Mei Wah

I was out and about on a rainy day, and I had an hour to kill before I was due at work. I was feeling hungry, and my tummy demanded sushi. I used to be a regular sushi consumer at Mei Wah (the Chevy Chase locations has a sushi bar, the DC location does not) for a couple of years until I noticed their quality was disintegrating. The spicy tuna rolls were strange in texture and definitely not fresh and the yellow tail rolls were - for lack of a better word - gross. I wanted to experiment and see if I ordered and ate at the restaurant instead of getting it delivered, it would be better.

I was impressed right off by the large number of sushi specials available, which is not included in the delivery menu. I especially enjoyed the colorful pictures that came with the descriptions of each item. So instead of going for the usual shrimp tempura roll and the spicy tuna roll, I decided to expand my horizons. I ordered a vegetable soup to start, to be followed by the tuna tempura roll, and I feel like such a failure as a blogger, as I've forgotten the name of the second roll that I ordered - I want to say it had an exotic, mythical creature in its name.

The soup was good, as usual, full of snow peas, bamboo shoots, carrots, mushrooms, and water chestnuts in a yummy broth. Then the rolls arrived. I was very impressed by their presentation! So pretty and colorful. The tuna tempura roll was quite big - it was a long strip of tuna rolled in rice and seaweed, and the whole roll was tempura battered and fried. It came with a wonderful, spicy sauce on the side. It was delicious and I was pleasantly surprised. The mystery roll had shrimp tempura with lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and spicy fish roe, with a drizzle of a spicy and sweet sauce on top. The circumference on this thing is huge, so be prepared to stretch those jaw muscles and look pretty funny as you attempt to chew. Other than the difficulty in consumption, it was fabulous. I had my doubts when I saw the lettuce and the carrots - I don't think they're common ingredients - but they added a nice, cool crunch to the whole thing.

I think the key is not to order sushi or rolls with raw sea creatures from Mei Wah, because I enjoyed a delightful lunch of rolls with cooked sea creatures. I know, if they're not fresh and gross when you eat them raw, they're just as not fresh when they're cooked, but it tastes good (shoulder shrug). That's my conclusion. :) Tasty tasty!!

$

www.meiwahrestaurant.com

Totoro

Classes started today, and this past weekend saw the craziest influx of kids I feel like I've experienced in my college experience. Usually, I feel like it's a somewhat gradual increase in student body presence over the week or so before classes. This time, it was *bam* Friday, EVERYONE is here. It's nice to have people back, though. A college town isn't quite the same without... college kids.

Now that more of my friends are back in town, this should give me more opportunity to go out to eat and share my findings, including two from this weekend: Sava's and Totoro. Sava's has a great story and I fell in love with it immediately, so I'll write about that after I make at least two trips back (and I know exactly what I'm getting).

Totoro. Say it. Totoro! Isn't it fun?? It's more fun if you say it really fast in almost a light whisper, so the words tumble off your tongue in that giddy Japanese schoolgirl way. Totoro-san, hai! Clearly, it's a Japanese restaurant. I went with a couple of girlfriends for lunch on Sunday. My first time. We walked in and the waitress greeted us by pointing out the udon + cali roll special for $8.45. I was pretty much ready to order then. But the three of us sat down and pondered over the menu, considering at one point or another everything from bowls to bento boxes.

We settled on ordering and sharing 3 rolls - crunch crunch, tempura california, and spider roll. Back to the basics. Nothing adventurous, but all very crunchy. I was worried from the moment we ordered until I took my final bite that 3 rolls would not be enough. I'm the kind of eater that doesn't understand the concept of full, and it isn't until I'm rolling around on the couch short of breath that I realize I shouldn't have had that fourth helping. After being dubbed "The Masticator" this summer, I decided I should learn to control myself, so after we finished off our rolls I told myself that I was content and didn't need to order another. To my surprise, the end of our post-meal chitchat found me... full. I guess that satisfied feeling that you get near the end of your meal is a sign that it's a good time to stop eating so you don't suffer through being overstuffed.

