with !

They learned how to make nigiri and maki ! I also explained to them the different parts of salmon and some hint and secrets of mine :)

We also had a company of 8 eating our 4 course meal ! Smooth start and smooth finish !

Perfect day.

If you are interested in taking sushi lessons at HOZE, just email me and I will get back to you guys with info :)

//Hoze Seruda.

Foo Fighters coming to Sweden !

2011-01-26T11:24:00.004+01:00

My all time favorite band The Foo Fighters is at last coming to Sweden ! They have answered my prayers ! ARGH ! I´m so excited !

Even though this has nothing to do with sushi or whatever.. hehe, but this is my all time favorite band ! (did I say that already ?) Wohooo ! 22-06-11 they take over the stage at Stockholm arena ! Just can´t wait !

FOO FIGHTERS !!

//Hoze Seruda

Picture book.

2011-01-25T10:48:00.004+01:00

I bought a book for inspirational reasons, it´s about polar bears but there is only pictures.. It tells a story and the pictures are stunning ! I´ve seen these kind of books before, I remember seeing these books of Japanese Kaiseki with only pictures in it, telling the storyline of spring, summer, fall and winter..

Well I think I´m going to make a picture book myself, with our food in it, so people can come to the restaurant and sneek peek and see what kind of food we actually make.. sometimes it´s easier to let a picture of food explain itself rather than the chef trying to explain it.

Sound like a good idea ? :)

//Hoze Seruda

Association is in effect ?

2011-01-24T09:12:00.003+01:00

I´ve noticed after a year in the business, that Japanese and Asian culture has a huge impact on some people.

I´ve been contacted by other sushi chefs in Sweden, also passionate about what they do, also carpenters, artists, musicians, shiatsu practioners, foodies, manga fanatics, restauranteurs and even other chefs that are passionate and see me with my passion and contact me for association.

This has made me think of starting a community for gathering all these great people together so that Japanese culture can thrive even more and get easier for others to finds these great artisans and start collaborate with eachother !

This is right now just a thought, but I would love it to turn into something more. I´m going to work out a name and track down as many artisans as I can. I hope this will separate the copycats from the real deal.

Many great sushi chefs out there in Sweden that are looked at with lower standards just because of businesses ruing the truth of real Japanese food and sushi. Its time someone made a standing point around here.

//Hoze Seruda

1 Year Anniversary MENU !

2011-01-21T10:37:00.002+01:00

So I guess you guys want to know what will be served today, If I have time I´ll take som pictures and publish them here !

Here is what we will be serving (It may change due to availability)

Non-alocholic Cava for celebrating our first year as a business !
Amuse : Raw octopus tiradito.
Amuse 2 : Carrot & clementine air.
1st : Cheese vs Fish & Seafood.
2nd : Steamed salmon mousse wrapped in spinach served with egg sauce and herring roe.

Palate Cleanser : Lychii & Yuzu Strawberry served on a spoon.
3rd : Pork & Apple served with wasabi ice-cream.
4th : 3x Avan Gardo Sushi morsels

I hope I will have pictures up by monday :)

//Hoze Seruda

Octopus !..and some new toys !

2011-01-19T21:21:00.004+01:00

My supplier asked me if I wanted to try some Octopus he had laying around.. I´m always up to try out new things and last time I got a ..pardon my language shitload of squid instead.. But this time I got my octopus ! Though it was just 2,2 kgs. Reading the lable it said the octopus was from Cadiz, Spain ! This is in the southern parts of Spain and I´ve heard the octopus there is very good. I thought you guys wanted to see this octopus, so I took a picture with it in its "raw state" !

When octopus is raw, it has this bright pink/violet color, but when you cook it takes on another color, more like a dark violet redish color and it gets smaller too. I will make salads with this one, as it is to small for sushi, but if you want to try out octopus sushi I got big arms from my supplier.

Hopefully this friday I will get a delivery of some "molecular gastronomy" stuff that my awesome supplier got for me. I think I ordered..

- Soy lecithin, calcium lactate, sodium alginate, maltodextrine and a kit for making spheres.. I think it was something else too but I dont remember right now.. hehehe ! Exciting !

So foams, spheres and powders of different fatty ingredients.. hope making spheres aint to messy..

Keeping you folks updated !

//Hoze Seruda

HOZE GP Article !

2011-01-19T10:41:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I got to see myself on the newspaper ! The header said "Gourmet with taste for sushi".

It tells a short story of my life so far, the article has a message that really got through also and people are now actually saying "kokoro" that I always say to my costumers when they ask me why the sushi is so good.

- The secret is to infuse love into the food, that the most important ingredient.

Love = heart = soul = kokoro. These are senses rarely used as it is a feeling, you have to feel it.

So I want to thank Eva Heyman(writer), Andres Hofgren(photographer) and the newspaper of Gothenburg

- "Göteborgs-Posten" for a wonderful opportunity, and my first real article (and many others to follow I hope).

Kokoro to all my fans, foodies, followers, family and friends !

(btw 1 year anniversary dinner the 21st of January is fully booked !) YOSH !

//Hoze Seruda

Parma Ravioli.

2011-01-13T22:42:00.002+01:00

I´m a bit into mediterranean flavours around this time of year and I´m going to expand that later in the future I think. I love making small tapa like dishes, and this is my take on a "Japanese coming back from Italy". Its a long list of ingredients but combined together it lend a beautiful mediterranean taste with Japanese simplicity.

//Hoze Seruda

1 Year Anniversary @ HOZE.

2011-01-10T15:35:00.003+01:00

So soon its time for our 1 year anniversary @ HOZE ! (Fridag 21st of January). We will have a comprised menu of inspirational and delicious kokoro food.

The menu will be set on 300 sek (usual cost 395 sek). I will revisit the mozarella dish I made when we first opened but a bit different, then some new dishes will appear with almost no seasonal aspect at all, just crazy ideas that I´ve been planning to serve for a while now.

4 main dishes will be served along with 1 amuse and 2 palate cleansers. I hope this time around the restaurant will be fully booked.

I remember just last year about this time, we had 2-3 costumers a day if we where lucky, nowdays I have to tell people who calls that we are either fully booked and they need to call 2 days in advance or that we have runned out of things and dont accept drop ins for the day.

This is just 1 year apart, I hope next year we get to have at least a 2 weeks notice instead of the 2 days we have now.

A restaurant with a different concept is hard to run the first years, but manage and you will have a glorious future ! Never let nobody tell you otherwise, follow your dreams til the day you die. You might not get another chance to live it again.

//Hoze Seruda.

Photo session with GP.

2011-01-07T11:01:00.002+01:00

Today me and my "crew" are getting photographed by Göteborgs-Posten. I hope this will open up more opportunities to end up in newspapers and in the tounge of gourmets all over !

I already got a reputation in Norway and Spain, They call me from hotels, embassies and such for their costumers to come and eat at HOZE, even other restauranteurs and chefs are interested in what we are doing.

Btw, I got the opportunity to know what my Morimoto book said (Morimoto signed it when I was in NYC 2 years ago). It says something like

- "Follow your path straight forward, no matter if their is other offers along the way".

From the few words we spoke he really understood me. KAIZEN ! Always strive for the better.

//Hoze Seruda

Dec | Jan | Feb : Winter Menu.

2011-01-06T19:42:00.005+01:00

Well here is the long awaited winter menu ! I may change a few along the way but this is the meny for 8, 6 and 4 dishes !

// Hoze Seruda

10 Years from now.

2010-12-26T14:16:00.002+01:00

I was asked the question, - what do you think you will be doing in 10 years ?

What WILL I do ? I have my plans of opening a "Ryokan" but I dont know if that is what I will be doing in 10 years.. maybe in 5 ? maybe in 15 ? maybe in 20 years ?

I dont know.. I have a desire of opening a delicacy fish store specially made for Japanese and enthusiastic fish and seafood lovers that have hard to get that special ingredient, or just love to cook at home and wants to make an exciting dinner with exotic ingredients.. or maybe I´ll do all of it, make sushi, have a ryokan and a delicacy store !

One thing is sure, I will never stop working with food.

//Hoze Seruda

Emotions at HOZE.

2010-12-24T09:54:00.002+01:00

I let Gonza make an omakase for 2 people yesterday with my supervision, I was standing in the kitchen listening to our costumers reactions and walking by from the kitchen to the sushibar to see their reactions eating the food, It really made me think that food is not just food, it connects with ones emotions, ones reaction of how things are percepted.

Like the dessert yesterday, me and Gonza were joggling the idea of a deep fried noodle, we had UDON in the fridge that are thick white noodles made of wheat. We dont know what to expect when frying them, will they explode ? Will they get hard ? Will the taste be gone ? We plop one noodle in the deep frying oil that is heated to approx 180 degrees celsius and we see the noodle tighten up a bit.. we pick it up just before it gets golden, we get a stiff noodle that is soft on the inside.. I take a bite.. woah ! Takes me back to my childhood when we ate churros in Valencia with my cousins.. Gonza being latin know what a churro is and he confirms.. lets put some sugar on this baby ! The result is a deep fried UDON churro ! - "Udochurro".

We serve this deep fried noodle with sugar on a stone plate and when explaining that it is infact a deep fried UDON noodle, the reaction is ;

- Huh ? Is that sugar on a noodle ?

When thinking of noodles you see them usually in a soup, it is something you can relate, but a deep fried noodle with sugar is something that you only think about, and never try, or try it but never tell your friends about it, cause you think they will think you´re crazy.

I have some other unusual parings, like white chocolate covered salty potato chips that we will also try later on at HOZE.

//Hoze Seruda

My mind is going 100mps.

