Ahhhhhhh Sushi....Bless You.

Sorry about the stupid title, but couldn't think of anything else good to call this blog that was catchy so you will have to just bear with me and know that today I am going to talk sushi. One area of my pallet that is so lacking in flavor identification is Asian cuisine. I have such limited experience in this area but I try very hard to try new things all the time and I will certainly give you my honest point of view. I will tell you though, that I do love sushi (if anyone who knew me 10 years ago heard me say that they would have fallen over dead). With that being said, I want to share with you a place that I have gone to many times before, but because I have just decided to blog about my food experiences, is the first time I have written about them, and that place is Little Tokyo Restaurant in Bellingham, Washington.

I actually stumbled upon this place right after I first moved to Bellingham in October of 2000. I was looking for a really good teriyaki joint and this happened to be just up the street from my rented abode. Of course my first visit did not include sushi (even though I did notice that there was a sushi bar and it was on the menu), I just had the chicken teriyaki. It wasn't until my girlfriend (now my wife) was visiting me when she said she wanted some sushi and that was beginning (reluctant at first) of my journey into the world of sushi. But enough of memories of the past, lets jump into the present.

My wife and I walk into the restaurant and are greeted promptly -- not many places where you are not greeted promptly but it is always a good place to start. The restaurant decor is vanilla Japanese but, in their defense, it is in a community shopping center called Barkley Village (upscale strip mall) and therefore, there is not a whole lot you can do with the interior but they tried. Right inside the entrance is a bamboo screen followed by a small sushi bar where, if you want, you can watch the artist at work. But I will tell what really bugged me about the bar setup and that was amongst the display of fresh ingredients in the glass case, the set-out chopsticks and Japanese dinnerware, was, in plain view, a microwave on the back shelf of the prep area (tacky, tacky). Hide the microwave and they would have had a well set up prep area. After passing the bar, you step into the main dining area which is clean and orderly, however, (and this is what I love about this place), the first thing you notice is that there is no flatware on the table...just napkins and chopsticks! Of course, for those of you who want to eat with a fork you can certainly degrade yourself and ask for it and they will cheerfully bring it to you. Enough of the condescending attitude though...lets push forward.

We find our seats, get our sushi and regular menus and it is off to the dining races we go. I will say that it is not unusual that we just order sushi for dinner, but tonight, we both decided that we were going to order entrees as well. However, as always, we start with ordering the sushi. Tonight we order two of our favorites, Ruby Roll and a small California Roll. If you have not heard of ruby roll, it is because you can only find it at Little Tokyo...it is their own heavenly creation. This roll is stuffed with avocado and shrimp tempura (freshly cooked and still warm) and wrapped by perfectly textured and fresh sushi rice, but it gets better. Placed on each piece of the roll is fresh, sashimi tuna with a mountain of crispy fried yam straws. I'm not done yet, wait for it....wait for it....ya, thats right, the roll is sitting atop an absolute fantastic spicy sauce and to counterbalance that, a sweet sauce that is drizzled on top (I think they called it eel sauce but I do not remember exactly so don't take it as gospel). OMG!!!! You place a piece in your mouth and the flavor just explodes like a culinary firework of flavor and textures...the sweet, the spicy, the earthy, along with the crunch of the straws, the soft of the avocado and the slight chewiness of the sushi rice -- it is just food VALHALLA (if there were a Valhalla in Japan)! I will make mention that the California Roll was the standard avocado, crab and rice wrapped in nori, still, it was fresh and very good in its own right. You could certainly tell that plating was done with care and love, and the platter had the standard fare of wasabi paste and fresh shaved ginger, in other words, I was eating with my eyes long before I wrapped my chopsticks around those tasty morsels.

Because this really is all about the sushi, I am not going to write a whole lot about the entrees (I apologize for mentioning it in the above, but I do have a knack to sometimes go off on a verbal tangent...kind of like now!) but I will tell you that they have the standard Japanese fare of teriyaki, yakisoba, udon, tempura, miso soup, etc., etc., which are all incredibly tasty and fresh. Along with that you can quench your thirst with multiple choices of Japanese beers, saki or hot tea (I know, hot tea doesn't quench but if you want, you can order it iced too), and there is the standard American beverage selection (alcoholic and non) but why would you ruin such a cool Asian culinary experience with droll American grog? All of this culinary vacation is incredibly priced and will not leave your wallet feeling like it has been drained by a vampire. I highly recommend Little Tokyo in Bellingham, WA and hope that if your travels take you up north, that you stop and enjoy this little slice of Japanese nirvana (if Japan had a nirvana)!

Little Tokyo Restaurant
2915 Newmarket Pl # 101
Bellingham, WA 98226-3868
(360) 752-2222

P.S. Coming up next, our special birthday dining suprise...look forward to it!