Fitzpatrick Family Blog: Sushi

I've gotten very lazy about my blogging but it just occurred to me that this is a great way to capture our memories of Japan so that we can remember them later. Now that I have a selfish motive, I'm going to try to get more consistent about it! :)

As you may have guessed, sushi is extremely popular in Japan. Our local grocery store has a huge sushi section.

Supermarket Sushi

Some of this is already prepared in rolls. Rolls are made up different ingredients wrapped in rice and then in seaweed. Usually they are sliced into round pieces about an inch thick. Nigiri is a type of sushi where the ingredients are instead laid over a small ball of vinegared rice. Sashimi style sushi is just the raw fish itself.

In the States we usually think of sushi as raw fish. The Japanese don't have as narrow a definition as we do. Sushi is made out of scrambled egg (tomago), beef, pork, shrimp/egg/tuna salad, cooked shrimp or crab, as well as raw fish and fish eggs. We've gotten pretty brave about trying the various kinds but we all still shy away from the things we can't identify...especially if they look slimy!

Our favorite sushi restaurant

In fact, after church most Sundays we head to our favorite Sushi-go-round restaurant for lunch. Sushi-go-round or conveyor belt sushi is our nickname for the type of restaurant where the customers sit in large booths and the food rides through the restaurant on a big conveyor belt.

A booth at the sushi restaurant. The computer for ordering is where the #14 is. The rest of the signs are the various types of sushi they have

You can either pick something that looks good right off the conveyor belt or you can order something specific using the computer screen at each table.

Sushi riding by on the conveyor belt

They send the special orders out along the conveyor belt too, but they are placed in certain dishes that designate them as special orders. When the order gets to your table, the computer chimes and a little animated character appears to let you know that it is your food.

Dirty dish shoot

When you are finished with your plates, you send them through a little shoot at the side of the table. At the restaurant we go to, for every 5 plates you send through the shoot you get a chance to win a tiny prize. The animated character appears on your screen and either fishes or has a sumo wrestling match. If he wins, you get a prize. Since we usually get enough for 3 or 4 chances, we generally get at least one prize each time we go!

Fishing game

Even the kids love going to the sushi-go-round! The girls have become fans of cucumber rolls and tomago (scrambled egg). Our son usually sticks to the fruit and desserts! Matt loves it because not only can he get sushi but each plate only costs about $1.20, so it's cheap too!