Why is this turning into a self-reflection of my eating habits? Back to the subject, spider rolls are always a favorite and I was not disappointed at Totoro. The crab was light, crispy, and perfectly tasty. The crunch crunch is tempura shrimp and avocado topped with tempura crunch and masago with eel sauce. Tempura california is, you guessed it, deep-fried cali roll. Maybe my least favorite of the three because it seemed heavier, what with it being wholly dunked and fried in batter. I don't have a "fancy phone" like someone, but I snapped a few shots with my dinky flip phone. The food looks washed out, but I promise it was yummy! And the sushi chef laughed at me when I took pictures of the restaurant. I don't know why.

Unfortunately, Totoro probably won't be my most frequented restaurant for sushi... but that's because there are literally 3 sushi places within 2 blocks of where I live (a bone of contention which I'm sure I'll rant about some day). But I dare say it may be one of my top three of sushi in Ann Arbor. Will try more special rolls in the future. Yummers!!!

$

No website, but you can find the menu and pictures here.

14K / Cafe Japone

As of late, it has become tradition for JC and me to go to happy hour on Wednesdays. So without fail, we scampered out of work, super excited for a cheap drink and cheap snacks. First stop was 14K, on 14th St NW and K St NW - their huge "rush hour happy hour" sign caught my eye. In addition to happy hour, they were advertising 5:00pm - 7:00pm, get 2 entrees and receive a bottle of wine, which is a pretty awesome deal, we thought. However, we had happy hour hopping in mind, so we headed to the bar. I got a huge cold glass of Blue Moon and JC got a glass of sauvignon blanc to sip on as we waited for our artisan cheese plate. I'm pretty sure we didn't get the cheese that are listed on the menu, as I know and love Humbolt Fog (goat cheese) and it was definitely absent. However, it was a wonderful assembly of crumbly and soft cheeses served with slices of some kind of berry and nut bread, apples, figs, and strawberries. As we devoured the plate, I started craving sushi (I know, how Asian, right?). For 2 glasses of wine, a beer, and the cheese plate, we paid about $20, which we thought was awesome.

Then we ran across the street to Lotus, as we had heard that they have sushi happy hours there. As we headed downstairs into the lounge, we realize how eerily empty it was...we took a quick look around and then ran back out - in true JC and Jung-Ah fashion, running in our heels and giggling.

Next stop, Cafe Japone since their happy hour went on til 8:30pm! I had very little to no expectations as I had read reviews and most of them were about how awful the service is there. There were praises about their food and huge Sapporos, though. We found an awesome parking space right outside the restaurant and went inside, thirsty for a beer. The girl that greeted us was very nice and sat us right away, however we sat there for a long time and finally had to flag down a server to take our drink orders. She didn't give us attitude though, there were only 2 servers for the whole place, and I guess they were busy. We received our $3, 22oz bottles of Sapporo right away, which made us happy during the million hours we had to wait for our sushi while drunk Facebooking and Twittering. Finally our yellowtail with scallions, spicy tuna, california, and crispy salmon skin rolls arrived. I don't know why we keep getting yellowtail rolls, because everytime we get it, we're like meh, it's not that great, YET we ALWAYS get them. The spicy tuna were very spicy and very tasty - I prefer the ones I had at Saki to these, but these were pretty awesome. The california roll was what I expected, tasty in the fake, american kind of way. The crispy salmon skin roll was intense - the salmon skin was super crispy, super salty and very pungent. I liked it alot, but it was just a bit much on the saltiness. After 3 of the 22oz Sapporo, not to mention what we had prior to coming to Japone, we were drunk. And we thought we could eat more, so we ordered their ramen with pork bone broth. As we waited another million hours for the ramen, the table across the restaurant started off Karaoke night. They were a fun group and sang and danced together and it was all good fun. In the midst of all this fun, we got our ramen, and I must recommend this highly. Oh my gosh, it was nothing like the ramen in packages that you get for 55cents at the grocery store. The noodles were chewy and yummy, and the broth was rich and flavorful with a hint of sesame oil. Sooooo good. And soooo big. We ate, sang, danced, and drank. Before we knew it, it was 11:00pm. Another happy hour success!! Tasty tasty!!!

