Steve Dreams of Sushi

My “Eating Vicariously” series has recently taken me for daydreamed meals in Germany and South Africa and so this time around I want to turn my attention to sushi which is perhaps one of my favorite go to comfort foods both at home and when I am on the road.  Life happens, and sushi helps you get through it. 

If there is one dish I have missed over the past nine months of pandemic sheltering it is sushi.  It is not just something to eat; it is also an art form offering both visual and olfactory nuances in addition to its myriad textures and flavors.  All of my favorite sushi haunts both at home and on the road are closed during the pandemic, or only offering limited take-away menus.  Given the very nature of sushi and sashimi (we are talking raw fish after all), I have been hesitant to order it, and since I am not outfitted to prepare it properly at home, I have had to do without.  But this does not mean I don’t think and dream about it . . . a lot! 

I came late to sushi.  It was early in the 1980s in Manhattan when I met an old friend from my student days in Germany at a small basement sushi bar in the East Village.  I am Midwestern born and bred and I was pretty much a meat and potatoes guy until I traveled to Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s and began to expand my epicurean horizons.  Still, I had never tried sushi.  That first meal in New York was memorable as we shared a variety of offerings and not a few flasks – tokkuri - of warm sake.  I was sold.

This is not to say that I had never eaten raw fish before.  During my time in Europe I frequently enjoyed rollmops in northern Germany.  This is a pickled herring fillet rolled into a cylindrical shape around sliced onion and a small pickle (sometime a garlic clove or an olive slice), as well as matjes, a brined raw herring filet, in the Low Countries.  There was also gravlax, sliced cured salmon found throughout Scandinavia, and how can I forget the wonderful cerviche I had first sampled in the Bahamas and in Mexico.  All of these are prepared raw fish dishes.  Sushi, on the other hand, is mostly just raw fish; no seasonings, marinades or brines to speak of.

The raw fish used in the preparation of the various sushi offerings is high in protein and contains omega-3 fatty acids while low in saturated fats and cholesterol.  It is heart healthy and lowers blood pressure yet one should always be cautious when consuming raw fish.  It should never be eaten often or in large quantities (as tempting as that can sometimes be) due to the risk of parasites and chemical pollutants.  It is a delicacy after all, and it should be properly prepared and treated as such.

Here in the United States sushi has become a catch-all term for any number of preparations and presentations, yet it is used properly to refer to any dish made with cooked vinegared rice [sushi-meshi], seaweed [nori], raw fish (in some instances the fish is cooked, depending on what dish you order), and pieces of vegetable or avocado.  With makisushi, the contents are wrapped with the thin sheath of seaweed.  Uramakesushi is presented with the vinegared rices wrapped around the contents, including the seaweed.  Nigiri is a small, elongated portion of vinegared rice over which a thin sheath of seaweed and a slice of raw fish is laid.  The terms sushi and sashimi are frequently and improperly used interchangeably, but the two dishes are distinct and separate.  Sashimi is a thick slice of raw fish always served on its own without rice.   All of these offerings are served with pickled ginger slices to help cleanse the palate (it should never be eaten with the portion); wasabe paste, an anti-bacterial which is similar in many ways to horseradish although much spicier; and soy sauce.   All of these condiments used modestly can enrich the dish.

Although I have always preferred to eat sushi and sashimi using chop sticks – grasping or stabbing – it is perfectly acceptable to eat them with your fingers should you so choose.  These dishes were originally conceived in China as early as the 5th century BC as finger food [narezushi]  before they migrated to Japan where they were introduced to the world.  Sushi and sashimi are prepared by an itamae [master chef] or a shokunin [apprentice] and each piece should be eaten in one bite less you offend the preparer who has taken time and extreme care in it preparation and presentation.

A list of my favorite sushi restaurants is far too long to go into here, so I will mention just a very few as they are special for one reason or another.  I list them here in no particular order other than to say that my favorite place here in the Washington, DC area is Sushi AOI located at 1100 New York Avenue, NW.  Being a regular customer at Haad Thai next door [http://lookingtowardportugal.blogspot.com/search?q=Haad+thai] during the latter half of the 1990s and into the first decade of

the new century (until my retirement), I could not help but notice when this modest sushi restaurant opened next door.  I wandered in one day to see what it had to offer, and what struck me immediately beyond the same ambiance I had discovered next door was many of the same familiar and friendly faces.  It turned out that the owner of Haad Thai is part owner of Sushi AOI and both restaurants serve wonderful dishes with great service and friendly hospitality squeezed into such a small space.  Sushi AOI quickly became my regular sushi stop in downtown Washington, usually on my way home from work when I would enjoy the de rigeur miso soup and the very reasonably priced sushi and sashimi offerings washed down with a tokkuri of hot sake and a variety of Japanese beers.

