Sushi

by

O-Sho Sushi and Abyssinian Ethiopian Restaurants, Lethbridge

My mother and her partner were in Lethbridge today. Getting here was quite the adventure. They flew from Montreal to Vancouver, drove from Vancouver to Seattle and back in a rental car, and then got on a bus to get to Calgary by way of Sicamous, BC. Entering Yoho National Park, there was a terrible accident involving an RV that had them stuck there for over three hours! They finally made it to Calgary at 11PM when they were supposed to arrive at 7. This morning, they got a rental car first thing and headed to Lethbridge, arriving for lunch!

I’d been told to make a list of restaurants, so I suggested sushi for lunch. Jody’s daughter recommended O-Sho and online reviews were good, so we headed there. The food was great! One of the things we ordered was the ‘special assortment’ of nigiri, one of which was especially pretty:

It was octopus, which I have never had! I was told to go ahead with it so I eagerly tried it out. It delicious, with a very mild taste and a ‘meaty’ texture. It was nothing like squid (which I love).

I thought I got a good shot of part our spread, but it’s blurry. 🙁

We also had hot sake. Can you believe that I’d never had sake before?!

Our delicious lunched ended with a hazelnut-chocolate ice cream shaped like a pear, a lovely palate cleanser.

The restaurant itself is very nice. It has western-style tables at the front and traditional tables at the back where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor with your legs in a hole. Service was great. I hope to get a chance to go back to O-sho!

We went to their hotel to gab for a bit and this came out of their luggage:

That brick (because it weighs as much) is one of their fruit cakes. I brought one back from Montreal last November and it barely lasted a week. I laughed and laughed at the thought of how far this fruit cake traveled and am very grateful for the thought!

For dinner, I decided to introduce them to a cuisine that I adore but haven’t had in my three years on the road: Ethiopian. They bravely went along with the idea when I assured them that while the food is spiced, there are many non-spicy options. Lethbridge has a good population of folks from that part of Africa and I found great reviews for Abyssian Ethiopian restaurant, which has a comprehensive menu of common Ethiopian dishes. We ended up sharing two dishes, doro watt, which is a chicken stew, and some puréed lentils mixed with the berber spices. I’ve only ever had vegetarian Ethiopian food so the doro watt was new to me and something I’d been wanting to try for a while. It was sooooo good. I will admit that Ethiopian food doesn’t look as tasty as it is:

The food is served on a giant ‘pancake’ which is called injera. We each had our own basket of the bread. You take a piece of it and use it to scoop or pinch food. Your fingers should be clean at the end of the meal! I’m happy to report that my dinner choice got rave reviews.

With dinner, I tried a Tusker, which is a savory Kenyan beer brewed in Nairobi. It is crisp, thirst-quenching, and has a spicy finish:

The owner of Abyssinian really impressed us. She came over from Sudan three years ago. In three years she learned English, dropped an abusive husband, bought a thriving restaurant whose reputation she has maintained, and remarried. And she’s just 24 years old.

I am most impressed that Lethbridge has both a good sushi and a good Ethiopian restaurant!

Tomorrow, I’m heading downtown to meet them for breakfast at their hotel and then they’re heading back to Calgary and flying home. What a quick visit!

by

Umi Sushi Express, Lethbridge

I’m going to let you in on one of Rae’s secrets of life: food courts offer the best bang for the buck. You can get a full meal for under ten dollars and don’t even need to tip. The more you frequent food courts, the more you’ll know which chains are better than another, and how to avoid a nutritionally-void caloriefest.

So, I’ve been out for dinner twice since I got to Lethbridge and both times I ended up at Umi Sushi Express, in the food court of the Park Place Mall.

The first time, I went with a combination dynamite and California roll platter, simply because it had just come out of the kitchen, so I knew it’d be fresh. I paid somewhere around $8, which included extra ginger. The rolls were quite simply perfect; very fresh, flavourful, and with a good combination of textures.

