Where My Taste Buds Have Traveled

My taste buds have traveled to different places than I have. For example, last night they went to Japan. We went to a restaurant called Ariake. It's a Japanese restaurant that specializes in sushi. My favorite types of sushi are kani (crab cake), tobiko (flying fish eggs, or roe, if you want to be fancy), and California rolls (I don't know what they have to do with California, but they're really good). They're filled with avocado, cucumber, and kani.

There were also appetizers. Kathy and I each had our own bowl of miso soup, which is cloudy, tan broth with scallions and tofu. The temperature of the miso soup was perfect--not so hot you'd burn your tongue, but not so cold you wouldn't want to eat it. We shared fried shumai, shrimp-and-onion balls covered in dough and deep fried. The shumai was crispy on the outside and the dough came off when I ate it. So much better than American french fries. Even better than Dutch vlaamse frites. It's a close call. 

For dinner, I ate California rolls and kani, and Kathy got tobiko and ikura, salmon fish eggs. Mommy got a different kind of sushi, the special of the day. Daddy got shrimp tempura, which is deep fried shrimp dipped in batter, arranged in a pyramid on the plate with the tails sticking up. There is a fried onion ring on top holding the shrimp tails together.

After dinner, Kathy and I ordered dessert. She chose green tea and red bean mochi (ice cream covered in rice flour paste and sprinkled with more rice flour--really good), and I decided on black sesame ice cream (not mochi, just ice cream). It looked like this:

(Half-eaten) black sesame ice cream

and tasted delicious. There was a hint of chocolate, a hint of peanuts, and an undertone of sesame. It left a good aftertaste in my mouth. Mommy liked it too!

My taste buds really liked visiting Japan. Their favorite part was the black sesame ice cream. Someday I want to visit Japan for real, and find out if you can get shumai on the street.