sushi

I have not been travellling much this month. Spent 4 week in Atlanta which has never happened for more than a year.

2 days back we went to a Sushi place for lunch. I hate eating raw fish and whenever I am here I always order chicken teriyaki which has been cooked. I can't eat uncooked meat. But since everyone at the table made such a big deal abt trying different sushi's and that eating uncooked fresh fish dosen't get you sick I decide to try. I ordered shasimi (slice of raw fish with no rice), tempura(fried shrimp) and smoked salmon sushi. Then the oriental waitress got us a salad with chopstick and green tea. The funny thing is that green tea had no flavor. It tasted like boiled water. Kris, who worked in Japan for 3 years said that it is supposed to taste like that. If I ever run a sushi place then I will offer everyone green colored boiled water and call it green tea. No one will know the difference. :) Also have you ever tried picking up a sliced onion or a lettuce with 2 slippery pieces of stick.... maan it is such a pain... I have never had so much trouble getting food from the plate to my mouth.

Then the sushi arrives... It comes with 2 sauces, grounded wasabi root, sliced garlic and grated onions. I picked up ths shasimi using my chopsticks dipped it generously in grounded wasabi (atleast it would get the raw fish flavor out), closed my eyes ang gulped it. I haven't regretted anything more than this.... that wasabi was a killer... i was huffing and puffing... my nose started flowing ... my eyes got moist.. for a moment I thought I was dying... Everybody at the table found this funny and told me that wasabi always needs to be eaten in very very small quantity..

I gulped the rest of the stuff as soon as I could...

Then the conversation changed to wierd food one gets in other countries. Alejandro said he likes eating fried crickets and catepillars. I have seen people selling live catepillars on the streets of Mexico City. Chris said he likes to eat live octopus. Juan said that one has to be careful about eating live octopus because they crawl out from your mouth and try to strangle you... now why would I eat something that could strangle me...

I think we are 1 step away from cannabilism...