Tonight, I ended up at Umi because I had to go downtown to deposit the cheque for the traffic counting job. I decided to try their $8 bento special and I was impressed by the number of choices I needed to make. It comes with rice, beef or chicken teriyaki, edamame or salad, four pieces of California or dynamite or tuna or cucumber roll, and either yam tempura fries or veggie tempura. I went with rice, chicken, edamame, four pieces dynamite (tempura shrimp, masago, cucumber) roll, and yam tempura fries.

After I placed my order, there was a very long wait that reassured me that my food was going to be fresh, not just reheated. When the meal came, I was astounded by the mountain of food. I would have paid $20, plus tip, easily in a sit-down restaurant! Well, in Canada. This price wouldn’t have surprised me in the US. 🙂

Everything was delicious. I particularly appreciated that the teriyaki chicken wasn’t overly sweet. I was a bit concerned that the yam fries were drizzled with a creamy pink sauce until I took a taste and realised it was chili mayonnaise. Not very Japanese, but the key ingredient to one of my favourite rolls (spicy tuna) so I couldn’t complain!

It has been a Day, so ending it with a yummy bento box for under ten bucks was most appreciated!

by

Ichiban Sushi Bar, Florence, OR

I forgot to write about the Ichiban Sushi Bar in Florence when I was on the Oregon Coast and it definitely warrants a post!

This is a restaurant I would not have walked into for sushi without a recommendation since it is a combination ‘Chinese’ and Japanese establishment. But I was in the electronics department of Fred Meyer and overheard the cashier tell the couple ahead of me that they just had to try this restaurant and that only good things were being heard about it.

I headed there the next day for lunch and was greeted like a celebrity. What friendly, happy people work there! The restaurant is new and the decor is fresh and clean.

The server started by telling me the specials, which included tempura rolls and ones with cream cheese. I told the server I don’t like those and he left me to peruse the the huge and extensive menu that includes several combo meals. I decided to go the more expensive à la carte route and ordered cautiously: miso soup, a tempura entrée, and tekka maki (tuna rolls).

The meal started off well with a miso soup that had a drop of soy sauce in it. The broth was very hearty, the seaweed chewy, and the tofu tender. Perfect! Same thing with the tempura, which included broccoli, yams, zucchini, and shrimp; light on the batter and the oil did not taste old. Tekka maki is such a simple roll, but it’s a good one to test how fresh the sushi is and this one was fresh, with the sweet sashimi almost melting in my mouth.

Everything was so good that when the waiter came by to ask me how I was doing I asked for a menu so I could order another roll!

I asked for something with salmon. I was then paid what I consider a compliment; the server said “I know you prefer traditional Japanese rolls [not entirely true since I like spicy tuna and California rolls], but our Oregon roll is very delicious.” At this point, I can’t recall all the ingredients, but I know it included salmon, imitation crab, a bit of mayo, and sesame seeds. I decided to try it and, oh! YUM! It’s definitely not something I would have tried on my own and I am glad I trusted the server. It was savoury and sweet, tender and chewy, basically everything that defines what makes sushi so addictive.

I would have loved to order one more thing, but I was stuffed by this point so I called for the bill. With tip and only water to drink it came to $20. A bit expensive for lunch, but reasonable for going with individual choices instead of a special.

Ichiban is located right on highway 101, on the west side of the road, just a few blocks north of the intersection with highway 126. It’s up from the road a bit and you could definitely park an RV in the lot.

by

Sushi Station, Eugene

Tonight, my hosts, Joan, and I went for dinner at Sushi Station on 5th. This is a revolving sushi place where you can sit at a bar in front of a conveyor belt and sushi comes by you on small plates. The plates are different colours, which represent the price. Half the fun is not knowing what you’re grabbing! We also ordered two à la carte items, in my case the Hawaiian roll which had tuna, salmon, mango, and masago. I also had some really good eel rolls (first time I’ve enjoyed eel), spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, salmon sashimi, and a host of other tasty unidentified morsels. Yu-um.