Sushi

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St Louis Almost Charms the Pants Off Me

I just got in from a full day spent touring St Louis, Mo.

Before I get into the good stuff, I have to get something off my chest. Missourians, why do you hate tourists so much? Driving in St Louis was horrible! I have driven in much bigger cities and never been honked at once. Just about every time I stopped at a red light, I was honked at if I didn’t hit the gas the second the light went green. I earned multiple honks for being cautious when turning left with tons of oncoming traffic bearing down on me. But my absolute favourite nasty habit was that every single time I would signal to change lanes, and I mean every single time, if there was a car behind me in the next lane, it would speed up when my turn signal came on, making it impossible for me to make the lane change and causing me to miss exits and turns. What a way to cause accidents, folks, by getting tourists really frazzled! The other thing that irked me was inconsistent signage to tourist-related things. For example, there is an inexpensive parking lot for visitors of the Arch. You get a few signs indicating which way to go, then good luck, you’re on your own! Even though there is a nice big RV lot, I would not go there without having first plotted out the route and having a navigator.

Okay, enough of that! When I wasn’t hopelessly lost with an equally confused GPS, I was having an amazing day! St Louis was on my bucket list because of its place in American expansion history, but I never really read up much on it. I had no idea that its touristy part would feel so quaint and old worldly. I love walkable cities and appreciated St Louis’ acres and acres of green spaces, walking paths, and easy to navigate city streets. If someone had told me that I would one day visit St Louis while traveling east in a modern day covered wagon, I would have laughed. It just goes to show that you need to leave room in your life plans for surprises.

This post is just generally about my day and I will shortly follow up with individual posts about each attraction, with most of the information given in the photo gallery for each post.

The first thing on the agenda was to find the right parking lot that is just $6 for the day. I’m not sure I found it, but I did find a lot that said $5 for the day that was reasonably close to the Arch, so that was good enough for me. I put a $5 bill in the machine and that got me two gold coins back. Once I was parked, I looked at them and realised they were US $1 coins, which I have only seen once, back in 2007, and which I had a dickens of a time getting people to accept. So, I had put $5 in and got $2 back in change. Why? I went back to the entrance and read the fine print on the sign. Early bird discount! I’d left early to be one of the first up the Arch before the throngs came and it paid off. 🙂

It took a bit of guesswork to find the Arch, but I finally did and was on the last uncrowded tour. I came down and went to the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is in the base of the Arch. It was still really early at that point, so I decided to do the City Museum. The gal at the information kiosk under the Arch said that the City Museum wasn’t walking distance, but it was only about 17 blocks, of which I’d have to walk three just to get back to my car.

By the time I was five blocks or so from the City Museum, it was just past 11:00 and I was hungry. Since the City Museum is interactive and promotes physical activity, I decided it would be a good idea to have lunch first. I was walking down Washington Avenue, a major thoroughfare, so I figured I’d come across a few restaurants. I did, and one of them was a sushi bar, Mizu. It was hot out, so I didn’t want anything too heavy, so this was perfect! The sushi was excellent; I was very impressed! $18 including the tip got me a miso soup that was included in my lunch combo of a tuna roll with four pieces of nigiri, and I added one piece octopus. The salmon sashimi was particularly memorable as it literally melted in my mouth, the way good sashimi should. Mizi Sushi Bar was definitely an expected surprise and I am so glad I gave it a try!

I then spent a couple of hours at the City Museum until the chaos of the children variety drove me out of there.

It was only about 2:00, so I ambled back to the car, and, after much trouble, made it to the Forest Park section of town to visit the Missouri Museum of History. I got out of there in about an hour and decided that I was done for the day. So, I set the GPS for home, was promptly squeezed out of the lane I needed to merge into, and found myself detouring through a section of St Louis I’m pretty sure tourists aren’t supposed to see. I would have taken pictures, but I was afraid to stop the car. 😀

More below:

first glimpse of the Arch

first glimpse of the Arch

first good glimpse of the Arch

first good glimpse of the Arch

old worldly kind of feel

old worldly kind of feel

Eads bridge

Eads bridge

the Arch

the Arch

the Drury Inn was lovely

the Drury Inn was lovely

Mizi Sushi bar; excellent!

