SushiFest - Part V: The Supreme Sashimi

New Year's is upon us, and we have finally arrived in the what for my generation has always been, "The Future!"   It is the year 2010.   When we all live in the sky in apartments that are so far above the ground you never see it.  When we all drive flying cars, which run on garbage in our Mr. Fusion.  When we frequently take vacations on the moon at Luna Park.  Wait.  What do you mean we don't have any of those things yet?   Are you saying television lied to me??  Dang it!  Then again, my flip top cell phone looks remarkably like Captain Kirk's communicator (and when my wife has her bluetooth earpiece in I'm constantly reminded of Uhura), the automatic sliding doors at Ala Moana cound certainly pass for the ones on the Enterprise, and my tablet PC looks bears a striking resembalance to the padd that Yeoman Rand carried.   So we're getting there, we're getting there.

Meanwhile, I guess we'll just celebrate New Year's the old fashioned way.   In Hawaii of course, that means a literal ton of fireworks.   Having so many Chinese families in Hawaii, you just have to have a 20,000 string of  firecrackers to scare off the bad spirits, with little bits of red paper all over your driveway to welcome in the blessings of the new year.  I was always particularly fond of those little ground blooms, that spin and look like red, yellow or green ladybugs. These days, fountains have gotten so complex, that they look like a little fireworks show in your driveway.   But I have never had any lack of a fireworks show.  Where I live, somehow every other family in the valley has gotten their hands on illegal aerials.  I really don't know where they get them from.  All I know is that, despite the illegality of it, you simply cannot stop the firmly entrenched tradition of it.  This is something I'm glad about, because from my parents' house, you can see practically the entire valley.  Every New Year's, we're treated to the most spectacular aerial fireworks show around, all at around eye level for us, just about 180 degrees all around us.  It's absolutely amazing.   Of course the smoke is also amazing.  It's as thick as San Francisco fog, and the thundering booms mirror that of a warzone.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

However, while the rest of the country is singing Auld Lang Syne, and are focused on the crystal ball dropping in Time's Square, New Year's in Hawaii has always been more of a Japanese holiday than an American one.   In fact, aside of Obon, it is probably the biggest Japanese holiday of them all.  Rather than religiously watching Dick Clark's countdown, the Red and White song competition (also called Kohau Uta Gassen) has always been a yearly tradition in my family.   While most anime fans are familiar with J-Pop music, it is the Red and White competition that fostered my love of enka style music.  My favorite was always Saburo Kitajima (famous for playing the Chief of the Megumi Fire Brigade on Abarenbo Shogun).  His crooning is as unique and unmistakable as Sinatra, and to me it just isn't New Year's without hearing it.

Practically every other door is adorned with a kadomatsu (or a bamboo & pine arrangement).  Like the firecrackers to the Chinese, the kadomatsu to the Japanese is a way of warding off evil spirits and welcoming in the blessings of the new year.   Besides the traditional decoration at our doorstep, many businesses and homes are scrubbed spotless, and all debts paid, to start the New Year clean.   Thankfully, being Chinese, like getting an extension on your income taxes, we get a reprieve from all that cleaning until Chinese New Year, about a month later.   But perhaps nothing is more iconic of New Year, than a stack of mochi with an orange on top.

Mochi Variety from Kansai Yamato

Mochi is essential to the Japanese for New Year's.  Just like gao for Chinese New Year, the stickiness of the mochi is meant to symbolically bind the family together for the New Year.  Back in high school, I actually got to try pounding the mochi myself (in tandem with a partner of course).   Swinging that giant hammer over your head is worthy of Looney Tunes, but it's much heavier than it looks.   I would just as soon leave it up to the experts.   In Hawaii, that usually means picking up a pack of Hawaii Candy from Longs.   But we also have a true mochi specialist, right in the Makai Market food court at Ala Moana, called Kansai Yamato.  Just like Mana Bu's who makes nothing but musubi, Kansai Yamato makes nothing but mochi.  This fanatical dedication to making one, and only one product, naturally yields nothing less than absolute mastery and perfection in their craft.   The mochi at Kansai Yamato, is simply the perfect texture.  Soft and sticky, and nothing like the hard, chewy, dried up nonsense you can pick up at some places.  Their variety pack even has flavors that you wouldn't even find in Japan.   Besides the traditional an dango (the white with azuki bean filling) and kinako an (the shoyu brown one), you can get brilliant local flavors and colors like cruncy peanut butter, mango, melona, and guava.   Each one is distinctly local tasting and different from each other, but all of them are just mouth watering.

Besides mochi, the other crucial thing you must have at New Year's is of course sashimi.  Fresh fish is so important to the New Year's celebration that a quarter of the island seems to pack itself into tiny little Tamashiro Market on New Year's Eve.  Not only is everyone frantic to get a piece of fish, they're willing to pay several hundred dollars a pound for the really premium quality fish.   I wouldn't be surprised if Tamashiro makes half its dividends on New Year's alone.   Of course, once you get it home, you really must know how to cut the fish properly too.   This is a precision task that takes years to master, so if you're not up to the task, I would recommend finding a sushi chef that really knows his stuff.   My very favorite sushi place, would have to be Yanagi Sushi, at the downtown end of Kapiolani.

Family Roll at Yanagi Sushi

If you my wife, she will tell you that sushi may be my all time favorite food.   I'm completely addicted to it.  In my quest for the perfect sushi, I've found innovative makimono rolls, battleship shaped gunkan passing by on the conveyor belt, perfect bowls of poke, ingenius temaki hand rolls with supremely crunchy nori, and the master sushi chefs that serve you with an obsession for the perfect bite.   But when it all comes down to it, Yanagi Sushi is the one place that I would consider my absolute favorite sushi restaurant.  On my birthday, it usually tops my short list of places I want to go.  I'm definitely not alone in this regard, either.  When you walk in to this unassuming little restaurant, the walls are lined with the most photographs of patrons I've ever seen adorn a restaurant, many of them big celebrities.  

