Sunday, December 4, 2011

Sushi, Sushi, Sushi!

Hello again!  Today I bring you some of Fukuoka’s finest.  And by finest, I mean cheapest (but most delicious)…sushi!  I have fallen in love with a local sushi restaurant that is just 5 minutes away from home and wanted to bring you along with me on a sushi-licous adventure.  With that, we embark!

Enter, mortal…

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Once inside you are seated at one of the many booths.  The conveyer belts that carry the sushi plates run up and down the rows of booths, entering the back kitchen at each end.  Above the conveyer belt is a digital touch display that can be used to order items individually (drinks, dessert, special sushi, etc) and they arrive on the upper belt.  I have a video later on to show you it’s fantastic-ness in action!

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Here we have the accompanying items, including ginger, wasabi, tea powder, spoons, soy sauce, the hot water spout for tea, and the plate return.

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All plates are 100 yen (more or less equal to $1.00), although these specially marked plates are more expensive, and super fancy.  I’m too cheap to try them, but, maybe someday when I’m feeling really ritzy.

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Here we have the pickled ginger.  I am not a fan, but have heard (for those who like it) that it’s tasty!  Mmm, gingery.

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Now this is one of my favourite parts.  The wasabi!  Notice that it’s not the wasabi paste that most of us are used to.  And holy cow does it make your face explode when you eat too much, dear god!  But SO delicious!  If your eyes water, you know it’s good.  Mmm, want to eat!

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Next, a tea demonstration!  Here Leah prepares our yummy tea from the green powder you see at the bottom.  You just press your cup against the button and voila, hot water for everyone!  We learned the hard way that three heaping spoons of powder is a teensy bit too much.  Noted for next time.

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The finished product!  Mmm, greeny.

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And here Leah uses her expert sushi plate removal technique to capture our next victims.  The little plastic lids flip up automatically when you start to the lift the plate.  What will you think of next, Japan?  (Please note the young man pictured back right also displaying his fine sushi plate removal technique.  Bravo, sir.)

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And here are a few of the MANY plates we enjoyed that day.  From top middle, clockwise….corn and mayonnaise, cucumber maki (rolls), sweet potato sticks, ebi (shrimp) and sake (salmon).

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Next we decided to order a few things from the menu.  You can just select what you’d like and it will be brought to you on a cute little tray when it’s ready.  The tray is constantly zipping back and forth during your meal, delivering random tasty treats to various tables. 

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I decided to order some shrimp tempura sushi.  They were hot and freshly tempura’d.  Nommers!

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I wanted to film a bit of the experience because the photos don’t really give you the full picture on how fun this is.  Enjoy!  (PS: I finally stopped being an idiot and figured out how to film with proper picture quality, phew.)

Now, as you saw in the video, we unfortunately lost the plate game.  But!  We have won before, and if you do, a cute little plastic bubble pops out of the top here and you get a silly prize.  They all seem to be little wind up sushi toys that are fun to make crash into things on the table.

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And to finish off an incredible meal, I ordered one of the 100 yen desserts.  This is basically a giant ice cream filled cream puff thing.  Very puffy, and very delicious!

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Well, that ends the sushi adventure.  I hope you are now good and hungry, I know I am just from posting these photos!  I have to admit I was never extremely fond of the giant fish topped sushi before coming here, but I seem to eat them quite a lot now.  Either the fish quality is much better here, or I’m turning Japanese.  One of the two.  Or both?

On a side note, holiday time is fast approaching, and things are starting to feel a lot like Christmas around here (aside from the blazing sun during the day and 15 degree temperature).  I hope everyone is gearing up for a nice holiday season.

Until next time….take care, folks!

xoxoxo

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