Mizi Sushi bar; excellent!

Next to Mizi, a pub was serving a beer and cheese soup. If I hadn't been so full, I would have been tempted. :)

Next to Mizi, a pub was serving a beer and cheese soup. If I hadn’t been so full, I would have been tempted. 🙂

nice building seen from the corner of Washington and Tucker

nice building seen from the corner of Washington and Tucker

This guy was cleaning the street, and I mean cleaning it. I've never seen someone apply cleanser and then scrub a city garbage can before! St Louis was very clean and I complimente this man on his hard work.

This guy was cleaning the street, and I mean cleaning it. I’ve never seen someone apply cleanser and then scrub a city garbage can before! St Louis was very clean and I complimente this man on his hard work.

Illinois is across the river

Illinois is across the river

final glimpse of the Arch

final glimpse of the Arch

ice cream truck! haven't seen one of those in ages!

ice cream truck! haven’t seen one of those in ages!

walking down to the river

walking down to the river

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

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The Week That Vanished

Is it really Friday again?! I know it’s rent collection week, but still, it’s been busy! The transcription hasn’t let up either, which is a Good Thing.

For lunch today, I decided that since I haven’t had sushi in weeks, I’ve been (and will be for the foreseeable future) too busy to go out for dinner, and it’s been a manic week I had earned a treat. So I called Dono this morning to place a pick-up order for lunch. I wish I had thought to do this before! I normally pay about $30 (plus tip) for a sushi dinner out and I got more food for lunch today for $19 (no need to leave a tip) than I do for a dinner. I had them make me up a bento box with an assortment of things and was really pleased with what was chosen for me, which including a type of sashimi I’ve never had or seen before (possibly mackerel). I had thought that for $13, I’d get a light lunch, so I added two pieces of nigiri (octopus and eel) to round out the meal, but I didn’t need to, not with the soup, salad, tempura (all included with the lunch special!), five huge pieces of sashimi, two other nigiri, and a gigantic shrimp tempura roll (the only disappointment (and a mild one at that) since that’s a bit too heavy/western for my palate).

This evening, I continued working on the study. Oh? Earlier this week, I took an evening and emptied the study of everything but the desk and the filing cabinet. I have been really unhappy with the paint job in that room so I decided to take advantage of the fact that I’m out of the rig to redo it and get it right. Tonight, I sanded down the walls and gave the whole room a good scrub. I’ll prime tomorrow and hopefully get a coat of paint done on Sunday. I haven’t picked out a new colour yet and am torn. I love the current colour, but it’s a bit dark. It’s just that it’s so hard to get the right shade of light green. I’ll see what options the home store has compared to the green in the curtains and decide then. I’ve also decided to relocate the wall cabinet for what will have to be the last time as I am down to the last possible place to put it! I hope that I’ve finally found a home for it where it will be usable.

Once the study is back together, it’ll be time to start thinking about slowly moving back home!

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Makisu All You Can Eat Japanese Restaurant, Lethbridge

I was dismayed to see this week that another sushi restaurant had opened up in Lethbridge, with this one being just around the corner from The Apartment! EEP! However, it is of the ‘all you can eat’ variety, so my expectations were low.  The ‘dinner buffet’, as they call it, is $26.99 plus tax. There is a huge assortment of things you can order, and you can place multiple orders. I took a fair sample of the menu, pleased that almost all portions were tiny. I ordered a mountain of food, but did not come anywhere near stuffing myself.

The offerings were really hit or miss. Let’s see if I can remember everything. 🙂

Terrible

The salmon nigiri tasted old.

The eel nigiri tasted like an aquarium. Eep!

Bad

The chicken teriyaki was icky. The flavour was good but the meat was gristly.

So-So

Presentation was a bit sloppy, but that’s par for the course for an all you can eat that goes through great volumes.

The shrimp tempura was a bit slimy.

The miso soup was bland and it had mushrooms in it.

The tuna handroll was bland. I had ordered spicy tuna, which would have been delicious, but they brought the wrong topping. The nigiri and rice were good though. With the right topping it would have fit in the next category.