2010-12-22T23:54:00.002+01:00

And there is no turning back. I dream about foams, I see different gelatins in my mind, I get ideas by a thousand.. what if I take agar gelatin and put it in a oval silicone form and fill it with foam and freeze it, bend it over a plate, seeing foam covered in a see through gelatin oval container.. when eating it you get crunch in a delightful light weight foam, cold but still melts in your mouth without leaving residue.. and so on and so on.

Damn you Ferran, damn you El Bulli. Thank you Ferran, thank you El Bulli.

//Hoze Seruda

Herring | Sea buckthorn | Horseradish | Carrot

2010-12-19T00:31:00.004+01:00

Today´s Scandinavian inspired dish really took things to another level. Though it could have been better if we would have had buckthorn juice (instead of carrot), but hey, it was still excellent but could have been perfect with the buckthorn juice ! Next time we execute this dish it will be with buckthorn instead of carrot, so bare with me !

Herring

I put sugar on the herring fillets as I do with mackerel to get all the excess water out, leave them a bit and then I clean them in water briefly, then I spread some sea salt on them for taste after about 10 minutes I marinate

them in apple cider vinegar and carrot juice (buckthorn juice).

Sea buckthorn
I had the chance to buy very good buckthorn jam that is made with 50% sugar and 50% buckthorn, this I cook with agar agar and water and pour over a silpat, to create a thin sheet of buckthorn gelatine the color gets bright orange and see through.

Horseradish
This one is very easy, I just took some sour cream and horseradish with a bit of salt, pepper and lemon to create a horseradish sauce, I let it sit for a while to get the taste of the horseradish and then I strain it. Put it in the freezer and let it sit.

Carrot juice (buckthorn juice)
This one is very very simple, I learned this technique while watching some videos of Ferran Adriá (elBulli) making some simple foam that he calls air by just applying a plastic wrap on a bowl and tipping it while mixing the juice, it forms bubbles and the bubbles are carefully taken up with a spoon and there you have it, AIR !

Putting it all together

I use matte black square plates that actually are for candles (from IKEA) very elegant as plates I must say at my restaurant, this will give the dish a nice contrast. First of all I cut one fillet of marinated herring in two, and arrange them in the middle of the plate, I cut the sea buckthorn gelatine sheet just right so it covers the herring, already looks stunning, after this I take a spoon and scrape the frozen horseradish sauce made with the sour cream to create "snow" and pour two spoons of the snow on to the gelatine sheet. On the upper left corner and lower right corner of the herring I put one spoon of the carrot air (buckthorn air) to create more contrast and a bit of taste.

The end result is stunning and actually all through scandinavian. I got inspired by the snow thats falling outside right now and that buckthorn is actually something they marinate herring with here in Sweden. Horseradish is used a lot , almost as much as the Japanese use their wasabi. And the best is actually grown not so far from where I live.

Pictures will come in due time ! I just got me a new SLR camera ! (coming this monday)

Kokoro !

//Hoze Seruda

Finding our Path.

2010-12-17T23:04:00.002+01:00

Me and Gonza really defined our path today. Yesterday we talked about what our food should be described, what path to follow. Well today I think we came up with some meaning to our food.

"A Japanese that has travelled the world and found inspiration".

This really describes our foundation as we are into Japanese cooking but like to explore other cultures. Here is our omakase that we served up today I hope it serves as inspiration.

Two different omakase was served. - 1 without raw ingredients and 1 with.

1. Izumidai steeped in fresh orange juice and chilifruit with red onion brunois and thinly cut stripes of cucumber.

2. "Fruits de mer" with fresh kumamoto oysters, scallops, sweet shrimp and cubes of lychee gelatin made from "agar agar" served with leaves of maché and a sauce made from oysters water, citrus olive oil, salt and lemon pepper.
3. Sushi Moriawase consisting of - Izumidai-Cod-Squid-Akagai-Torigai-Tairagai-Scallop-Sweet shrimp-lean salmon and salmon belly.

4. Sugared salmon made with muscovado sugar, anis stars, cinnamon, black peppercorns and saké served with mango sorbet.

For the non raw eaters ;

1. Jerusalem artichoke créme with thinly sliced mushrooms, baby spinach, pink peppercorns and citrus olive oil dressing.

2. Baked scallops in spicy sauce.

3. Steamed halibut with dried miso on a bed of kombu and steeped with fresh lemon juice and olive oil.

4. Miso braised salmon on a bed of a crispy lettuce and topped with fine-cut white radish (daikon)

Some of these we will tweak and turn a bit but these is an overall omakase you can expect for approx $45 (400sek)

//Hoze Seruda.

Edible Soil.

2010-12-17T12:01:00.002+01:00

This years hype, that actually has been around for years is the "edible soil" or "dirt" as many say. Its actually not actual soil, its a compound of ingredients mixed together to look like actual soil.

Many great chefs are using this technique to showcase a dish in their "natural" element, like Narisawa´s flower pot or Redzepi´s medley of mini veggies sticking out the ground.

I looked up this interesting edible soil thing a couple of years ago without actually finding much about it, El Bulli´s Ferran had been working on a plate with different chocolate soils on a plate looking like actual sand and soil. This was way back.. Now the concept has been taken further and as I read in Redzepi´s new book he uses "malt flour". I googled this morning "edible soil" and a wide variety of this phenomenon came up, some using oreo cookies and some using bread crumbs. Interesting how things work sometimes. I guess the next thing would be to make "tree branches", But I guess its already out there. Yet to become a hype !

I think I´m going to test this edible soil thing on my own, using some Japanese ingredients along the way.. wish me ganbatte !

//Hoze Seruda

NOMA ! New Cookbook !

2010-12-16T22:32:00.004+01:00

Today Claes came to lend me a cookbook, but what he had in hand was a totally new cookbook still wrapped in plastic.. ? What is this ? I see the name NOMA written on it, Claes says, well.. I got two copies so here you go. Ahhh ! Really ! I actually asked Santa for this one.. hehe, so thanks Claes and Santa !

The book features nordic recipes of high end techniques, many using a pacojet and kitchen equipment only suitable in fancy restaurant kitchens, so I guess this book is not made for hungry foodies ! Many of the recipes requires 1 to 2 days to make, its kind of slow prepared food, nothing you just cook and put on a plate in fifteen minutes, its what I would call delicate kokoro food.

The book is build up in a different way that I´m used to, putting all the recipes on the back in thin paper, and pictures of all the dishes in thick paper in the front, so half and half. Navigating with the numbers on the pictures, its kind of easy when you get to it.

Many of the recipes have repeating ingredients and techniques but combined with new ingredients and techniques so the skill level is not endless, if you can make on thing, then making it another way may not be as difficult..

Thank you again Claes ! Been craving for this book as many other chefs have a while now !

//Hoze Seruda

Omakase !

2010-12-16T11:18:00.004+01:00

This friday and saturday I get a big order for approx 12 people, Me and Gonza are going all out on the omakase bid. Live lobsters, probably oysters, and some unseen dishes that I have in store for special occassions like this !

Lately I´ve been a bit up and down, looking for new ingredients to work with and testing out new things from the far east, but I haven´t noticed so much of what we have in front of our noses !

Speaking with Claes from "Kock & Vin" made my inspiration go up the roof ! (as always talking with this great chef ) ! Ingredients like lingon berries, dill and sour cream that the Swedish use a lot.. he decontructs and use ingredients in an unfashionable way that even though feels natural to eat.

Fresh wasabi root next week ! Feel the excitement ?

//Hoze Seruda

DinnerTool.

2010-12-15T22:51:00.003+01:00

I was e-mailed by DinnerTool and asked if I wanted to switch links with them, after a few peeks at their website I was honored and happy that they contacted me ! Its a big website with very good seasonal recipes and such that you can browse if you feel a little lost and want to do some food at home or just want new ideas for your restaurant !

Today was Gonza´s first official day at HOZE, he still has a lot to learn, he has basics and skill, but needs to follow the true path of sushi tradition, he still has lots to learn and will soon be with help a full fledge sushi shokunin !

kokoro

//Hoze Seruda

New Year, new approaches.

2010-12-14T12:06:00.002+01:00

Things are running smoothly and I thought I could start to mature a bit and go all seasonal there and then. I must admit, with all the good things coming my way I think the seasonal approach will have to wait a bit longer.. I think I´ve been to eager.. I´ll just have to change gradually with the season until I get things right. Babysteps.. hehe or as I should call them, sushisteps !

So for todays good news ! I´m getting my business cards today ! So excited ! Also get to work with something I really love and enjoy to eat ! ABALONE ! Man its so expensive..but I´m a sucker for good things, also today I get fresh sea urchin and later this week I get my first fresh japanese shiso leaves and daikon cress !

If thats not enough, fresh wasabi is heading my way ! If its good I will start serving fresh wasabi ! :)

Kokoro to you all !

//Hoze Seruda

Movement is in effect !

2010-12-02T09:49:00.002+01:00

So these last couple of days have been a lot of fun !
Gonza my friend and soon to be top apprentice killed his first living creature for eating purpose last tuesday, it was a lobster we named George, that later became an omakase dinner for 2.

Yesterday I got to try something new, I always love to taste new things, this time it was something called balut its a duck egg with a nearly developed embryo, that you cook for about 20-30 minutes ! And eat the soft embryo, juice and yellow substance from, it tasted like chicken soup almost, very tasty..but very strange ! Thank you Kim-Anh & Xuan for bringing me this delight ! Next time it might be century eggs or chicken feet salad ? Tasty I hope !

Also yesterday I made my first Mizu Yokan with Azuki beans ! I saw this be done by Master Hayashi when I started out as a sushi apprentice, its not that difficult and it tastes great ! Me and Gonza are trying out different types later today, seasonal, like pumpkin and mango !

I´ve also thinking of doing different seasonal tapas, like brussel sprouts with miso ! Remember to book a table !

//Hoze Seruda

Business Cards.

