Saturday Night Sushi (With Friends!)

Saturday Night Sushi and we’re Having Company for the First Time!
A semi-clean apartment and the advent of the “Fish Guy” at the European market means that this Saturday Mike and I played host to our inaugural make your own sushi dinner party. Although we rushed to the European market early Saturday morning, we didn’t make it until a half an hour after opening. For some reason, that I’m sure is a residual effect from living in NYC, I felt that if I wasn’t the first person in line at the fish stand, then I wouldn’t be able to get a fresh tuna steak. So when we arrived at the market, I rushed out of the car and did a little jog up to the fish guy. There were plenty of tuna steaks available and some already cooked and picked crab meat looking sweet and delicious. Preparations were beginning to take shape nicely.
For two hours prior to our guests’ arrival I made a green salad, an arame sea vegetable salad and prepared all of the “fillings” for the evening’s festivities. I baked a squash, sautéed some shitake mushrooms and sliced scallions, cucumber and carrots. I also diced tofu for a miso soup. Right before we served dinner we also sliced up an avocado to use as filling. With some wasabi and pickled ginger we were ready to roll.
Although there were many highlights of the evening, including drinking sake from a bottle ensconced in some sort of braided fiber, practicing belly dancing moves at the table and proclaiming that Al Green is “my man”, the moment that was the highlight for me was what transpired after the conversation moved towards politics. Although all present have very similar and rather passionate political beliefs, there is still a lot of emotions that rise to the surface when we think about the state of our world. As the conversation became more passionate and intense, Mike did a courageous and lovely thing. He stuck two pieces of carrot in his mouth and held them like fangs coming from his top teeth. But the best part of this action, however, was the immediate reaction from our guests who followed suit until we were all making silly faces and brandishing our new dental accoutrements.