Fun With Carbs

I turned Not Thirty on July 9. (The last year I can legitimately say that.) Yes, I’m another year older, another year wiser, and now in possession of a brand-new Canon Rebel DSLR camera, a birthday present from my fantastic husband. The gift came just in time for our long weekend in Ogunquit, Maine – a seafood lover’s paradise.

For the past three summers, our first-night dinner spot has been Black Sushi House, located in the center of town. We were first tipped off to Black by way of a frantic text message from our foodie friends, vacationing there three weeks before us in July of 2008. The photo they sent was of a maki roll absolutely smothered in lobster meat. Suddenly, our pizza dinner didn’t look so hot after all.

This is Black’s “Lobster x 2″ roll, a lobster and avocado roll topped with baked lobster and crab with lobster roe, eel sauce and green onion. It is one of the most amazing things I’ve eaten in my 29 years on this earth.

Before we get to this lobster behemoth, let’s talk more about Black. It opened in 2007, with the intent of “filling the need for a top-tier sushi restaurant in the southern Maine area,” according to its website. Since then, it’s received popular press accolades, most recently from Down East magazine.

Black is a tiny yet very sleek and modern eatery, decorated in black and silver accents with beautiful phaleanopsis orchid plants in the street-facing windows. The tables seat maybe 20 guests at most. (There are a few tables on an outdoor patio, and several seats at the sushi bar.) It’s intimate and serene enough that I felt like a jackass when I pulled out my new, flashy camera. But these sushi creations deserved the fancier lens.

The restaurant is BYOB, which allowed us to bring a chilled bottle of my summer-of-2010 white wine obsession, Martín Códax Albariño.

We started with the oyster shooters, of which we downed about 20 (pre- and post-dinner) last year with our foodie friends. Sadly, they couldn’t join us this year, so we stuck to a half-dozen for the two of us. There was no mistaking the freshness of these huge oysters, but the complicated blend of ponzu, caviar, green onion and sriracha just overwhelmed the bivalves. (I’m someone that likes raw oysters with just a few drops of lemon.)

The lobster x 2 was a given, so we picked out two other rolls to share. Black’s  Sweet Jesus roll, with escolar, shiso leaf, lemon, avocado and citrus tobiko, was so refreshing and clean that it almost served as a palate cleanser in itself. The Mango Madness roll – with spicy tuna, fresh mango, avocado and asparagus – perfectly blended sweet, spicy and fresh. Far from the haphazard tuna mash you’ll see at inferior sushi places, this roll uses whole pieces of fresh tuna drizzled with a light coating of spicy mayonnaise. Pieces so big, in fact, that the tuna dangled out of the end of the roll.

But we’d come for the flagship, the pinnacle, the zenith, the you’ve-never-seen-anything-like-it menu item. And it was bigger and better than ever.

When the Lobster x 2 roll was delivered to our table, I almost fell off my chair. Resting on top of the maki were FOUR huge pieces of claw meat, baked and tossed in a light, spicy sauce. With an explosion of flavors, textures and temperatures, it was almost an embarrassment of riches, and certainly something you’d expect to pay more than $20 to sample.

Do yourself a favor, and take a night off from the clam shack – or the overpriced “new-American” bistros. Treat your tastebuds to something truly amazing.

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Black Sushi House, 259 Main St. Ogunquit, Maine, 207-646-0727, blacksushihouse.com