Too Much Sushi

I've been to Japan, but Japanese food is not an obsession of mine, although I like it once in a while. I find it a bit. . . lacking in spice and strong flavours compared to other Asian cuisines. Anyways, I've eaten Japanese food probably 3 times in the last six weeks, thanks to my new favourite sushi restaurant.

Kyoto Japanese Cuisine on 109th Street near the University was recommended by an old friend who evidently loves sushi. My first visit was with my sister, for sushi. I had sake . . . big mistake as it was nasty stuff. To me, it was floral plus alcohol equals nail polish remover. . . or maybe hairspray. I was really impressed with the diverse dinner menu of sushi and other Japanese things. I had toro, spicy tuna, unagi, and scallop sushi. I enjoyed all of them. I especially liked the scallop, which I could not remember having before. It was very tender and I really liked the texture. The flavour was characteristically mild. I also tried the jellyfish salad, which was very tasty with a lot of sesame flavour. My sister and I split some fried squid to start with. It seemed okay.

On my second visit, I was pretty disappointed with the tempura in my tempura udon. I ordered it because my throat was sore. The broth and noodles hit the spot, but the tempura were too greasy. . . I know they're fried but still. They weren't fried well.

So, on my third visit with my mom, we avoided fried foods. We also ordered way too much. The yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), were unremarkable as the sauce lacked flavour. We both agreed that this was the element that should have been left out of the order. We also had meat gyoza (dumplings). To me, they were a bit bland. But my mom liked them as she's a dumpling fan and I still ate three even though I was stuffed. We tried some special salads. I had the Kyoto one and she had the seafood one. I enjoyed the presence of salad greens in an otherwise nearly vegetable matter free meal. My salad had four large pieces of barely seared (ie nearly raw) fish and some black fish roe. For sushi, I had scallop, salmon, and baby tako (baby octopus). Scallop and salmon were good as expected. The baby tako was quite striking in appearance with two reddish purple baby tako on each roll. They were difficult to eat delicately due to their size. However, the tako was very tender and not too chewy. All in all, it was a very good meal. My mom seemed to enjoy her spicy tuna rolls and unagi. I challenge anyone not to like unagi. Seriously, barbecued eel is good. Now I definitely know where to go for sushi, if not for Japanese fried food.

In Japan, I went to one sushi restaurant of the rotating-sushi-track variety. I don't remember what I ate except for some rolls topped with clear, colourless worm-like things with black eyes that I was told were baby eels. I ate them even though it was a roll that my Japanese host family wouldn't touch. I was a crazy eater even at 15.