14K $
www.14krestaurant.com

Cafe Japone $$

Tokyo One

I made myself an unsatisfactory steak with onions and mushrooms for dinner tonight. I didn't know that was possible. I figure any piece of meat presented to me is heaven on a plate. After that unfortunate meal, I'm now looking to treat myself to some Mexican wedding cookies. However... the dough has been in the fridge since yesterday and is now rock hard. So I'm sitting here... watching the dough... giving it the death glare. Hopefully the heat from my gaze will make it thaw faster.

While I was gnawing away at my tough steak, cartoon bubbles floated from my head with images of foods I'd rather be eating, two of which I'll share with you.

Tokyo One is a nice sushi/grill/buffet, not one of those 3.99 all-you-can-eat rib joints on the corner. For $27.99 at dinner, you get the bar, a full sushi bar, soba and udon noodle station, salads, hot foods, fruits and dessert, etc. The full menu would go on for pages - you can see the menu with pictures on the website. But I suggest you don't fill up on those too quick because the star of the show is the Dungeness crab. They're HUGE! A whole crab is the size of my hand!!. Oh my gosh, and soooo delicious!! They're perfectly tender, sweet, juicy. They're not the same as the crab in Maryland that we've talked about before. No seasoning. No butter. Just pure, delicious crab. And it's always fun when you get to pull out and enjoy a huge chunk of crabmeat and not have to fuss with tiny legs and the bother with the complicated compartments of the body of a smaller crab. Drool. Don't even try to keep your hands clean. Just dig in and get messy. It's so worth it! And besides, that's what the bathrooms are for: so you can wash your hands when you're ready. Mind you, the other patrons are probably going to be crazy about the crabs as well. At the Sam Houston Pkwy location, people nonchalantly hang around the buffet pretending to be looking at other items, and when the server brings out a new batch of hot, steaming crabs, there is a mad rush for the crab. A wild stampede and hands boxing through each other to grab the crabs first. I literally had a woman take a crab from my hand. Rude. So what we did was make eyes with one of the cooks in the back and ask him to bring us some fresh crab. Accompanied by batting of the eyelashes. Success: fresh hot crab without the fight.

At the Greens Rd location, you don't have to race for the crab. You won't find crab at the buffet; you order it with your server and they'll bring it right to your table. For some reason... we enjoyed the Sam Houston location better, both environment and taste. But still... Yummers!!!

$$

www.tokyo-one.com

Happy Hour at Saki

On the way to meeting up with some friends for dinner, Saki's happy hour specials caught my eye. $3 beers - I think they were Miller Lite, Amstel Light, and Heineken - and 1/2 price sushi. Since we had half an hour before the agreed meeting time, we stopped in for a quick bite. Most of the rolls were around $3.5 and the nigiri were $1 per piece. Pretty nifty deal, I thought.

It's a very cute place, the color scheme is white and black with a very trendy feel. When you walk in you can sit in a lounge area off to the back right or you can head straight for the bar. We opted to sit at the bar where you can see your sushi being made. The service was prompt (they weren't busy at 6:00pm) and friendly.

We ordered a california roll, a spicy tuna roll, and a yellowtail and scallion roll and a couple of Amstel Lights. The beer was icy cold and delicious, as expected and the sushi was good beyond my expectations. The yellowtail tasted fresh, the california roll was packed with lots of avocado, and the spicy tuna was FABULOUS. I've had spicy tuna rolls at a hundred million places (not really, but a lot...you know what I mean), and this was one of the bestest. I feel that a lot of places don't chop/ground the tuna finely enough so you get big chunks of tuna, but Saki's spicy tuna mix was perfect! It was spicy and tuna-ey and sooooo yummy. We regretted not getting two of the spicy tuna rolls, but it left us wanting more, and that's always good. I'm so planning on going back for those, and you should come! Tasty tasty!!!!

$

www.sakiasiangrille.com