Sushi

Last week, by chance, I ended up at sushi twice in the same week. A meal that is every so often, but impresses me each time none-the-less.

I can't quite understand how I can eat 3 rolls of sushi and walk out of a sushi place and yet not feel stuffed. If I for example eat 18 boneless wings - I'll be feeling that in my stomach and body for a solid minute. Granted maybe 18 wings and 3 sushi rolls aren't comparable - it always seems I'm never stuffed when eating sushi.

Like you have dipping sauce for wings, the combination of soy sauce mixed with wasabi and ginger builds such a strong sauce to dip sushi bites - I'm surprised more people don't mix and match these strong competing flavors.

Finish a roll and want to cleanse your palate? Just enjoy a bite of pickled ginger and you are well on your way.

Want to clear out sinuses and take a breath of fresh air? Just add a little dollop of wasabi onto your next sushi bite.

Want a bit of greenery prior to your sushi? Enjoy a ginger salad which is such an interesting twist on the basic house salad.

So what do I normally get in terms of sushi? My go-to is always some form of tuna, whether white tuna, spicy tuna, fatty tuna, etc. Those two rolls pictured above are:

• Black Widow (top) - spicy tuna, cucumber, tuna, eel sauce, spicy mayo, green onions
• Fire On You (bottom) - spicy tuna, crab mix, crunch, soy paper, white tuna, spicy mayo, eel and chili sauce

Any roll that is tuna based attracts my attention. I don't know how to explain but the taste of raw tuna is absolutely amazing. Once I learned about fatty tuna I learned the taste could get even better. White tuna isn't exactly better, but has a more salty taste than the regular and a good companion to any tuna role.

This means often times I'll have to take part in sashimi/nigiri depending if I'm in the mood for rice or not.

Some places are fancy and like to give little boats to house the sushi. Personally not a fan and would appreciate just a regular plate, but it was interesting the first time. Pictured above is 4 slices of fatty tuna sashimi style.

So my trips to sushi break down to the following:

• ginger salad
• 2-3 rolls that are tuna based
• a solid amount of consumed ginger and wasabi
• ice cold water to handle the heat

Once thing I've learned to detect great sushi from okay sushi is the color of the ginger. If you find yourself with pink/red ginger - chances are that food won't be as good as the sushi place serving white colored ginger.

Now every once awhile a real special occasion arises to elevate the sushi experience even further. This can be done with seasonal Omakase which literally translates to "I leave it up to you". This means you generally sit through 10-20 courses of trying a single slice of very high quality sushi from the chef.

This experience might have fresh wasabi where its actually grated finely from the underground root of the plant. They may even be pickling the ginger themselves keeping the original color. You might not like every course served, but its worth it to try each course once.

You can't do fancy sushi every week, but thankfully poke-bowls have spread far n wide. You can get your favorite ingredients from a sushi roll deconstructed into a bowl.

This picture doesn't give it justice, but a bowl of spicy sauces, jalapeno, tuna, ginger and wasabi is a great mixture. You can control each bite whether its a bit of everything or just enjoying a palate cleanser break with a bite of ginger.

Sushi twice in one week was great - next time I won't blog about it, but I'll still enjoy it.