Sashimi Deluxe at Yanagi Sushi

While Yanagi makes some fantastic sushi rolls, it is actually not the sushi (which by definition requires the sweet vinegar rice), but the sashimi that is my favorite thing there.    Their Sashimi Deluxe platter may be one of my favorite meals in the whole world.  Every item is super fresh, premium quality, and masterfully cut to bring out its own magnificent natural flavor.  The oyster is plump and briney, with a full intense oyster flavor.  Every piece of ikura (salmon roe) is bursting crisp little sphere, none of which are dry or shrivelled.  The ika (squid) is crisp and clean, and doesn't have that slimey pastey film that bad quality ika has.   The ebi (shrimp) is blanched so fast that it has an ever so slight crispness, while retaining all of it's raw natural sweetness.  I especially love the piece of shiso, which has such an intoxicating perfumey fragrance, that perfectly complements the flavor of the fish.  I would rather have shiso than wasabi any day.  But what makes this platter so perfect, is how well they do the core triumvirate of sashimi, the ahi, hamachi, and salmon.   All 3 of these incredibly buttery.  The natural fat and fish oils in each piece of fish makes it so rich and flavorful.  Eaten with a nice hot bowl of steaming, slighly sticky, plump, calrose rice, the fish flavor just melts like butter on hot bread.  The ahi, salmon, and hamachi each has its own distinct flavor, and I adore each one.   Despite how elite and prestigious the sushi at Sushi Sasabune is, I think that the flavor of the fish at Yanagi even surpasses it.  The shrimp is sweeter and the flavor of the hamachi is much stronger.  Besides that the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and unpretentious, and the price is much more affordable, so the overall experience is just far more enjoyable.

Even though my family isn't Japanese, in Hawaii each of our cultures has become so integrated with our super-culture, that we just couldn't welcome in the new year without all the Japanese elements.  It is tradition that I look forward to enjoying year after year for decades to come.

SushiFest - Part IV: A Matter of Convenience

After the surprising upset that 7-Eleven enjoyed during my Char Siu Bao Challenge, I thought we should take a closer look at the unseeming little convenience store.  Actually, I do like taking mainland visitors to 7-Eleven.   The mere fact that they have char siu bao to begin with, is a prime indicator that the 7-Elevens in Hawaii are not anything like their somewhat ghetto counterparts on the mainland.  In fact, from what I understand, our 7-Elevens are run much more like the 7-Elevens in Japan than the ones on the mainland.   This would explain the surprisingly high quality Japanese (and local) convenience store snacks you can easily find at 7-Eleven, including our iconic spam musubi.

Spam Musubi from 7-Eleven

When visitors come from the mainland, I love taking them to 7-Eleven, just to unhinge their notion of what a convenience store can be.   Ours are clean, well stocked, and not the magnet for muggings and robberies that the ones on the mainland are.   Instead of ancient hot dogs that have been rotating on their warmers for and inestimable amount of time, the products we have are usually made fresh that day, with a timestamp to prove it.   Sure there are familiar favorites, like Slurpees.   But there is a wide variety of dim sum, musubi's, sushi, and crack seed.   The best part of course is being able to get any of these items, at any time of the day.   When hanging out with my friend Erich in college, we would often make 1AM Jones Soda runs, frequently in remote parts of the island, just to enjoy our availability to do so.  

Admittedly, I love a Slurpee as much as the next guy.  In fact, when I was little, I generally liked Slurpees better than Icees.   As great, as a strawberry / coke mixed icee was, the air to liquid ratio in an icee always yielded a product that was just a little too insubstantive for my taste.   By that reasoning, I always preferred the slushies over at the Jolly Roger in Kahala (where Kahala Zippy's is now), to either Slurpees or Icees, especially the grape slush floats.   Mixing the vanilla ice cream with purple slushie created a beautifully thick lavendar drink that was as creamy as it was icy, and the blending of those textures was always so provocotive to me.  However, since Jolly Roger closed many years ago, the Slurpee is a worthwhile replacement.   Indeed, the there have existed many more flavors of Slurpee than any of the others, including lychee, pina colada, and banana.  

Okinawan Sweet Potato Manapua from 7-Eleven

What makes our 7-Elevens so interesting however, is not the Slurpee that can be found anywhere, but the plethora of local food they serve.   I've discussed how a spam and egg musubi make a terrific breakfast on the run.  Their redondo's hot dog musubi and lup cheong manapua are far more local representations of the hot dog than a Big Bite.   In fact, in addition to the basic manapua, which was surprisingly well received by the manapua taste testers at my mom's office, they've got a wide assortment of manapua fillings.  My wife is particularly fond of the somewhat elusive, Okinawan sweet potoato manapua, with it's sweet, creamy, purple filling that has just the perfect smooth texture.   But the one local snack item that 7-eleven does particularly well, is their sushi hand rolls.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

Surprisingly, I like the sushi hand rolls at 7-Eleven better than just about any temaki sushi, at even the most exclusive sushi restaurants.   Just what makes them so good?   It's the rather ingenious way of wrapping the rice and the nori separately while it is sitting in their refrigerated display.   Like the McDLT, which was famous for keeping the "hot side hot and the cold side cold", keeping the rice and nori separate insures that the nori stays crispy.  Let's face it, from the moment the sushi chef touches the nori to the rice, it begins to get soggy.  It depreciates even faster than a brand new car.   But this is brilliantly minimized by the sushi wrapping system at 7-Eleven.

Unwrapping Sushi from 7-Eleven

To open a sushi from 7-Eleven, you first break the seal on the side.  Then unroll the nori, exposing the rice which is wrapped in the inner cellophane.  Then, you peel back the inner cellophane to expose the nori envelope.  Finally, you roll the rice yourself into the waiting nori, and lift it off of the outer cellophane.  Whoever designed this system was a packaging genius.  The very first bite into the handroll, as your teeth puncture the nori and sink into the rice below, is almost like having your friend hold up a sheet of paper while you punch holes through it with your fingers.  It yields the most incredibly satisfying crunch, that no other sushi has anywhere.  The only thing I have to worry about is my cats, who are adore the nori even more than I do.  From the moment I break the seal on the outer cellophane, they appear out of nowhere and instantly shove their faces into mine, hoping for a bite.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

The rice is also nothing like what you'd expect from a convenience store sushi.   Sitting in a refrigeration unit all day, you'd expect the rice to get cold and hard.   But somehow, the units are at exactly the right temperature, that while the rice is chilled, it never gets hard.  It is still perfectly soft rice (softer than some room temperature rice at other sushi restaurants I know of), with just a subtle hint of the sushi vinegar (not nearly as overpoweringly sour as other sushi restaurants I know of).   With good rice and good nori, the sushi is just superb.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

7-Eleven also has a great variety hand rolls to choose from.  My favorite is their classic tuna salad with cucumber.   I would rather have this than any tuna sandwich any day.   They also have a nice salmon salad and a crab & avocado California roll that comprise their core line-up.   However, in addition to their regular triumvirate, I have seen flavors like shoyu tuna, spicy tuna, konbu, kalbi, bbq chicken, wasabi tuna, and many other special, transient offerings.

