You know those silly questions that people ask each other, like ‘would you rather have no arms or no legs’? My husband is a spoilsport who hates playing this game. But we both agree that if we had to choose only one food to eat for the rest of our lives, it would be sushi.
Luckily for us, his father invited us on an awesome family trip to Tokyo, where we got to eat the best sushi in the world. I can still remember the explosion of flavor as the raw salmon melted in my mouth. Each piece of sushi looked stunning with perfectly shaped rice topped with the freshest fish imaginable and dipped in light brown soy sauce, with just the right amount of flawlessly dissolving wasabi.
This life changing sushi feast took place at Tsukiji Sushiko Ginza, named after famous Tsukiji fish market where this restaurant (and the rest of Tokyo) gets it’s fish. After asking my Japanese friends which other sushi restaurants I should try, they laughed at me. Apparently there is NO better place than Tsukiji Sushiko!
I refrained from admitting to anyone that we found it by accident. We were actually looking for a famous all-you-can-eat sushi place with a conveyor belt that delivered mouth-watering plates of heaven. Turned out that Ginza has more sushi restaurants than pigeons, which is how we ended up at this spectacular place instead.
With a hunger for unlimited sushi, I had to order the largest platter with the greatest variety of nigiri. There were several different kinds of salmon (including salmon belly), tuna, raw shrimp and many others that I couldn’t identify. I loved them all with the exception of the hard yellow fish egg piece, but I was happy to have tried it. I even tried sea-tasting crab brain sushi on this trip!
Tsukiji Sushiko Ginza didn’t just serve great sushi. Their draft Asahi beer and hot sake only added to our sushi-eating experience. We even tried adding some sake to the soy sauce which may or may not be something that Japanese people actually do. Either way, it was the most delicious sushi dinner of my life… which scared me to death.
I was worried that after eating the best sushi in the world, I would no longer be satisfied by anything less. Luckily, that was not the case. Since returning to the tiny Chinese economic development zone that I live in, I returned to my favorite sushi spot. The cheap yet quality sushi could never be compared to even a mediocre restaurant in Tokyo, but I still enjoyed every bite. I guess I’m just too much of a sushi fiend to get spoiled!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention being sushi drunk – something that I’ve joked about for years. It’s the giddy, sometimes nauseating feeling, that you get after eating obscene amounts of sushi. Apparently my joke is not at all original. The Urban Dictionary provides a definition the term and there is even a forum about it on reddit! Have you ever gotten drunk off sushi?
