Catching up on the cameraphone photos…

On April Fool’s Day, James…

…visited me at the new-ish home for the first time and we had omakase at the lakeside sushi restaurant.

He said it was some of the best sushi he’s had. We unfortunately didn’t think to take photos until we were almost done.

He said it was up there with or exceeding the renouned Sushi Wasabi and it was half the price! You can read about our Sushi Wasabi experience, which I visited with James and Vanessa, here. (I just read the comment string on that post, hilarious, knowing now what has happened subsequently, and what is about to happen when JAMES AND I visit JORDAN in Florida next week.)

Continuing my sushi cravings, Mr. W and I had dinner at another Japanese restaurant days later. He made me pick dessert while refusing to give me input, so I deliberately picked something totally uncharacteristic of me: fried stuff. This is green tea ice cream made tempura-style (covered in tempura batter and deep fried).

He was kinda grossed out by the frying, so he didn’t eat much of it. I have the Asian can’t-waste-food-gene, so I ate much of it. The clever ordering totally backfired on me.

Knowing how big a fan our Tennessee girl Flat Coke & Flies is of fried stuff, however, I sent the photos to her and she enjoyed the ice cream vicariously, with the responsive comment “So there IS fried stuff in California!”

Then last Sunday, I…

met up with childhood pal Sandy for lunch. She and I had a great time laughing and bonding over stupid stuff. It’s been awhile since I hooked up with a girlfriend for shits & giggles. It felt great. After a fobby lunch in Irvine we went to the Irvine Spectrum and hung out at the outdoor patio of Dave & Buster’s for drinks, continuing our gigglefest there while people-watching.

We made jokes that I can’t make public, but it was like the good ol’ days again. =)

Of course by this time I’m craving sushi again, so when college roommie Diana got into town for a deposition she was defending, she and I met up for a raw dinner (after another workout together) last Tuesday at a sushi restaurant in Costa Mesa. We’ve been trying to go to Sushi Wasabi for awhile, but every time she’s in town it’s closed (Sundays & Mondays). This restaurant didn’t compare, but it did have a couple of interesting items. This is the “Shrimp Boat” as served…

…and after Diana doused it in Tabasco.

Good thing we’re both gym rats, and good thing we don’t have cholesterol problems. Yum! The best thing we ordered was done blind off their roll menu. “What’s the Russian Roulette Roll?” I asked our heavily-accented Japanese waitress.
I heard, “It’s a blah-blah spicy yellowtail, blah-blah, and one piece is blah-blah.”
“Oh, that sounds interesting,” I said. “We’ll have one.”
When it arrived, the six identical-looking segments of the roll were arranged in a circle on the plate, cross-section-side up, like a roulette wheel. I was just about to ask Diana what the deal was with this roll as explained by our waitress, when Diana said, “WHAT’s in this roll again? I couldn’t understand her.” Great.
“One piece has something different, was all I could gather,” I said. So we started eating. The spicy yellowtail was chopped tataki-style and not ground as spicy tuna usually is, and was delicious. We speculated what the surprise was.
“Watch, it’s something stupid, like a piece of carrot,” Diana laughed. I joked that maybe it was a penny. That got her chewing more carefully, testing for texture changes. Diana noted that the roll is spicier than she’d expected, which impressed her, and she couldn’t tell the difference between the two pieces she had. I agreed, so far both tasted the same so we must not have gotten to the “special” piece, yet. But what if we had, and didn’t notice it? Two more pieces remained on the plate, so she took one and I took the last.
“Still good, but not different,” I said with my mouth full. But Diana was pointing energetically at her own stuffed mouth now, making a slight whimpering sound. “What’s different?” I asked. She couldn’t talk. She was, however, turning colors slightly.
She finally swallowed the piece and chugged tea. “It’s TOTALLY SPICY! Oh my GAWD!” she said when she could breathe again. “I don’t know what’s in it cuz the texture never changed, but I’m thinking it was chopped up habaneros!” She stayed red for another few minutes, complaining of her burning mouth. Haha! The Russian Roulette: what a great roll!