Crunchy Contrasts

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Last night, my sweetie took me to Sushi Yasuda, and tonight I am eating something out of a box/bag (do the words "shelf stable" strike fear into your heart? they should).

Well, I was feeling really wiped out and it occured to me that I was perhaps hungry (duh) and so I nuked something (do not ask what -- really, you'll be happier not knowing) and well, all I can say is: it was only 4 points. (My daily WW budget is now a measly 20.) But on to more cheerful topics... like last night's sushifest!

The itty bitty crabs you see above (compare the size of that lemon wedge to those little babies!) was one of that night's appetizer specials (flash fried miniature crabs) which I loved and my engineer thought was merely okay.

What we BOTH agreed upon was that Ysauda-san has some of the best sushi we've ever had the pleasure of tasting. Yes, our 6:30 reservation at the sushi bar landed us smack dab in front of Yasuda'san's station. FUN! Dinner AND a show! (The knife work was dazzling, natch.)

After a while we just let him suggest what was particularly good that evening. (The a la carte menu had little pen notations highlighting the evening's best selections as well.) That is how my engineer wound up trying scallop liver sushi for the first time, which he liked.

The chef is a very genial man with a sense of humor. After watching us place our individual selections, and noticing how divergent they were, he laughed and said something like, "Hmmm... very different tastes. Very independent. This is good! It is good to have balance!"

He also demonstrated the difference in texture and color between farm-raised and wild salmon of the same species. No marbling in the wild sashimi while the farm-raised variety was covered in marbling, the type we've come to expect when people say "salmon". He made a joke and city fish vs. country fish... except that in NYC it's reversed, with the city folk lean from walking along streets and up and down stairs, while "country" people go overywhere in cars. Heh-heh, heh heh heh (he has a very distinctive laugh)

Can't really going into the loooong list of fish we had (read this person's description for some vicarious thrills) since I have to run off to meet someone, but it is definitely worth keeping on our rotation as a special occasion restaurant (the price tag bumps it into that category... but oh man, I'd go there regularly if I could afford it!)

Oh, and by the way, both cleaning people on our floor at work exclaimed upon seeing me last night for the first time in several weeks: they thought I had been on vacation (ha!) since when they go home to Poland or Georgia (the country, not the state) they go for weeks at a time. Clearly, demonstrable evidence that I am a night owl if the cleaning people miss/note my presence!