Dashi maki at Hakkei
The "egg omelet" at Hakkei is the most dully-described menu item, and yet, it's one of the best dishes, or at the very least, the most entertaining to watch in its preparation.
The entire dining room of Hakkei (ok, so it's just 20 or so of us in this intimate restaurant) is watching Chef Seiya Masahara make an egg omelet. This is the chef that beat Morimoto using anglerfish on the Iron Chef Japan stage, and we're watching him make scrambled eggs. Except that's not really an accurate description of it: The better term for what he's making is dashi maki, in which dashi is the predominant flavor, not eggs. It's the puff pastry of egg omelets, achieved by rolling layers and layers of thin sheets of egg in a tamago pan, a shallow, square pan. You can watch the video of Masahara making dashi maki here, as he ladles egg beaten with dashi, uses chopsticks to break up any air bubbles, and then rolls it four times, using his chopsticks to maneuver, and gently easing the pan so as not to break the loose eggs. He repeats this, at least five times. The dashi maki is served, sliced like a cake roll and topped with grated daikon, the softest, lightest eggs you may ever eat.
Hakkei, 1436 Young St #103, 944-6688