Ito En Oi Ocha Green Tea from 7-Eleven

Of course to wash down all of this sushi, a Slurpee just wouldn't do.   But again, 7-Eleven offers up an appropriate accompaniment.  They have a wide assortment of the yummy drinks from Ito En.  The different local fruit flavors of Ito En's Aloha Maid, like guava and passion orange, are classic island favorites.   You wouldn't even want to drink a Starbucks's Frappuccino bottle after tasting Ito En's Royal Mills Iced Cappuccino.  There's not even a comparison, the Iced Capps knock the Frapps completely out of the ballpark.   But to accompany the yummy sushi, it's got to be Ito En's Oi Ocha green tea.   Although, it's available at 7-Eleven, I have to buy their green tea by the caseload from Costco.  It has such a nice, perfectly balanced roasted tea flavor that is just so refreshing and easy to drink when chilled, I go through it like water.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

7-Elevens in Hawaii really are a unexpected find when it comes to local food.   What you'd think is a matter of convenience, really becomes a matter of local pride.

SushiFest - Part III : Trust Me

My sister came home for Christmas, and this year we decided to treat ourselves to a very special dinner, to spend some brother/sister quality time together.   I have read many, many sources saying that simply the best sushi on the island, is at Sushi Sasabune.  Period.   In fact, people just won't take you for a serious sushi afficionado unless you've been there.  But I've also heard that it was extremely pricey.   As it is the true sushi.  The gourmet sushi.  The sushi equivalent of buying the highest grade beluga caviar (at several hundreds of dollars an ounce, vs. the kind of caviar you can get from $15/jar at Foodland).   So it is one of those, once in a lifetime experiences, that you simply must try.  As a serious foodie, my sister is pretty much the only person I know who would appreciate and enjoy this level of sushi as much as myself.   So this year, we finally decided to give it a try, and I was very, very, excited about going.

I have heard many things about Sushi Sasabune.  For one thing, I've heard that the sushi chefs there are ridiculously strict about how to eat their sushi.   Sushi must not be cut in half (Cutting the sushi in half, is like cutting a boat in half.  The boat will sink.)  Each piece must be eaten in one bite.   Sushi should not be dipped in shoyu, unless allowed to do so by the chef.   Dipping the sushi from the rice side, is a no no (as the rice will absorb too much of the shoyu and fall apart).   Dipping the fish side only is difficult.   The proper technique is to use the pickled ginger to dip in the shoyu and brush it over the sushi.  Even when I called, the host wanted to make certain that I understood, "We serve only sushi.  We don't serve Japanese food.   We don't serve California rolls."  These rules have given Sushi Sasabune an image similar to that of the infamous Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

The strict enforcement of these rules intimidates many people from wanting to try the experience.   But somehow this doesn't bother me at all.  For one thing, even in Western culture we've got rules about etiquette that we follow in a fine dining environment.   You're not supposed to put your elbows on the table.  You're supposed to use the right fork for the right course.  You're not supposed to talk with your mouth full, or open your mouth while chewing.   We don't complain about these rules because we've grown up with them.  The Japanese rules of sushi etiquette just take a little learning beforehand, and you will have the same level of comfort.   But besides that, I understand that when I cook a dish, many times I want my audience to eat it in a certain way, just so that I know that it tastes the way that I am trying to present it to people.   If, for example, they add a lot of shoyu (or any other condiments for that matter), it will be saltier than I had intended.  After spending a lot of time trying to find the right balance of seasonings and flavors, I don't want people to distrupt the flavors I'm trying to present.  Some people may think that enjoying food should be adjusted as a matter of personal preference, but then it's not what I, as the chef, have created.  You don't go up to the Mona Lisa and add a little flower in her hair because you think it would make her prettier.  Likewise, I want to pay my respects to the sushi chef  by eating it the way he wants to present it.   In fact, if I'm paying this huge amount of money to eat there, I definitely want him to tell me how he thinks his creation is best enjoyed.   I want to hear the story he has to tell, and not put words in his mouth.  My only qualm would be if they were unfriendly, rude, or obnoxious about their rules.   But they really weren't.  They were as attentive, friendly, and welcoming as any other fine dining restaurant in town.

Naturally, we didn't bother to order anything.   We went with the omakase, meaning we left it up to the chef to decide what he wanted to serve us.  This presumes he knows what his best dishes are, he knows what is fresh that day, and he will serve you what he thinks is best.  So, what did I have at this ultra elite, fine dining sushi experience?    What was the story that the chef wanted to tell?   Here it is, course by course:

Albacore Tuna & Blue Fin Tuna Sashimi in Ponzu Sauce at Sushi Sasabune

First up, was an appetizer of albacore tuna (white) and blue fin tuna (red) in ponzu sauce.   The first thing that I noticed, was that the tartnessof the ponzu sauce instantly woke up my mouth, and fired up all of my taste buds.   A good opening gambit.  The second thing I noticed was both tuna, were cut absolutely, unmistakably, perfect.  There was not a single vein in any piece of fish whatsoever.  It was incredibly smooth.  Though both tuna, the albacore definitely tasted different from the blue fin.   My sister liked the albacore better, whereas I thought the ponzu overpowered it a little.  I liked the blue fin a little better, as I thought it had a stronger fish taste, but she thought the reverse.

Squid Stuffed with Blue Crab at Sushi Sasabune

My next dish was a squid stuffed with blue crab.   The squid was a nice soft texture, but what made this dish was the crab.   The crab inside was just incredibly creamy, and full of crab flavor.   It puts any crab cake in the world to utter shame.  The sweetness of the sauce below was counter balanced by the strong roasted flavor of the sesame seeds on top.   All of which was just superb with the crab.

Hamachi Collar Nitsuke at Sushi Sasabune

My sister is allergic to squid.  Once in Nanjing, China, she had some squid that made her eyelids swell so much, they essentially swelled shut, making her look like a blind cave salamander.   So the chef happily took that allergy into accomodation and prepared her an alternate second course of hamachi collar.   If you've never had it, hamachi collar is pretty much the best part of any fish you will ever eat.  It is the most tender, perfect fish meat.   And his preparation was an awesome nitsuke style dish.  It was a very familiar shoyu flavor, and she just loved it.

