Ootoro made a name for itself as an omakase specialist, and the goal here is the same. Many of his best customers at the Walnut location for the past few years have been driving in regularly from Irvine, he tells me. “How did you choose Irvine,” I casually ask the chef/owner one night when he happens to be dining at the sushi counter a couple of seats down from me. “This is amazing,” he says, “I’ve never had anything like this. And just as I say this, his shrimp comes alive again, squirming wildly. I lean toward the friend, who is still clutching his wine. The flavor is sweet, almost like syrup, but with a salty ocean-y finish. I clamp my teeth into the flesh, and the shrimp pulls apart more easily than I expected. I pick up the shrimp with my fingers and push it halfway into my mouth. But don’t look up because the chef is watching.” If it’s too overwhelming, dunk it in the soy sauce. “Are you sure we can’t use soy sauce?” he whispers. My friend takes a large sip of wine, and another, bracing himself. I’m envisioning two mouthfuls at the very least. Normally, live sweet shrimp in sushi bars are fairly small, with bodies that can easily be eaten in a single mouthful. My shrimp’s antennae are furiously wiggling, his eyes trained on me with laser focus as I reach for his body, which is glistening, almost translucent, brushed with a fine glaze of house-made soy. I’ve always had a hard time with raw shrimp.” One of my dining companions, who just returned from a three-week vacation in Japan, leans toward me and whispers, “I’m not sure I can eat this without soy sauce. “No soy sauce,” he says, making eye contact and nodding to make sure we understand. Their dismembered heads and bodies sit side by side, a couple of inches apart but still very much alive. The bowls are filled with ice, topped with the live shrimp he has just dismantled. The chef reaches over the sushi counter and places a bowl in front of each of us.
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