Right around the corner from my new loft in Brooklyn is a Japanese restaurant called Gen. I have been frequenting it quite often. My friend Lina noticed on our last visit together that they had a brunch, so I was excited to see what their offering of breakfast food would be. They have a set menu where you get a choice of a few entrees, as well as a mimosa, tea, soup, chirashi, and a dessert all for 13$.

I ended up picking the only entree I did not already know, renkon hasami age. It was renkon (lotus root) stuffed with salmon and deep fried. The renkon had a rich heavy flavor that is well suited to be deep fried. It was ofset by the salmon inside, adding a well needed saltines. It appears that there was also a shiso leaf inside, but I don’t remember tasting it that strongly. Next up was the chirashi (pictured above). The fish was good quality, as would be expected from Gen, but what really blew me away was the rice below it. It was sushi rice mixed with a schiffanade of shiso, yukari (dried red shiso), and edamade. It was so delicious, I could have eaten a whole bowl. Yukari has an even stronger flavor than shiso, it was really tangy. Also pictured is a clam and wakame soup, an unagi omelet, and a pineapple spring roll in a mango sauce.

July 8th, 2008 by John (Cho-Tabetai)