Toro Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our third course was the first actual sushi.  In this case, it was toro (or fatty tuna).   Frankly, I was suprised to see this dish so early on.   When you eat a piece of pear that's sweeter than an apple first, then you eat the piece of apple it seems kind of bland.  The same goes for sushi.   Usually you want your fattier pieces of fish to come later, otherwise you won't enjoy he leaner pieces as much.  But in any case the toro was excellent.   What I also immediately noticed, was that the rice was warm.  Body temperature in fact.  This is kind of odd when most places serve you chilled or room temperature rice.   But I really liked the warm rice.   It brought out the fish flavor more.  Imagine a piece of butter on room temperature bread.  Then imagine a piece of butter melting on warm bread.  That is essentially the difference with the warm rice at Sasabune. 

Flounder (top) & Amberjack (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our fourth course was a combination of amberjack and flounder sushi.   The flounder has a crunchier texture, similar to king clam.   Which was a nice contrast to the buttery, fatty, toro in the previous course.   The amberjack had a nice piece of toasted garlic on it that gave the entire piece of sushi a very strong garlic taste.   It was wonderfully garlicy, but I didn't taste the fish too much.  

Hamachi Nigiriat Sushi Sasabune

Our fifth course was hamachi.   I adore hamachi.  It is my favorite sushi fish of all, so I had very high expectations here.  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.   On the downside, the wasabi was just a little too strong in my piece, so it really overpowered everything else.   Also, the flavor of the fish just wasn't pronounced enough.   It should have been much fattier, more buttery, but it was just lost to the wasabi.   On the upside, that had one of the best textures I've had from any piece of hamachi anywhere.   So the texture was awesome, but the flavor of the fish not strong enough.   In fact, if there was one complaint my sister had throughout, this would be it.

Scallop (top) & Salmon (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our sixth course consisted of scallop and salmon.   The salmon, like the hamachi, just didn't have a strong enough salmon flavor.   It had a piece of pickled kelp on top which again overpowered the fish.   Again, it had a fantastic texture, but not enough salmon taste.   The scallop on the other hand was really huge, plump, and had one of the sweetest seafood tastes anywhere.  It was super sweet.

Oyster Dynamite at Sushi Sasabune

Our seventh course was a baked oyster (sliced into 2 bites for you).  It was hands down one of the plumpest, juicest oysters I've ever had.  They cooked it just right too, so it was still plump and tender, and hadn't started to get shrivelled up or tough.  It had a really strong oyster flavor, which was just complemented by the baked dynamite on top.  

Blue Shrimp (top)  & Mackeral (bottom) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our eighth course was a blue shrimp and spanish mackeral.  This dish seemed very out of place to me.   Following the oyster, both pieces seemed a little bland.   I have had much sweeter shrimp in other places.   So this dish was a little less memorable.   By this time, my sister complained that she was getting full, but I convinced her the better stuff was still coming.

Snow Crab (left) and Mackeral (right) Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Our ninth course was a different type of mackeral and a snow crab.   Again, the mackeral was not that memorable.   But then always prefer the buttery grilled saba, to the kind of sour sashimi or sushi mackeral.   The crab on the otherhand was fantastic.   The chef took the roux (or as my wife likes to call it the "green stuff"), out of the head of he crab, and made it into a sauce that he drizzled on the crab itself.  This nearly floored me.   The combination of crab roux and sweet crab meat was just awesome.   It gave it a truly intense crab flavor.   It may just be the greatest piece of crab that I have ever put in my mouth.  

Negitoro Nigiri at Sushi Sasabune

Or tenth course, was the negitoro.  Now, they serve negitoro at Genki Sushi, but that might as well be a completely different dish entirely.   This negitoro is the signature dish at Sasabune.   They take the fish and chopped it so fine, that it practically has the texture of whipped cream.  By pulverizing the fish, they also draw out much more of the fish flavor, than the regular piece of toro at the beginning.   It was superb, and easy to see why it's their signature dish.   I thought that this might be the last dish, as it was their signature, but there was much more to follow.

Spiny Lobster at Sushi Sasabune

Our eleventh course, was a spiny lobster.    The lobster was cooked absolutely perfectly.  It was just the right balance of tender and firm.   So it was just perfectly succulent.   But by this time, my sister is seriously complaining that she's over stuffed, so she didn't get to enjoy it too much.  Again, I thought that this might be the last dish, as lobster is a pretty substantial thing to end on, but we pressed on.

Unagi Over Tamago at Sushi Sasabune

Our twelfth course, was an unagi over a piece of tamago.   This was kind of innovative and interesting to me, because the chef substituted tamago for sushi rice.  The tamago was a very soft spongy texture, which is worlds better than the tamago you usually get in your bento from Shirokiya.  But again, this dish seemed out of place for me, because it was far less interesting than the crab, or negitoro, or lobster.   At this point, my sister decided she just couldn't stomach any more, and told the waiter to stop for her.   I on the other hand elected to keep going, for two reasons.  Firstly, I didn't want to stop short, and not get my full money's worth.   Secondly, and more importantly, I didn't want to cut short the story the chef was telling.   As I explained it to my sister, you don't read a mystery novel, and quit before you find out who done it!   I wanted to ride the train to the very last stop to see where the chef was going with it.

Blue Crab Temaki at Sushi Sasabune

For my thirteenth course, I got a blue crab hand roll.   Now this was the same blue crab that I had gotten at the very beginning.   While still extremely flavorful and creamy, I couldn't really understand why the chef had elected to repeat himself.  This story was starting to not make any sense to me.   On the other hand, as it was a hand roll, I figured the chef was just trying to fill me up with rice, as you would towards the end of a meal for diners who are still hungry.  While the crab was tasty, it was still kind of ordinary to me.

Butterfish with Monkfish Liver Sauce at Sushi Sasabune

For my fourteenth course, I got a butterfish.   But instead of done, misoyaki style, as we're used to in the islands, the chef made a sauce out of monk fish liver and poured it over the butterfish.   Monkfish liver has been called the foie gras of the sea, so I was very excited to get to try it.    However, at this point, I asked the waiter how many more courses there were, and he told me that the chef just keeps going until you tell him to stop.   A little alarmed now, I politely told him that that would be it for me.   Since I was a little frazzled by this new information, I really didn't get to enjoy the butterfish that much.  

Not understanding how the omakase concept worked at Sasabune had 3 huge drawbacks that threw a big damper on our evening.   Firstly, my sister had a huge tummy ache, and she moaned practically the whole way home.   Had she known we could've stopped at any time, she probably would've stopped way before hand, and saved herself some pain.

