What's for Dinner?

[Skinsfan1311]

In Sterling! My brother in law lives in Sterling!

Sushi Queen - ALL YOU CAN EAT

sushiqueenva.com

Sushi Queen - like an Asian Burger King!

It's really good. I rarely recommend restaurants because taste is subjective and I usually add this caveat: "The food was good the last time I ate there."
We ate their this past Summer and it was excellent.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

Slummin' with miso soup and take-out sushi last night...


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There is a new sushi place here in Mt Airy, that would make 3 in a town of 9,000 people which is weird as there are few ethnic options here. I'm no expert, I don't know good sushi from bad sushi, but the miso was definitely a cut above what I've had before and everyone says the sushi is great.

 

[skinsmarydu]

I know nothing about sushi...I know, kinda odd for me being in the food biz for 40 years. I can deal with raw salmon, tuna?

Looking for some edumacation here, lol...

I've heard sauces are spicy, and I'm cool with that.

 

[RedWolf]

Took my kids and their SOs two weeks ago to Katsuya in South Beach. Pretty amazing sushi ++.

https://slshotels.com/south-beach/restaurants-and-bars/katsuya/

https://slshotels.com/south-beach/restaurants-and-bars/katsuya/menu/

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I know nothing about sushi...I know, kinda odd for me being in the food biz for 40 years. I can deal with raw salmon, tuna?

Looking for some edumacation here, lol...

I've heard sauces are spicy, and I'm cool with that.

The spice comes from the green wasabi which is served seperately. You just mix as much as you would like into soy sauce and dip your sushi. Some suishi comes with some wasabi mixed in but not enough to make it too hot. To start out try a roll, California Roll is a good starter sushi. It included the fish but other things rolled around rice. Because of the rice I guesss I have found sushi to be pretty filling.

 

[Mark The Homer]

I know nothing about sushi...I know, kinda odd for me being in the food biz for 40 years. I can deal with raw salmon, tuna?

Looking for some edumacation here, lol...

I've heard sauces are spicy, and I'm cool with that.

Time for you to get on the bandwagon! As you can see from the photos, it's very visually appealing. Lots of colors and textures. And it won't disappoint your palette. It may become your favorite food! Find somebody and go out to a sushi restaurant! Do it soon!

 

[RedWolf]

Time for you to get on the bandwagon! As you can see from the photos, it's very visually appealing. Lots of colors and textures. And it won't disappoint your palette. It may become your favorite food! Find somebody and go out to a sushi restaurant! Do it soon!

"Good Sushi restaurant" is critical. I really like going to full-blown Japanese owned and operated restaurants because I don't spend all of my money just on sushi, which can be very costly.

My kids grew up eating sushi starting around 1-year-old. My wife got so upset at me for feeding them raw fish at that age. I didn't care. My daughter would devour salmon and my son would devour tuna. I don't want to tell you the price for the dinner the other night because it was very exorbitant but it also was a treat for my children and their significant others, and was our fancy night out in Miami. The most important thing is high quality fish.

I've been to the old Tokyo Fish Market (which was moved because of the Olympics) but it used to be right across the street where all of the great sushi places were. You would go to the Tokyo Fish Market drunk at 3:00 in the morning and after a few hours go across the street to one of the restaurants for breakfast. That is where I ate my first blowfish and that is the only place that I will eat blowfish. It is highly poisonous unless prepared by a trained chef, and it takes about a year for him to learn how to do it and get certified.

 

[skinsmarydu]

I like my salmon/tuna on the mid-rare side, so raw isn't daunting in the slightest. I've heard from other friends that the Cali roll is the way to go if you're starting out. I've got a very popular place not far that used to have $2/sushi nights, probably $10 now, who knows.

But I spent about a year eating everything with chopsticks so I could get my chops (haha). I can't find my kid sized ones I got in an Asian market once many years ago (I have small hands, they're easier to handle), but I eat all kinds of stuff with the bigger set that I have just to stay practiced, but their not very comfortable.

Anyone know where I can get a pepper grinder for under $50? Sheesh...

 

[SkinsFTW]

There is a pretty good sushi place in Chattanooga, Sushi City, that is about 14-15 dollars all you can eat for lunch. I usually only eat the salmon on rice with wasabi and the low salt soy sauce because they don't have the real sushi soy sauce. Miso soup too. And maybe Red snapper or yellow tail but I prefer the salmon usually and their tuna is the basic cheap firm, not very good variety.

Gotta go there on Monday though for guaranteed freshest fish.

