All things sushi

Sonia and I had sushi for lunch before she left on her way back to HK and Bangkok. As we ate it, we realized how far we have come in what we now eat - surprisingly me more so than Sonia. As best I can recall the lunch:

Start with a soft tofu appetizer - served hot in a very small pot, with a couple of thin slices of mushroom on top, and a small prawn in the bottom. Yummy.

Then on to the sushi itself. Each piece is made separately in front of you, shaped by hand, a dab of wasabi (grated freshly in front of you), and the seafood on top. The piece of sushi is put on the lacquered counter in front of you, next to a pile of pickled ginger. There is a small saucer of soy sauce on the tray in front of you, but you're not really supposed to sully the excellent fish with soy. You eat each piece of sushi from the counter with your chopsticks, straight into your mouth. The chef stays about one piece ahead of you, so you cannot get much fresher than that.

The sushi part of the meal usually starts with tuna (very nice), snapper (or something like that), then a piece of squid, a piece wrapped in seaweed with a pile of salmon eggs on top, then more fish. During this part, a dish of miso soup with small clams arrives.

One of the sushi courses is made with an egg mixture - made with egg and fish soup, which is cooked and then allowed to set into a fairly firm cake - this is cut into pieces and put on top of rice.

Depending on the menu price, you may also get sushi made with sea urchin. Oh, and usually sea eel!

The sushi part usually finishes with rolls made with jellyfish and/or more tuna.

All of this is accompanied by Japanese green tea.

Quite a big meal, and I normally don't have a big dinner afterwards. I now eat everything except the clams in the miso soup. Not bad for someone who still dislikes broccoli and cauliflower! Sonia's not so keen on the sea urchin, or the salmon eggs.