2010-11-30T13:39:00.004+01:00

I´ve just made an order on 500 business cards ! I´m pretty happy with the overall design, I ordered it with extra "luxurious" paper that is a bit thicker than normal for overall effect.

I´ve also been contacted by Sweden's biggest food magazine Gourmet. HOZE will be mentioned in an article and they asked if I could give them some photos.. exciting ! I sent them 6 photos, photographed by Jesper Kronlund, a very dear friend of mine. So if you live in Sweden, look in your stores shelves around 3rd of Februari next year !

I hope you all like my design on the business cards !

/Hoze Seruda

HOZE Recommends.

2010-11-26T11:22:00.003+01:00

YOU, book a table before hand and tell me how much you and your party would like to spend, any food allergies or dislikes and if you would have any requests on seafood or other special memories you would have from a previous dinner !

Sometimes dropping in is okay, but most of the time, I would like if you book a table, its not cause the restaurant is full all the time, but its more of a courtesy. Call a week in advance if you are to book for a big party, or if a table for 2 then its okay to call just the day before, You see, its easier for me to make you wonderful food this way.

Drop in guests can sometimes be asked to wait 30-40 minutes up to an hour for a table, not cause of the full restaurant issue, but for the rice issue. I usually make rice to cover my booked tables. But if you just drop in, it is not always sure there will be rice to cover your cravings, or fish for that matter. So please book a table.

FISK IDAG
On to another subject ! I got a new supplier for fresh fish and seafood ! These guys deliver fish to the Swedish Culinary Team ! I´ve been testing them out, and ordered some sturgeon roe, fresh sea urchin from Island, Swedish flat oysters and some wonderful cod liver in its oil !

So I recommend you please book a table before visiting HOZE Restaurant. Out of Courtesy.

//Hoze Seruda

The famous menu & rules.

2010-11-22T16:12:00.003+01:00

I´ve gotten really funny comments about the "menu", people love it ! So here it is. :)

//Hoze Seruda

LAND, COAST, BEACH, SEA.

2010-11-16T12:39:00.005+01:00

All these are common to many places on earth, I´ve come to believe that by serving seafood with these surroundings, it will enhance ones dining expierence. I guess I´m no the first one coming up with this philosophy, but I like it. When in Kock & Vin*, I was taken from the diningroom table to the shore of a genuine autumn seashore scenary. The dish was an amuse bouche of northern shrimp, on a stone with sand and a dry twig, also a white tube (with mayonnaise) in the middle of everything, the fact that the "trash" was there made it look so real. Not just pretty but real. It might sound bizarre, with dead shrimp laying on a stone at seaside with some dried out twigs and trash, that pollutes our oceans.. but it really reflects whats real, and what made that dish beautifully strange is that we took the leap and ate the shrimp and it was oh so good.. would I´ve done the same if I found these shrimp on the seaside ? Probably not, but it was the thing that I could do it sitting in a fine diningroom made it all so surreal.

That is what I want to evoke I think, letting people it good food in their "natural looking" state. Making the real, be surreal.

//Hoze Seruda

Kock & Vin *

2010-11-12T10:43:00.013+01:00

Yesterday I got my senses opened to another level of great food. I let myself go of everyday life and let me get inspired by great food and wine, as the restaurant name suggests "Chef & Wine" we paired wine with wonderful food, 2 amuse and 8 courses, (normally 1 amuse and 6 courses) but as I know the chef that is a frequent visitor of HOZE, he composed a special menu for us. Our menu´s name "Menu of the senses"(++) was a combinations of the Swedish west coast, and a quick journey through the landscapes. The dish that made most impact on me was the "Salted back of cod, oysters from Grebbestad and mussel milk flavored with wheat grass", Swedish food taken to another level. It was simple filled with west coast flavours and absolutely a play of my senses. I even dreamed about it ! Just perfect.

Here is an array of what we ate ;

1st Amuse bouche of marinated sweet shrimp
it was eaten as a sandwich
with the bread and the mayo from the tube,
The plate was meant to resemble things coming up shore
it very much enlighted my senses as this is a very common seen in
the Swedish west coast.

2nd Amuse bouche comprised of "Kalix" vendace roe from lake vänern,
pumpkin seeds and pumpkin purée and pumkin oil (?)
this realy worked together very well,
The roe I´ve had before but this one was a bit saltier and tangy, I loved it !

1st Course Salted back of cod,
Oysters from Grebbestad and mussel milk flavored with wheat grass.
This was simply a west coast dish. Elegant and beautiful !
The oyster sweetness and consistency was absolutely world class.
This tasted like a luxurious "Västkustsallad" <3

2nd course Brill
served with mushrooms from Hakaslätts gård and warm marrow.
The brill was slowly cooked and the consistency was just perfect.
It had a briny taste and the thinly sliced mushrooms lended a very much
needed consistency and taste.
Lets not forget the dried spinage powder that lended the
salt to this dish and made it all come together.

3rd Course Tartar of venison
with hazelnuts, black pudding and apple served with browned butter.
I´m not much of a tartar fan but this one blew my mind.
It took me back to my childhood.
Like stepping into a time machine and reviving old memories.
Absolutely priceless.

4th Course Lukewarm lobster from Hönö
with salsify, sago and smoked veal tongue.
At first I didnt like this dish, I didnt understand it,
but when finishing I actually understood its purpose.
it was a transition for the next dish,
although the lobster didnt taste that much and was very much hidden
I understood the purpose of seeing the lobster far away and the veal up close.

5th Course Lamb from Brännö
brown beans and green cabbage served with kohlrabi.
This dish felt a bit japanese inspired,
but as it where I think I could do this dish better.
I understood the meaning of it and the lamb was perfectly pink,
though the kohlrabi and brown beans was a bit to al dente for my taste.
All the flavours where there, just no the consistency I wanted.
You understand the transition ?

6th Course Påverås Blå
served with rutabaga, mustard and acidified walnuts.
This was a dish for me, Although I didnt like the cheese per sé
I love the combination of ingredients,
and would loved to make an encore of this one !

7th Course Sweetened potato cream
with flash frozen pearls of fennel and blackberry sorbet.
The combination of the herbs, fennel and blackberries was absolutely perfect
the shovel idea was funny and actually splendid.
The cream lended a roundness to this dish.

8th Course Appe pie
Deep fried with crust,sugar and cinnamon, vanilla cream and apple bits.
This last dish was more like one bite amuse geuele dessert.
It was the perfect apple pie.
It had all I wished for and it was a perfect end to a perfect meal.

Why is it so good ?

2010-11-10T09:31:00.005+01:00

Well, this answer is kind of complex, but easy to answer. I will now explain how a piece of salmon nigiri can be so good.

First of all, we start out with the rice at HOZE ;
4 different rice brands are used. I have categorized them in "fluffy", "sticky", "tasty" and "dry".
The combination of rice is not randomly mixed, they are combined as follows, 10%, 20%, 20% and 50%.
Cleaning the rice is set in 10 stages and different temperatures are used so not to "scare" the rice.

The 3 first stages are called "tigers claw", warm water is used.
The 6 stages after this are called "hungry koi", medium warm, slightly cold water is used.
The last stage is called "waterfall". cold water is used.

The rice is left for soaking for 30 minutes - to 24 hours. So its okay to soak it over night.
After soaking for 30 minutes - to 24 hours, it´s time for cooking. The cooking process has 3 stages. boiling, steaming and grilling. After this comes the cutting with vinegar mix part. Many sushibars or almost all of them use a "uchiha" (fan) for cooling down the rice, but I like to use the nature to do its way, I use the wind that flows into my window. You also need a special wooden bowl, called a hangiri. That is specially made to soak up the excess vinegar. First I "cut" the cooked rice with the vinegar mixture, and scatter it around so every little piece of rice gets the mixture on it and then (this part is rarely used in any sushibar around the world), press it gently all together to get it to steam, and tilt the hangiri so the excess vinegar can run through to the other side of the hangiri. After this process I cut the rice again and let the wind do its thing again, cooling down the rice to a temperature just above room temperature. The rice is then put in a bowl and covered so to keep its temperature for about 1-2 hours. Its ready to use and only used around 1-2 hours. Then its discarded. Think about that different measurements of water are used for different types of seasons, (spring, summer, fall, winter).

The vinegar mixture is a compilation that HOZE has been working on for a while. Every sushibar has its own mixture, and every restaurant has its own secrets. My secret weapon is yuzu. It gives the rice a nice accent and another type of acidity than vinegar wont give out. This is what makes my rice perfect. (there are different types of perfect)

Now for the fish, all fish are treated differently and tastes differently according to cuts, preperation, temperature and slicing method. For example, salmon as we ought to use as example. The salmon fillet has 4 main parts, tail, belly, middle loin and back loin. They all taste different, and they go from lean to fat. You can get different textures, giving it different tastes, you can cut against the grain or with the grain on a salmon. Temperature is also crucial to taste, the fattier parts taste better in higher temperatures and the leaner parts on lower temperatures.

Now for making the nigiri part, all parts are crucial. You need to put horseradish/wasabi on the fish, its for killing some bacteria, soy sauce is a type of "cooking" and at HOZE, special soy sauce is cooked in a special way with special ingredients to maximize flavours. Putting an "air pocket" in the rice while putting it on the fish is an important step and will make the rice ball, soft on the inside, then pressing gently, NOT with your index finger(s) but with your hands fingers that is on the underneath part. The molding, and consistensy of the nigiri is called "uchiha", this means the fish and nigiri are molded in a perfect uchiha shape, rice and fish shouldnt fall apart until it gets into your mouth and using the right quantity of rice for each person is something to consider. At HOZE 9-11 grams of rice is used for every nigiri, though if Mick Jagger would come and eat, it would probably be 15 grams. You get the picture.
Here are the stages of nigiri : HOZE Style Nigiri

This is why HOZE nigiri is so good. Rice, Fish, temperature, preperation, condiments, cuts, technique and knowledge.

