Many consider a good beverage pairing an essential part of the sushi experience. Typically, the pairings are sake or wine; martinis rarely enter the picture. At Moody Tongue Sushi in the West Village, Manhattan, the elegant martini, at times infused with umami tomato or tart clementines, is central to their unique take on sushi pairings.
Unlike many sushi restaurants where the nigiri is the star, Moody Tongue’s martini pairings are all about sushi hand rolls. While the restaurant has an extensive sushi menu, the dining space features a separate hand roll bar. We tried the pairings firsthand and interviewed brewmaster Jared Rouben at Moody Tongue Sushi about the full experience.
A spirit-forward cocktail, the martini is not the first beverage that comes to mind with sushi. But Moody Tongue Sushi is all about unconventional beverage pairings (they also do beer pairings as well). “Our martini and hand roll pairings are really a fun extension of our beer pairing philosophy,” explained Rouben. “Where we are bringing together hand rolls with a particular cocktail — martinis — that allow us to focus on singular flavor profiles like cucumber, lychee, and jalapeño.”
The first thing to understand about hand rolls is while they share similar ingredients with nigiri — nori, sushi rice, and fish — the hand roll is larger, and this size difference is factored when pairing drinks. The hand rolls at Moody Tongue are larger than standard nigiri, taking about two to three bites to finish.
“The primary experiential difference between hand rolls and nigiri is that a hand roll consists of multiple bites,” explains Rouben. “So, when considering pairings, we design martinis with the intention of refreshing your palate between each bite.”
How to pair hand rolls with martinis
Examine the hand roll menu at Moody Tongue, and you’ll see some classic options, such as a well-executed fatty negi toro and salmon avocado. The most interesting, however, are the creative flavors. There’s a spicy scallop, which we tried. The soft scallop was excellent with the spice of the Calabrian chili. The most intriguing hand rolls we tried were the Orange Madai Hand Roll and the Ginger Mushroom. The Orange Madai had a pleasantly firm yet soft texture, highlighted by a strong fragrance of citrus and sea salt. The Ginger Mushroom is vegetarian, an uncommon option for sushi, but packed with umami.
But to get the full highlight of the menu, pay attention to the fine print. Listed underneath each hand roll is a martini suggestion. In the case of the negi toro, it’s the Negi Oil Gibson Martini and the Clementine Martini for the Orange Madai. This idea of pairing the specific ingredient common in both hand roll and martini is purposefully done. “Our pairings work for two primary reasons: either we are bridging a particular ingredient between the martini and the hand roll, or we are adding an ingredient in liquid form which we normally include in the hand roll itself,” Rouben said.
