Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Best sushi ever
Karen and I know our sushi. We may not be the most knowledgeable sushiphiles out there, but we’re competent, okay?
Sam’s Sushi Bar & Grill in Ballard (a neighborhood north of Seattle) had some of the freshest sushi, biggest portions, and reasonable prices that we’ve ever seen.
And if that didn’t make much sense, let me add that they serve a terrific tall hot sake.
At that link (above), this negative review tickled me:
I think there are Chinese making Japanese food,Food is bad,Service was’nt good also!
This reminded me of my high school friend, Weyton. He used to say, “Chinese make food that tastes good, Japanese makes food that looks good.” (He’s Chinese. Could you guess?) When I read that review, I imagined Weyton saying, “See? We even do sushi better than those Japanese.”
Protected Static: take your pick between this and Volterra. Next time we’re up, we’ll treat you & your fam. (We’d have done so this time around, except that Karen has been so wiped most of the time.)
BTW: The interviews are history, and now I’m waiting for the offers to roll in 🙂
D.
You want good sushi? It’s hard to beat Mashiko in West Seattle.
BTW, neighborhood identity is really important here: most of them were independent cities at one point, and many of them have managed to preserve their unique ‘downtowns’ as focal points. They’re becoming more homogenized, but most have their own character still.
I’ve been trying to persuade Carrie to try Sushi for some time, but no dice.
ps: Yes, I noticed all the Swedes around here. (If Swedish Hosp. were to hire me, I am so photoshopping myself with blue eyes and blond hair . . .)
Keven: thing to do is to have her stick to the cooked preparations — tempura, shrimp, eel, salmon skin. Then move on to mixed rolls that have a little bit of raw tuna in them, perhaps.
I think most newbies fear the raw fish will have an overwhelmingly fishy flavor. They don’t realize that, if anything, there’s more of a fishy flavor to cooked fish than there is with raw fish.
Oh, and avoid the chewy stuff (like clam) or the intentionally fishy stuff (like mackerel). Not for the beginner. For that matter, while I like mackerel (I tend to think of it as pickled herring sushi), I’ve never liked clam.
Eek!
Eel (in season) is a great first sushi. Off-season, it’s still tasty, but the texture is a little… I dunno. Spiny? There’s some cartilage there or something some times of the year that isn’t there other times. Not that I can keep those times straight – I just eat it.
Tuna makes a good first-timers sushi; so does salmon. Veggie rolls: cucumber with umeboshi, pickled gourd with shiso, pickled daikon, shitake mushroom, sweet potato – great sushi that’s often overlooked even by more experienced sushi eaters. You can usually find the cucumber rolls anywhere (frequently minus the plum paste); the others are often only at more traditional sushi places.
Some people really like the egg thing; I find it too sweet, myself.
The Boy can’t wrap his head around the idea of eating raw fish and seaweed yet, but he really loves Inari: deep-fried tofu pockets stuffed with sweetened sushi rice. We’ve even bought that from the supermarket for him to take as lunch to school.
Oh, and sea urchin? Not a beginner’s food. Maybe I just haven’t had good sea urchin, but both times I’ve had it, it’s been fishy, rubbery, and baby-poo yellow.
mmmmmmmmmm sushi. We don’t bother buying any more because it’s so much cheaper to make it yourself. Might not be as good as a restaurant but still better than no sushi.
We have a Whole Foods in our neck of the woods and I figured it would be safe to buy their fancy ass sushi tuna. They sell it frozen so it’s easy to slice really thin. It was delicious. We had leftover and I got cowardly cooked it and …… ew. Okay, but sashimi is so much better.
I learned to make maki sushi from Karen and still remember her mother’s injunction to fan the rice to keep the grains from sticking together. When I was in my first year in grad school (1984 in the rural Midwest), I made several rolls of sushi, cut them into rounds, and brought them in to the colleagues. One of the colleagues took a bite of one and spit it out, saying “What the hell?” Now my sushi wasn’t particularly unusual of that type (one could see the eggs, the white/pink of the fish cake, some green veggies, etc.), but apparently soon to be Dr. Tim wasn’t thrilled. Why I asked, turns out he thought it was a breakfast pastry…
I don’t do fish these days because of the overfishing crisis. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/60minutes/main3700644.shtml Sorry to rain on the sushi parade!
Good luck with getting the job you want! A friend of mine at Harvard pointed out that everyone wants a good outcome and the interviewers are desperately hoping you are going to solve their problems. I’ve recently been interviewing people and it’s amazing how some people don’t interview well and it isn’t until you hit on the right question that they start to shine. Others, of course, interview brilliantly and then turn into Mr. Hyde when they start work. Blathering and talking in circles seems to be a problem for candidates as well. A pause, silence (in moderation), all good!
I interviewed for a promotion two weeks ago and amazed the secretary (who sees me every workday) by turning up in a suit, lipstick, and a few extra pieces of jewelry. Even though everyone at the interview already knew me, I wanted to respect the process. Even had to answer a question en francais (boy that was two minutes to say what would have been 20 seconds in English). Quite surprised the panel, since I don’t let a French word cross my lips if I can help it (goes back to my fear of coming off as an idiot more than usual). Even after practicing for the interview and marshalling a variety of examples, still felt like I’d blown it when I left. Friday heard that I got the promotion. Lots more stress coming with all the glory.
HEY doug, I found an online tool for you to use when you house shop. I put it up on my blog. It’s fun. (I found it at dkos.)
Good sea urchin is soft and has a clean, sharp sort of nutty sea flavour. I think if it’s rubbery it’s been sitting around for a while.
It all looks like a puddle of baby shit, though.
Then I’ve never had good sea urchin. I’ve always figured that to be the case, particularly having seen (on TV) people crack ’em open and eat ’em right out of their shells, right there on the beach. There’s no way you’d go to that kind of trouble for the rancid shit I’ve been served.
I just love it when you guys keep one another entertained 🙂
I’m gonna post a few photos and go to bed. It’s LATE.
mmmmm Dean, sounds delish. puddle of babyshit? Sign me up.