Hana Sushi

Directly following my trip to Peru, I left on a research trip to the West Coast for two weeks.  What was I researching?  Glad you asked: a book on Stadium Eats!  Um, yeah, without a deal in sight currently (hint, hint, anyone reading this who is interested!), I went to preemptively scout out the 6 West Coast stadiums and eat my way up and down the West Coast at the same time, starting in San Francisco, working my way down to Los Angeles, then San Diego, back up to San Francisco and then to Seattle!  Phew!  Tune in at 4:15 EST (or 1:15 PST, lunchtime on the West Coast) for the next 6 weeks to see what I ate and where I ate it… and how I gained 10 lbs in two weeks!

When a dear friend of mine suggested meeting up for sushi, I was game and keen on trying her favorite place.  Who doesn’t trust a local when they say this is the place they go to all the time (even if that friend will also claim/swear up and down that they aren’t a foodie or don’t care much about food… and let’s not talk about her past food habits… teasing! love you!). 

No, it’s not an all you can eat place, but the ordering works like so: you check off what you want, hand it to the waitress, and your food makes its way out.  I should note here that uni is ticked off, but they were out, so I opted to substitute escolar, which the waitress told me was similar to white tuna.  Magic words, because I adore white tuna! 

So, first: admittedly, I was super skeptical about ordering California roll.  In NYC, this is the sign of a sushi-n00b or ‘fraidy-cat, because no one orders that, it just comes in the bento or it’s for the non-ethnic people who are just being ‘adventurous’ by having sushi (the kind of non-ethnic people who think all sushi is raw fish; they just don’t know better).  But in NYC, California roll is also made with fake krab meat.  Here, it was made with sweet, sweet real crab meat, and was lovely.  Each piece of sashimi was decadently rich; escolar actually might surpass white tuna as a favorite, it was so densely buttery in texture and taste, creamy almost.  The sake was pretty standard; the suzuki I’d chosen for us had a slight kick; and the octopus was decent.  Eel was fine, though the salmon skin was majorly lacking in the crisp texture I like from salmon skin – crisp and salty it should be, contrasting nicely with the vinegary rice, though in this case, it was just tough to chew. 

Yvo says: Super inexpensive (I overordered for the two of us, even) and really quite yummy, I would go back without hesitation to eat more of their goodies.  Their specials menu also looked interesting, but I opted out as we already had plenty of food in our bellies.  Good stuff, and I bet a fabulous local joint to have, to order from… or just in your stompin’ grounds.  The area around it was very laidback, and I bet tons of fun to chill… It looked like the kind of area I would hang, if I lived in Seattle. 
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