Kaizen is important.

//Hoze Seruda

Momofuku YOU !

2010-11-09T09:15:00.001+01:00

I´ve been craving for some momofuku food for a while now.. So I thought I could make the recipes I crave and serve them at the restaurant like Japas, maybe not the same recipe, but inspired by.

I will start with the crabclaws with yuzu mayo, and go on from there, I´ve already tried to make my own version of the momofuku pork buns, mine having wasabi and spring onion, red miso braised sirloin and instead of the hoisin I use the sauce that I reduce from the red miso I braise the sirloin in. Mmmm.. I will also do the cured hamachi recipe, but as I said, HOZE style.

Join my crave this week at HOZE Restaurant.
//Hoze Seruda

20kg Octopus !

2010-11-05T11:01:00.002+01:00

Just had to write about this occasion ! 6:30 this morning my supplier got a call from the fish auction bidders asking him if he wanted to bid on a 20kg octopus ! Gut feeling told him to say yes. He knew I couldnt say no to such an opportunity ! So this evening I will get delivered a 20 kg Octopus, - "It wont fit on your cutting board, Muhahaha", my supplier said. I´ll see if I can get a picture with the octopus later this evening ! Good things coming my way !

Oh, and about sustainable sushi, By the end of this year I will have a seasonal alternate menu with sustainable and not endangered species. Though it will only be offered to people that call a week in advance.

Right now I serve a mixed variety of fish and seafood, that I get randomly,
but by ending 2011 mid 2012, I will only have seasonal, sustainable species available, even bluefin tuna (in the season, sustainability and rules set by the WWF).

Everything will be according to measurement and species by season and sustainability. So even the "beloved" salmon will be set accorded to these rules. (This means that salmon wont be available all year round, only in season and wild)

Tsukiji market/Tsukiji shijō is closing down !

2010-11-03T10:37:00.004+01:00

Due to health regulations it seems the mekka of all fish markets is closing down, to move to another location ! The date has been set to around 2012. But the preposition I think hasn´t set in yet. I guess I´m a bit lucky that I will be able to visit Tsukiji as I´m going to Japan next year ! But it will be more of a "goodbye" then a "I will see you again" kind of feeling when I leave Tsukiji for the first and last time. The market will changed to another location though. It is not only due to health regulations, it seems it is also cause of the building being to old, and might collapse in case of an earthquake.(It happened to the old place) If you have time to visit it before it goes down, Then I recommend you do. It has been talk about grounding the place and building it back up, but it seems it would take more than a decade to do as it is home of a number of registered employees from 60,000 to 65,000, including wholesalers, accountants, auctioneers, company officials, and distributors.(wiki) Even if they build it up again or re-locate, The market won´t be the same. It has established a chakra, a spirit a soul a kokoro.
It will take time to recover, but things have to move on,

KAIZEN, always strive for the better.

//Hoze Seruda

Refining old/new dishes.

2010-11-02T09:59:00.006+01:00

I´ve decided to refine some of my old dishes that has made a huge impact on people, It´s dishes made with a lot of kokoro, and I don´t even have names for them. I just improvised the dishes. So now its time for refining them aswell so they look good on a plate ! I will start with the "Edamame-Salmon-Horseradish-JalapeñoEmulsion-Soy" dish first and go from there. "Shiitake-Foie-BlackChantarelle-BlackTruffle-VanillaSalt-Soy-Citrus" dish and "Otoro-Uni-Caviar-Daikon-SpicyPonzu-Chives" dish are some of the few more dishes. Slowly but with a pace I will refine all of my kokoro dishes and will be available under the flick - Japas.

//Hoze Seruda

Phase 2.

2010-10-29T11:59:00.003+02:00

I´ve finally concluded phase 1. Its been 10 rough months and 2 to go though, but I feel I can take a leap and jump to phase 2 as phase 1 will go on successfully.

It´s time for some commercializing and I have this long list of things to do. Primary goal is to end up in some kind of magazine or paper, but also finishing the website, and getting HOZE to be "seen". I´ve done HOZE very anonymous and not doing anything flashy like putting up a logo on the window or having a fancy sign and so on, so its time for for some change, the rumors have spread and HOZE has gotten some great reputation, but its hard to find. All of this offcourse was intentional, but now its phase 2. New sign, logo on the big window, hours on the door, and a menu hanged outside in a box. It needs to be done. I´m also making business cards and a fancy little take away menu.

Things like my signature soy sauce and vinegar will be sold to the general public and hopefully people will buy them !

If you have any connections to the media world, please help out. All help is appreciated.

//Hoze Seruda

The media scene.

2010-10-27T10:16:00.003+02:00

I´ve tried to get the media to notice me somehow, I´ve written to all kinds of magazines and no response yet. I understand sushi isn´t what people think, and its reputation has gone down the drain here in Sweden. It is not honorable here to do sushi, people think its a fast food and it certainly is to some point. But most of all it is an art, sushichefs are called craftsmen, they are not ordinary chefs..
Lets say you live in Sweden, you open a Swedish gourmet restaurant, a very good one. The spotlight will be on you at no time, and now lets say a sushichef with 40 years of expierence comes to Sweden, his been honored in his country as a living treasure cause of his exquisite sushi, he now opens a sushibar in Sweden, the result will be that even if his sushi is of tremendous skill, and would have michelin stars in Japan, his restaurant wont even get noticed in Sweden, cause of the doomed picture people has on sushi in Sweden today,. Somehow I feel sushi is coming back to its glorious days in Sweden, maybe in 10-20 years people will appreciate the effort real sushichefs put on their work. Less and less cheap and bad made sushi places will dissappear and be rejected by people. This is a dream I have, or lets say a goal. Though great chefs admire my work I want to be acknowledged by the people. Lets make people aware of good sushi.

Help me do this. All your support is wanted.

//Hoze Seruda

Garishiatako HOZE style.

2010-10-21T19:39:00.004+02:00

So today I boiled some octopus ! For you unfamiliar with octopus I recommend it warmly. Its an underrated seafood that looks kind of "alien", and therefore not many people have the courage to do it at home. Its very simple ;

First off just rub it in a mortar, and if you dont have one of those just rub it in a bowl with a "dishbrush". Dont use any salt in this process, that will make the octopus less tender. Rinse well under running cold water, until the water goes from murky to clear. Now wipe the wet octopus and put it on a cuttingboard, pound it well with anything you got at home, like a bottle ? just dont go and break the bottle... ! Now have some water boiling, and dip the octopus 3 times. First time just the tips, so it curls, let the water boil again, now put in the octopus half way, and take it out, let the water boil again, now the third time dip it all the way, and let the water boil, when the water starts to boil put the heat to just below medium and let it simmer for about 30-45 minutes, turn of the heat and let the octopus be in the water for about 20-30 minutes more. The meat will be tender and you will be able to tear it with your hands. Beautiful ! In Spain we have a classic recipe using, bits of octopus, lemon, paprika spice, salt and olive oil, they say you shouldn´t drink water with this dish, so a young red wine is served with. Offcourse I made it HOZE style,.. I´ve started to make "Japas" - "Japanese Tapas". So this one I made with the octopus, yuzu (instead of lemon), Shichimi tōgarashi (instead of paprica spice), salt and olive oil. Some things I have to keep traditional.

Expierence and let yourself be inspired at HOZE.

//Hoze Seruda.

YUZU !

2010-10-16T19:20:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I had some important culinary people, dining at my restaurant, Lars Pautke whom I know through a frequent visitor and friend of HOZE brought me a nice bottle of Saké and a big bottle of YUZU juice ! I haven´t had the time to use it yet but I will ! Although I haven´t used it yet, I have tasted and smelled it. It has a komplex flavour and reminds me of sour mandarines. It taste like a crossover of fresh mandarines with it´s citrusy, savory and sweet flavour and canned mandarine juice.. interesting fruit used by many innovative chefs and has been used all around the world making it into foams, using it in cocktails and incorporated in different sweets and also substitued for lemon or lime cause of its complex flavour. I´ve heard that the rind of the fresh fruit is fragrant and beautiful and Lars told me about a supplier in Barcelona cultivating it, so I´ll try to get my hand on it.

//Hoze

Scandinavian Pursue

2010-10-12T10:02:00.002+02:00

I´ve been busy trying out some scandinavian seafood, almost all fish is whitefleshed (shiromi) but don´t get fooled by the color, they actually taste somewhat different from eachother, I´ve tried "Gös", "Aborre", "Torsk", "Gädda", "Stenbit", Hälleflundra", "Kungsfisk", "Makrill", "Strömming/Sill", "Kummel", "Slätvar" "Pilgrimsmusslor", "Blåmusslor", "Havskräftor", "Lax" etc. Almost all of these fish are white fleshed fish, the difference is some of them are freshwater, some of them are deep water and some of them live by the shore. I´ve come fond of some of these seafood creatures and tend to try out more of them before I decide on wich of these fish to use for sushi and sashimi, today I´m trying out "piggvar". Check these fish out at google. Some will be familiar to you, some will not. The quest for scandinavian fish continues !

//Hoze Seruda

Foie lost in Forest. New level reached.

2010-10-01T22:23:00.003+02:00

Torched Foie Gras on a bed of shiitake créme, composed w/ soy marinated black chantarelles, black truffles, vanilla salt and reduced soy sauce. - To marry the flavours, lies a lime wedge for squeezing at last moment.

