Frist Sushi Night of 2010

Early last year, Angel, Nicky and a few of us did a sushi night where we gathering all the necessary ingredients and made our own sushi rolls, tempura, and sashami. It was a fairly successful evening, but since then, we have yet to try it again. Wanting to do something to start off the new year correctly, Helen, me, Angel, and decided to do another sushi night. So out went the invites and list of ingredients. We had about 15-16 people at the event and a few Japanese friends of Helen, so I get to test out my Japanese culinary cooking skills on some natives.

So from the above picture, a group of people brought over ingredients to make takoyaki and some variations of the tasty fried ball like snack food. I brought out the pan, and some of the guests were a little surprised that I had one, let alone knew what I was doing when making the fried octopus balls. As if my fat ass isn’t indication enough that I enjoy eating as much as cooking. The women crowding around me eventually pushed me out and finished off the batter that was made. It was a nice light snack for everyone playing bomberman/rockband.

Ok, time to pause for a bit to explain the picture prominently displaying “Fun Bobby” as he is now affectionately known amongst a few folks. Angel and I had left the house after dropping folks off at the house to go grab some ps3 controllers, some last minute ingredients, and Angel’s brother who also supplied us with some ps3 controllers. Helen wanted to get better at Bomberman. After hitting the market and getting the necessary ingredients, we grabbed Sammy. In the car, the discussion of the coming sushi night brings out the mental image of eating sushi off naked women. And since I was fairly doubtful that any of the women at the dinner would be willing to strip down and have pieces of raw fish and rice placed on their nude body for the novelty of a serving platter. Someone, not me, suggests that we use a blow up doll…. Sammy then says that there’s an adult sex shop right on our way home, so I pull in and we get out of the car laughing hysterically at the idea we were about to add to our unsuspecting guests. We walk in, ask the shop keep for a blow up doll we can use to serve food off of; the other customers in the store are giggling. We grab it and I pay for all but $.68 of the doll, so technically, Sammy owns part of the doll. While walking out, logic kicked in and I grabbed one of those nifty black plastic bags to hold our newly purchased item, as we need to walk into the house and put it into my workshop room prior to use. In the car ride back, the three of us conspired on how to clean, blow up, and transfer the doll to the dining room table without anyone seeing us do so.

We got home, and the doll box went right into the workshop room. We then started working on cutting and making rolls, sushi, and plating things. Among the things made:
Spider Roll (Soft shell crab roll)
Spicy Tuna Roll
Rainbow Roll
Tempura Roll
California Roll
Cucumber Roll
Inarizushi
Various Sushi pieces
Shrimp Tempura
Deep fried soft shell crabs
Chicken Karaage
Steamed Clams
Several plates of Sashami
Broiled Eel
Uni
Baked Baby Scallops (dynamite)
Thinly sliced rib eyes from the previous few nights cut paper thin and drizzled with some ponzu sauce
And some Soba completed the dishes.

Helen helped out by frying the shrimp, chicken, and soft shell crabs, and burnt herself when a pocket of water from the crabs popped hot oil on her face. Good thing nothing vital was hit. Angel made rolls and the sushi finished frying the rest of the stuff and refrying a few things that had gotten cold; while Sammy plated the sashami.

When most of the food completed, and a majority of the people distracted by Rock Band, I signaled to Angel and Sammy went into the workshop to pass the cleaned and blown up doll over the atrium section of the house to the dining room. We worked quickly and placed a few pieces of sushi on the doll. The damn thing wasn’t too stable so we didn’t fully load the thing up with sushi, but the point was made. We were giggling like idiots all the while trying not to give the joke away. Helen looked over and a sigh of relief came over her as she had gone into the workshop room earlier to get tape, and had wondered why the hell I had a blow up doll in there. One by one, folks came by and just started snapping pictures and uploading them to facebook. Surprise is successful, and everyone has a damn good laugh.

A good time was had by all and we sat down and polished off most of the food. Pretty damn impressive. People quickly grabbed off all the sushi from the doll so that more room on the table can be had. I think dinner was very successful and it was a damn fun time. Again, thanks to Angel, Helen, Sammy, and the girls for taking over on the takoyaki. It wouldn’t have happened without all the wonderful help.

Folks around the table.