Japanese food

As a city that has a large concentration of Japanese immigrants, it is not surprising there is tons of good Japanese food available. The first exposure was on my second day. We went to this really neat little place that did all you can eat temaki, onigiri, and shish-kebabs. The temaki were expected types, salmon, with skin, tuna, squid, vegetarian, fried shrimp. The onigiri, fewer options, with ume being the expected favorite. Tons of options for the Kebabs. Pretty much all of it delicious.

The temaki, was really quite delicious. These 'simple' rolls are really not readily available in the states. Only gripe? sometimes its a bit hard to bit through the seaweed wrap.

You'll have to forgive my failing memory about some of the ordered food. The impact doesn't really change though. It was good.

Next up. Bacon wrapped potatoes? Yes please.  I wish we had something like this at all back home. Reminded me of what Tapas is supposed to be. Simple small dishes, that just keep coming as long as you are still ordering alcohol.

Next to the potatoes, are chicken hearts. Not something common in the states, really at all. They were pretty good, a bit tough, I guess, but really not much worse than like a thick sausage skin. The flavor wasn't anything peculiar or offending. So, in all, I'd recommend it. Steak bits next to that, and mushrooms (which I later found could come bacon wrapped).

The onigiri was the most unfair. The rice was so good, and I know I won't be able to get this sort of thing back home. I miss it already. I think I actually got this one with salmon inside? Unsure at this point. I ate too much though, seriously. It was endless, you want more Onigiri? Just mark it on the paper. Temaki? it's right there, choose your flavor. Too much food. This will be a common theme.

Moving on to the next Japanese stop.  Koban.

  Koban, is another all you can eat Japanese place. This one though, proper sushi. Koban in japanese is basically "police box". Pretty neat name in my opinion. The street appeal is actually pretty high. Nicely lit, inviting, and a cool front door (who doesn't like water features?).

The inside is very cool! I really like the decor of the restaurant. Has a very Japanese feeling, but at the same time has these cool middle isle booths. With the lights underneath with the glossy surfaces, I sit her asking...is this blade runner? Well, maybe it isn't, but it was cool anyway. 

The food showed up faster than I could keep track of it all. I didn't even see Mel and Gabe order most of this. Later they told me they just said what "not" to bring...go figure.

 There are a lot of...starters? You can choose what you want. Pictured above. Gyoza (really good). Mini Pastels, which, uh..I think might have had fish? Not positive anymore. Its a pastel though, which means it was great. Spring rolls, stir fried mushrooms in the back. Salmon ceviche. It was great. All of it. Next picture over, shows the white fish ceviche. Which was also really good, and more temaki. All three are salmon, but the two on the outside are "skin on" which is crispy cooked skinned salmon. The bowl has a japanese cucumber (read pickle) salad.

 The sushi itself, is really nice isn't it? Mostly salmon, which is really quite good by me. (There's some tempura hiding on the side). There's some spicy things on the 'front' of the plate, with a cream cheese on top. At the back is the Sashimi, white fish, something I can't identify next to that, Tako (octopus) and then Salmon. The nigiri takes up the row in front of that, dominated by more salmon. There's some other stuff mixed in there. Closest to the camera, is what was easily my favorite. I didn't really know you could improve salmon sashimi and nigiri. It's like a reverse sushi. It is little bit of rice, wrapped in salmon, with a bit of diced salmon on top. It's delicious. I don't know how the rice gives it so much more mouth feel, but gah. Need this.

The last japanese stop was actually on my last day. It was lunch, Mel and I walked around her neighborhood which is near a college, and some of her favorite places were actually closed, but we managed to find this little Japanese place. Had my last Guarana there. It ended up much the same as Koban, you tell them what you want to roll through for appetizers, and I'm not entirely sure how the factor to your bill. Then after those plates are cleared, blam! Sushi. Here we had less overall variety, but more tuna, which was good. And the whitefish in the foreground is all separated by thinly sliced limes. First one i ate with the lime. Didn't work so well. Rind too thick, was good that way, but hrmm execution didn't work so great. I wish we did sushi like this in the states. Instead its a much more ala carte style, and way over charged. No complimentary gyoza and temaki. I'll miss it. Somehow managed not to find a fish bread, or get some takoyaki on this trip. I'll add it to the Udon and Okonomiyaki.