I was doing my usual net surf when I came across this article from one of my favorite food blogs right now. Sushi-fanatic or not, take your time to read this. It’s interesting and very informative.

I had my first encounter with sushi when one of my closest friends, Mils, invited me to her birthday dinner. I forgot the name of the restaurant but one of the dishes served was a plateful of tuna sushi that I looked at with apprehension. I’m not used to Japanese food at that time, much more, eat something raw. But her mom, Tita Glenda, was gracious enough to encourage me to pick one and eat it. I still remember her exact words when I asked her if it is, in any way, disgusting: “Not at all. It just melts in your mouth“.

She is right.

From that time on, I exposed myself to more types of sushi whenever I eat in a Japanese resto. My all-time favorite, and probably the most common to all, is maki. It never fails to give me a tummy satisfaction whenever I’m hungry. There’s also this good visual experience that you get whenever you are served with a sushi plate. They are always prepared and arranged beautifully that you can’t resist taking pictures before you take a bite.

Here are some of my sushi experiences:

Little Tokyo is this small semi-village of restaurants that serve authentic Japanese food. It is around the Pasong Tamo area, near the Makati Cinema Square.

This is one of the best sushi platter that I have ever tasted. Ever! Everything is fresh and the rice is so Japanese-y good. Not one of those pseudo ones that disintegrates so fast when you bite into them.

I just don’t have the guts to eat the one in the middle. That white fish is a bit scaly (scaly scary!). But the rest are oh-so-good!!!

Shake Maki is a strip of salmon on top of your usual maki. California Maki is the most common, with mango and crab stick inside. Dynamite Maki consists of diced salmon mixed with spicy mayo and tobiko on top, with cruncy eel wrapped inside the rice and seaweed. Not a big fan of the eel so I just push it away from my plate. But the salmon and spicy mayo is really good.

The JSC Sushi Platter from Omakase consist of Jurassic, Seabreeze, and Crazy Maki. Thus, the name. The Jurassic Maki is the one with the eel on top (top right). It has a signature crunchy feel to it but I find it quite malansa because of the eel. The Seabreeze is the one with the tuna strip (top left) while The Crazy Maki at the  bottom has both tuna and salmon inside. I liked it because it’s a bit spicy.

One recent discovery is the Kimono Maki or Ebi Tempura Maki from Kimono Ken. It looks like a whole piece of ebi tempura was inserted into a line of maki. The plating is something that you don’t see everyday. I liked how the shrimp tail protudes at the end. 🙂

It has the usual ingredients: mango dice, cucumber, tuna, and seaweed strip. What made it special is the chunk of ebi tempura with a dash of spicy mayo. Yum!

There goes my notable sushi experiences.  And since yesterday was supposed to be a rice-ball day, I would like to offer my  (late) happy maki face plate to the sushi deities.