the world is your acorn

The Little Red Haired Girl and I went to the new sushi place, O’sake on Elliston, for lunch yesterday. I didn’t have super high expectations but we thought it was really good. The lunch menu had a ton of bento boxes in the $10 range, with the typical combinations of teriyaki, gyoza, california rolls, and tempura. There were also some sushi combination possibilities in the $10-$20 range. Also fairly typical; two rolls from a set list of possibilities, or a roll and some pieces of nigiri (the standards, like tuna, salmon, and eel). There was other stuff on the menu, of course, but nothing mind-blowingly original or interesting for a sushi place.

The Little Red Haired Girl ordered a salmon teriyaki bento box which included soup, salad, veggie tempura, and a california roll. We were pleasantly surprised with how good the teriyaki was. The sauce was not overwhelmingly sticky and sweet like it can be, the fish was done just right, and there were a lot of fresh vegetables included (as opposed to a giant hunk of steamed broccoli or something like that). Possibly the best teriyaki that we’ve had in a Japanese restaurant here (we don’t go looking for it often, so I won’t make any claims past that). Everything else in the box was good, better than “fine,” which I feel like bento lunches tend to be here. (I’ve been to restaurants where the chefs add lots of little treats to them. I miss that).

I had the cheaper version of the 2 roll combination, so the roll choices were pretty standard. I had a tuna and avo roll and an alaska roll. The menu said I’d choose between soup and salad, but they brought me both, which was nice. There was a good amount of fish in both rolls, and they were done nicely. I hate to have to mention it, but the sushi rice was also really nice. Altogether we spent about $20 for lunch (we both drank water). Service was good, and in the end a couple different people came up to us to make sure everything was good and to invite us back. We also got a 10% off our next visit coupon. I think we’ll go back. The Little Red Haired Girl isn’t eating raw fish right now, so we’ll check out their sashimi another time. For now, they’re a really good choice for something close by that’s good and not too expensive.

We watched Julie and Julia last night, and I was super disappointed. I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect to be so thoroughly irritated with the Julie side of the story. At first I thought the acting was bad, then I thought it was that the character was pathetic. By the end I was just infuriated that a potentially really awesome movie about Julia Child was ruined by this Julie bullshit. On top of all that, I felt a distinct lack of over the top food porn. Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely some. But it didn’t blow me away, or make my stomach growl, or make me jealous that I wasn’t there. Maybe because half of the things were dessert. Maybe there was good food porn but it was ruined for me because I was fixated on the Julie train wreck. Who knows. I haven’t read the book, and maybe it’s totally different, but now I won’t because I probably won’t be able to get past this Amy Adams portrayal of Julie Powell. I don’t know if she is really that annoying, but I prefer to just always remember her Iron Chef appearance:

We visited Samurai on Elliston Place last night, after hearing many positive reviews of the place as “the best sushi in Nashville.” Granted we always take that kind of recommendation with a grain of salt for various reasons, but we were still expecting something pretty stellar. We had a pretty good experience, despite some pretty huge disappointments.

We ordered:
Standard salad, miso, 6 orders of sashimi a la carte, 1 order nigiri, a couple of rolls, a couple of beers

Some things:
+ dressing on the salad was quite good, but standard
+ sashimi was good portions, and pretty damn delicious
- we found out when the check came that they added $1 to each sashimi order (the pricing on the list is for nigiri. The server told us that the sashimi order was 3-5 pieces per order instead of 2, but did not tell us it was a dollar extra)
+ the sweet shrimp comes with the shrimp head deep fried in batter and drizzled with unagi sauce. yum.
- the sushi rice was not properly seasoned, and didn’t taste like anything
- the soy sauce was not sushi soy sauce. it didn’t taste right with any of the sushi
+ the presentation was gorgeous
- the mackerel was too warm, and too wet by the time it got to the table
- the wasabi was clearly the powdered kind (which we are used to and is usually ok), but this version didn’t seem to taste like anything
- the pickled ginger was virtually flavorless

I guess if you add up the minuses and the pluses there are a lot more minuses, and they’re sort of deal breakers. We decided that we’ll stick with Sonobana on White Bridge, but we’d give Samurai one more try if the opportunity arose. The fish was good, and relatively affordable – we only spent $71 before tax on all that fish. But if the next visit is the same, I don’t think we’d go back.

