10/30 Dinner: Sabazushi

Still haven't had a home-cooked meal in a while, which is half awful and half fun. I'm trying to be positive.

I really wish I remembered to take pictures of our lunch yesterday. We rented a car and picked up a set of patio furniture from a Sayonara Sale and then headed to Costco. We don't go there often (our membership expired a few years ago) but were expecting a fun trip. It wasn't.

Here's a little tip: if you live in Japan, don't drive to your local Costco on a Sunday. Especially if that Sunday falls after a Saturday night spent dancing till the wee hours, and particularly if you've only slept 2 hours.

The drive was a drag, with traffic bad enough to extend what should have been a 1 hour drive home to 3 hours. Costco itself was a madhouse, just full of really rude people who seemed to be using a shopping cart for the first time ever. We skipped entire aisles because we just couldn't get to them, and just generally had a lousy time.

The one good part was lunch though. A visit to Costco's cafeteria is always a highlight, because it's just such an un-Japanese experience. The food is dirt-cheap and the main flavouring is grease, and lots of it. This time we tried a bulgogi bake, something I've seen before but always avoided because it looked yucky. But it's so not. It's a huge long bun filled with bulgogi flavoured beef, cheese, the aforementioned grease and god knows what else, and it was fantastic. Here, someone else took a picture. Not much to look at, I know, but trust me- it's good. I'm assuming this is a Japan-only item, so if you find yourself at a Japanese Costco, you gotta try this.

Tonight I chose something a little less greasy- take-out sushi.

This is saba-zushi, made with my favourite fish, the humble mackerel. The rolls are wrapped in tororo (thin salty kelp) rather than the usual nori. Washed down with a tall can of Ebisu that is long past its expiry date (gotta clean out the cupboards).

Comments

[Erin]

I like battera, but regular saba sushi is my favorite. I love the vinegary-ness.

[Amy]

Yup, the vinegary-ness is good. The fishy-ness too. Strangely, surveys show that saba is one of the least favourite types of sushi amoung Japanese. I have students who can't eat it because it is "too fishy"!