Shabbir's Diary

Live lobster - served as sashimi

I have seen god in the eyes of live lobster sashimi on my plate at Sushi Taro.

It really freaked me out. The Handsome Chef of Sushi Taro, Imamoto, greeted me and explained the day's specials. "Live lobster" was #1. "It is delicious, but very expensive." I am undaunted. I ordered it for Sarah and I.

Imamoto came and dumped a live lobster on the counter in front of us. The claws, antennas, and eyes were moving. I was duly impressed; the appetizer was live. Sarah and I named him Larry, in honor of the lobster that was almost cooked on Saturday Night Live by Eddie Murphy many years ago.

Imamoto cut up the lobster live, removing the tail and claws. The lobster wasn't dead yet; he pulled the claws out and chopped up the meat of the tail, resetting it into the tail shell with plum leaves. Imamoto re-assembled the lobster, tail inverted, on the plate with the front end alive and the back end and claws "sashimi-ed" for eating.

The tail was delicious. The claws were an amazing experience. For those used to lobster claws that have been boiled, this is an unusual experience. The claws are gelatinous, and must be sucked to experience.

And it wasn't over. Imamoto, the appropriately named Handsome Chef of Sushi Taro, had the backline chefs prepare miso soup using the lobster head which he reserved to us half an hour later. The taste was subtle but delicious.

This is a true test of your experiementation: give it a try. Someday you'll grow old and look back on your life, and this is one of those things you won't regret having tried.

Subway breakfast sandwiches

Did you know that Subway sells breakfast sandwiches?  Did you ever notice there's never a line in a store in the morning to get one?  Do you want to know why?

Because they suck.

It's not bad enough that it's a pre-processed egg unit on a plain tortilla, but the franchise at 15th and K has employees with awful attitude making them.  My tortilla was still cold after the whole thing was heated up, and the egg and sausage was tasteless.

I love breakfast, so take it from me, stick to the Starbucks breakfast egg, cheese, and sausage sandwich.  It's miles better and the employees try harder.

Fresh salmon roe at Kaz's!

Check out this note from Kaz:

Fresh salmon roe is back in season! We get over-night express fresh salmon roe in sacks directly from the fisherman of the Quinault River, Washington State. We spend hours separating thousands of eggs from the sack and then marinade them in sake and soy sauce. It tastes totally different from regular salt preserved salmon roe. Today we got very big roe from King Salmon.

I can't believe you're still reading this, go get 'em before they're gone!

Update: We went to Kaz's last night 9/16/2002 and tried the fresh roe. It really was quite delicious. Because of the added soy sauce, it was saltier than the last time he prepared it, though.

I have been to heaven...

...and heaven is in San Jose, where there's a little sushi bar called Michi Sushi.

Southern Sushi

This North Carolina sushi report in from Ryan Thornburg:

Every year some lucky journalist cons his editors in to letting him take a jaunt around the South searching for the Worlds Best Barbecue. Chapel Hill, NC, is often home to at least one place on the list. Now, for some unexplained reason, it is the home to a sushi boom. Popping up in the midst of coffee houses, pizza joints, and smoothievilles in the downtown area of this college town are two new sushi counters. However, from the taste of things, most Southerns will continue to use raw fish primarily as bait.

Amazing seafood in the Tampa Florida area!

A colleague and friend recently took me to the Salt Rock Grill, in Indian Shores Florida (outside Tampa and St. Petersberg). I was thoroughly amazed at the quality and freshness of the fish, the wide variations on preparation, and the sheer size of the facility and it's famous grill.

An Oasis in the Desert

This sushi report in from 3Mouths correspondant Sanford M. Saunders

Recently being out in El Paso, Texas and tired of eating dead cow -- low and behold -- we came upon Shogun (1201 Airway Blvd, El Paso, Texas) -- a full service cocktail lounge and sushi bar. Shogun has a reasonable variety of sushi which is fresh and tasty. The sushi chef is friendly and quite willing to let you create your own rolls -- this was very popular w/ certain members of our group.

Tono sushi: the best!

I quit commuting and finally moved to DC three years ago this past fall. Since that time, I quit my vegetarian ways and made up for lost sushi eating time, and have been trying every restaurant I could get a friend to recommend. I have found the most inventive chefs in town are Mickey and Hiro, at Tono Sushi.

Wasabi-flavored capelin roe

For Thanksgiving I made a turkey. But for the weekend after Thanksgiving, I went all out and made gunkan maku-zushi, or battleship sushi. This type of sushi is made with a small, golf-ball-sized amount of rice, a thin strip of nori paper, and the sushi itself. You usually see battleship sushi served for pretty gooey materials.

You want sake! You need sake! Buy it at Naniwa!

I've spent a lot of time looking around the Washington DC area for good sake. While many of the local restaurants have fine sake for consumption on premises, it's a lot harder to find a good grocery store that carries a decent selection of sake.