Today I was playing around with some flavours I´ve been composing for some weeks now. It consisted at first of foie gras, vanilla salt and soy sauce. I found that the shiitake smelled just like truffles and when I was in Spain for a visit and made sushi I found that lime, truffles and vanilla salt married perfect together, So today I was thinking and made up a list of things to add together, Shiitake, foie gras, vanilla salt, reduced soy sauce, lime, truffles..I found some black chantarelles laying around and marinated them in soy sauce for an asian taste. I wanted to add different textures and as I was feeling for making crémes today I suddenly got the idea to mix the shiitake mushroom to a smooth texture, the vanilla gave it the crunchyness, the truffles gave it the essence, the foie gras the tingy taste and the chantarelles some additional texture. The lime just marries all the flavours together and give it that acidic touch it really needs.

I know I´m bad at explaining but you have to taste it to believe it. Its a beautiful dish with all good things sneaking up behind you and hugging you with a lot of kokoro !

//Hoze Seruda

Spicy Scallop Gratine.

2010-09-24T11:44:00.002+02:00

Well all of you that has tasted this great dish, this is for you ! I started making this dish when I got a fresh batch of scallops on my hands ! I wanted to make something new for some returning costumers and was playing with the idéa of a gratinated dish, so I just went for it, I added some spicy mayo into a shell, torched it, added small pieces of the scallop and you can hear the scallop hitting the shell "Tshhhh" piping hot, I torch the scallop pieces, add more spicy, torch again, go outside and you can see hear that sound again "Tshhhh" It smells wonderful, but I still needed some finishing touches.. lets see what´s in my fridge ?! Momiji oroshi, and some chives..and it just hit me, When you buy fresh scallops in their shells they have a little red thing called a "gonad". (Googled it) I thought the momiji could add that color touch and give it a fresh spicyness to contrast the spicy mayo that was piping hot, then chives I thought as plankton, and chives with momiji are a very good combo as seen on oysters with ponzu sauce. Still I though the dish would need to be a bit sweet to lend the scallops some extra briny sweetness I added some tsume sweet sauce (thick sugary soy sauce), The dish turned out to be a big hit and it is know sometimes served as an appetizer for the meal to come !

Spicy Scallop Gratine. (Just need a torch for making it. Think of making this on the sea side after diving after fresh scallops !)
//Hoze Seruda

Kitchen Nightmares !

2010-09-24T10:25:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I was downtown helping a friend in her restaurant, its the only restaurant in town that does "kaiten sushi", She want´s it to be of good quality and tries her best to get it to be so, but some things aren´t right to start with.. I worked a lunch shift and noticed a lot of big "NO NO´s".

She uses 3 very "wet" rice sorts, (meaning that they are sticky after cooking) but when tasting the finished rice it was just hard ! Off curiousity I asked to see some washed rice.. There it was..dry, sloppy washed rice that didnt have time to even sit through to soak up the water. There lied the problem of the rice not reaching its potential. If you use three rice sorts, one of them being very expensive and the rice keeps getting bad like that, then someone is lying straight in your face (Cause I asked when the rice had been "washed", and they told me - "one hour ago" thats a big lie. I´ve washed rice for half a decade and I know they weren´t speaking the truth. They literally lied in their boss face ! (sry but its the brutal truth..)

I tried to let them know that they atleast let that rice soak for 10 minutes before cooking it, giving them instructions on how to cook it properly also, but like a slap in the face they just said, "Yes Yes".. (goes in one ear, goes through the other). Like dogs that don´t understand but simple things like "sit", "paw", "good dog !" "bad dog !".

After this I went to the kaiten band and started service making maki´s, Me on maki´s, David (the new chef) and one of the usual workers there on putting up the plates (on the line). (almost no swedish, no english and only chinese speaking),. David is a bit slow on nigiris, but he mananges, The problem lied on communication.. I let the one at the line know that "if you need something put on the band just say so and we will deliver". The chaos starts and we start well making makis and nigiri´s, I help David a bit knowing he needs help. The one on the line doesnt utter a word and I ask all the time what do you need ??! Only words I hear is "Yes Yes"..... I start pumping out maki´s like never before and David just goes panik not knowing what to do, I understand him.

I´ve worked with such people before and being new isn´t that easy. Try to put yourself in a position where everything is at perfect flawless chaos and try to fit in. It doesnt work. I look over to the line and she goes on veeeery slow not putting things on the band.. I start to panic and go over there putting things on the band myself ! Making work of two people. She later disappear out of the blue like ninja and we are to stand there alone throwing things out on the band like crazy. Everything is chaos behind the band, there is no "mise en place" and some stuff are looking so bad I don´t even want to use it. People are screaming, avocado and salmon nigiri (I utter to myself, avocado nigiri ? what ?!) There is tons of stuff in the fridge and only words I hear is avocado and salmon nigiri ?!

This day is turning out to be a very chaotic day for the owner that I hear in the kitchen screaming after almost all costumers are leaving the restaurant.. I go down and she is mad at David the new chef ! (Go figures first in first out) and specially if you don´t fit in with a group of ignorant chinese people that lie to their boss straight in her face !

Offcourse he is slow on nigiri, but you people don´t communicate with him. I understand him, I can relate. You need to start putting him on a position where he is comfortable at first (only being there his second day), Rome wasn´t build in one day. Anyway.. He quit/got fired today. That´s how things are sometimes. I doubt her buisness will succeed without change in the long run. But if thats the way she want´s to play it, dont waste my time.

I will go through everything thats wrong in that buisness in points. Right here. (I know you will read this Ying, but if you can´t communicate with me as a person than I will write it down for you ! No hard feelings ;) I still wish you well ! But you need to change if you wan´t your food to be of good quality, you need to realise that what you are doing now is all wrong. Personally it´s a disgrace against real sushi. You can make a difference but you are just bringing the glorious name of sushi down to hell. And that upsets me very deeply.

You need to realise that your buisness is a lunch time place, not for evenings. Stop acting like it is. (its not fine dining)
Why are you using three types of rice?! The costumers that come to your restaurant are not fine diners, they are just there for a quick lunch and won´t care about the rice, So save some money and just buy the M-401 rice (the dark red bag).
If you dont properly wash the rice, let it soak for 30 minutes, drain it, cook it with patience and add the vinegar mix as I showed you, your rice will never reach its potential and thats a shame against the people that harvest it every year.
Save your money, dont buy "exclusive things", Its still not a fine dining expierence. Everything I heard people yelling was avocado and salmon. Think about that ! Avocado and salmon.. 4 fish 3 vegetarian is all you need. Tuna, salmon, white fish, shrimp. I recommend if you wan´t a special to use what the people want, SALMON ! Smoked salmon is very good, just mix creme fraiche, horseradish (not wasabi), salt and lemon and you got yourself a sauce for it. Its delicious easy and it tastes great on the Swedish palate. For the vegetarian just use the grilled bell peppers, avocado (I know you can´t live without) and kanpyo (for roll), All this nonsense with the mushroom and all wont work. Its to hard to put on a nigiri.
You really need mise en place and trash cans underneath every station.
You say that you only have two people working on the kaiten band, well thats because you make everything before hand, and work like machines. I dont respect that, stop putting plastic on everyhing and start making everything fresh ! You say you dont wan´t your sushi to be as the other places, then start making everything fresh ! No plastic, no mounting finished plates underneath the counter ! Sushi doesnt hold that well for so long.
Create a system to throw away plates that have been on the band for more than one hour straight ! Its not normal.
You are a great person ! I adore you very much ! So I tell you this, I´ve seen your iron fist ! Don´t let your staff lie to you. You are the manager, you are the boss, Dont overlook NOTHING !

And remember, reputation is not everything, If you feel good, good things will come to you. Dont wear youself out.
//hoze Seruda

Otsukimi / Swedish taste.

2010-09-21T21:41:00.003+02:00

Wandering home from work today I noticed the beautiful moon lighting up the sky. For me this means my knife is taking form and soon will be in my hands. Shingetsu ; Forged under a full moon, heated up by a burning star cooling down when hitting the surface of the earth hitting the sea and piercing it with its sharpness so the sea separates, lending me the power to pick it up and present its destiny !

A little poetry for you fanatics out there.. hehe

So I bought some Scandinavian fish today, "Gös" (Pike-Perch), "Torskrygg" (Cod back), "Slätvar" (Brill)- a kind of flatfish, and "Sill" (herring). Swedish fish tend to be very subtle in taste but if you taste them one after the other you will taste the difference, my favorite is the cod back it has a very tender and firm flesh and it has this very fresh taste love it !, perfect for sushi ! Some new dishes have popped up and may be kind of signature dishes.. but I will comment on them another time !

//Hoze Seruda

COOK IT RAW.

2010-09-20T14:40:00.003+02:00

I stumbled upon this by accident !, and I´m glad I did ! How could this project slip through my fingers without me knowing about it..ninjas I presume.. "COOK IT RAW" from what I´ve read so far is a gathering of the best chefs in the world cooking with ingredients from a regional area in Lappland up in the north of Scandinavia. I found this twitter post somewhere and it explains it better than I do.

COOK IT RAW!, a group composed of most best renowned avant-garde chefs, will gather in the wilderness of the Nordic Polar Circle.

Some of the chefs you all know, like David Chang (Momofuku), Rene Redzepi (Noma) and Yoshiro Narisawa (le creations de Narisawa) and so on. All renowned chefs coming from different parts of the world to cook together with ingredients found all around the region ; roots, berries, meats vegetables etc. It´s like a legendary cook off to promote our surroundings that we forget are there to give us nurishment. We have wild life all around us and don´t often appreciate it for what it can be, instead of picking some berries in season we often go to the store and buy them and usually those berries aren´t even harvested in the country you buy them in.

It makes you think.

//Hoze Seruda

"Momofuku Pork Buns" - HOZE Style.

