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Sushi
Two Girls, a Guy, and a Sushi Place
By: David K. Every
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May 10,2003
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 t Rockwell Collins, Sushi became a ritual.
I've tried lots of foods; frogs legs, snails, game animals, snakes, and just about anything. If it isn't going to hurt me to eat it, I'll probably give it a try. After all, if God didn't want us to eat Animals, he wouldn't have made them taste so good (or out of meat). Kind of an interesting attitude for someone who eats mostly vegetarian, huh?
People usually don't know how to reconcile my views, or wonder if I'm a hypocrite or something. I've gone vegetarian for years at a time; though generally I eat low-meat, and the meat I do eat, tends towards chicken and some fish. But my views are very consistent with themselves.
I personally believe that people should have to kill and clean (prepare) each of everything that they eat. Then they get a far better understanding of what the Animal contributes to the meal. I don't think that eating animals is bad or wrong; just that we need very little meat in our diets (one small serving per day or less), instead of the high meat diets that many Americans eat; which is resource wasteful, and not very healthy. Plus why kill more animals than you need to? Sort of a non-extreme version of Karma.
Still, I don't begrudge other people their bad habits or vices, that's their choice; I just choose a different path for myself. And in modern society it is not convenient to be completely vegetarian, so why shouldn't you eat some meat? Nor should we not enjoy ourselves or try different things? Anything in moderation, it is the unbalanced extremes that are not healthy and good for our souls or bodies. Extremes like vegetarianism are probably no better to me than the other extreme of too much meat. And no need to get extreme and preachy about either attitude. Anyways, enough of the philosophy of my almost vegetarianism.
         
I'd tried Sushi when I was about 18. And I tried just about everything in a Sushi bar. There are some things that are an acquired taste at best; and some I haven't yet acquired, nor am ever going to. But there are many things that are really very good. And the more you eat it, the more you get addicted to it.
My addiction started with recreational usage. Just once a year or so just for something different. But when I started at Rockwell, down the road they had a Benihanas that not only had good, fresh, Sushi, and a reasonable chef; but they started an all-you-could-eat lunch, at a fixed reasonable price. We started a Friday lunch ritual, with just taking a few people from work, and it grew a cult-like following.
The first time we went, there were these two Girls from work that decided to go with us, and a few guys. It kept getting bigger over time. One of the Girls was not exactly shy. I found out how non-shy at the first Sushi lunch.
So there we are, sitting around ordering different things. I generally like the Tuna and light tasting fish (Halibut, Flounder, Snapper, and so on); but do not like the oily or strong fishes (Mackerel). And I'm cautious with the fragrant but not too strong fishes; like Salmon or Yellowtail. Most of the rolls are good. And I was mixing it up with some Octopus and Squid.
So there I am, peaceful trying Squid; which is kind of crunchy, as compared to Octopus which is kind of rubbery/chewy - but similar tastes. I had a piece in my mouth, when one of the girls I'm with says to the other; "I can't stand squid". The other girl asks, "why not?" To which the reply was, "because it tastes just like cum". Ptooy, ack, pthth. Out came the squid that I was eating into my napkin. And I pushed the other piece aside. Suddenly, my serving was far less appetizing. While I'm doing that, the other girl says to the first, "Oh, so that's what Squid tastes like". The rest of the group that was in shock over the first statement, completely lost it at the second one's innocent, or not-so-innocent, response; as well as my little choking and spitting fit. Someone cracked wise that I was a spitter, and they laughed to tears; though I didn't find it nearly as funny (at the time) as they did.
Then they ordered Saki and Beer, and the conversation got much more racy. While there is often some innuendo and flirtation in some comfortable work conversations; or any for that matter, these people were outright raunchy. Something about one of the girls confessing she avoided Saki, since her first experience with it also ended with her first experience in anal sex. I'm thinking, "Oh yeah, this is work conversation".
I have no idea what made some of the people at Rockwell feel so comfortable with each other, or not understand professional decorum. This is not proper work, even lunch-time, conversation; especially for someone who had to be real uptight and restrained to survive in the working world, and not just be written off as an immature post-teen. I was amused, but at the time I just didn't know how to respond. The good news is that loosened me up; not that I was uptight by any means, I was just uptight at work. I think I learned to live life more later, and care less about others over-sensitivities because of my over-restraint at work for the first 8 years of my career.
       
One of my favored hand-rolls, was something called a Dynamite Roll. There are variants of this at many places; and seems a little Americanized. But basically it is some fish, with this really hot crushed pepper sauce in a rice and seaweed cone. I used to eat really spicy foods occasionally. I loved these things, and they were a weekly ritual.
Anyways, I thought I was loosing my mind. Week after week, I felt like I was getting wimpier and wimpier. My ability to eat them without feeling the effects; both at the time, and later, was lessening each week. Finally, by like the 5th or 6th week, I was breaking out in a sweat, my nose was running, I was getting flushed, and so on. It was going past good, and well into painful, and becoming less enjoyable.
Then one day, I ordered my usual, and turned back to my conversation. When I heard a person that I'd previously been calling my friend, saying to the Chef, "My friend said to be sure to make it really hot this time. He says Japanese food is all too bland". The Chef has stopped using a little fork to put a little of the pepper paste on, and he had graduated to a spoon to shovel the stuff.
That treacherous bastard, I caught my friend red handed. What did he have to say for himself? He just laughed - he'd been doing that for weeks. He had been secretly doing it to both of ours, but he'd given up eating them when they got too hot, but had kept going for me, just to see how far he could take it. The Sushi chef laughed when he'd caught on to what was going on; either that or he feigned innocence and was in on it all along. But either way, I keep a much closer eye on my food after that experience.
  
Sushi is still a fun thing for me. And I still go at least once a month or so. Though I've lost the intestinal fortitude to eat many dynamite rolls.
I have found that almost every culture has foods that we might find bizarre, but that aren't bad. And then they find a lot of our foods bizarre as well. The Japanese used to be perplexed that we would eat spoiled and curdled milk (cheese). I mean even the thought of sucking on another animals teat (milk), isn't that appealing. Or once with my wife, I referred to eggs as "chicken periods" or "chicken mensus", and kind of grossed her out; but heck, what do you think they are?
Still, that doesn't mean I like everything other cultures eat. I've never learned to like the taste of Wasabi (Horseradish) ice cream or Sushi flavored ice cream; but some Japanese people love it. And there are many other dishes that are just flat out nasty. But I have a hard time finding their culinary choices as any more bizarre and disgusting than our own. Though I must admit, to this day, I still have a psychological barrier to eating raw squid.
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