BTW: this post originally included photos, but my sucky SD card wouldn't work. Sorry, guys. :(

For those of you that don't know, I'm a large advocate of eating sushi. "What, raw fish, you really eat that?" Yes, yes I do. I absolutely love, love, love, love, love, sushi, and if it was the only food available to me for the rest of my life, I'd be quite alright with that.  A lot of people often comment along those lines, and in a sense, I can understand their reasons. Food is a very cultural aspect, and for those who haven't had much but processed food from a box all their life, sushi may not exactly sound like the most appetizing food of choice. I believe it was my sister's fiance who said that a humans' taste pallet develops by the time they reach age nine, and whether that may be true or not, I do not know. However, it does sound about right, and I will assume it is since google doesn't provide any information on the topic.

More over, I can understand how this may be true. My dad loves to cook, and when I say this, it doesn't mean he enjoys sticking Easy Mac in the microwave-oven, or warming up a can of string beans. Unlike the average American, my dad actually takes the time to buy the ingredients from the supermarket, and then prepare them. Since we are also Asian/Pacific Islander, a lot of the food we eat either is, or involves sea food. Because of this, for as long as I can remember my dad has prepared various dishes such as raw oysters with Tabasco, plain anchovies with lemon, and fresh squid with soy sauce. I can only assume my past history with food has led up to my current sushi addiction. Now, before I bore you even further with countless back round information, let me get to the important details.

This Monday I went out to eat sushi at my favorite place. In fact, it's the only sushi restaurant I've been to in the Las Vegas-Henderson area. The restaurant is called I Love Sushi, and it's located at 11041 South Eastern Ave #117 in Henderson, Nevada. This place serves various Japanese cuisine, but I believe they specialize in sushi. I was first taken there by my sister and her fiance, and I was immediately impressed as soon as I stepped into the building. At first sight, the outside isn't as impressive. In fact, it's quite plain. However, like I said, the inside is pleasing to the eyes. I appears to be a very traditional place; the men at the sushi bar speak Japanese and where traditional dress, including the women wearing thier kimonos. Everyone is very friendly, the service is nice, and it's a very neat and clean place, which is very important for a sushi bar.

My dad and my mom started out with oyster shots that night, and unfortunately I didn't get to try one, but basically it just looked like raw oyster in a shot glass soaked in Tabasco, served with a lemon wedge. I assumed it was a delicious, and according to my dad it was. As for my mom, I'd like to say the experience was equal to my dad's, but she doesn't enjoy spicy food as much as he does (neither do I).

I Love Sushi has a wide array of menu options, and that night I chose to eat dish on the baked roll menu. I must say the name of their rolls are quite colorful and unique. They very from "Who's your daddy?" to the more extreme, "I love my a**," but just so happened that night I would be delighting my taste buds with "Stacey's mom." I can only imagine what picture your mind may be creating as I mention the name of the sushi roll I ate. To put your mind at ease, "Stacey's mom" is basically salmon and avocado wrapped in sea weed paper, with eel and special sauce on top, all baked to wonderful juicy and tender roll.

The taste was overall pleasant and quite similar to the other baked rolls I've tried before such as, "Volcano." Sushi is normally served with ginger and wasabi (also known as "Japanese horseradish" for its taste), however, most people never get around to eating their wasabi. Unlike most people, I will actually eat all the wasabi I am given during a meal. I don't know what it is, but I enjoy that quick, burning, nasal passage opening experience  wasabi gives. It's a good time.

In addition to eating "Stacey's Mom", I also got a taste of my parent's rolls of what names they have, I cannot remember. However, they were both equally as tasty as the roll I had. My dad also ordered sea urchin, which they call uni, and I had the opportunity to taste it -- so I did. It had a dark boiled egg color, and a tofu type texture. It tasted surprisingly a lot like salmon roe, which I greatly enjoy.

It was another successful eating experience at I Love Sushi, and at the end of the meal I ate a bowl of green-tea mochi. For those of you who do not know what mochi is, it's a traditional Japanese food that's basically a sweet to tasteless, sticky rice doe, which usually is twisted around either bean-paste, ice cream, or pounded into shapes (I had ice cream), dusted with corn-starch or powder. Obviously, I like it a lot, and if you enjoy regular sticky rice that you can typically obtain at any Asian food market, you'd likely also favor mochi.

All in all, you get the point. I Love Sushi, and there's no wonder why the owners of the restaurant chose that particular name. Anyways, thank you for choosing to read my blog! Go out and eat some sushi. :)

Happy Asian American month!

:Julia