Robin's Reports

SUSHI
by Robin

For all my life, this has never once been something that interested me until recently when Pioneer Woman posted up a "how to make" on her food section of her website. Well, I like rice and I like veggies. I love fish but wasn't certain about raw fish. Then, Giada had a show on sushi. Everybody who eats this stuff has the biggest yummy faces and noises. I figured it was time that I grew up and tried it.

We were at a wedding held aboard Carnival's Glory cruise ship. It was lovely, albeit confusing to navigate a cruise boat's decks, and the reception was held in the Disco lounge. Interesting. Anyhow, they had some expensive catered food there. Cavier and sushi, lamb and spring rolls, etc. I wasn't up to cavier, but I grabbed 1 California roll and 1 Sesami roll. I left behind those cute salmon flower-like treats on a cracker. That was a little too much raw fish for me.

Jack said I was crazy to eat raw fish from a catered service. Raw tuna off our boat would be healthier than this. But, stubborn middle-child that I am, I tried it anyhow.

My first bite was into the California roll and ripping apart the seaweed mat. Ewww, but at least the first taste seemed to be salty rather than weird. Texturally, there were no surprises. Ok, not good yummy flavors, but not bad either. I survived seaweed and rice. Now, the 2nd bite was going to have to include the fish and some avacado. I love avacado. The fish mixture, I could not say the same for.

First off, my thought was of rotten small shrimp. If there was fish in there, I didn't taste it. It seemed more like old bait that's been sitting in my garbage can for days. I'm really surprised that there wern't flies swirling over the sushi rolls. I couldn't even finish it. Something deep in my gut told me that this might be the beginnings of food poisoning. Well, that didn't happen, which was very good for everyone involved. But I tried to smile through it all because some of Jack's coworkers were observing my first experience.

Putting on my big-girl britches, I tried the sesame roll but I thought I would cleverly disguise any fish flavor with wasabi sauce. Big mistake. I like spicy but I don't like fire-alarm hot. I don't do mustard sauce at Chinese restaurants which is similar to wasabi. I cannot recall what the actual sushi roll tasted like. Maybe I blocked it out since the entire sinus fire took priority in my head.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why people pay for this stuff. Why is it that they make all sorts of yummy noises? Why do they roll their eyes back like they're dying and going to heaven? How does one aquire a taste for rotten bait? Honestly, I cannot fathom ever growing accustomed to these flavors. Why should I? Jack makes the best cooked fish of anybody in this world.

All these things are a mystery to me. Maybe I'll get those answers in heaven, if it even matters at that point. For now, I'm going to stick closely to my cooked fish and shellfish.