Pass the Unagi, Dmitri-San...

In case you didn't know, we LOVE sushi! Though, I'm probably not a true fan, as I don't eat raw fish. DH does. But I do love all kinds of sushi rolls (with cooked seafood that is). We have a couple of favorite restaurants that we frequent, our favorite being a little hole in the wall called Sushi-Ko. Great restaurant! Wonderful food and reasonable prices. And the Sunday Morning roll (salmon and cream cheese rolled in seaweed and then fried in tempura batter - can we say YUM?) is to die for! So, seeing how we love sushi, we've always wanted to learn to make it. We've had this sushi making kit at home for, oh about 3 years now! And FINALLY we got around to it! Where there's a will, there's a way! We devoted an entire weekend to this noble project. First off, we went shopping. It's quite amusing to shop for sushi ingredients in Oriental groceries when you have no clue as to what kind of stuff you're looking at! While seaweed and rice are pretty self explanatory, the rest of little cans and packages and boxes and wrapped weird looking goodies were, shall we say, confusing. Just a tad... :). But no fear, my dear friends! After stopping by four Asian grocery stores we even managed to find one that was strictly Japanese and eventually collected all the needed ingredients from pickled ginger to barbecued eel and the ever elusive ginger salad dressing. The next day, we actually got to cooking. We managed to make several rolls, such as California, Dragon Eel, our version of Sunday Morning, Shrimp Tempura and Leftover roll (with whatever we had left over). The rolls looked downright pathetic! We didn't make enough rice (kind of hard to know how much you'll need if you've never done it before), so the rolls didn't hold their shape very well. The tempura attempts were kind of ugly and nowhere near the beauty and elegance of a good sushi place. But what was surprising is that the sushi actually tasted quite good! It wasn't pretty by any standards, mind you, but actually quite yummy! So, we ate our sad but tasty creations and then proudly patted ourselves on the back for being so outrageously adventurous and creative. Next time, though (if there'll be a next time), we'll do like big boys and actually buy a bamboo mat to do the rolling. Screw the kit! We ain't no amateurs!

Arigato Gozaimasu! (Which in Japanese means, "Thank You! Thank you very much! You have honored me with lending your ears to my humble little story. May the Sun of Joy always brighten your days and the Moon of Wisdom carry you through your troubles!" Or something like that...)

Please, don't take it off, Etta!... And other fun events of past weekend.

Hey Everyone,
We had quite a happening weekend, and I thought I'd share some of it with you. Saturday is our cooking for the week day, so the first half of the day we did the usual routine of breakfast/gym/lunch/cooking. Speaking of cooking BTW, the new recipe this week was Lamb with balsamic reduction and mushroom/asparagus risotto. I got a craving to make something gourmet and it came out quite yummy! DH certainly approved. But I digress... So Saturday evening we went to an Etta James concert. For those not in the know, Etta James is a Blues/Jazz singer who started her career back in the 50's. She's definitely been around for a while ;). She's got a marvelous voice and really knows how to do the Blues. I was first introduced to her talent about 9 years ago via a CD that was a tribute to Billie Holiday "Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday". Now, I do like Billie Holiday, but to me Etta sings those songs much much better. At least they speak to me more... Anyway, the last time we saw Etta it was during a jazz fest in New Orleans a couple of years ago. We really liked that show and were looking forward to the present day concert last Saturday. We came, we saw... It was, shall we say, interesting... The program was okay, not my favorite pieces (except for the requisite At Last). But what was odd was Etta's behavior. The woman lost a lot of weight in the last couple of years. She looks thinner than she ever did, even when she was in her twenties. This whole new slim look apparently has gone to her head. She spent the entire show making obscene gestures, lewd remarks (as part of singing) and worst of all, she engaged in some sort of striptease-like gyrations by sticking her butt out to the audience and looking back provocatively. The woman is 68 YEARS OLD!!! This ain't no Britney Spears (in her younger "I'm not that innocent" stage). The whole thing was creepy to say the least. Oh well, as they say in Russian "Cедина в бороду, бес в ребро", which would be translated as smth along the lines of "When you get older, you get crazier and wilder" (not sure if there's an equivalent in English. I guess they're more respectful of the old than us, brazen Russians). I believe I'll stick to listening to her CD's from now on, rather than patronize her live concerts.

The highlight of the evening (how gluttonous of us) turned out to be a stop for dessert after the concert at Sweet Georgia Brown restaurant in Detroit. It's a very nice upscale restaurant with a romantic and mellow ambiance, live slow jazz music and friendly service. Since, we were there
only for dessert we can't attest to the taste of their dinner menu, but the Mamma's chocolate cake we split was quite good. They also had served excellent coffee, so rich and thick and full of aroma... Made us finally realize, we need to get something instead of that cheap little coffee machine we have that waters down the coffee with even the best aroma. The restaurant was using a coffee press, so we're gonna look into those. We had such a lovely time there, that we're definitely going to be back for a special occasion dinner.

Now on to Sunday in our action packed weekend saga. Sunday was a beautiful day - about 65 degrees and mostly sunny. We decided that we need to take advantage of a nice day like that and headed out to Cranbrook. Cranbrook is an Art Academy that was founded in 1932 and is based in a gorgeous estate. You have charming cottage style-architecture, ornamental fountains, sculptures, lovely gardens, ponds etc etc. We spent a couple of hours just walking around enjoying this beautiful estate and budding Fall colors. After having had our share of pretty landscapes, we decided to pay homage to Michigan Fall Tradition and were on our way to Franklin cider mill. Cider mill was bustling with activity - fall goodies, such as all kind of apples, pumpkins, squash, jams, pies, honey etc, being sold in an open air market; families enjoying an around the block horse drawn hay rides, children (and yours truly ;) ) munching on cinnamon roasted almonds. And, of course, lines of people at the doors of the cider mill, waiting to get their share of apple cider and doughnuts. We're not huge fans of doughnuts, mind you. In fact, we never eat them... - with one exception. That's right. The cider mill season! There's something really Fall-in-Michigan like in visiting a cider mill in October, drinking apple cider and inhaling the greasy sugary doughnuts with it. Guilty pleasure, I'll tell ya.

So, that was our eventful weekend. Hope, you all had a great one too!
Later,
H