the closest i've been to making it is warming up a good bottle of sake.
but i've been there for work a few weeks and i loved pretty much everything they threw at me. the one thing that was take it or leave it was grilled cuttlefish. like chewing a belt. one special night they took me out and we had basicall live sushi. a red snapper still alive, cut sashimi style and right onto the wooden plate.
so yeah man, show me some good stuff to try to make. fresh fish is not an option here.
Here's a really simple garnish for spinach:
6 dried shitake mushrooms
2 T sake
2 T mirin*
2 T soy sauce (shoyu)
Just barely cover the dried mushrooms with lukewarm tap water and soak for 30 minutes
Decant water, reserve water and mushrooms separately. Water
Cut the stems from the soaked mushrooms.
Heat a small sauce pan, add sake and mirin, allow to simmer and cook off the alcohol.
Pour in the water (up to 1/4 cup) from the mushrooms, bring to simmer, reduce by about 1/2
Add the soaked mushrooms, allow to simmer to reduce liquid a little more
Add the shoyu, return to simmer.
Simmer the mushrooms until just a little syrupy liquid remains, turn off heat, remove from heat, cover and let sit for about 10 minutes. Practically all liquid should be absorbed. It's OK if not but that's the goal.
If using frozen spinach, heat 1/4 cup water to boil in a saucepan, add 1-pound package of frozen spinach, bring water back to boil, reduce heat to medium, cover and let cook for a few minutes. Check and continue to simmer the spinach until it is heated through. Drain and ciik the spinach in a colander cool under cold running water. Gather up the spinach and squeeze water out by hand.
If using 1 pound of fresh spinach, tear off leaves, wash and drain.
To finish:
Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat; before it gets too hot and starts to smoke, add 2 T olive oil and 1 minced clove of garlic. Stir for a few seconds until garlic is fragrant.
Add fresh or thawed spinach, stir all together until the spinach is thoroughly coated with hot oil and spinach is wilted -- about 1 minute -- if pan is really hot. If there is a lot of water, continue to stir-fry for a few more minutes over high heat to drive off the water. A tiny amount of water remaining is what you want.
Stir in 1 T soy sauce and 1 T mirin. Stir-fry for a minute and plate into two or more portions. Top with the salty-sweet mushrooms.
*mirin is a salty-sweet rice wine used to add sweetness to balance salty soy-sauce. Kikkoman makes a decent product.