2010-09-15T21:46:00.002+02:00

It´s been such hype about these momofuku pork buns that I thought I would give it a try. I´ve tried out some steamed buns before but never made my own (yet), I bought some of my supplier and put my focus on the pork. I bought a long strip of pork and torched it all around, after this I steamed it for about 30 minutes and then braise it in a sauce made with red miso, sake, soy sauce, sugar and water, I let it boil for about 15 minutes and let it rest in the sauce for about 5 minutes. The pork turns out wonderful and tasty, it melts in your mouth and it got this tangy miso taste..mmmm... I used the ordinary scallion and quick pickled cucumber addings to the pork bun, but the pickled cucumber I put about 10 minutes in pickled ginger juice. Hoisin sauce is used for the momofuku recipe and this one was with no exception. I´m going to play a bit with the ingredients I felt they where a bit dull, but thats how I work always trying to make it better.

I´ll add pictures when I´ve made some with my own steamed buns and my own composition of ingredients !

//Hoze Seruda

Shingetsu. (New Moon)

2010-09-14T09:03:00.004+02:00

So I´ve decided after much consideration to buy my first real "Zanpakutō"(Bleach). I´ve been considering what kind of knife I should get, what type of steel, forging and style, even handle is considered. I first was going to buy a swordshaped takobiki (octopus knife) but I decided for a swordshaped yanagiba instead, its called a kengata and the tip is formed as a sword yet with yanagiba tip similiarity. The style of the blade is even called a kiritsuke but a kiritsuke is shorter and its a multi-purpose knife for proffessionals So I get 2 or 3 in one blade if you count the takobiki. Then for the handle I wanted it with ebony wood, its elegant and dark, also holds well for many years. As the steel goes I was torn between 3 types, The cowry X steel that forges with new metals and style (very expensive) the honyaki true forged (only one steel used) and the suminagashi(damascus style forging). The cowry X steel I know its to expensive and I´m too young to comprehend it. Then there was the honyaki and suminagashi left. I studied hard about the two for months and I was torn between the two..But I was thinking and I´m still young, honyaki is for old people, its to complicated and requires alot of time to sharpen and it chips easily if used improperly. I´m still on my experimenting years and I´m not the one to just use it for slicing so I decided for a suminagashi, it is just as sharp as a honyaki blade and its elegance is stunning. It also feels more right for me, I´m young and it would be easier for me to fix a suminagashi than a honyaki..I also dont have the time to be sharpening the honyaki all the time. So sumingashi was the choice I made. Now I had to find my blade. Different blades where calling me out but the one that caught my eye was the "Suisin Ao-ko Suminagashi Kensaki Yanagi". It has a ebony handle with water buffalo horn and a silver ring between wood and bone the flowing pattern of the forging suminagashi is stunning and the name was instantly set in my mind. SHINGETSU ! New Moon ! (Moon festival and all) it fits its true calling. (I just hope he can get along with samehada.,My other blade)

//Hoze Seruda

Bachelorette dinner @ HOZE

2010-09-12T10:17:00.002+02:00

So yesterday I had a bride-to-be having her dinner @ HOZE before her night out with the girls (and one guy) ;)

They started out with a "Salma lax" usuzukuri with hon-wasabi, caviar and spicy ponzu sauce. Later came the sushi on a big choppingboard, filled with salmon nigiri, shiromi nigiri, kuruma ebi nigiri, shiromi special inside out roll with fish on the outside of the roll, gari and ruccola in the inside, topped with momiji oroshi, spicy mayo and balsamico. They also had soft shell crab futomaki, The dinner was a hit and a fun experience for all with anecdotes about the bride-to-be,.

Special moments to remember. Successful evening CHECK !

//Hoze Seruda

Fatty Tuna Belly. /Toro was his name.

2010-09-09T09:02:00.004+02:00

Strangely enough I haven´t posted nothing on Toro. I use it in my restaurant and its wonderful !

There is three main fat parts on a tuna and that is chu-toro, toro, o-toro, you can translate them as fat, very fat, extremely fat. The more fat the more of a buttery flavour. To handle these parts aint easy for the normal chef, it requires knowledge and skill to take apart the toro parts as there is a lot of tendons(?) that needs to be removed for getting to the smooth and buttery meat in between. A good, sharp and long knife is recommended to cut between the meat and tendons. Although some cuts are good enough to cut against the tendons. But the best way is to cut along with them and remove them. The fatty parts are best served room temperature as the fat tends to come out of the meat and give it a much more intense flavour.

*It is good to add, that tuna doesnt hold well in a sealed container and fatty tuna tends to brown easier than red tuna meat (akami) and I recommend to use the fatty parts in a 3 day ratio. (Akami hold up to a week and it gets better for each day)

The picture show a cut through of a fillet with tendons attached.

//Hoze Seruda

Wagyu beef.

2010-09-09T08:15:00.003+02:00

Wagyū (和牛) refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. //Wikipedia.org

So I´ve finally tested wagyu beef, the Japanese genetically gifted animal that for some reason stores large amounts of rippled fatty goodness ! I tested it in its differents states of cooking and I can say that just seared on the outside and raw in the middle is the best way to enjoy this beef.

The meat is so tender and reminds me very much of tuna toro in terms of consistency, you get the same tenderness and buttery flavour, the only thing that differs the one from the other is that wagyu tastes meat and toro tastes fish, but good meat and good fish ! I thought that meat couldnt be tender when consumed almost raw, but I was wrong. So if you get the chance of getting yourself a piece of wagyu then I suggest you just seared it on the outside (for a charred meaty taste) and just eat it, thin slices or thick cubes, doesnt matter the meat is so tender it still will melt in your mouth. I also recommend you use sashimi soy sauce for dipping the meat.

For more pictures visit http://jep-k.deviantart.com/

//Hoze Seruda

Foie gras ( pronounced /fwɑːˈɡrɑː/ )

2010-09-07T22:38:00.002+02:00

I tested foie for the first time today, "mi cuit"(Semi cooked), This item has been unfamiliar to me until now, the texture of it is kind of like butter but with a more solid consistency and it smells not unfamiliar to feet. I took a sliced piece of lobe and took my yanagiba to cut it, it was like cutting butter but with a smoother feeling, I took one as is room temperature and one broiled with a blowtorch, I´ve been told to add a bit of salt and thats what I do.

First off, room temperature.
The first thing that pops into my mind is roquefort (bluecheese) and how good it would taste on a nice piece of steak. but then you feel this smooth buttery flavour and you dont have to swallow before the piece of foie disappears on your tounge.. The taste lingers with a salty touch.

Second bite, broiled with blowtorch.
On this bite you feel of a more nutty flavour, but it still strong in my mind that this tastes like a mild roquefort. As the previous piece this one also disappears before you know it, gone. And leaving a salty but smooth and buttery flavour.

Later before I went home I tried it broiled with the blowtorch, added my sashimi soy sauce that I make with katsuobushi flakes and some vanillasalt. BOOM, I real nice nutty flavour touches my tounge.. it reminds me of roasted chestnuts, sweet, salty and nutty at the same time..the flavours linger..so good.

Cant wait to use it at HOZE ! Multi-cultural and gives every thing it touches a delicate flavour !

Thanks Eric and Jana for the lobe slice I got from you guys ! Eye opener for sure !

//Hoze Seruda

Koicha Matcha.

2010-09-06T17:00:00.003+02:00

I bought this expensive high quality matcha (finely-milled Japanese green tea) and a whisk to go with. I think I´ve never spent so much money on tea before ! Dont even think I´ve spent so much money on a whisk either..! The whisk is made of bamboo and I think its called a "Chasen" you can read more about it here. (that´s the one I bought)

Taste.
The taste is rather sweet but not on a sugarsweet level. It´s like drinking a cake with a natural sweetness to it. You definitely get a hint of grass in there and the green of it is kind of attractive. It even smells different from cheap matcha (for baking) and is not at all bitter. If it werent so damn expensive I would drink it every day.

btw. "Otsukimi" (moon viewing) is here. If you haven´t tried mooncakes that are traditionally eaten during this festivity, I can recommend the one with taro. So get your mooncakes and a cup of high quality matcha and watch the moon at its beautiful whole state.

Ps. Mooncakes are often presented as gifts and are given to family and friends Ds.

//Hoze Seruda

Sushi Kaiseki Ryori. (Omakase Prix Fixe)

2010-09-03T12:12:00.004+02:00

So I´ve made the menu for wednesday. It might change a bit depending on if I can execute some of the dishes or not. I am inspired by traditional japanese dishes as new ones. I hope you like it. This is what is yet to come to HOZE in the future. This prix fixe menu lies on 1500sek per person. The Hassun (season set) is inspired by the "otsukimi" moon viewing. I´ve decided to not use as much seasonal products, I´ve orchestrated this menu on availability. Foie gras (goose liver) and summer truffles are hidden somewhere in this menu.

//Hoze Seruda.

Sumi Ika. At last !

2010-09-02T20:04:00.005+02:00

Finally I got my hands on "Sumi Ika" (oval squid) ! The texture was fantastic and creamy. I tested different cuts with different thickness and the thinner cuts were better suited for sushi than the thick ones, although also creamy I prefer thinner cuts. The taste was very subtle and worked well with freshly squeezed lime, "Hoze Shoyu" and vanilla salt. I added a bit of lightly shredded (with a microplane) summer truffle for a bit of luxury and it tasted delightful to say the least.

Special thanks to Hung my supplier, bringing me what I crave every time !

Photo taken from Flickr. (Bu Pun Su) Sukiyabashi Jiro in Ginza.

//Hoze Seruda

Omakase Prix Fixe. All the way.

