Tabento [Costa Mesa]

Another holiday season spent in the OC and another unassuming Japanese sushi joint in a nondescript strip mall--a fairly uneventful holiday, but also a new interesting find.

The short story on Tabento is that it offers your typical sushi rolls with an added wow factor and some atypical creations that are a cut above the rest. While our albacore nigiri warranted an instantaneous mmm and a raised eyebrow in delight, the hamachi was a tad fishy and probably less fresh than it should have been. Over the course of three days and two meals here, this was the extent to which I delved into the nigiri choices.

The Shrimp Boat first caught our attention in the picture menu before captivating our taste buds with its textural combination of creamy quail egg and crab and crunchy mentaiko (cod roe) and ama ebi (raw prawns). The tangy piquantness of the ponzu sauce is a welcome surprise for your taste buds, since you almost expect the combination to be sweet and mellow.

The Soft-Shell Crab Roll ($10), Crunchy Roll ($8.50), and Caterpillar Roll ($10) were all similarly good, though not outside of the realm of what you'd expect. They are, however, visually stunning in their magnitudes and constructions with proportions that awe.

I didn't grab a photo from last time, but the Spicy Tuna Crunchy Roll was also a must-order, with spicy tuna piled atop a crispy rice onigiri ball and topped with a thinly sliced jalapeno. The heat was subtle, striking the back of your tongue in the most pleasant way possible.

Next time, I'll venture into the appetizer portion of the menu, where there are some interesting picks to choose from. Don't forget to flip through the photo albums sitting on your table, since it'll offer a lot of inspiration for your ordering.

This is what I miss most about moving to Northern California--there's nowhere near the same caliber of sushi restaurants and especially ones that are as off the radar as the places you'll find here in good ol' Orange County.

Tabento Sushi & Sake
1525 Mesa Verde Dr. #E
Costa Mesa CA 92628
(714) 545-0600

Anjin [Costa Mesa]

I ventured here one hungry night and was turned away by the two-hour wait on a weekend night. I managed to get seated within 5 minutes on a weekday night at a decent dinner hour. But it has been reported that no matter what time or day, the line will be exhausting. You're best to bring a deck of cards or a DS.

Anjin is a do-it-yourself Japanese BBQ which also offers dishes that don't require the use of the table grill. On this particular night, I managed to sample a variety of dishes despite the small party. I'd say that the portions are small and the bill will rack up fast.We started with beef tongue which was just as tough as expected. What was not expected was that it wasn't as chewy as other beef tongues I've had and I actually enjoyed this one.

Thankfully, the bacon wrapped asparagus came with another vegetable -- corn! I don't like charred food and so the bacon was hard to cook on the grill for me. I didn't want any blackness and I found it hard to get it to a nice crispy texture without doing so. Therefore, I had slightly undercooked bacon. The asparagus was nothing special. I'd rather order this dish already prepared than have to cook it myself.

The squid (bottom left) was chewy like the beef tongue but not nearly as good. I found it rather boring even with some lemon juice.

The prime outside skirt (above right) was one of the best dishes of the night. The meat was incredibly tender and utterly delicious.


I decided to be adventurous and ordered the marinated raw beef with egg yolk. After mixing it like a bowl of bimbimbap, I got a gooey mixture of beef, greens and apples. I believe this is an acquired taste. It resembled sashimi but the fact that it was beef and not fish kept pounding through my mind and ultimately it was too different for me. I'll have the admit that the taste isn't all that bad though.

To finish the night, I got an almond milk pudding. It was beautifully sliced into a lattice and the pudding was nice and firm, almost gelatin-like in texture. And the taste was very subtle.

Anjin
3033 Bristol Street
Suite N
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 979-6700

Icepan [Santa Ana]

Icepan follows in the wake of gimmicky frozen treats for summer with its takeover of the old Golden Spoon on Bristol. The concept is simple: custom-made ice cream, frozen, and mixed without preservatives right before you eyes.