This weekend we discovered Aleksey’s Russian & Eastern European Market near 100 Oaks. We’d noticed it before, and maybe for 4 years we’ve been saying that we should check it out. So, on Saturday, during errands, we finally went. And kids, if you see something, you should always say something. I can’t believe that for 4 years we were basically too lazy to walk into this place. The irony is, I think that if we weren’t so miserable here, we might not bother doing these weird new things. We had just spent 4 glorious days back in the Boston area the week before, where we saw as many old friends as we could and ate, drank, and danced our hearts out. It was really hard to be back here, where good food is not as readily available, the folks we became adults with are far away, and the queer community just is not a good fit. Anyway, Aleksey’s was a nice reminder just at the right time that we’re going to make it, and enjoy ourselves in the meanwhile.

In the store we encountered all kinds of unrecognizable goodies, many of which we bought. An array of enticing canned fish and pates, pickles, smoked fish, baked goods, juices, jams, frozen items, candies. And if that weren’t enough, a whole case of sausages! We bought some cans, a bottle of black currant juice, some pickles called “grandma’s salad,” and a kinder surprise. Then, The Little Red Haired Girl asked the nice lady behind the counter which sausages she recommends, and she gave us samples. We walked away with half a pound each of something called “Karpatskaya” and something called “Tsar Salami.” All of that we bought for around $30. Freaking awesome.

Roswell: bizarre place. We didn’t really do our homework and see the things you are supposed to see. Instead we went to Target, had dinner, and beered up at the hotel bar while catching up on email and such.

Albuquerque: difficult to spell. We stopped for lunch here on our way to the Grand CanyonWe checked out Roadfood.com and discovered that we must go to Route 66 Diner along “historic Route 66,” so we did. Quite delicious, and cheap. Lady E. went with Frito Pie (her first), and I had a green chile cheeseburger. And, of all the delightful finds, Red Cream Soda, which Lady E. has been hunting for years.

Lady E. and I are on our way to San Diego. She’s moving there, and I’ve joined up for the ride starting from Nashville. Tonight we were in New Orleans.

I wanted sushi so badly when we went to San Diego that I made The Little Red Haired Girl and Mrs. Superhero go twice. The first time was ok, but the second time, at Ichiban on the Rocks, was freaking delicious. We had escaped conventionland on the bus to explore the Hillcrest Neighborhood for the afternoon, and sort of randomly picked this place. We were nervous because it was in a strip mall, but the urban spoon reviews were decent, so we went for it. Are we ever glad we did. The lady serving us was super cute and friendly, and we ordered 3 somewhat unconventional rolls and a tuna nigiri with quail egg on top. Everything we ordered was fantastic. I wish I could remember what anything was called.

Ichiban on the Rocks
1288 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 220-0009

Trapped in conventionland in San Diego last week, The Little Red Haired Girl and I went to Sevilla (warning: obnoxious flash site), a tapas restaurant. When our server recommended to us every item on the menu that we found totally uninteresting like the empanadas and tuna tartare (nothing against those items, we were just more interested in items that we can’t normally find), we were nervous. But we ordered what we wanted anyway, and loved every bite. We picked the ceviche, tortilla, pulpo a la gallega, and manila clams ajillo. After trying the clams we ordered a loaf of bread to soak up the clam juice, it was so delicious. For dessert we had some sort of espresso creme brulee that turned out to be pretty good too. Even though it was wicked touristy feeling, we ended up really enjoying our meal there.

These were good, mild but just flavorful enough. I think we had them on matzah, but I don’t really remember. We’ve started having canned fish for lunch on Sundays as a quick, cheap way to eat light after having a late breakfast but needing to refuel in between errand running. There’s a whole world of canned fish out there, and we’re trying both Western and Eastern styles. So far, no disappointments.

I’ve come to a crossroads. I simply can’t keep up with all the feeds in my reader. Sure, I have a folder named “kills” where I keep the feeds I’m happy to sacrifice and “mark as read” when I get really busy, but I just can’t put one of these into it. If I see there are new posts, I won’t be able to stop myself from looking at them. I think there’s about 80% overlap, so I waste all this time flipping through both feeds, but I don’t want to miss anything if something good turns up. So I’ve decided to unsubscribe from one. Which? Tastespotting was the original, and I think the pictures are more reliably food-pornolicious. Food Gawker has more posts a day, which means I’d be missing less, but the point here is to trim down my blog consumption. Do I go with Tastespotting, trusting that the editing there will meet my needs? Or do I stick with Food Gawker, because I’ll get more variety and there’s less chance I’ll miss out on a good post/recipe just because the author isn’t a great food photographer?