Those rolls where they put all kinds of weird crap on it isn't real sushi. My wife eats only the Philadelphia rolls 🤮 Some of those rolls taste almost like the mixed Capt Crunch with rice and fish 🤢

In Japan sushi is better, I lived there for 15 years, but the cheap places in Japan are about the same as this one. The difference is in Japan the fish is fresh every day. I've tried single pieces of sushi in Japan that sells for over 100 dollars a piece and a lot of the more expensive ones just melt in your mouth like butter but I'm a cheapskate now.

In Japan one of my favorites was the eel on rice, they put a sauce on it. I've never found it in the US that tastes right though.

 

[Mark The Homer]

I was in the Navy stationed on Okinawa - but I was just a teenager. So I was too dumb to know about sushi and never had it while I was over there.

When I first started eating it here, it was so expensive. And I tried to justify the cost. I would say "Okay this bite here is costing me this much money. But this bite over here is costing me much more money." So then I would focus on the rolls because they were cheaper per bite. And they were delicious. And I was satisfied just eating the rolls. But then I went and ate sushi with a bunch of friends one day and this one friend saw me eating my rolls and said "Here, try this. Just put it in your mouth." And so I did and it was amazing! So, after that, I've finally figured out how to come to terms with sushi.

The trick is to just say "**** it." That's the trick! And it works.! Just say "**** it." Just decide you're gonna spend a bunch of money and that's just the way it's gonna be. If you do that, then you can put the money out of your mind and focus on the wonderfulness of the sushi. And you will enjoy your meal very much.

Just don't go often.

 

[skinsmarydu]

Well, when I close on my house sale, I'll have a bit of "fuck it" money. I'll be taking Goskins10 to lunch, just don't know if he's into sushi.

 

[Skinsfan1311]

I was in the Navy stationed on Okinawa - but I was just a teenager. So I was too dumb to know about sushi and never had it while I was over there.

When I first started eating it here, it was so expensive. And I tried to justify the cost. I would say "Okay this bite here is costing me this much money. But this bite over here is costing me much more money." So then I would focus on the rolls because they were cheaper per bite. And they were delicious. And I was satisfied just eating the rolls. But then I went and ate sushi with a bunch of friends one day and this one friend saw me eating my rolls and said "Here, try this. Just put it in your mouth." And so I did and it was amazing! So, after that, I've finally figured out how to come to terms with sushi.

The trick is to just say "**** it." That's the trick! And it works.! Just say "**** it." Just decide you're gonna spend a bunch of money and that's just the way it's gonna be. If you do that, then you can put the money out of your mind and focus on the wonderfulness of the sushi. And you will enjoy your meal very much.

Just don't go often.

"Here, try this. Just put it in your mouth." Dammit, Man! Quit lobbing softballs!!! I sent you an invite on FB for lunch at the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church. While it's not as good as used to be, it's still great. The Peking duck is amazing. You'll recognize a few of the faces.....Pez, Huly, Ben, Non FB Fran. Hopefully we'll see you there! If not, maybe we can do pit beef one afternoon when the weather breaks....

 

[HOF44]

I always tell people find a good Japanese place and get a couple pieces of Hamachi nigiri style and if ther have it a couple pieces of Toro nigiri style. Never had anyone not like it.

 

[Mark The Homer]

Toro! We used to get that at Matuba in Bethesda. Good stuff! That was before Wasabi Zen opened in Olney. Which was like mid-90s. The kids were little then. We'd go as a family. So we told the kids, we said "Oh you won't like this." That was a mistake. We should have said, "You'll love this." Then maybe they wouldn't have liked it. As it turned out, we ended up with a house full of sushi lovers.

 

[SkinsFTW]

In Japan you can order sushi delivered to your house so we used to do that all the time. It wasn't crazy expensive either. They delivered it all in nice dishes like you were eating in the restaurant and then later you just put it all outside and they would pick it up.

I usually ordered shirashi most of the time. Its all kinds of sushi in a bowl on top of rice. It was always excellent too.

Except one time I was eating it and immediately, before I was even done eating I had a severe reaction to something and went to the trash and puked it all up. I was fine after that. It was weird because I didn't get sick just was forced to throw it up. I think that might have been the last time I ordered it delivered though.

