Sushi Sushi... Sue shee!

Even Sushi is Relative..

Vas says I should write about Sushi.  He likes it when I am happy and knew I was VERY happy when we found a Sushi King restaurant in the little mall in Teluk Itan. 

We travelled to this small city just 35K north of us, to get my car serviced: 20,000 kilometres are on the odometer and it was acting awfully weird: strange noises.  No worries though.. it was just the power steering fluid, somehow it had escaped. 

The Proton dealership is next to a hotel with a pool.. Judy Lee tracked it down a few weeks ago.  The hotel has the small, but quiet pool, free WIFI and they serve beer.  Not bad! 

Also within walking distance is McDonalds, with it’s relatively clean toilets, black coffee and big breakfasts..  and behind that is the Giant mall.

Giant is the name of a chain of grocery stores around this country: like Carrefour.. sort of.  There is the supermarket attached to a bit of a mall. This one has two floors and they are adding a third. 

It’s like Gigante in Mexico.. Prices are in Ringett instead of Peso’s..

Anyway, we dropped the car off and went for a swim, but it wasn’t long before a thunderstorm was upon us and we had to get out of the pool. 

As we strode into the mall to get groceries:  I saw it. 

Sushi King. 

It wasn’t big, but it had one of those little conveyor belts with the coloured plates of ‘sushi’ travelling around.  The prices were really good: plus it was “Happy Hour’. 

It was just me eating, Vas had some sort of Malaysian dish at the restaurant across from Mickey D’s.  I have decided I am just not really a fan of Malaysian food.  

I was pretty excited about Sushi though!

Sushi always reminds me of Adam..

When he was four, walking along in Cow Bay, Prince Rupert singing “Sushi Sushi Su shi!.. Sushi Sushi Sue Sheee!”  and eating in a trendy little wooden shop by the sea.

And he was five when he introduced me to a great sushi bar on the corner of the main street in Nelson.

“Sushi sushi sue sheee!”

And then later in Vancouver.. ‘sushi sushi sushi!!”

It also reminds me of when Rea’s sister Sue and I found a little hole-in-the wall sushi place in some mega mall in Burnaby.. I felt so worldly sitting there.. in the city… eating sushi with this big city woman. 

And years later Vas and I gazed down upon the city after making our way along Davie street, down to Denman and this amazing all-you-can-eat sushi shop on a rooftop there.  Vasi flirted with the little Japanese waitress, and as a reward got more than his share of the fresh, red, raw B.C. salmon.

It’s that Aussi accent.

John had told me about the place.. over sushi in Coquitlam.  There is a wonderful all you can eat sushi place in the parking lot there, not far from his house. .. That restaurant has had the pleasure of being filled with the sound of John’s laughter on a rather regular basis.

Lynne can keep up to John and I.. bite for bite!

Vas and I also met up with mom and John in that same place.. accidently, serendipitously..  “Of all the sushi bars in all the world.. they had to come into ours!”

And I had sushi with mom in north Van after her appointment with the heart specialist.. the time he told her she needed a pacemaker. 

Bad news doesn’t slow a Crabb down!

Sushi reminds me of living in Jaffray and making my own. It wasn’t very good.  But either was the stuff I bought in the little plastic containers at the Todd Mall in Alice Springs. 

But that big wooden house with the big wooden steps on the highway in Fernie makes the best sushi! I remember meeting Karen there a few summers ago: how great is it to sit in the sun, surrounded by those amazing mountains and talk to a childhood friend while eating, you guessed it, sushi.

That was the same place I met up with Travis and Steph a few years ago.. along with Debbie and Lois.  I had just split up with Michael and I remember how hard it was to say good-bye to Trav. 

Sherrill and I have eaten there.. a couple times I think.

Ahh.. sushi.  So many memories all tied up in those little rolls with the rice outside the seaweed that soak up the sauce sooo well,

although.. the ones with the rice on the inside fit in your mouth even better. 

I love mixing the brilliant green wasabi in with soya sauce.. making a brownish coloured… mess.  Dipping in the little bite sized morsels.  

Everyone mixes it differently.  Everyone has their own tolerance level for the horseradish.. that fine line between “god I love this stuff”  and spewing it out through your nose. 

And there is the miso soup.. and teriyaki.. pink ginger.. I love the raw salmon, the spicy tuna.  Eel is weird, but good.  Those dumplings they serve, dipped in the vinegar sauce, are to die for!

Sushi King in Teluk Itan doesn’t have a lot of that ‘extra stuff’ though. 

They did have soy beans.. that was good.  Just steamed a bit.  I grabbed one of those plates and got started as I watched what was going by on the belt.. with great anticipation. 

..A rice ball with something on top: doesn’t really look like salmon. 

.. Something.. deep fried..  crispy..

..Mayonnaise all over a deep fried ball.. maybe.. chicken?

An octopus?  No.. it’s a hot dog cut to look like one: the round top and four legs..  A crazy hotdog.. sort of red.. with spots. 

That’s what was on the rice ball?! 

I grab at something familiar.. salmon inside rice and wrapped in seaweed.. you know… sushi sushi suuu  sheee!

I have my sauce all mixed and ready.. little floaties of green wasabi.. just how I like it..

I dip in my ‘sushi’ and get ready for that ‘rush’ ..it reminded me of.. a hot dog?!

..the bit of red inside is not salmon at all.. but also a.. hotdog. 

Vas calls them sausages.. but I know a hot dog when I taste it, even when it is hidden in seaweed, made to look like a sushi roll and dipped in soy sauce and wasabi..

Bugger..

But on the bright side..  Did I tell you we found a pool?