Azabu Kuro-Shari

At Azabujuban sushi restaurant Azabu Kuro-Shari, you can have your sushi any color you want, as long as it’s black. This isn’t just a humorous reference to Henry Ford’s famous saying: the sushi rice at Azabu Kuro-Shari is literally black. (“Kuro shari” in Japanese literally means “black sushi rice.”) This isn’t just for aesthetic purposes. Azabu Kuro-Shari is built around the concept of “sushi x inner beauty.” The product of six years of rigorous experimentation by health foods and cosmetics company Pro Labo Holdings, the restaurant’s black rice gets its color through a combination of organic brown rice mixed with edible activated carbon made from palm kernel shells. The effect — aside from making the rice a striking jet-black that looks like squid ink — is twofold. According to Azabu Kuro-Shari, regular white sushi rice has a high glycemic index, due to its high levels of polish and, depending on the restaurant, the addition of refined sugar. Treated instead with fermented plants and organic blue agave syrup, the unique shari rice used by Azabu Kuro-Shari not only boasts a lower glycemic index, but also neutralizes the mercury and heavy metals present in fish by what it claims to be 90%. With a thick, luscious slice of hon-maguro perched atop the rice, the beautiful contrast of dark red tuna and black rice tastes just as good as it looks. The distinctive black color extends even to the rolled omelet in the restaurant: Azabu Kuro-Shari darkens this sushi staple by mixing the same activated carbon as in its rice into the omelet. The result is a perfect, black disc of egg that the restaurant called kuro-gyoku. But why stop there? The restaurant itself is draped in shadow, with dramatic lighting and contemporary, monochromatic geometric art adorning the walls. Guests settle into plush, scarlet chairs lined up at the counter, and prepare to have their whole conception of “sushi” overturned.