 

[Mark The Homer]

Gettin' a little off topic but there was a tiny little bar in Kadena - about a block from Kadena Circle called Moonlight Inn. It was cool because the Americans didn't go there, for the most part. And it was just quiet. I preferred the bars without the crazy obnoxious Americans. I still remember the names of the girls working there - Shieko, Yoko, and Yudeko. Sheiko was older, like in her 40s, and Yoko and Yudeko were younger, in their late teens or early 20s. It's possible she was the mom of the two girls. Not sure. And these were nice Okinawan girls, not "hooks." And Yudeko was really cute. So we'd sit at the bar and order a screwdriver, because we were young and not very sophisticated. So Sheiko would get a bar glass, set it on the bar. Fill it with ice cubes. Then take the bottle of vodka and fill it to about a half inch from the top. Then she'd take the orange juice and pour it in. But there was no room! So she'd basically put a little more than a splash of orange juice in the glass, and slide it over to me. 300 yen. Or a dollar, whichever you had. This was in the mid 70s. The exchange rate back then was 300 yen equals a dollar. So I'd give her a dollar. Then after a few mins, she'd make up a little tray of raw fish and put it on the bar. Like a snack. Free. With chopsticks. So you'd sit there and eat some kinda raw something and drink your screwdriver and try to flirt with Yudeko who didn't speak a lick of English. But she was really pretty and friendly and she would try to talk back. I'd order another screwdriver. And all was right with the world.

BTW I got st louis ribs on the drum which makes this a dinner post

 

[Boone]

A ton of loneliness for American service members. People who haven't experienced being isolated half a world away probably could never understand. Sometimes, just an interaction with someone who is kind and attentive makes a huge difference.

I remember as a Fleet Marine having someone make a crack to me about a 'girl in every port', to which I replied 'I haven't seen a female of any kind in 6 months'. I wanted to punch the guy. I lost more relationships while in the military than I care to think about, including one I thought was 'the one'.

It is a brutal part of the military if you are combat arms. You are just gone so much, it's impossible to sustain a relationship no matter how much you want to.

 

[The Chump Bailey]

I don't recommend gas station sushi.

 

[SkinsFTW]

I've never heard of gas station sushi but 7-11 sushi in Japan is better than you get at grocery stores in the US. Probably because they throw it out if it doesn't sell that day.

The thing is that they also have a tongkatsu sandwich and those are so good that I would usually just buy those instead. It's basically a pork cutlet sandwich with panko breading and tongkatsu sauce. That good sauce is pretty hard to find here but it's a lot easier in California. Some of the tongkatsu sauce is not the same. It's like kikoman soy sauce lol. That shit isn't for sushi.

I found a place in Chattanooga that sells those sandwiches and they are ok but they cut the pork way too thin. It should be over 1/2 inch pork. They slice it almost like bologna so it's mostly breading.

 

[Mark The Homer]

Yeah, after a while, the depression begins to set in. Okinawa, as I recall, was only like 78 miles long and five miles wide at the narrowest part. Top speed on the whole island was 50 kmh - 30 mph. But none of us had cars. There is a reason why they called it "the rock" - nothing was there. They had a pretty good bus system though - the Okinawans did. Bus came every ten minutes all day long. But they were made for little people, seats were small and jammed in. But they were in excellent shape - clean. But after a while you get depressed. Some of the guys went home for Christmas. I thought they were crazy. $1200 air fare for a week or two at home? When you're only making $400 a month? I don't think so. Not to mention, you lose two days flying. I did take a week's leave and fly, space A, to the PI on my roommates's advice at one point, but that's another story. Anyway, I never intended to make a career out of it. Besides, I wanted to marry an American girl, and that wasn't gonna happen unless I got out.

Anyway...

Nice day yesterday for the first time in a long time - high around 53 and no wind.

Did ribs on the drum, salt & pepper rub, no binder, no water pan, no sauce. Just dry rub ribs. Poured a little rendered pork fat over the ribs at the very end, then turned upside down on the foil and wrapped the last half hour with a little apple cider vinegar and water. Pull back could have been better and would have been if I cooked these on my offset. Also, I messed up and tried to cheat with Lawry's seasoned salt in the rub which I forgot had sugar in it. And so I think the sugar interfered with the color - make it darker than I would have liked. I served sauce on the side. IMO the cook was perfect - tender, juicy, flavorful, all that good stuff. My harshest critic, my wife, said they were "very good." I said "What do you mean, 'very good'???" She said I make epic ribs all the time, so "I can't say they're epic every time." So I couldn't get too mad.

She said they had a bit too much pepper and could have used a bit more salt.

Pics are ribs seasoned, on the smoker, inside the smoker, another view of smoker

Pics are sliced, side view, clean bite, clean bone.