Friday, June 30, 2006

RawFish

Last night, Intern Paul came over, and he and Lauren and I had massive take-out from Cafe Sushi in Troy. In our crazed gluttony, we forgot to take a picture of the enormous fish pile, but the three of us ordered a lot of food - when I picked up the tray, the bartender asked me if I wanted five pairs of chopsticks.

"No," I replied, "four's just fine. We're hungry."

And we were! We cleared it down to the pickled ginger and wasabi lump. We thought about going for a frozen custard, but the kid had to go to sleep and Paul had to give his ex-girlfriend's dog epilepsy medication, so we called it a night. When the dust had settled, we had downed so much that we couldn't have managed the walk to the car anyway.

3 comments:

Judy said...

Here's something that will show how small my world is. I can't even fathom eating raw fish. I did try a California roll once, and I loved that sushi. However, the thought of raw fish just doesn't thrill me. I know, I'm missing something big, but I'm from small-town Texas, USA. If it ain't got horns, we don't eat it*.


*that's not entirely true - I actually prefer chicken to beef.

Jonathan said...

Judy, I think it's time. If you liked the California roll, there's almost no downside to trying something more exotic. I've tried some truly weird stuff (although to admit that I think urchin etc. is weird might be to engage in detrimental perspectivism. the Iron Chefs would disapprove), and on only one occasion have I actually had a hard time getting something down. In fact, I think I'll share that experience.

Before Lauren and I were dating, I was eating alone after work one night at the bar at Little Tree in Royal Oak, and in my order was a piece of sushi comprised of giant salmon roe wrapped in seaweed, at the recommendation of the bartender. It should be noted that this was the 'drink' bartender, not the sushi chefs behind the separate sushi counter.

I picked up the sushi with my chopsticks and put the whole thing in my mouth. Immediately I was overcome with the entirely unpleasant (to me, there must be people who love it) sensation of having a mouth full of slippery, slimy giant fish eggs.

I had a major problem on my hands - I had to either force down the glutinous, roiling mass of eggs, spit it into my beer or throw up on my shirt. To make matters (immeasurably) worse, there was a very attractive woman a few seats down the bar watching to see if a huge ball of fish eggs taste good.

What did I do? I summoned every bit of effort I possessed and swallowed the entire thing, followed by an extremely large swig of beer, fear having overcome my gag reflex for exactly long enough to perform a task that could only be called, in context, heroic.

So is there a great lesson in this ridiculous story? Only that after the eggs I could feel free to go out and try just about anything else, because no texture or taste could ever be as unpleasant as that roe blob was for me. I think you need to conjure up the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten, and then know that some raw tuna could never be that bad. In fact, it has a really rich taste that reminds many people...of beef!

Jeremy said...

I had a similar experience, it turned me off from eating anything with "roe" in it, but it did get me hooked on eel, which I never thought I would eat.

Say, would you be interested in some Noble Fish this week, or perhaps Nippon Kai?