Hahahahahahahahahahahahaa!
It is official. I am in love with Bad News Babboon.
As a twist on that M.O., perhaps I will begin carrying my own set of chopsticks at all times… in my PANTS.
I agree. I myself would find it really rude if someone just reached over to my plate and grabbed something (unless it is the SO of course) without asking.
Assuming makes and ass out of you and me. 
One of my goals for 2002 is to try sushi…tell me more about this alleged “unagi-avocado rolls”
I LOVE avacado.
Oh, and I’m of the “poke 'em in the eye with your chopstick” camp. Touch my food? Not more then once!
Zette
I tend to veer towards rolls that contain avocado, cream cheese, or both.
Unagi is a good place to start, for a lot of people, because it’s cooked. Some people get freaked out because it’s eel, but holy hell, is it delectable.
Otherwise, California rolls are a good place to start, because again, nothing’s raw, you get avocado, and it’s just your friendly neighborhood crab in there.
I personally am not bothered by uncooked fish (i.e., salmon, tuna, yellowtail, whatever), but get skeeved by shrimp (just in general, don’t know why), or anything with tentacles.
Also I am sometimes disturbed by the roe (fish eggs), depending on my mood and… the sound they make in my teeth when I’m chewing them.
But I digress…
Point is, I HIGHLY recommend Unagi to anyone wanting to take the plunge… and the THREE people I’ve convinced to try it have all been quite pleased.
Inari is another type you might feel safe trying, Zette. It consists of a lightly fried tofu skin wrapped around the sushi. When I first encountered it, in Hawaii, everyone called it “cone sushi” (this is in a neighborhood pot-luck/backyard barbecue setting, not a sushi bar, BTW), and in fact, I really thought that it was just a soggy ice cream cone filled with rice. Yummy, though.
JustPlainBryan:
I know what fondue is (I grew up in suburban California during the sixties and seventies), but what the hell is a FONDUE JOINT? They have RESTAURANTS with that, now?
[sub]Now I feel all provincial and shit.[/sub]
Oh dear God, YES! They’re everywhere! Although I must confess that, about 10 years ago, I was taken to Dante’s Down The Hatch, a cheesy (no pun intended) “fondue joint” in Atlanta on a date. Its claim to fame is that it’s got a boat in the middle (where there is live jazz), and a moat sort of thing, containing live alligators and turtles, separating the boat from the rest of the seating.
So there my date and I are, seated right next to the alligator-infested waters, and he has man-fully ordered our dinner while I ogled the gators.
Since when I think of FONDUE I think Swiss cheese goo with bread and veggies and apples for dipping, this is what I’m anticipating.
Imagine my surprise, then, when our waiter brings us a plate full of raw beef chunks!
In all my fondue ignorance, I begin plopping the beef chunks into the water, thinking that they’re to feed the alligators!!! You know–entertainment while we wait for our food.
It wasn’t until my date cried, “What the hell are you DOING???” that I realized that OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The beef chunks were our DINNER. And the fondue pot that had been placed on the table contained not cheese, but OIL in which to dip our meat to cook it! :o
Just for the record… I prefer the cheesy variety. 
Oh dear God, YES! They’re everywhere! Although I must confess that, about 10 years ago, I was taken to Dante’s Down The Hatch, a cheesy (no pun intended) “fondue joint” in Atlanta on a date. Its claim to fame is that it’s got a boat in the middle (where there is live jazz), and a moat sort of thing, containing live alligators and turtles, separating the boat from the rest of the seating.
So there my date and I are, seated right next to the alligator-infested waters, and he has man-fully ordered our dinner while I ogled the gators.
Since when I think of FONDUE I think Swiss cheese goo with bread and veggies and apples for dipping, this is what I’m anticipating.
Imagine my surprise, then, when our waiter brings us a plate full of raw beef chunks!
In all my fondue ignorance, I begin plopping the beef chunks into the water, thinking that they’re to feed the alligators!!! You know–entertainment while we wait for our food.
It wasn’t until my date cried, “What the hell are you DOING???” that I realized that OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The beef chunks were our DINNER. And the fondue pot that had been placed on the table contained not cheese, but OIL in which to dip our meat to cook it! :o
Just for the record… I prefer the cheesy variety.
And another thing!
I have absolutely no intention in swapping one of my $2.00 Maguro pieces for one of your pansy-assed $0.75 veggie rolls. Reach again and you’ll draw back a bloody stump!
Zette, with Sushi, try cooked stuff and veggie stuff first. When you are ready for raw, go with seasoned sushi friends who can point you in the right direction. Personally, I like the milder things (Tuna, etc.) I don’t like the fishy tasting pieces like Salmon or the saltiness of anything with roe. A seasoned Sushi-friend can help you with these things.
gobear, I know you’re in the DC area. Should we try to get a sushi-fest together at, say, Nawano Hana’s in Rockville’s Wintergreen Plaza sometime? (If it’s still there; I haven’t been there in years.)
Sure, I’d be all up in that. But it will be a little while before I have the cash to flash. The taxman was most unkind this year. 
yup, there’s a fondue restaurant about 10 minutes from where I am (Los Angeles). I haven’t been able to go there yet, but I will soon!
Auntie Em, I very rarely laugh out loud when reading stories on the 'net, but your alligators did me in.
So did the alligators eat the beef, or did they just lie around looking torpid?
[Hey, where’s the puking smiley?]
You’ll get no competition from me. Cream cheese has absolutely no place in Asian cuisine. And I’ll make it a point to order tako (octopus) and and uni (sea urchin roe).
Damn… stop it, you all! You’re making me hungry again!
