New Year's Sushi

Last week, on New Year's Eve, Amy and I (and the boy) drove down to San Diego and picked up some sushi fixin's. Our typical shopping trip includes cucumber, avocado, masago, nori, and sashimi-grade tuna. We also needed some Japanese mayonaise, which is a little sweeter than the American variety. As it is, we've got plenty of rice, vinegar, and hot sauce in the cupboard.

The market we go to is down in Clairmont, called Mitsuwa, is an Asian market that sells all manner of Japanese foods, not to mention books, magazines, videos, and just about anything else you can think of. As it was New Year's Eve, the place was packed when we got there. We managed to get in and out pretty quickly, and once back to the car we packed our fish and masago in our portable cooler to make sure it stayed nice and fresh.

Once home, with Stephen in a much-needed nap, Amy went about the chore of making sushi rice. I don't remember all the steps required to do this, but I know it involves rinsing the rise mutliple times, steaming it, and mixing it with rice vinegar and other stuff in a special wooden tub called a hangiri.

Later in the evening, Amy got to making the rolls. We enjoyed California rolls and spicy tuna rolls. All told, we spent about $15 on fish and ended up with five whole rolls (with leftovers!). Anyone who goes out for sushi knows that $15 will usually buy you one or two rolls, depending on where you prefer to go. There is a certain savings involved, though it is also a lot of work (though not as much work as baking cookies).

So, without further ado, I present what Nikchick refers to as "food porn": pictures of Amy's sushi rolls. We plated them on some sushi plates that our friends JD and Keri gave us for Christmas.

California Rolls with Masago
Given that fish was involved, we had plenty of interest from our cats. The chili sauce used in the spicy tuna rolls wasn't their idea of good eats, though, so the felines were held at bay somewhat.

Hastur Presents: Spicy Tuna Rolls
As we ate our sushi dinner, we watched one of the DVDs we received for Christmas: The 'Burbs. An awesome movie, if I do say so myself, though probably not to everyone's tastes. We were in bed before midnight, but I do recall hearing some firecrackers at the midnight hour's passing. It's odd, because only a few years ago, I would've insisted on drinking to excess and staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve. I guess I've outgrown such indulgences...