Sushi Just Got More Expensive!

Last Saturday we decided to take the evening and go find good Sushi in nearby Rochester.  We've never been to any of the Asian/Sushi restaurants there and I thought it was just about time we had some Sushi. It's been, oh, six months, since we had sushi at Fujiyama down in Southern Illinois, and that is too long to go between servings of raw tuna!  In our former life we would've handed the girls over to Grandma and just gone out as adults, but now if we want fine dining we take the whole family.  Happily, our girls are gourmands.

After driving back and forth for a while, we found a little Sushi joint in a strip mall and would've probably been frightened away by it's location but for the fact that our favorite Sushi Restaurant in Iowa City was also in a strip mall.  We figured we'd go ahead and try it.  

It was only about five o'clock - we knew other diners wouldn't appreciate our noisy, messy children while they were trying to have a nice date - so we beat the Saturday dinner rush.  Even so our sever, Ashley, seemed a little taken aback by a family with three kids five and under.  We quickly ordered drinks and spring rolls to nibble as we decided what sushi to order.  A quick look through the menu showed us that this place had lots of rolls and sashimi to chose from, didn't have anything that was kid friendly.  No fried rice, no lo mein, not even wan tons.  So we ordered a sushi assortment, an extra tuna roll, and a bowl of miso soup for the girls and hoped that if we could just keep them distracted while we ate then we'd grab them a hamburger on the way home if we had to.  We forgot we had adventurous kids.

Every single thing that came to the table the kids wanted to try!  We started them on some simple tuna rolls - raw tuna encased in sticky rice and wrapped in seaweed.  They were small.  The girls scarfed them down.  Then we split the egg and cucumber rolls between them.  Beatrice even ate hers with chopsticks.  They both dipped their Sushi in the little bowls of soy sauce, just like mom and dad.  Then Maggie saw the octopus.  She ate not only one, but two bites.  Beatrice was enamored with the Salmon Roe.  She and Maggie picked the salty, sticky, gelatinous little eggs off one by one and delightedly squealed when they "popped" in their mouths.  (I could only manage one.  Roe is way too salty and fishy for me!)  At one point Beatrice was holding the sushi up to her mouth and sucking out the roe like she was a vacuum cleaner!! They each tried my favorite, Unagi, or barbecued eel.  They each ate tofu and seaweed.  They both even tried the very spicy pickled ginger.  We ordered two more rolls, one eel and one spicy tuna.  They tried everything and there wasn't anything they didn't like.  We even gave a few nibbles to Obie!  Then, we ended the meal with a bowl of nice, plain vanilla ice cream.

My Kids Love Sushi.   The owner of the store was very impressed.  Heck, I was impressed.  I see many more Sushi runs in our future!  Hooray!!!