There’s this sushi place about 15 minutes from my apartment that I’ve always wanted to go to, yet never seem to. It’s close, yes… but for some reason, I find it more fun to go with friends… and especially if it’s an all-you-can-eat deal. Maybe I’ll go when I have more money… then again, I always say that! Of course, there’s the expense factor to consider, as well. However, I did go for Japanese with a bunch of friends last month, so maybe that will do for now. But that doesn’t help when a little kid I know says he eats sushi for lunch every single weekend! (or at least for the past three or four Saturdays running)
On the point of not liking raw sashimi and stuff like that, one of our friends really didn’t like that stuff, but we convinced him to try a piece of salmon sashimi (the best, in my opinion). He nibbled at it, and declared he still didn’t like it! So we had to barbecue it for him, using the convenient barbecue fire pits at the table.
As for not liking to share food, sometimes I don’t like sharing food either… in any kind of restaurant! I like being as unselfish as I can be, of course, but hey! I ordered my food to be able to enjoy it all! If I can’t finish it, that’s another story! In a sushi restaurant, when a bunch of us get all-you-can-eat, that’s something else again. Howeve, when I order something for myself, there are times when I want to enjoy it in peace! That said, I will share food sometimes with my friends as long as we have an exchange. You know, an equal trade-off and all of that. One pizza slice is the same as the next, unless of course one has all this meat on it, and the other one has lots of veggies and practically no meat.
While I’m on the subject of sharing food, this thread reminds me of the time a bunch of us went to Boston Pizza, and one of our friends just took some pasta off her brother’s plate, apparently without asking. At the time, one of us made the comment that “I love the way your relationship works!” That was funny, and we still do, by the way! 
I’ll have to second the vote against cream cheese, seems against the whole spirit of the thing, akin to putting a tiny hamburger on top of your sushi rice…
Uni, I can’t handle. Looks like a tiny brains, and taste and texture is reminiscent of fishy custard. Salmon roe is also to large and intense, but I love flying fish roe (tobiko).
As far as natto, I just had sushi two nights ago, and finished with natto mixed with soy sauce, wasabi, and raw quail egg. Nobody asked to share.
lobster tempura sushi is the best cooked sushi. My favorite sushi is raw tuna. I like any of the red or pink fish raw, but so far the white ones leave me cold. My favorite place has an illini roll with raw beef that is delicious.
I have not had to deal with forced traders, but I do end up sharing. I seldom eat all that I order because with the miso and salad and rice, there is sometimes too much. It is funny to see the youngest member of the group look longingly at my sushi. He tries to be discrete and never asks. One piece is certainly worth having him bus the table for me
Hi!
My name’s Scylla, and I’m a food slut. The way I figure it, going out to dinner with me is a hedonistic orgy. I’m going to help myself to anything on your plate that looks good, and if you object, I’ll steal it when you’re not looking.
I beleive that the days when we all just gnawed on the same hunk of meat were the way God wanted it to be, and this bourgoise class-struggle thing of seperate plates is an artificial way of trying to keep good people down.
I don’t think that anybody can really own food anyway. You’re just borrowing it for a while. You can’t do it anymore than you can own air. It’s there for everybody, man!
Welcome to the revolution.
I have the constitutionally guarranteed right to the pursuit of happiness, and if your shrimp roll makes me feel happy I’m going to exercise my civil liberties and pursue it.
If you want some of my tuna, just help yourself.
Oh, and don’t think that keeping your hand over your plate is going to help. You can’t be on guard 100% of the time, and I’ve had a lot of experience at this.
I know my ways may seem strange and unusual to you, but dine with me and you may start to like the freedom of wild kinky food debauchery.
Offended? Perhaps my ways are not for everybody. Perhaps you are not ready for the revolution. Then again, I usually pick up the whole bill (except in one special circumstance.)
Oh? And what would that “special circumstance” be, Scylla?
Check my “Bad Day at the House of Kobe” thread in MPSIMS for that answer.
Food sharing: sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s not. If you want to food share with me I appreciate knowing about it BEFORE we order. In such instances, I might even declare “I want a whole order of this for me because I know I want to eat a whole order, but if you want to try it let’s get a second order.”
This is further complicated for me because I have food allergies. Food allergies that can make me extremely ill, and potentially ruin everyone’s good time as I puke violently, display other pyrotechnic syndromes, and once, required an ambulance to be called. This means that I may only be able to safely order one or two items on some menus, which means I get stiffed on food sharing.
I have no objections to everyone else at the table eating stuff I can’t. I do object to folks trying to force something on me with the dreaded “but there’s only a little bit of XXX in this, I’m sure it’s not enough to hurt you”. Have to wonder if these folks feed pure sugar to diabetics. Have to wonder if these folks wouldn’t mind me sprinkling a little rat poison in their soup since it’s “only a little bit”. Surely that cockroach foot in your coffee pot doesn’t matter, it’s so small…
>ahem< Not that I have any strong feelings on this…
That said… I am soooooo glad I tried sushi with a good friend of mine who realized the usual means of introduction of introducing Americans to sushi wouldn’t work. For one thing, I hate avocado. No, I loathe avocado. The taste makes me want to hurl (just from the taste - I’m not allergic to it, and yes, it’s very pretty, I just hate the taste). So, thank god no one foisted California rolls or dragon rolls or any weird avocado based shit on me at the sushi bar. Also, on general principal I won’t eat anything with tentacles or that is actively staring back at me.
I was introduced with futomaki, keppa maki (I love cucumbers), and sake nigiri, because I love salmon in any form. I like the mackeral, too. YUMMMMMM! And the tuna. Anything pickled (except avocado). And I will get adverturesome with nigiri. However, it seems to me the maki are most ammenable to sharing. I prefer to approach it as “I"ll swap half of my XXX maki for half of your YYY maki”
Didn’t even sniff at it. Ain’t that a bitch? And the one time I was willing to share my dinner…