Secondly, my understanding was that it would be a fixed price for the omakase course, like a prix fixe menu.  But, even though we hadn't ordered ala carte, they were charging us for each dish we ate.  So as we were eating more and more, we were racking up the tab.  Since almost 90% of the menu was imported from around the world (like Japan and New Zealand), with very little local ingredients, you would expect it to be pretty pricey.    In total, for the whole evening (including tax and tip), we paid $250 for just the two of us!   I was expecting it to be expensive, but that was even more than I had anticipated.   Doing the calculation, it was roughly $10 per plate on average (compared to Genki Sushi where it is roughly $2 per plate).   Sasabune, has a 4 plate per person minimum, so had we known, we could've spent $80 minimum for the two of us.  

Thirdly, and the thing that was the most disappointing to me of all, was that this meant that there was no story that the chef was trying to tell.   There was no logical progression from dish to dish, one leading to another, the chef building up to a climax and a denouement.  This was just the chef slapping together whatever the hell he felt like making.  This was especially disappointing, because like my example of the apple and the pear, certain foods must preceed others as to not be overpowered.  For a restaurant that places so much emphasis on precisely how the food should be eaten and enjoyed, for the price I was paying for the chef's expertise and artistry, not having a planned progression was a huge let down.   It's like hiring J.K.Rowling to come and play with your magnetic poetry board, rather than to write. 

Having experienced probably 75% of their menu, the next time I visit Sasabune, I would probably just order ala carte.   Conforming to their 4 plate minimum, I would probably pick the squid stuffed with blue crab, the oyster dynamite, the snow crab, and the negitoro (not necessarily in that order). I might get the lobster, or the albacore and blue fin tuna in ponzu sauce too.   Then again, having experienced Sasabune once in my life, I think I'm pretty satisfied.  I really did enjoy it.  They certainly showed extremely high quality ingredients, and an absolute mastery over their preparation.  My own lack of understanding should not be counted against them.  I will say this for certain, that is one dining experience that I will never forget.

Rice on the Run

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.   In the old plantation days, you obviously needed the energy to keep working in the fields.  These days, you theoretically need the energy to stimulate your mind for whatever tasks you have on hand.   Even if you're trying to lose weight, breakfast is supposed to jump start your metabolism so you start digesting and burning calories from the moment you wake up.   In general, it's just supposed to kick start all the functions of your body for the day.   However, with today's lifestyle, a nice leisurely dinner is usually the biggest meal of the day.  Breakfast usually gets lost in the rush of getting to work or school, and the need for just a few more minutes of sleep.   I, personally, am not really hungry in the mornings either, so breakfast has never been a big thing for me.

In our mad rush to try to grab a bite to eat in the morning society has compensated by creating mad rush breakfast items, like Pop Tarts.   Back in high school, I had a friend who adored pop tarts.   He would toast Pop Tarts and spread Duncan Hines frosting all over them to give them an even more intense sugar rush worthy of thisiswhyourefat.com.   I've personally never understood why in society we've come to consider pastries which really should be desserts as viable breakfast options.  I had another friend who used to love Carnation Instant Breakfasts, a slightly more nutritious option.   However, instead of mixing them into milk and creating a milkshake, he would simply tear open the packets and pour them into his mouth in powder form.  I have to admit to trying this, and liking it, myself.   Somehow munching on the powder was like an intensesly milky flavor, and sinking your teeth into a mouthfull of dry powder as it packs itself densely between your teeth is strange but somehow satisfying sensation.  There are also Quaker chewy granola breakfast bars.  They are rather small and unsatisfying for an adult, but they are just perfect for my preschool aged son as we usher him into the car.

Of course you can stop into a fast food place, and grab a greasy, bacon or sausage, and egg breakfast sandwich.   But as Lisa said of Bart as he was peparing for his mini golf championships, "Steak and Eggs will make him sluggish.   Oats are the preferred choice of champion thoroughbread racehorses."   Of course, here in Hawaii, we don't favor oats or wheat as much as we favor rice.  So how do we get our fix of rice in the morning while we're on our mad rush out the door?    Well, the classic Japanese solution to the problem of traveling rice came in the form of the onigiri or musubi.

Deluxe Spam Musubi from 7-Eleven

Hawaii is of course well known for the spam musubi.   Probably the simplest, and one of my favorite, ways to have a semi-decent breakfast on the run, is to simply stop into 7-Eleven, and pick up a deluxe spam musubi.   With a little bit of egg, spam, and rice, it's just the perfect size and content for breakfast.  They're warm and yummy, with a bit of furikake to give them just the right seasoning.   What more could you ask for?  

Japanese tourists in Waikiki, would probably prefer the more traditional approach to the musubi.   The best place to get them is at an ABC Store (which of course you find on every block in Waikiki).   They have a rather ingenious way of plastic wrapping the musubi, so that the nori is kept separate from the rice, while mainting the triangle shape in the display.   You open it by pulling on the tab, which cuts open the plastic right down the center of the triangle.   Then, with the plastic essentially cut in half, you pull on the two lower corners of the triangle.  This pulls the plastic away from not only the outside, but the inside separating the rice from the nori, as well.   So then you're left with a perfect freshly wrapped triangle musubi.   They come in flavors of salmon, classic ume (picked plum), or my wife's favorite, konbu (the sweet salty shreds of seaweed you get to sample with toothpicks at Shirokiya).  These convenience store musubi's are quite popular in Japan.   They even feature prominently in the Cutey Honey live-action movie, where the adorable, titular, female android is said to be powered by musubi's.  There is a quite cute and funny scene where she devours 37 of said convenience store musubi's and is subsequently ready for action.

Musubi's are actually a time honored food item in Japan.   They appear a great deal in the jidaigeki, or samurai period dramas, in literature, movies, and anime.  The classic image of a lonely ronin walking down the Tokaido Highway, with his large hat over his eyes and a musubi in his hand, is engrained in any fan of Japanese cinema.   It even appears in the opening scene of one of my favorite anime movies of all time, Ninja Scroll.   The main ronin, Kibagami Jubei, is walking over a bridge eating his musubi, when he is assaulted by a band of assassins.   Naturally, he tosses his musubi in the air, kills all 3 assassins, and promply catches the musubi to continue eating it, all in one fluid motion.   Whenever I get to eat a classic Japanese musubi, that is immediately the image that comes to mind.    So where can you get the really classic Japanese musubi's here in Hawaii?    Well, you can stop into any okazuya, of course.   But on the corner of Punahou and King, there is a shop called Mana Bu's, that specialzes in making nothing except musubis.   Naturally, this singular pursuit of perfection in a single item, yields some pretty remarkable results.

