Give It To Me Raw and Wriggling!

There are all sorts of things I could tell you about my trip to Tokyo, but at this point I’d like to tell you why it’s a good thing I didn’t go til now.  I’ve mentioned before that I was slightly sushi-phobic up until last spring.  Now I actually crave it and eat it once a week, but until last year this was not the case.  On this trip I ate ramen and shabu-shabu, and I had breakfast at Macca’s every morning (because hell yes I ate brekke at Macca's every morning!), but the highlight of every day was finding a kaiten sushi (the kind with a conveyor belt) restaurant and feasting on some fresh, raw fish.

My first place was a chain restaurant and I LOVED it!  It's called Genki Sushi and features a little angry face in its logo.  This was ironic, since I was wearing a big happy face when I left there.  They had the regular conveyor belt - as pictured above, on which the little plates would go around that you could choose from.

They also had a high-tech ordering system which totally intimidated me, while at the same time I admired it.  The touch screen above was where you found and ordered what you were looking for.  The printed menu kind of helped in figuring out what you were looking for, and they had instructions for it in English, but everything on the screen was in Japanese.  Even so, it still wasn't that hard to figure out, and I definitely used it to order my kappa maki (cucumber rolls).

The second and third places I found were near Ueno Park, which was the area I stayed in.  They weren't nearly as high tech - if you wanted something and you didn't see it, you told the chef what you wanted, and they made it and handed it to you.  Again, this required a little Japanese, but I've eaten enough sushi by this point to know how to ask for my two favorites tamago and inari sushi (egg and tofu).  I also ate salmon and at least two other kinds of fish off the belt, though I'm not sure what they were.

Normally the chefs will make up a bunch of the same thing all at once.  Most plates run between 100-300 yen, although the price depends on what they are.  These had - I think - three different levels of fattiness of the tuna, with a big chunk of egg in the middle, and were 600 yen, or about $6.  Most of them have some sort of plate system - different colors of plates cost different amounts.  My favorites are all relatively cheap, so this was a great, quick way to have dinner, if not particularly conducive to a nice leisurely read (which is okay, because I didn't bring my Nook with me).

However - a word of warning.  If you're doing kaiten sushi, you need to go to a busy restaurant.  It's no good if the same plates are going around and around and never being eaten - remember, this is raw fish we're talking about.  In Tokyo, kaiten sushi's the best!  In Mongolia...well, sushi in Mongolia is a sketchy proposition anyways.  Do yourself a favor and don't set yourself up for food poisoning.  Not that I've known anyone who got food poisoning from Nagomi, but I don't want to be the first.

Grub Club: Silk Road

I've been in love with the idea of the Silk Road since I fell in love with Led Zepplin's song, "Kashmir," which is about an epic journey along the medieval trade route.  One day, I hope to find a man crazy enough to think that traveling it across Central Asia, starting in Xinjiang province is a good idea; if I do, I'm going to marry him!  Given all that, the fact that there's a restaurant in town called Silk Road which has been intriguing me basically since we founded Grub Club should come as no surprise, although the fact that until Wednesday night I still hadn't been there might.

I will be forever grateful to Geek for finally letting me scratch this culinary itch.  (WHY hadn't I ever gone?  Too many other good things to eat, and the fear that it wouldn't be as amazing as I was hoping).  I had envisioned a restaurant that had dishes from all over Central Asia and China.  I had seen peeks of maps and photos of China on my way past it up the stairs to Veranda, so I didn't think I was too far off.  However, I was wrong.  Mostly, their menu was uninspiring.  There were some nice salads, and I tried their "Caesar," which really had nothing to do with a Caesar, but wasn't bad, for all that.

Squeaker went for a chicken dish which was beautifully presented, but lacking the richness of flavors I was imagining.  Geek and Engrish went for the chicken tacos, which were probably the best thing on the menu.  I took a nibble of the meat, which earned me a reproving glare from Geek, who still hasn't forgiven me for eating her tacos at The Grill Place.

One part of their menu that did seem to sit with their name was the pasta.  I had the spaghetti carbonara, which had a Cindy Lou Who breadstick sticking out of it.  I don't like spaghetti, really, but they didn't have other pasta choices, and if I didn't like the pasta itself, the carbonara was pretty tasty.  Silk Road is next to the Choijin Lama temple.  Go right at Joy Massage on Chinggis Avenue and take your next right; it's right there.  And you should stop in and buy a bag of those yummy caramel bon-bon Russian chocolate things at the shop you pass on the way, because they're in and they're to die for, although for once I actually passed on them, because I'm being good these days.

On a different but related note, a few weeks back I told you that Sho was apparently closed.  Well, today during my Sunday school lesson I get a message from Engrish telling me that not only have they reopened under new management, but they've got a 25% off promotion running today.  I'm probably going to a special kind of Mormon hell for selling my soul for sushi, but that was what I was supposed to do on my birthday (a generally all-around sucky day, except for a very long talk with a friend from my Korea days and a short one with my Dark Lord and Master), so I declared this my unbirthday and met Engrish there for a late lunch.  After devouring four rolls between the two of us, we decided some dessert crepes across the street at Triskell were called for, and since she was going to go get tickets for the Ice Circus for next week, I decided I'd walk with her.  We passed the post office, which had an intriguing banner on it, that she translated as a one-off performance at the circus today by my FAVORITE performer, which we decided we'd go to, and it was probably the best show I've seen there so far.  It was really interpretive, and seemed to be using the theme of Mongolian history, and they had Altan Urag playing for them.  They even used fire, and I'm not even referring to the hot star of the show - there were fire-eaters!  It was a fantastic afternoon....just don't tell my Sunday school class it was totally worth it.

