Awhile ago, we were in the city, specifically wandering around Japantown to use up a photography class I purchased for us on Groupon. Unfortunately the class was pretty useless to us but at least I got to spend time in Japantown, oogle at the gorgeous fish at the Amano store, and lastly, get an awesome lunch at On the Bridge. They serve yoshoku which is westernized Japanese cuisine.
I’m very partial to mentaiko sometimes also called tarako depending on what kind of fish it came from (pollack or cod) but it is now more interchangeably used. When I eat at Tanto, Gochi, or Sushi Tomi, I usually order some sort of roasted rice ball with mentaiko in there (yakionigiri).
Years ago, when I was still living in San Diego, they opened up a Curry House and I immediately got hooked on their Ika Mentaiko Spaghetti, which essentially spaghetti noodles tossed with mentaiko and topped with some poached squid. It was briney, savory and delicious! Curry House made its way up to Cupertino, complete with the manager from SD so it was really nice when she recognized me up here.
I saw that On the Bridge served mentaiko spaghetti so Sam and I wandered in for lunch. They also served all sorts of random fusion Japanese dishes such as hamburg, various flavors of spaghetti, and a good variety of curries and donburis.
I had the mentaiko spaghetti:
Hubster ordered the unagi-don:
I was so inspired by seeing these pictures well probably more inspired by my hunger and I picked up the ingredients so that I could make it at home.
MMMmmm….