Konbu Musubi from Mana Bu's

Mana Bu's has musubi's of tons of different flavors (except ironically spam).   Their specialty however, is their rice.   After all, what makes for a great musubi, except great rice.   For health nuts like my sister, they have organic rice, brown rice, and even 10-grain rice.   But, I am a purist, especially when it comes to musubis.   Nothing but the softest, stickiest, plumpest grains of white rice will do.   Mana Bu's does it very very well.   You can taste the subtle but full rice flavor in every bite.   They are also liberal with the other ingredients.   My wife simply adored their konbu musubi, with many bits of konbu throughout the entire ball.

Tuna Mayo Musubi from Mana Bu's

My only complaint would be that having pre-wrapped their musubi's, their nori is not nearly as crunchy as the musubi's you get from ABC Store.   But this is easily overlooked with the quality of rice, and the seasoning to the other ingredients.   My favorite is always the tuna mayo musubi.

Yaki Musubi with Spicy Salmon from Mana Bu's

Mana Bu's also has another classic Japanese preparation, the yaki musubi, where the musubi is grilled and browned on the outside and glazed with a sticky, sweet, salty, teriyaki like glaze.   This crisps up the outer layer of rice, in the same way as Korean dol sot bi bim bap.    It creates a fantastic texture where you first bite through the cruncy toasty outer layer of rice, and plunge into the soft warm inner layer.  The contrast is immensely satisfying.

In one of the last season episodes of Star Trek, Captain Picard expresses his distaste for elaborate breakfasts and preference for a simple coffee and croissant in the morning, in typical French fashion.  Often times, I mimic this sentiment, but in Hawaii fasion, it would be a nice musubi and a bottle of Ito En green tea.  Simple, but perfectly satisfying, and just the thing to get you going in the morning.

The 50's, Hawaii Style

It is juke boxes and fuzzy dice.   It is leather jackets, white T-shirts, and blue jeans.   It is the classic Chevy convertable with the big tail fins.   Images, of course, of the 50's.   Now, not having yet been conceived of in the 50's, I can't tell you for certain if that's really the way it was, or if it's just a figment of our collective dream of the 50's.  When I asked my dad if that's really how it was, he said that it was either a highly romanticized image, or that it's not exactly how it was in Hawaii during the 50's.  

The piece of Americana that we imagine the 50's to be is, of course, epitomized in the classic sitcom, Happy Days.   Henry Winkler's Fonzie has surpassed the status of pop culture icon and found a place in American history.  Ironically, the series was made in the 70's, already 2 decades after the era it portrayed and glamourized.   So I remember watching it as a little kid and imaged myself hopping in the car with Richie and Fonzie and heading off to the ultimate 50's location, Arnold's.  Arnold himself was portrayed by the late and great Pat Morita, who was not originally from Hawaii, but who was here so often and who had so much of our character, that we adopted him as one of our own and never knew the difference. 

So you're in the mood for a patty melt and a milkshake and you want to envision yourself sitting at Arnold's with the gang and listening to the juke box.  If you're on the mainland, you can easily go to a Johnny Rockets, but what about here in Hawaii?    If you're on Maui, you can head down to Ruby's Diner in the Kaahumanu Shopping Center.  When I was in college, my friend took me to the original Ruby's all the way at the end of the Balboa Pier.  It was so sublime to have this 50's style diner all the way at the end of the a long pier, with nothing in sight but the beach and the ocean.   But the one on Maui is unique.  Not only do they have the 40's/50's motif, they've got many posters of old airline and travel advertisements for Hawaii from that era.  That in itself is worth the trip.

But as my dad said, the 50's diner image perpetuated on the mainland isn't really how it was here in Hawaii.   So what was it really like?   The Hawaii equivalent would have to be the soda fountains from that era.   Not only did you have the typical cheeseburgers, fries, and shakes, but you would have saimin, okazu food, and  true fountain drinks.   Soda fountains then meant that the proprietor would mix the drink and the carbonation for you, as opposed to the automatic mixing that goes on in today's soda fountains.   So, if you were a pretty girl for example, you could get a slightly better syrup to carbonated water ratio.  The mix was an art, not the hit or miss that you get from soda fountain machines of today.  I really hate it when the machines are off and you get a drink that's way more carbonated water than syrup, which not only burns your mouth in carbonation but has that sharp metallic taste.  The soda fountains back then even had drinks we hardly hear of anymore.  My dad's favorite was the green river, which was a bright green, lime concoction.   For me though, I used to love the chocolate cokes that my dad used to make.  Never heard of a chocolate coke you say?   It's absolutely awesome.  The chocolate mellows out carbonation, and blends well with the caramel taste of the coke (like a liquid Rolo).   Try it for yourself, all you need is ice, some Coke, and some Hershey's syrup to make it at home.   I never understood why they decided to can cherry coke, and vanilla coke, and even lime coke, but decided to forego my favorite flavor.

So do those soda fountains still exist?  Can they still be visited for a taste of 50's nostalgia, Hawaii style?   A few of them have withstood the test of time.  But the one that best captures that era for me, would have to be Sekiya's across the street from Kaimuki High School.   Poor Sekiya's ran into some trouble a while back, with an e. coli outbeak that shut them down while they had to clean everything up.  Since then, they've been struggling to reclaim their image as people, like my wife, were scared to go back there.    However, with their long history, pre-dating World War II, some fans, like my dad's best friend Keith, were back within a week of their re-opening.   Having been back there myself, I can assure you, it's cleaned up and the food is as good as it always was.

Chicken Sukiyaki at Sekiya's

While 50's on the mainland means cheeseburgers and shakes, 50's here means saimin and okazu.   However, while Sekiya's saimin is good, their sukiyaki is absolutely fantastic.   It is ever so slightly sweet, with all of the flavors of the different vegetables coming through.   The tofu literaly soaks up all of the flavors.  Not only do you get standard vegetables like won bok and shiitake, but you get nice julienne cuts of gobo.   It's so rare to find nice cruncy gobo served anywhere.  I especially had the craving to have some of their awesome sukiyaki after watching a marathon of the Rurouni Kenshin anime, where the characters frequently hang out at the Akabeko Restaurant for gyu-nabe (or beef sukiyaki).

Macaroni Salad at Sekiya's

While I tend to favor St. Louis Delicatessen , Sekiya's is also my dad's favorite okazu-ya.  He adores the bentos that they serve there.  The flavor difference between the two restaurants is very subtle, but he and I are pretty steadfast in our favorites.   I do like Sekiya's bentos though, and I have to admit, that they have some of the most flavorful mac salads in town.