Okay. So I guess it's not that simple.

My mom tried to entice me with the above description, which I thought sounded pretty similar to Cold Stone's. When she said that no it wasn't, I was left no choice to visit and capture my own frame of reference.

An order at Icepan happens in four steps:

1. Pick your size. 7 ounces at $4.75 or 9 ounces at $5.75
2. Choose your flavor: Vanilla, chocolate, green tea, yogurt, strawberry, banana, mango, or kiwi
3. Figure out how creamy you want your frozen treat: soy milk, nonfat milk, low-fat milk, whole milk
4. Decide on mix-ins: various fresh fruits and dry toppings, which you can have stirred in or on the side

The servers then perform their magic and proceed to create your made-to-order ice cream by concocting a milk-based juice and setting aside your toppings. The liquid mixture is then tossed onto something that looks like a crepe pan and using the motion you often see at Cold Stone's, your ice cream begins to freeze right in front of your eyes! After it starts to solidify, toppings are chopped up and mixed in. The drawback to getting exactly what you want is the 5-minute wait it takes to get your order ready for eating.

Pictured is the owner (whose name I didn't catch), who was very interested in our photo taking and who took a minute to explain the concept to us. The entire operation is meant to be very natural without chemicals, preservatives, or added sugars. Because the ice cream's are custom, this means that diabet, lactose-intolerant, or others with dietary restrictions can still have their ice cream and eat it too. If you bring in your own fruit or Lactaid milk, they'll mix those in for you as well.

Though I don't tend to like banana ice cream, our sample of whole-milk banana was probably the best flavor we tried all day. We also had nonfat strawberry with kiwi, banana, and granola, as well as the soy yogurt with kiwi, strawberries, and mango.

The ice creams themselves were less sweet than normal, but almost to the point of blandness. Dont get me wrong. I'm a proponent of whole foods just as much as the next tree hugger you'll find poring over ingredient lists. It's just that when you rely on nature to provide flavor, you better be damn sure that nature is ripe and at the height of picking. And as original as the concept is, you're still looking at a franchise that is receiving its ingredients from headquarters. A little agave nectar or honey might have compensated for the lack of flavor.

I'd suggest ordering the toppings on the side, since they freeze on the pan when mixed in--it kinda defeats the purpose of having fresh fruit. Across the board, the ice creams have a slightly smoother texture, since there isn't any air being whipped into them.

Our bill came out to $14 for two smalls with three toppings each, which is pretty steep for ice cream. We did, however, manage to nab ourselves a "magic" calculator, a grand-opening gift courtesy of Icepan.


Icepan
3930 S Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA, 92704
(714) 662-3800

Ikko Japanese Restaurant [Costa Mesa]

Though I've been for dinner a few times (1), today was my first venture into lunch. I have always been intrigued by Ikko's lunch menu, which isn't your standard bento box affair. There was no miso soup or chicken terriyaki in sight. We tried the lunch special, which was a special roll and a chicken meatball and baked mochi soup with daikon radish. The soup was a little on the salty side, but the special roll was a light and sweet combination of tamago, eel, and shrimp.

The same sushi chefs were there for lunch, though sushi specials are featured primarily in the evening. We built our meal primarily on sushi and ventured outside of our comfort zones by blindly ordering. My first encounter with pen shell was on the tasting menu at Cyrus and if that was good, the sushi was mind blowing. The pen shell belongs to the same family as scallops and is expectedly sweet. What is unexpected is the range of flavor, which your mouth explores as the pen shell slowly melts away. Don't miss it.

From left to right: Taraigai (pen shell), Aji (Spanish mackerel), Hamachi (yellowtail)

We were dazzled by the progression and freshness of our sushi, which was dressed with restraint to bring out the natural qualities of the fish. I will vouch for Ikko once more and this time designate it as a C'est Poptastique! pick.