Lent and a Boatful of Sushi

As a catholic, I spend 8 Fridays a year observing the lenten obligation abstaining from eating meat.  As a person who loves a good ham sandwich or a nice juicy steak, this isn't the easiest to accomplish, since I always crave a meat product on these select Fridays.  It's like wanting Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday.  But, there is one thing that helps this catholic get through this - sushi.

I had sushi for the first time 10 years ago while on my honeymoon.  MM and I found a place in San Francisco. I was skeptical, but he said "don't worry, it's OK.  The Montreal Expos are here." Sure enough, while they were in town playing the Giants, Bartolo Colon and a couple other players were eating at the sushi bar.  We ordered mostly cooked items, since I still was unsure.  One thing we ordered was deep fried prawns.  The sushi chef asked me "how you want the head - raw or fried?"  My response? "No."  Well, he didn't like that answer, so my logic was "everything is good deep fried, so I just humored him and said fried.  I ate it, MM didn't.  But what we had was so good and fresh, I was hooked.

A couple years later while living in Richmond, we found a place close to our house that had 1/2 price rolls each night, so we would go every Friday night, get a couple rolls, a Kirin Light, and the bill barely made $30.  It was awesome.  They knew MM since he always asked for Srichacha sauce (the hot sauce with the rooster on it), so he was dubbed Mr. Spicy.  We were brokenhearted when arrived one night saying they were closing on Sunday, as they had sold to a new owner.  The new place, called Ichiban was just as good, if not better, since Sue (the owner) made her own spring rolls that were to die for.  She was so successful she opened a second restaurant called Umi in the high traffic, high rent Short Pump area which at last check, was named as one of Richmond's 25 best restaurants.

In Raleigh, we are very fortunate to have found 3 places all within a few miles of our house all that serve amazing sushi, so we just have to decide which one to hit up.  This Friday, we hit up Sushi Thai right before closing.  Even as we were probably the last customers of the night, everything came out super fresh and delicious.  And there is something about when your food comes out on a boat....

MM is a spicy tuna guy (see Mr. Spicy above), and I like Philadelphia or Bagel rolls, since I love the play on textures with the cream cheese.  My new favorite at Sushi Thai is the Florida Roll - spicy tuna and batter served inside out (rice outside) with avocado and Srichacha on top.  The avocado cools the Srichacha, and the tuna has just a bit of texture.  Oh, and did I mention their rolls were buy one get one free?  There are two locations (which supposedly are not related - they just have the same name.  This one is in Raleigh, but the one in Cary is allegedly even better.)

Other places we like are Waraji, where you can dine a a true Japanese-style table with pillows and no shoes, and they have a secret menu, like their crack rolls - a cone style roll with spicy tuna and avocado.  The other is Haru Sushi, which is tucked in the back of a shopping center (actually next store to the previously blogged  Glenwood Grill), where they have great sashimi, like fatty white tuna.

Lent makes our trips to the sushi bar a little more frequent, but give me a boatful of sushi any day, and I'm one happy girl.

Sushi Thai

2434 Wycliff Road

Raleigh NC 27613

sushithairaleigh.com

Waraji

5910 Duraleigh Road

Raleigh NC 27612

warajirestaurant.com

Haru Sushi

2603 Glenwood Avenue

Raleigh NC 27608

harusushiusa.com