Maki Sushi at Sekiya's

Sekiya's even came through on my little mini-quest to find the good old style maki sushi I used to have as a kid.   Nowdays, with different types of sushi being so popular, it's so hard to find the original Hawaii style maki sushi, with the (canned) shoyu tuna, tamago, kampyo, kamaboko, and the distinctive red and green hana ebi powder.  The filing to rice ratio is a little small at Sekiya's, but it is nice to just have that old flavor that I remember. 

Chicken Sukiyaki Meal at Sekiya's

Rather than the romanticized 50's from Happy Days, I think I prefer the honest true to life 50's that still lives on in Sekiya's.   I am really glad that they're still around, as I would hate to lose the true, classic flavors, that my dad grew up with.

The Mark of the Fish

There are so many good Japanese restaurants in Hawaii, it's really hard to pick a favorite.   Just like how people ask me what my favorite Chinese restaurant is, it's really dependant upon what type of Japanese food we're talking about, such as specific dishes you're looking for.   But if I were to have to pick my favorite old school, local Japanese, then there is one that stands out in my mind.   That would have to be Suehiro on King Street.  Unfortunately, just like McCully Chop Suey, Suehiro now only exists in our memories.

Suehiro has always been my favorite since I was a little kid.   I remember how that big blue "paper" fan in front would call you in from the street.   I remember going upstairs to the the second floor, where instead of tables and chairs, they had tatami mats and tables where you could tuck your legs underneath.   I know these are supposed to be more formal Japanese seating, but for a little kid, it's so fun to be free of sitting there in a chair and having something different.  It was a restauraunt that I grew up with.  When I when to college on the mainland, and came home afterwards bringing some of my mainland friends with me, Suehiro was on the short list of places to take them.  I got to show them real old school oyako donburi, and unagi, and miso butterfish, and tempura, and nishime, and sukiyaki.   We ordered a virtual feast of all things Japanese that night, and stuffed ourselves silly.   But my favorite thing at Suehiro, the thing that stands out most in my memory, is their short rib bento.   Their short ribs were sweet, beefy, and fall off the bone tender.   I can count on 1 hand the number of places I have ever had short ribs that tender, and I wouldn't even need all my fingers.   That was the place to get the most authentic Japanese bentos. 

So you can imagine my utter disappointment when they closed up shop and sold the restaurant to Gyotaku, that other Japanese restaurant from Pearl City.   In fact, I was so disappointed, that I literally boycotted Gyotaku when they first opened.   Who were these usurpers who think they could be as good as my old school favorite??   Who were these people from Pearl City that were invading my turf?   I wouldn't stand for it!   It wasn't until my parents literally dragged me in to Gyotaku one night, that I finally gave them a chance.   And you know what?   They just weren't the same.   They were a much more... modern and refined style of Japanese, compared to the good old school homestyle cooking that was Suehiro.  Everything was prettier, the way the Japanese like to dress up their dishes.  Their menu seemed, less familiar, more F.O.B..   It took a really really long time after that, for me to begin to appreciate Gyotaku for what it was.   Really good modern Japanese food.

Dragonfly Roll at Gyotaku Restaurant

Gyotaku's sushi menu is actually pretty extensive.   No they don't have the old shoyu tuna, with red and green hana ebi rolls like Suehiro used to have.   But like Ninja Sushi, they've got a lot of innovative new maki rolls of their own creation.   I have 2 favorite rolls there.   The first is their Godzilla roll, which is like a super huge shrimp tempura roll, topped with spicy tuna, and avocado.  It's a really big mouthful, combining to very distinct but familiar flavors.  The other is their Dragonfly roll, which is much more subtle.  It's got green onion tempura (that's right, tempura green onion, not shrimp) and avocado, with some spicy salmon and bonito on top.   The fact that they've tempura'd something as delicate as green onions, gives this roll a much more sublime green taste, than you normally get out of a bite of sushi.  

Pokedon at Gyotaku Restaurant

The thing that Gyotaku really does the best though, is their poke.    Here is where the Japanese once again demonstrate their dogged perfectionism.   Poke is a Hawaiian dish.   Called Hawaii's own soul food, it is the dish that dates back to the oldest Hawaiians.  I remember flying to Maui, and reading in the in-flight magazine the history of poke, including some very old sepia toned photographs of little Hawaiian kids biting straight into their fresh catch.   This is a dish, that there are hundreds of different recepies for.  Just about every family has their own.    And I hate to say it, but somehow, the best poke I've ever had is at this Japanese restaurant.  How can this be?   Well, first consider what bad poke tastes like.   When done wrong, the fish is not very fresh and starts to taste fishy (the Chinese have a word for this called "sang").   When done wrong, the fish is not cut properly, and you've got this nasty white gristle that actually gets caught between your teeth.   With the Japanese love of sashimi, you've got both the highest quality, freshest fish available, and you've got master chefs that know how to cut the fish so that each bite is smooth and just melts in your mouth.   So here the Japanese have taken this beloved Hawaiian dish, perfected it, even adding things you don't normally see like fresh cucumber, and put it on top of a bowl of soft, warm, white rice.   It would be infuriating if it wasn't so amazingly delicious.  Go at lunch time, and you will get only the best ahi poke around.  Go at dinner, and they add all of those other sashimi favorites, like tako, salmon, and hamachi to the mix as well.   Add a little shrimp tempura to that, and well....Gyotaku just won me over by brute force.

Pokedon and Tempura Combo at Gyotaku Restaurant

The other thing worth mentioning about going to Gyotaku, is that their walls are completely adorned with their namesake gyotakus.   If you don't know, gyotaku is the Japanese art of fish printing.   Originally conceived of as a way to document the size of their catch ("I caught a 500lb. marlin.... really!"), gyotaku evolved into a really beautiful art form.   They literally take the fish, cover it with ink, and press rice paper upon it to get the printing of the fish.   This became really significant to me last year.  Remember when we had that huge island wide power outage that lasted over a day?   Well, my parents have a koi pond with pretty big koi that they raised from small fries.   Unfortunately during the power outage, their pump and filter died, and without it, well... all 15 of their koi died too.  The next morning, my mom was just completely heartbroken, staring at all of her dead koi.   So, inpired by the restaurant, I came up with the idea of surprising her by trying to make a gyotaku of her largest fishes.  After a bit of research on the Internets, a little help from my Uncle, and we gave her a big New Years surprise that literally brought her to tears.   They're no where near as beautiful as the gyotaku hanging on the walls at the restaurant, but their sentimental value more makes up for their artistic refinement.