2010-08-30T11:13:00.002+02:00

I´ve tried to get people to understand the essence of my cuisine. Some people get it, some people dont and some people are to afraid of stepping outside the boundaries of what is for them unknown. I tell people time after time that my sushi is not the ordinary sushi you get at any place here in Sweden, if you want avocado nigiri, only but salmon nigiri and california roll on your moriawase (chefs choice) then you are painstakingly misleaden. I dont do such kind of things and I will appoint you to the nearest sushibar some streets down. I haven´t gained my reputation by serving you what you want, I gained my reputation by letting people trust me, letting me choose what you should eat for today. As of this fall my menu will change with every season. I will offer prixe fixe at three different price rates and you will only be able to order them by calling or emailing me in advance. Exklusive items will only be served to omakase costumers and moriawase will be served with whats fresh for the day.

I will not let you choose. I will choose for you.

//Hoze Seruda.

MP ? SP ? Huh ?

2010-08-28T10:01:00.004+02:00

I´ve been wondering this question for a while now so I decided to google it (thank god for google) and I came up with the result so obvious it makes me cry out DUH ! As you may not know either.. I will now tell you what it stands for and if you dont know what I´m talking about I will give you an example.

MP stands for "Market Price"
Fatty tuna belly is often appointed as MP on menus. You dont get an exact price and this points to the price of it going up and down. Tuna is a very important stock market fish so prices goes up and down quite often so for making it easier for restaurant so they dont go and lose money if they sell the fish on a cheaper price than the stock market is selling it for. So that´s MP.

SP stands for "Seasonal Price"
This is for fish like sea urchin and other seafood (and such) that are at best in certain months and prices goes up just under those months and goes down on not so seasonal months.

If you go to a restaurant in Sweden you wont find this. But if you visit a restaurant that sells this kind of seafood like NOBU and Morimoto you will often find this on their menus.

//Hoze Seruda.

Fresh seafood frenzy !

2010-08-27T22:56:00.002+02:00

I went to the fish market today and saw all this good seafood.. ! Fresh oysters, fresh scallops in their shells and langoustines alive and fresh also.. ohh, I just knew I had to buy ! So I did.. 6 scallops, about 10 langoustines and 2 dozen oysters !

The Oysters I serve Japanese style with momiji oroshi, chives and ponzu but instead of ordinary ponzu I have this horseradish ponzu I call "Spicy Ponzu". Very good. The spicyness gives the oyster extra ocean sweetness than it already have.

The scallops I open and clean, and then I broil them on their shells with my spicy mayo sauce. then I add chives, momiji oroshi and tsume sauce.

The langoustines I crack open the tail and take out the sweet meat and make nigiri of it, I use the head and shell for broth for making soup.

BTW ! My ginger was such a big success I´m considering making it for the prix fixe menus I´m having on the last menu upgrade.

Pickled Ginger ! Gari of HOZE.

2010-08-27T10:24:00.000+02:00

I made my own pickled ginger as I mentioned in the previous post, I used old ginger instead of young ginger, and it gave it a bit more sting, It has a real potent yellow color and it tastes wonderful (offcourse its homemade) ! It wasnt cheap to make though, as you know ginger is a bit expensive but the result is worth it.

//Hoze Seruda.

Hoze Restaurant. LIKE.

2010-08-26T11:49:00.005+02:00

I made a "like" page for the restaurant on facebook now, so it is easer to get information on the restaurant open hours, pictures and updates. I even made a "like" link on the bottom right side of this page for you to click on "like" if you like it and then you will also be able to follow updates on whats happening and so on.

Pickled ginger ! Made it yesterday ! It takes about a day to pickle with my special pickle box so excited to taste it.. I´ll update you later.

//Hoze Seruda.

Soft Shell Crab Futomaki.

2010-08-25T20:28:00.003+02:00

I got few costumers today due to the stormy weather we are having.. I got a family of three coming to the restaurant today, mom, dad and son, the parents were looking at the menu and I could see they were excited to eat, but as it seemed their son only likes salmon..go figure, Swedish mentality is a hard one to bust. Salmon salmon salmon. So they left. I´m getting tired of this, salmon and avocado issue.. It´s starting to annoy me that people in Sweden think that salmon and avocado is sushi, nothing else. I´ve only met this phenomenon in Sweden (where else?) and its starting to wear me out. Why cant people appreciate new things ? As my Soft Shell Crab Futomaki ? Its full of deliciousness ! Packed with deep fried soft shell crab, curry mayonaise, black caviar, fresh red onion and iceberg salad. I even cut thin strips of cucumber and wrap the roll with it to give it extra crunch.. After seeing this picture I hope I will encourage you to order this, and some other things like my tartares and special sashimis with real wasabi ! Please trust me. Please order something else besides sushi moriawase.

//Hoze

Live Lobster Sashimi. Ikizukuri.

2010-08-24T10:46:00.003+02:00

I´ve done ikizukuri before, and I find it very amusing, at first you feel "this is wrong" in the back of your head, but the result is so marvelous you forget all that. I hate when people say "it doesnt feel pain", but they do have consciousness.. I always keep it in mind, it is a live animal after all. I had not done it in a while and after adding oysters to the menu I got the feel for doing it again..I´ve been hungry for testing Lobster Ikizukuri and soon the season starts. I have been exploring different kinds of seafood lately and I´m putting my finger on shellfish like lobsters, shrimps, crayfish and crabs now. As I said on my last post I´m planning to have a RAW BAR. But with a Japanese touch to it, serving live lobster, crayfish, oysters and other shelled creatures with Japanese sauces and preperation. Everything alive and fresh. Although I will be gentle and put the lobsters in the freezer for it to go to "sleep" when costumers ask this of me, other costumers will just want me to let the lobster be conscious when preparing it. Offcourse if costumers also sitting around this table agree with this also.

btw. Making my own gari today ! So excited !

If someone is up for discussion on the matter of live preperation please lend me your thoughts.
Here is a link to Andrew Zimmern eating Live Lobster Sashimi in Jewel Bako NYC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ZQal4xFkU&feature=related

Back on my feet.

2010-08-23T09:38:00.002+02:00

The transition to the new menu has been taking its toll on me.. ! I guess it was to much for me to handle, but no worries..I needed sacrificion to make it here. You need to spend money to earn money. Thats how things are in this world. Last week really opened up a new door for me, I´m getting closer and closer to the goal of having costumers not asking me if I have avocado nigiri (?!) and if I can make their sushi with just salmon..
They´re starting to trust me (omakase) and I´m getting the reputation I was after, I guess hard work pays off.

New stuff coming as well ! Just got two words for (last) upgrade 5.0 : RAW BAR.

//Hoze

Menu 2010. (and on)

2010-08-14T12:53:00.002+02:00

So after much consideration I´ve finally finished the new menu, the prices are a bit high, but so is the quality I bring to the table so bare with me. I still have to do the price per piece menu but that one is easy. Now I have tartars, tiraditos and special sashimis like big eye tuna with olivesalsa and swordfish with jalapeño and ponzu. I also added oyster shooters and non alcoholic beverages. I hope you like the new menu.

//Hoze Seruda

Hon Wasabi !

2010-08-13T22:19:00.004+02:00

Finally I got my hand on some real wasabi ! Thanks to my supplier, that I have a lot to thank for ! The wasabi came in a sealed bag 200g,shredded and frozen, it is frozen to 198 minus degrees celcius so it doesnt degrade in taste. I thawed just 50g of it in a plastic sealed container that comes with the shredded horseradish I usually buy so the air doesnt degrade its taste, I´ve heard it keeps for 2 weeks..I will taste it for everyday that goes by to test.

It smelled kind of earhty like roots use to smell like, and you could get a clear kick in your nose of that sweet tingy wasabi.

Just one lite smudge of wasabi tingles just right up your nose and it taste both earthy and sweet with a tremendous spice that was so special I can not explain it. I thought wasabi was like horseradish but I know now horseradish is more sweet in an other way and less potent. I love horseradish on my sushi, but wasabi is more fit for those pieces like tuna where the taste of real wasabi is needed.

//Hoze Seruda.

Spicy Ponzu.

2010-08-13T09:40:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I was playing around with some sauces and like a chemist I found the perfect formula ! I wanted to make a new sauce and was thinking of horseradish and soy sauce, I already had success with the katsuobushi soy sauce I use with my sushi, So I decided to use a similiar technique by making dashi and adding it to the soy sauce instead of cooking it all together with the soy. As I do with the Katsuobushi soy where I put all the ingredients together and boil it til' reduced 1/3. When the dashi and soy are put together I start to add fresh horseradish till I get that tingy feeling of horseradish, I needed to put something to spice it up a bit so I added chili paste..but that wasn´t enough. I started to think and then the simple idea of using lime that was just laying around came as an obvious idea ! Spicy with citrus juice = perfekt, as with ceviche and tiradito where both use spicy chili and citrus juice. I felt it felt some thickness but I didnt wanted it to be to thick and as I´m from the Mediterranean I added some good squeeze of olive oil. A sauce was born. Spicy Ponzu.

This one is for the tartar but I think it will work well with other dishes as well.
So I lended you into my mind a bit..I hope you enjoyed it !

//Hoze Seruda

Akagai ! Red Ark Shell Clam

2010-08-10T22:57:00.002+02:00

So my supplier got me some akagai ! Excellent mollusk with a beautiful orange red color from the (hemoglobin produced), it was silky as an oyster and tasted just a bit salty so I added a bit of freshly squeezed lemon and it tasted perfect ! Tomorrow I will test it on costumers, and I guess it will be a big hit ! Next item to try is king crab, I haven´t used any yet cause I am a bit unsure how to prepare it for sushi, but with a little bit of reading in my books and on the net I will be good to go, but if I know my crab right I know just a bit of lemon will do ! It will make well with the ceviche aswell I think.. Soon the menu is completed !

