When terminusest was planning his trip here, I asked him if he would like to go to Mashiko Restaurant for the Omakase (chef's choice). His response was an enthusiastic, "Hell yeah!" Last Saturday we visited Mashiko with a party of nine, including myself, jkling, terminusest, mcjulie, paulcarp, and four other people. Seven of us ordered Omakase. The restaurant very kindly accommodated paulcarp's onion allergy by serving his portions separately sans onion. For our eating pleasure, the chef prepared:

• sea bass infused with something none of us caught the name of
• Pacific yellow clams and Japanese scallops
• little crabs and fishies, deep-fried - This was a very popular dish at our table.
• poke made with albacore, 2 or 3 kinds of seaweed, ginger, onions, brown sugar and more!
• four kinds of sushi on a platter: sockeye, inata (?), bluefin, skipjack
• monkfish liver paté with octopus - Most of us weren't particularly wild about this item, but we cleaned the platter nonetheless.
• monkfish, deep-fried - Deep-frying makes everything better!
• marinated grilled tuna - Chunks of tuna that looked and tasted like beef, but with the texture of fish.
• toro - I think this was fatty tuna. It was one of the specials listed on the board that night.
• 3 kinds of fish, including cod and the cheek of some other fish
• unagi rolls with walnut topping and soy bean wrapper - The last course had a slightly sweet sauce.

The check came with some gummy candies, mostly fruit-flavored except for one that had a white wrapper and a picture of a cow on it. That one turned out to be some sort of gummy milk candy.