My Own Gyotaku

Life goes on.   My mom has replaced her precious koi with a new up and coming school.   My favorite old school Japanese restaurant has been replaced by my favorite modern Japanese restaurant.  That's just the way life is.   You've got to cherish and celebrate the treasured old memories, but at the same time explore and embrace the fresh new experiences.   Otherwise, you wind up missing out on one or the other.

SushiFest - Part II: Round and Round We Go

I don't really think I have a favorite food.    I really like a lot of different foods.   But if you were to ask my wife, she would tell you that we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time going to eat sushi.   She's right, I do love my sushi.   I love the combination of different flavors that you can get out of a single mouthful.    I love the dedication and perfection it takes to make really good sushi.  It would seem so simple.  Really all there is, is fish and rice.   But it takes true skill to get the texture and consistency of the rice just right.   It takes a master to know how to cut the fish just perfectly, and you need to have extremely high quality, fresh fish.   So I don't get to eat the premium stuff very often, and we often settle for the basic utility sushi.   But sometimes, you can get some pretty decent stuff for everyday food.

Sushi comes in 3 basic forms.   You've got maki, or rolled sushi, which is all the good stuff rolled in sushi rice and wrapped with nori.   You've got nigiri sushi, which is the small rice ball, with the piece of sashimi on the top.   And you've got gunkan, or battleship sushi, so named because it looks like a litle boat.   That's the one where the little sushi rice ball is wrapped in a nori, and the filling is placed on top.   For maki sushi, I really think that Ninja Sushi is the best, they've got the most innovate rolls with brilliant flavor combinations.   For nigiri, you really have to go to the high end sushi restaurants to get the good stuff.   But for good gunkan sushi in Hawaii, that is the realm of the conveyor belt.

There are a number of conveyer belt sushi restaurants here.   Catch of the Day, was probably the most fun one.   Instead of a conveyor belt, they had one location with super long train that went around in circles that you could pick the sushi off from, and another location that is a giant river with little boats carrying your sushi around.   They have since closed up, and G-Sushi has taken over the location with the little boats at Market City.   Unfortunately, while the boats are cute, their quality isn't quite as good as the other places.   Their rice just isn't as good, it's got a little too much vinegar I think, making it a little too tart and a little too soft and loose.   On the other hand, they are probably the cheapest, easiest to find parking, and easiest to get a seat at, so we do frequent the place for those reasons.   The other conveyor belt places usually have a long waiting line.   The longest lines seem to be at Kuru Kuru Sushi, right across from Pearlridge.   Admittedly, Kuru Kuru's quality is great.  They probably have the freshest, best tasting sashimi outside of the expensive high end restaurants.   But if you want really good gunkan sushi, the best place is probably Genki Sushi.

Genki Sushi is so popular here, that you almost inevitably will have at least a 20-30 minute wait before getting to sit down in front of their conveyor belt.  Cleverly marketed, my wife really loves their little corporate logo.   Genki is a Japanese word that means happy, healthy, in good spirits, and just all alround well being, which makes their cute little frowny face logo such an oxymoron.   Genki Sushi being so popular, it seems to be kind of pointless to blog about it (I might as well be blogging about how great Chicken McNuggets are), but I would like to point out a few of my favorites.

Tuna Mayo Gunkan at Genki Sushi

First up, Tuna Mayo.  Okay, it seems really ordinary.  I mean, we're just talking about tuna salad.  Canned tuna and mayonaise right?   But again, here is where that Japanese perfectionism comes in.  This is just about the best tuna salad, well... anywhere.   It's remarkably smooth and tasty.  Something familiar to start with.

Scallop Mayo Gunkan at Genki Sushi

Next up, replace the tuna with scallops and tobiko. Who doesn't love fresh scallops?

Ocean Salad Gunkan at Genki Sushi

Now, just to add some color to our diet, let's have some ocean salad.   As if the nori weren't seaweed enough, we gotta add some green seaweed to the mix.

Garlic Ahi Nigiri at Genki Sushi

Here is one of the nigiri sushi that Genki does really well.   The ahi is just seared, so the inside is still sashimi.  But what makes this is their nice garlic mayo on top.  It just blends so well with the seared fish.

Green Bean Tempura Nigiri at Genki Sushi

This is something new, that they just added.   Green bean tempura.   It just works so well, with a little bit of mayo and sauce they use for unagi.

Crab Mayo Gunkan at Genki Sushi

Probably my very favorite thing at Genki, is the Crab Mayo.   That is real crab there.   Not imitation crab.   And the flavor of the crab really comes out in this.   Where as with Seafood Salad, or other places that try to make it, you've got imitation crab, and all you really taste is mayo.  In this, what you're really tasting is crab.

Spicy Tuna Gunkan at Genki Sushi

Okay, if there is a single thing that Genki does the absolute best, better than anywhere else, it's their spicy tuna.   I've had spicy tuna all over the place, everywhere between here and California, and I gotta tell you, you just can't beat the one at Genki.   The reason?   I think it's the proportion of sesame oil they use compared to other places.   The sesame oil just gives theirs a supremely smooth texture.   It also adds just a hint of that nutty flavor to the spiciness.  Add to that some fresh ahi sashimi and tobiko and you've got a truly winning combination.

The 2 gunkan sushi that I left out of this picture that are really uniquely Hawaii, are the ahi poke gunkan and the pipikaula mayo gunkan.   Ahi Poke has been called Hawaii's soul food.   Since it is also raw fish and limu seaweed, it just makes sense to put it on top of a ball of sushi rice.   The unusual one is pipikaula, which is Hawaiian beef jerky.   When I first tasted it, I thought the combination of pipikaula and mayo on sushi rice would be weird, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.   Unfortunately, when I last went to Genki, they told me that it was discontinued.   Boo!   What I really loved about these 2 particular dishes, was how they so perfectly blend Hawaiian food with Japanese food.   It was as if in 2 little mouthfuls, they were able to capture the perfect racial harmony that is so unique to these islands. 

One word of advice, if you're going to eat at Genki, or any conveyor belt sushi place for that matter, don't bother picking up anything off of the conveyor belt.  Order everything.   It would seem to defeat the purpose of going to a conveyor belt place, but trust me, after the sushi has circled around a few times, it doesn't taste as fresh.  Sushi is all about freshness.   The moment the chef makes it, it should go into your mouth.  The rice will be the right temperature and texture.  The nori will still be crispy.  The fish will be freshest.   That is the way sushi should be experienced and appreciated.