Epicurean Delight or Fish Bait?

That's right it's Friday and time for another post about food! Today I think I will discuss one of my favorite foods in the world-sushi!
Sushi is so good that I do not know even where to begin. But first let me address the obvious gagging that is going on in the room. That's right! I know some of you are already getting sick thinking of eating RAW FISH! I have heard all of the jokes. The most common is, "Hey fella, around here we call that Bait!" I understand the joke. I even think it is a little funny, but man what you are missing out on.
I cannot remember the first time I had sushi. It must have been in college sometime. I just remember really wanting to try sushi. I mean I love trying new and adventurous foods, so raw fish was right up my alley. I got started eating sushi, as many do, by just having a roll of some type. This is when they take a bit of raw fish, some vegetables, and roll the whole thing in vinegar rice and seaweed. I loved it!
The next step was to finally just eat large chunks of raw fish served on top of rice. The is when you really get to taste the flavor and the texture of the fish. The flavors are so mild yet taste really clean.
Most sushi is served with a side of wasabi which is basically a type of ground horseradish that is made into a paste. This is the really HOTTTT stuff. You basically only need to tip your chopstick in this to get the desired flavor, any more and you overpower the taste of the sushi. Another typical side is soy sauce for dipping. This is also a flavor that can overpower the sushi so it needs to be used sparingly. Just a quick dip of the sushi piece is all that is needed. Lastly most sushi is served with a few strips of thinly sliced ginger root. Man I could eat me weight in this stuff. I absolutely LOVE ginger! If I understand right, though, the ginger is there to cleanse the palette so that a new flavor can be enjoyed. I don't know if I an using it correctly, but I always eat all of my ginger.
This brings us to one of my most favorite dining experiences of my life. The problem with sushi is that there is A LOT of different varieties. I would love to try them all but sushi can get rather expensive if you try and eat very much at all. Well...that is until one day I noticed that there is a place here in Louisville that offers All-you-can-eat Sushi!!! Man I was so excited, but it was of course pretty expensive for them to let you just start piling on the sushi. Missy gave it to me one year as part of my birthday present. I know many of you think that eating ONE meal is a horrible waste of a birthday present, but this is me! I know you may think I should spend it on something that lasts for longer than just a hour or so, but trust me this memory will be with me for a lifetime!
We have already discussed how my wife's tongue is broken. She does not like sushi. Of course that might have something to do with the fact that I gave her a whole glob of wasabi to eat, because she did not know what it was. This was when we were dating and she would trust me with anything. You can't expect someone to not have a little fun with a person THAT trusting. Man I miss those days! HA!
Well anyway, she wanted me to experience the all-you-can-eat sushi but did not want to go herself. So we asked my friend Ashby to go. If an event involves food and the words "all-you-can-eat", then trust me you want Ashby to come along! The boy can hammer down some food! So we went, we ate, we CONQUERED! It was magnificent! It was great being able to just keep ordering different pieces of sushi at will. Plus we got to actually sit at the sushi bar and watch the artists do their thing! The guys that roll sushi are really awesome to watch. There is a lot of training that goes into rolling sushi and handling raw fish.
Well this night I became the Fullest I have ever been. When I say full, I don' just mean "we had to unbutton the top of our pants" full. I mean at one point I was chewing on a bite thinking to myself, "I am gonna have to spit this thing out, because I can't swallow! There is no more room in my belly!" Needless to say we were both miserable the next day at work, but man was it worth it!
So get out there and go try some fish bait!