Musha (Santa Monica)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 0:23
The pure tofu (vegan if you don’t put in bonito flakes) is something we always order. Its their home made tofu, which has a cottage cheese-like texture with some seasoning on the side: chives, sea salt, fresh grated ginger, and their special soy sauce. It’s rich, creamy, and the vegan boyfriend says that it reminds him of cottage cheese.
I also had the Butakim, which was pork belly sauteed with kim chi. The pork belly was tender, flavorful thanks to the kimchi, and delicious. This was the first time I had it and I’ll definitely order it again. The dallop of kewpie mayonaise on the side was a nice touch and added even more richness to the dish.
As a carb dish, I ordered the spicy fried rice. I forgot what it was called on the menu, but it’s in the rice section and the description said something about ground pork. It was decent, but I make better fried rice at home.
One of their specials was the rapini (vegan), which I think is under their menu as “rape blossoms”. They’re tasty and tender, but I think the price is a bit high for the portion you get.
Something we order everytime we go there is their stone pot rice (vegan). It’s rice mixed with preserved salty vegetables and some mountain vegetables all cooked in a stone pot. The stone pot makes the rice crunchy if you leave some in it for a few minutes after they bring it. Protip: ask for a cup of hot tea after you empty the pot and then pour the hot tea into the stone pot and drink it. Delicious!
Lastly, I have my favorite dish: aburi saba. It’s marinated mackerel that the server will scorch with a blow torch right at your table. Despite the cool-factor of a small hand-held blow torch, the marinated mackerel makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I think this time, it was even served with a side of real wasabi.
Musha’s a great place to go as long as you don’t have to wait too long for a table. They have some decent sake and the usual Japanese beers and even though it’s loud in there, I wouldn’t mind it if a date brought me there.
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Musha
424 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-6330
By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.
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Jonah says:
May 14th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Oddly enough, even though I live in Santa Monica, I have only been to the Musha in Torrance. Two of my favorites there are the beef tongue and the MFC (Musha Fried Chicken). I heard that the Torrance location has a few more traditional Japanese dishes compared with the Santa Monica location. Have you tried the risotto? That seems like a popular dish at Musha, served out of a large parmesean wheel.
Louise says:
May 14th, 2008 at 8:54 am
@Jonah Yes I’ve tried the risotto and it is delicious - very rich and creamy. And the cheesewheel is just cool.
Taste-Buzz says:
May 14th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Great pro-tip. A lot of izakaya faire is Korean-influenced, and the stone-cooked rice / tea combo is quite a normal phenomenon in Korean cuisine, especially at a soondubu joint. In fact, it’s hard not to deny Musha’s overall Korean influence, which is real Asian fusion IMO.
Will says:
February 11th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
btw, we now know that the rape flowers aren’t vegetarian (fish broth in the sauce). In general, I would be very cautious about ordering vegetarian food at Japanese restaurants, since fish-based dashi (stock) tends to be in a lot of the sauces, and often the servers don’t know, or don’t think about it, even if you ask directly.