Date Night at Kitanoya Guu

Once a week, we try to go out on a date to spend quality time with each other. Most of our dates usually include food since that is our passion. This week, I was really craving Peking Duck, but Will didn't feel like stuffing his face with grease nor did he want "white food". On that note, we decided we'd get sushi or something Japanese, since that is usually lighter fare. Since Nanchuu changed their menu, there's not a lot of places to go on a weekend night that has a bumpin' atmosphere. So Guu it is. We went to the Richmond location inside Aberdeen since it's convenient and we don't have to cross any bridges. If you are looking for a quieter setting, this would not be the place to go. There's a lot of yelling in the restaurant. Every time a customer enters or exits they are greeted and every time you place an order in, your server yells it towards the kitchen.

Beef tongue was the first dish that came. I know the TONGUE part doesn't sound very appetizing. In fact, it took me a little bit to get over it. Will loves all his intestines, innerds and other animal body parts and he really wanted this so I agreed. I can't control every that the he eats (LOL)! Took my bite into the first piece, it was surprisingly tender. If you can get over the fact it's a cow tongue, it is actually quite tastey. There is a bit of chopped green onion, mustard and chilli powder that you can use as you can see on the side of the plate.

Baked scallops and potatoes with cheese was next. This is a fairly simple dish. I guess because scallops are more on the expensive side, adding the potatoes this dish more substantial in size. I think there was just enough scallops and potatoes together where neither of the items dominated the other. You could definitely still taste the scallops amidst the potatoes. And who doesn't like cheese? Cheese makes everything good in this world!

I like the raw stuff when we go for Japanese food. On the fresh sheet last night, there was this special called the "Deluxe Tuna Box." It came with six different items and it looked like it was a good value. This box included two pieces of tuna sushi (one red and one white), two pieces of tuna sashimi, one piece of fried tuna, tuna yukke (the red portion on the top right), crazy tuna, and albacore tuna. The crazy tuna was a salad and the texture was very interesting, it reminded me of jerky, it had a certain toughness to it. I love yukke anything!! I think yukke just means they serve it with a bit of chopped onions and some type of vinegar. The albacore tuna was lightly seared. I like albacore tuna because it always tastes so meaty! The sashimi and sushi were nothing out of the ordinary, but I do appreciate the freshness of it.

Trio of fish were up next. This was another one of my choices. The special's last night was a piece of Spanish Mackerel, Striped Jack and Yellowtail negiri sushi for $7.50. Not the oh so ordinary kind of fishes on the menu, which is nice. While salmon, tuna and etc are good, its nice to have choices There's plenty of fish in the sea right?! These variety of fish to me had a similar texture to tuna, a bit more on the fatty side but the flavour is more delicate. As good as these were, I would have liked it more had they been a bit more cooler in temperature. I don't know if it was the handling or the fridge, but they tasted a little bit towards the warm side.

We each picked three pieces of sushi. From the left side in the picture are Will's two uni sushi, and large roe eggs. I had the chopped scallop, tuna and tobiko. I'm not really a huge fan of uni. I can't get over the texture as mentioned in the kiriri post. Will loves them, loves them enough that he had to have at least two. He calls them his "brains." When he had the large roe this time around, I think he found it to be too fishy, but there is nothing that he doesn't like so no complaints there. My choices of sushi were good. I really like how they top it off with a quail egg, it adds something different to it.

Kimchi udon was our filler course. The noodles are first cooked in hot water then fried up in a wok that goes up in flames with mentaiko sauce, then its topped up with some kimchi and nori. I wish I could have taken a picture of the wok up in flames, but there were too many things in the way. Nori (aka seaweed) tastes good on top of anything! It adds flavour and texture. The kimchi was alright, but it was more on the sour side for me, I could have done without it.

Gindara (grilled black cod) was the last item at dinner. This dish is usually on the more expensive end, and we usually have it grilled and dip it into Japanese mayo. They make it a little different here at Guu. It was marinated in soy sauce then topped with garlic chips. The fish still had that nice soft texture with the buttery after taste, but the marinade might have made it too salty. In comparision,  I still like the one at Tora Renbo better.

On a side note, I am half way through my bike challenge! After work and before going out to dinner, we did a small loop around Richmond. We went down the dyke towards the tunnel then back up around on Westminster. I'm doing better with my gear changing, gaining better confidence and am improving on my speed. Yay!!