Grub Club: Miko

I never liked sushi.  The all-you-can-eat teppanyaki places in Shanghai were like my gateway drug in regards to raw fish, but it wasn't until we went to Sho this spring that I could say that I actually liked it. 

I went back to Sho.  A lot.  And it wasn't just for their hot sushi chef.  Thus you might be able to imagine my horror when I tried to go there on my very lonely birthday and they were closed.  I was even more horrified when they were closed the next time I tried to go there.  I haven't been back, but I'm working under the assumption that Sho is one more page in the history of restaurants in UB.  :-(  Of course there are a couple of other places in town, but I loved the selection at Sho, and none of the other places I'd been had so many different rolls with so many things in them.

That changed last night.  Word on the UB Foodies street was that Miko sushi, newly reopened just south of the circus, was amazing, and I decided I needed to try it.  Three of us now have worked in Japan, so that was a little nerve-wracking (do other people feel nervous taking me to Korean places???  They should!) but it was well-received.  Engrish, who is FINALLY off her cabbage soup cleanse (blech!) started with the salad at the top, which was tasty and refreshing.  Geek, who-hates-anything-from-the-ocean-and-yes-I-knew-that-going-into-it-but-she-has-managed-to-cope-with-sushi-before-hell-she-was-the-one-who-picked-Sho (deep breath), went for the tempura veggies and some sort of chicken.  The chicken wasn't that great - our former Japanese residents couldn't remember what it was, and that's never a good sign - but that's what happens sometimes when you go for the less obvious choice.

We passed around a couple of orders of gyoza, Japanese pan-fried dumplings.  These are something Engrish, Blondie, and I routinely get at our ramen joint after our Tuesday night massages.  The ones at Miko were pretty tasty, although I think I still prefer Oishi Ramen's.

But of COURSE, the main event was the sushi, which apparently comes served on a boat and/or a bridge when you order enough of it.  I ended up having two rolls - Miko's UB roll (fried with cream cheese and salmon) and their Moscow (salmon, crab...uh....some other stuff....)  Originally I only ordered the UB roll, because I wasn't sure what else I would like (and I'd just gobbled up a Cinnabon on my way over from Good Price, where they are now being sold), but then I tried Engrish's Moscow and it was so scrumptious that I decided I should have one, too.  I'm pretty sure that sushi is healthy enough for you that you can pig out on it and not need to feel too guilty.  We were all feeling pleasantly stuffed when the sushi chef brought out one more roll - I want to call it a rainbow roll, but that may just be because I've done a lot of printmaking lately - and apologized while informing us they needed our table at 7:30.  We happily gobbled it up and paid our bill.

Do I still miss Sho?  Absolutely.  Their salmon citrus was the stuff of my new sushi dreams.  Also, they had a spicy one, I think they called it a Mexicana or something, with a little tempuraed fish inside, not to mention their hot sushi chef.  But at least I now have a place to go when the sushi cravings I never thought I'd have hit.

Grub Club: Nagomi

It's a good thing that sushi is my new favorite thing, because Mad Science picked it for our latest grub club adventure.  There is - as far as I know - one kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) place in UB, and Nagomi is that place.

If you've never had kaitenzushi before, each plate has a couple of pieces on it, and whatever you want, you just grab off the train.  Or if you wait too long to make up your mind, you can ask your friends to grab it for you...or hope it comes around again.  The plates are color-coded according to their price, and at the end, the waitress just adds up the values of all your plates.  I don't know how much I care for conveyor belts delivering our food, but there was one great thing about it.  We didn't have to wait long for our food, which is a constant problem with grub club.  That meant we had the time to visit Five's favorite place - Ti-Amo, conveniently located right across the street - for ice cream.

At first I was not impressed.  They didn't have the variety that I loved about Sho - or the cute, Cali-trained sushi chef (owner???) who came over and talked to me and Five when I dragged her there last Saturday after visiting the orphanage (we were also offered free wine, and then beer on that visit - I've never felt so bad about having to decline a drink before!)  But there is something nice about getting to see your choices before you make them, and all the dishes that we took off the train were really fresh.

I had a couple of different things - their kappa maki (cucumber rolls) were good and the egg thing, pictured above, was really nice.  They also had inari sushi - rice stuffed in sweet, fried tofu wrappers - and that was delicious.

However, most of their plates consisted of your classic sushi - a slice of raw fish on a gob of rice.  This one was spotted...something.  I didn't have that one - I stuck mostly to salmon - but Mad Science and Fearless Leader made it their goal to try everything.  And if you can't tell by their stack of plates, they very nearly succeeded.

Nagomi is on Seoul Street, the first block east of the circus, on the north side inside the Khan Bank building.