Wok and Roll, at 604 H Street, NW in Washington’s Chinatown,

takes up the ground floor of Mary Surratt’s former boarding house where she and her fellow conspirators met to plan the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 at Ford’s Theater just a few blocks away.  The sushi and sashimi offering are first rate, but what I like most about this place is the fact that it also offers a full Chinese menu.  It’s an idea place to eat if some in your party can’t wrap their heads around raw fish.  It is a standout among the numerous Chinese establishments found along this short stretch of H. Street.

Love Sushi, at 9031 Gaither Road in Gaitherburg, Maryland, is

a small, narrow storefront joint in a suburban strip mall.  There are just a handful of tables but the place is always hopping during the lunch hour.  It is a great place to grab a quick bite.  Our son, who is a lover of all things Japanese and the only one of us who has been to Japan, used to work just a short distance away and we would frequently meet him here for lunch.  It has a very extensive menu for such a small place and the service is always quick and friendly. 

When it comes to sushi joints I tend to find ones I like where I can trust the quality of the fish being served.  Ambiance is always important, but the place does not have to be fancy.  If I like the food and service, I’ll keep coming back.  This does mean that I do not try out new places.  I do, especially when I am traveling and find one that comes well recommended.  One of these is Sushi Ichiban in Gainesville, Florida.  It started out

as another small, strip mall restaurant but with more seating than one would expect and a nice sushi bar where one can sit and watch the shokunin at work.  Recently it has moved to a much larger stand alone location nearby at 4928 NW 39th Avenue, but the quality of the food and the service have not suffered.  Whenever I am in town I like to sneak off for a relaxed lunch of über-fresh sashimi and tuna maki rolls served with miso soup, warm sake and Kirin beer on draft.

There is no competition when it comes to the most memorable meal; an elegant presentation of uramakesushi, nigiri and sashimi served on an open air porch high above the mingling of the South Atlantic and Indian oceans at the Cape of Good Hope

at the bottom of Africa.  But you get the idea.  Two Oceans Restaurant at Cape Point – just 43 gorgeous miles of rolling

green hills and valleys, precipitous cliffs, breathtaking bays and seascapes and beaches with penguins south of Cape Town. The restaurant overlooks False Bay, the actual dividing line between the two oceans 45 miles to the east between here and Cape Agulhas) and the views are as good as the food . . . hosts of seabirds on the wing and baboons on the surrounding rocks who demonstrate no compunction to making off with your meal if allowed.  Thankfully the lovely staff has found safe and humane ways to keep them at bay.  The weather was glorious the day we were there.

The restaurant had a wonderful selection of seafood dishes but I was immediately drawn to the sushi bar.  Although various

mixed platters were offered I decide to do something I had yet to do in a sushi restaurant.  I ordered omakase, leaving the choice entirely up to the itamae.  Doing so one is likely to be treated to the best fish and ingredients available on that day.  This can be a more expensive option but given the very favorable US$ - South African Rand exchange rate, one could hardly go wrong.  I was well rewarded for being adventurous - rolled salmon sashimi topped with a thin sliver of avocado and dressing and

topped with salmon roe; red snapper sashimi; maki topped with edamame; an interesting presentation of salmon nigiri; and uramake topped with masago [capelin roe].  This and the stunning views made this a most memorable meal.

Weeks into the pandemic, when restaurants started to close and take away was the only real option, I decided to give sushi a wide berth for the time being.   As much as I love it, take away sushi has never been in my gastronomic lexicon.  I also considered the possibility that raw fish is not the most reliable choice during a viral pandemic.  That said, I promised myself that once my favorite restaurants finally reopen, I would not at all be surprised if my first outing would be to one of these favorite sushi joints in search after a well-crafted roll, the freshest sashimi available, all served with a cold Japanese beer and a porcelain tokkuri filled to the brim with warm sake as I considered the joy of each tiny morsel of piscine nirvana.

But kismet intervened.  A couple weeks ago my wife and I ventured out one morning to deliver a load of books to a second-hand store and found ourselves just around the corner from Love Sushi at lunchtime.  We thought long and hard and decided what the hell.  We ordered some uramake rolls which we savored while sitting in our car out front.   No beer or sake, but no complaints.  It was the first sushi I had eaten in over a year.  Perhaps we took an unnecessary risk, but two weeks later we are still here and no worse for wear.

It will probably be some time before I am able to enjoy sushi the way it is meant to be served and consumed.  In the meantime, I can think back on many wonderful outings in the past and dream about what I will order next time around.