The gyoza (dumplings) tasted more oily than anything else.

Green tea ice cream was okay, but I had ordered one scoop each of the red bean and mango!

Service was very slow an inattentive (I didn’t want to be there all night, so I didn’t reorder the mistakes).

Good/Delicious

I asked for more pickled ginger and got a mountain of it.

Once I was able to get someone’s attention, my water refill came quickly.

The yam and brocoli tempura were flawless.

The octopus nigiri was so awesome I ordered two pieces.

The ‘Toyko’ roll with salmon and mango was great; a very plain roll with the mango giving it a little something extra. Really glad I tried this.

The spicy salmon and spicy tuna were each delectable. I ordered tuna in the first round and it was so good I got both tuna and salmon in the second round!

The masago (roe) nigiri had perfect flavour and texture.

Awesome

I had given up on my ‘tuna pizza’ but am so glad it came and that I finished with it. It was a thick fluffy rice cake encased in fried panko topped with thin slices of tuna sashimi and drizzled with the sweet sauce that usually comes on eel rolls. Totally worth the wait!

I really got my money’s worth at Makisu. That said, I’ve decided that with sushi I prefer quality over quantity, so I am more likely to go to O-sho or Dono if I want to spend $30 on dinner, or Umi if I want something quick. I can’t believe how many sushi options there are in Lethbridge and that I still have one left to try!

The table next to mine had a group of sushi novices and they quickly figured out that, hey, the gal at the next table knows her way around the menu! And could you help us figure out these chopsticks? They wound up being rather unadventurous, but provided quite a bit of amusement.

I’ve been remiss in my Japanese studies, but I had one incredible moment tonight. I was gazing at the bowl that held the sweet dipping sauce for the tempura and thought “Oh, isn’t that cute! It says oishii!” It took a moment for me to realise that a) I had read the word  the way I read a word in English, that is as a word rather than individual letters and that b) I didn’t translate it into English. It means ‘delicious.’

Well, I sure hadn’t planned on spending three hours on dinner (although the time away from home did me some good), but I have work to finish for tomorrow, so back to the grindstone I go.

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Blowing Through Town

I got an email today from my friend Sarah. She and Oz spent the summer traveling across Canada and are on their way back to Dawson City. This afternoon they were in Medicine Hat and on a major detour so they could come and see me. Hopefully I had a few hours free.

I did! This was the first week night in recent memory when I had nothing pressing to do!

Sarah and Oz arrived at my job at about 4:30 and it barely felt like a year had passed since we last saw each other! We enjoyed a long (and delicious) sushi dinner at O-Sho, then finished up with tea on a Starbucks patio. There wasn’t time to say everything that needed to be said, but the conversation about the various dilemmas in our lives did us a world of good. Sometimes it’s the people outside our world we confide in best.

I am just awed by her perfect timing; she had planned to be here Wednesday, when I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy such a long, carefree evening. It’s been a down and up kind of day and a beloved friend blowing through town was just the morale boost I needed.

 

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Off to the Movies

Whew, my brutal week came to an end at 3AM today! I wasn’t as diligent in keeping note of my working hours this week as I normally am, but the low estimate is that I put in 80 billable hours between all my various projects. It’s no wonder I’m wiped!

I have to say that the fliers have been a welcome break since my mother came since she loaded one of my external hard drives with audio books. She’s a big fan of them but I’d never tried them out before. I put one on my iPod and have been listening to a half dozen chapters or so in the three hours it takes to do one day’s worth of fliers. The time, well, flies by!

So the fliers have become a true escape from the daily grind and a treat rather than just one more thing I need to slog through after an exhausting day. Being outside and getting exercise just hasn’t been enough anymore to get me through them. I am absolutely in love with audio books, if not Parisian French, and even ordered myself an iPod case for strapping it to my arm for walking and running.

I’m now off to have a sushi breakfast, then catch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two. I was starting to despair that I was never going to get a chance to see it!

Then it’s off to Donna and Ken’s for some much needed socializing. This will be my first time traveling to Mossleigh on my own. I look forward to the nice long drive through the southern Alberta landscapes. This is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever lived.