twodoebs

Random Thoughts From Our Random Minds

Monday, February 12, 2007

Sushi Madness

By: doebtown

Sweet Kati and I are now 100% hooked on sushi. It all started a coupla weeks ago when I came home from work and decided that we should take a drive to Park Slope to eat at the ever popular Blue Ribbon Sushi Brooklyn. Neither Kati nor I have ever really ordered sushi before, so we logged into ehow.com and printed out their report on how to order sushi. We drove to Blue Ribbon Brooklyn, realized that Blue Ribbon Brooklyn and Blue Ribbon SUSHI Brooklyn are not the same establishment, and went to Blue Ribbon Sushi Brooklyn.

We musta looked like total tools with out ehow.com printout sitting on the table saying to the waiter "it says we're supposed to let you know that we're new to this, so . . . we're new to this." But the waiter took care of us and we had a nice dinner.

We both agreed, however, that we needed to try again with someone who knew a little about what we should be eating.

We had just that opportunity on our recent Non-Plan Tripsy-Dipsy, when Susan and Scott took us to their favorite Orlando sushi restaurant. And was it EVER what we wanted--people who knew what they liked sharing all the goodness with us. The Volcano Roll we ate struck me as a decidedly American take on the traditional cuisine, but oh, how it has haunted my taste buds ever since in the best way possible!

So when we got back from the Non-Plan Tripsy-Dipsy, our FIRST stop was to Ki Sushi, which is a new joint on Smith Street. We were very happy. I couldn't find that Volcano Roll or anything like it, because Ki seems MUCH more traditional, but the Ki Roll was beautiful AND deli-licious!

The very NEXT night, we were back at it again. This time, we went to Cube 63 Brooklyn on Court Street. With a much funkier vibe, Cube rivals Ki on all levels EXCEPT quality, where the two are dead tied. Cube seems less traditional than Ki, although still not QUITE as . . . um--Amercainzed?--as the place we went with Susan and Scott in Orlando. Not that in this American Joe's mind there's ANYTHING wrong with Americanized! I, in fact, WISH I could get Susan to SHIP me one of those Volcano Rolls. Cube DID have A Volcano Roll, although it wasn't covered with all of the ooey-gooey goodness of the one that stole my heart.

And--for those of you counting along at home--that DOES mean that Kati and I had sushi for dinner three out of four nights last week. I rationalize everything by telling myself that sushi is very low fat and healthy!

So I've been poking around on the web trying to find more information on this new obsession and thought I would share my very favorite sushi links with those of you out there that might be similarly minded:

- The original ehow.com article that got it all started, "How to Order at a Sushi
Bar";
- "Sushi" from Wikipedia;
- EatSushi.com;
- Citysearch.com Best Sushi in New York City (including four in Brooklyn that we haven't tried!);
- "Sushi Health Risks" from sushiFAQ.com;
- "How to Practice Sushi Etiquette" from wikiHow.com

posted at 5:16 PM 1 comments

Comments:

Hey Doebs, We can give you some places to try in Minneapolis since it sounds like you will miss the Friday night dinner. Let me know. Kristi

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:20 PM

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Thursday, February 08, 2007

Our Non-Plan Tripsy-Dipsy

By: doebtown

Kati and I are in the middle of reading "Marley and Me" by John Grogan (as an aside, we loved this book and would recommend it to anyone and everyone!). Here's a quote from that book:

We hadn't even reached our second wedding anniversary and already we were
feeling the grind of responsible, grown-up, married life. We needed to get away.
We needed a vacation, just the two of us, far from the obligations of our every
daily lives. I surprised Jenny one evening with two tickets to Ireland. We would
be gone for three weeks. There would be no itineraries, no guided tours, no
must-see destinations. Only a rental car, a road map, and a guide to
bed-and-breakfast inns along the way.

Obviously, doebette and I haven't gotten to our FIRST wedding aniversary yet, but we recently decided to take a similar vacation. And we couldn't go to Ireland, and we couldn't afford THREE weeks off work. But we COULD afford a week in Florida. We had TWO more minor deviations from the plans of John and Jenny Grogan: we replaced the map with a GPS and the bed-and-breakfast guide with phone numbers of friends and family.

SO, we flew into Tampa Monday and spend Monday night with JR and Denise. We played games and enjoyed lounging in JR's kick-ass couch.

Tuesday, we got up and let Jill--our GPS guide--show us to a lunch joint in a little beach town called Indian Rocks Beach. After lunch, we took an obligatory stroll along the beach that was just TOO cold to be comfortable.

Our next UNPLANNED stop was at The Florida Botanical Gardens at Pinewood Cultural Park in Largo, Florida. We enjoyed this diversion, both for its beauty and relaxing atmosphere, but also--and mostly--'cause it was free! Right next door was some crazy Old Economy wanna be joint that had restored buildings from Florida's past in what they called a living history museum, but that was . . . well, crazy (but IT was free, too, so we DID spend some time there!).

From there, we drove to Orlando, where we visited Susan and Scott. The two of them showed us around their very cute neighborhood, wowed us with their new house, and let us play with Stella to our [read: my] heart's content!

On our way out of Orlando, we took an obligatory stop by Disney and spent the day at Epcot. Soarin' was new since either of us were there and is very cool. Mission Space is also new since we've visited and sucked some type of genitalia too gross to be mentioned specifically on a public website.

We swung back to Tampa and had dinner with JR and Denise. More time was spent on his couch, as well.

Yesterday, we made our way back to Brooklyn. All around a great trip. Many thanks to JR, Denise, Susan, and Scott for their hospitality. G always says that the best way to take a trip is to stay with people you know 'cause you get to spend time with friends AND avoid hotel fees--we agree.

posted at 7:33 PM 1 comments