//Hoze

Upgrade 4.0

2010-08-10T11:30:00.003+02:00

I´ve been upgrading the seafood at my restaurant now under these eight months that have past since I first opened, I remember when I started I had a hard time finding the good quality fish, so I went and bought the things I could get, like the already nigiri cut stuff, and the cheapest rice I could get my hands on and yellowfin tuna..so bad..and so on. But now things have changed, I get the the best tuna, tilapia fillets of good quality, good squid..and hard to get stuff like tuna toro, abalone, sea urchin and different clams such as akagai, torigai..good quality hotate and oysters. I use 3 different types of rice that I blend 50-25-25% to get the best flavours and consistancy even my soy sauce is special, I cook it with katsuobushi flakes and soon I will start to get real wasabi (using fresh horseradish right now). The price went from 85sek for 8 pieces to 90sek. Now cause of the very good quality (and proud of it) I will start to charge 100 for 8 pieces. Trust me I´m cheap. For that quality fish I should charge more, but I dont do it for the money, I do it cause of my enjoyment to see people eat good seafood and knowing its good for the price they´re paying. I put a lot of hours in preparing it and because of that I do sushi courses so people can enjoy what they´re eating even more !
I hope people will understand that and my upgrade has yet to evolve. Phase 1 is all about getting the best seafood, Phase 2 starts next year (Publicity) and Phase 3 (restaurant upgrade) starts 2012.
//Hoze Seruda.

National Treasure.

2010-08-08T00:23:00.002+02:00

I´ve been complimented in many ways but never as a gem, a national treasure. I´m just a sushiman, I say, I make sushi. Try to make perfect rice, use the best seafood and make the sushi the right way. All it takes is passion and heart. As a guest said to me - Kaizen sushi, you make that.
Kaizen is translated as trying to succeed yourself everyday. I always say, - Always try to use the best ingredients and never inferior to what you used yesterday, everyday try harder, use better ingredients and strive forward. This is my philosophy as a sushi chef.

//Hoze Seruda.

Counter ! (+Omakase)

2010-08-07T10:10:00.000+02:00

So I made a counter for the blog, I start at 0. No need to be greedy ! So today is Omakase and it start around seven, but yesterday I got 2 costumers coming from Norway, and they where seriously determined to come and eat at my restaurant as they had heard it was the best in town. I couldnt agree more with them. I asked them what they liked and so on to see if we were on the same page, and gladly we were ! The thing is that they came fashionably late so I had no rice left, and I was about to close, And tomorrow was their last day in Gothenburg..I usually dont take in more guests when I have omakase I am closed for the day, but the seemed so determined I had to give them a chance to get a taste of HOZE Sushi ! So today at two a clock we made an appointment. They seemed a bit skeptic and talked awful lot of http://www.alexsushi.no/, Sashimi and rolls were on their mind, and one of them commented on nigiri being dull ?! Sushi IS nigiri..its the staple of it. I guess they have not had good nigiri yet so today I will prove them wrong ! YOSH !
We open again on sunday (if I´m still alive !)
// Mister Hoze
(the mister part is an homage to some very nice guests yesterday that kept calling me mister ! haha ^_^ )

Sushi Teacher.

2010-08-03T08:45:00.002+02:00

Today I take the role as Sushi Teacher. I have three different courses to offer, Crash Course, Novice, Master. The people coming today are taking the master course, In the master course I include an allround expierence from understanding the rice textures to different kinds of seafood. I let my "students" to work with luxurious items as abalone and tuna, even how to handle different parts of a salmon. Different techniques are learned for handling different ingredients for sushi and learning the rules of serving. With this mastercourse you will be a sushi tsu in no time.

//Hoze

Big Eye Tuna.

2010-08-02T10:44:00.002+02:00

So I got tired of the watery, tasteless yellowfin tuna a while ago so I stopped serving it in my restaurant. This unfortunate thing has made people fear tuna when coming to a sushi restaurant. They dont know what real tuna tastes like. But I´m here to bring tuna back ! (sexy back) ! The big eye came to my attention after one of Masaharu Morimoto´s intructional videos on the web a while ago. It had the same briny red color as bluefin and it seemed to at least taste similiar to it. I talked to my supplier and as the grandmaster of fixing stuff for me as he is, he got me the BIG EYE TUNA ! Hands down my friend ! I haven´t tried it yet but I'm getting some this week to try it out ! So excited ! I just have a feeling its gonna be good ! He even got a superfreezer to stock it in ! Well this month is packed with Omakase dinners and even a wedding ! GANBATTE !

//Hoze

Abalone !

2010-07-29T11:20:00.004+02:00

I finally got to try abalone. It was incredible ! I did it two ways, (as I had 2 of them) First things first, the work that goes behind these creatures must make them one of the most expensive sea creatures in the world to eat. When you get them you first need to take them out their shell without hurting the meat, after that you need to carefully remove the intestines and the liver, keep the liver for later, then you cut the sucking cup with one swift movement. After that you clean it with a brush under rinsing water. After all that work, you rub it in salt and rinse it once again under water, now its ready to use.

RAW
Now the abalone is very very hard ! You can either beat it soft or skillfully cut it very thinly and make small incisions in the meat for tenderizing. For the sauce you take the liver and cook it briefly with soy and rice wine, mince it and let it cool down. Make the nigiri and brush the sauce on it. Its gonna be a bit crunchy and the taste reminds me of when you go harvest mussels on the sea shore. Savory and a bit sweet. VERY GOOD !
STEAMED
Now for the steamed one. I take a chinese steam basket and put the abalone in the shell again but upside down (be sure to clean the shell as well for this one) Now put the abalone in the basket with shellside down. Now take a saucepan and add rice wine and water almost all the way up (be sure to use a saucepan thats slightly smaller then the basket). Bring to a boil and put the basket on top. Put the lid on the basket and let steam for 1-3 hours depending on the size of the abalone. Cut in thin slices and serve on a bowl with tsume sauce. (Sweet reduced soy sauce)
The taste will be very different from the raw one, Its gonna be sweet and taste a bit like duck with a touch of the sea. The texture will be al dente like, with a tender bite through feeling. Also VERY GOOD !

This was my experience of my 2 first abalone. I will explore other recipes to use for my restaurant. They are very expensive, $10-15 per ablone. Very hard to get where I´m from. (Sweden). But totally worth the price !

//Hoze

Miseducation of Sushi.

2010-07-17T14:55:00.004+02:00

A new era of bad sushi has come to Gothenburg. Remember the review of Sushi Yama ? As it turns out more sushibars are trying to follow the same concept.... Its okay to evolve from gigantic nigiris to smaller ones that actually fit in your mouth, but the thing is it doesnt change the fact that they still are doing it the wrong way. No wasabi between fish and rice is a major no no. This people doing it like this need to sit down and read about sushi history, things are done in a sort of way for a reason. Just following what someone else is doing is not the right way ! If you are going to make sushi learn of all the fish your preparing, learn how to prepare it properly, learn about the rice your using, is it the proper rice ? Vinegar mix ? How much do you need ? Figure it out, experiment with different amounts..dont just go and splash around until you think its okay, its very important to use the right amount. Where does your fish come from ? How is it prepared if for example Unagi (Freshwater eel) What tuna are you using ? What part ? Where is it from ? Learn the proper names, miseducation on your menu can lead to angry costumers getting something different of what the actually ordered ! I actuall saw the last time I ate sushi that Halibut was pointed out as Hamachi ?! Totally different fish. That is miseducation. If your making a roll learn the rules of how many pieces you should cut it into. The number 4 is to be avoided, Nigiris are actually different in taste if you compare a poorly made one from someone that actually doesnt the proper way. So it is important to learn everything, from history to basics. Dont serve something you acually dont even know what it is. So much fish is wasted and not brought to its potential.

/Picture show the proper way of making a nigiri. slice the nigiri, dab wasabi/horseradish, mold a ball of rice, put it on the fish, make an air hole.. press gently, flip it, press gently with your index finger(or fingers) and mold gently with your hand thats holding the fish and rice.

//Hoze Seruda.

Sushi serving dish upgrade.

2010-07-05T21:17:00.002+02:00

I was looking for Sukiyabashi Jiro plates and could not find them anywhere..So I made a bold move and bought me a set of white glazed tiles. I´m going to put some ruber underneath so they dont slip. The sushi will look more appealing on the clean white surface adn they will be easier to clean, I will also buy a bigger version of those glazed tiles and even a set of black ones. Also making a virgin cocktail list to add on the menu. We dont serve alcoholic beverage, so we decided to put virgin cocktails and non alcoholic wine on the menu, still looking for some good beer as an asahi but it needs to be non alcoholic.. If any suggestions please do suggest !

//Hoze Seruda.

F.A.S Scallops !

2010-06-30T16:57:00.003+02:00

I got F.A.S (Frozen By Sea) scallops today, I defrosted some and the consistency is just not what you would expect from ordinary frozen scallops, these are firm and the taste is equal to fresh ones. They didnt fall apart as ordinary frozen scallops do, I was a bit skeptic about them before I defrosted them, but now afterwards I feel F.A.S is the way to go. The word fresh in the market is not as fresh as you would expect, most of the stuff you think is "fresh" could actually have more than 9 days. So I think F.A.S is the way to go, if you want to go on the safe side.

HOZE Recommends :)

Sea Urchin Roe. DONE.

2010-06-29T15:46:00.003+02:00

I got in the sea urchin today at HOZE, the taste was good, rather sweet, ice cream consistence. The sweet ocean taste sticks to your nose and it is wonderful ! Definitely having it on the menu :)
I guess who have had it and dont like it have had a bad sea urchin. Temperature was crucial, and I think it works well with freshly squeezed lime or lemon. Also a bit of salt helps it to push the flavour forward, then with plain soy it didnt work, worked better with the shiitake tsume soy.

Well, thats my expierence. I think the sea urchin will work on the Swedish palate, I could guess it would work perfectly with some "brännvin" on the side. (Also the means with temperature I would say a bit frosty as a layer.)