Final Draft.

Sampling Bait

I never have had anybody in my life who would try new foods. My Papaw thought there were only two vegetables that were worth eating and both were potatoes. Mom wasn’t much better but she would eat things that were green. I’ve improved, but I still refuse to eat a steak that isn’t the same color on the inside as it is on the outside. Yet somehow, I find myself as a bit of a sushi aficionado. Everyone outside of my nuclear family thinks I’m crazy and while that may be true, to me there isn’t much out there that tastes better than a good fresh sushi roll. Unfortunately, as I’ve moved around the past few years I have discovered that every single sushi joint in the country seems to use the same two dozen names for their rolls but never seem to have the same “stuff” inside!

Our adventures with sushi started in Kingsport, Tennessee. Squeamish about any food even slightly undercooked, I’ve never been much for any fish that isn’t in nice deep fried little sticks the way God intended so this was a HUGE stretch for me. The husband was stoked that I was willing to try it so we ordered a variety of rolls. My favorite there was the Philadelphia roll containing smoked salmon, avocado slices, and cream cheese. It had a slightly smoky taste from the fish itself. The avocado lent a savory taste while the cream cheese gave it the creamy element that brought it all together. Okay, I’ll be honest: the real reason I liked it so much was because it was smoked. I wasn’t up for the idea of eating raw fish yet.

My husband was a big fan of their spicy roll combo. The meal came with salad, soup, and 3 full sized sushi rolls cut into 8 pieces each. One roll was a chunk of tuna and spicy vegetables, one roll had just spicy white fish, and the third was spicy salmon. One sniff told me that those rolls were too hot to cross my lips.

That fall, we moved. We got settled in and found ourselves familiar with the new town and went off exploring “metropolitan” Bristol, Virginia. Bristol’s Osaka was warm, cozy, and inviting with candles on the tables like The Fuji House. They had a lot of rolls we hadn’t tried before so we went a little crazy the first time we visited. Of course, after we tried them we realized a lot of them were the same things as what we’d had at The Fuji House in Tennessee.

They had all kinds of combinations that would leave your taste buds dancing for days afterwards. We tried sweet potato rolls, crunchy cucumber rolls, two different kinds of crab based California rolls, and dozens of others. We loved it but when we ordered a Philadelphia roll and it had cucumber inside, we were a little surprised!

My husband and I both found new rolls at Osaka that we preferred. He loved two of the new ones. His favorite is their spicy tuna roll containing pounded tuna and spices. The only way I can describe it is my mental image of Japanese tuna salad where it’s mixed up with Japanese mustard, some vegetables, and spice. We both enjoy their dragon roll. The dragon roll is huge with almost a whole avocado on top of it with sweet and salty mystery sauce on top. It’s got crab, cucumber, cream cheese, salmon, tuna, and crunchy bits inside and that sweet sauce and avocado on top and it is every bit as fabulous as it sounds. My favorite is the salmon skin roll and while I do not know what is actually inside it other than salmon, I am content to keep it that way. I’m still a bit squeamish about the idea of any food being less than well-done so it’s really one of those times where “the less I know…”

Well, the time came that we decided to move to my Hoosier hometown. Evansville has tons of stuff to do after living in “the sticks”, so we figured we’d find lots of great sushi joints. We live on the east side of town with my other half working on Green River Road so we tried Zuki first. While the sushi was okay, the prices were not. We went to Nagasaki and while the food was great, the sushi choices exponential, the names were all different and most everything was just a different name for the same things I’d had before. Also, it’s just too expensive to go back.

Recently, we decided to try Tokyo Japan. I had the same feeling I had at Osaka and The Fuji House from the candles and atmosphere. I looked at the menu and I did a double take at how cheap things were. My family of three can eat there and walk out with lunch for the next day and not spend thirty dollars. Of course, the rolls were all called by different names again! Their version of the Philadelphia roll is my favorite out of all the choices they offer. It is completely different from all the other places I’ve been containing crab, cucumber, and cream cheese inside and a big swatch of avocado on the outside topped off with crunchy bits and a “secret sauce” made mostly of soy sauce and something sweet. It tastes very similar to what you get mixing soy sauce and Japanese shrimp sauce in that it’s not only salty and savory but sweet. My husband likes their spicy tuna roll but it’s very different from what he’d had at previous restaurants. At Toyko Japan, a spicy tuna roll has a small piece of tuna, some Japanese mustard, spices, and is topped with a piece of kiwi! Because of the sweet draw of kiwi, I was lured into trying it and found my tongue nearly burnt out of my mouth.

It seems like restaurant owners don’t take each other into consideration when planning their menus. Really though, I can’t fault them. The combinations they opt to serve are their own choices to make. It just goes to show you really never know what you like until you try things. Sometimes it takes awhile catch what you’re after but if your net is big enough, you’ll reel it in.