Life is a cycle. And as such, I believe all things are meant to come full circle. Since I started the semester with my first food blog about Unagi sushi, I thought it would be extremely appropriate to finish the semester with a blog post about sushi again!
For this chapter of my culinary adventures, my journey took me to a restaurant called Sushi Maki, located at gate D29 in the Miami International Airport. I have eaten in this very same restaurant with my mother before, so I expected a pleasant meal as was typical. I ended up ordering a pot of green tea and two pieces of sushi to start and an order of Pad Thai (rice noodles in a special Thai sauce, topped with crushed peanuts) for my main course.
At first, I was rather surprised when my meal came. Firstly because the waitress clearly had no tact and as such, brought out all my food at once! So as I sat enjoying my sushi I was simultaneously lamenting that my noodles were growing ever colder…
The first piece of sushi I ordered was written on the menu as “Hotategai.” My other surprise was because on this piece of my sushi, the hotate (scallop) came raw! At my local sushi joint I am accustomed to having the meat buttered, seasoned and most importantly, cooked. Yet I feel a wee bit ashamed at my shock since I know enough Japanese to know that the suffix “-gai” implies that it is uncooked… Nevertheless I was pleasantly surprised because even though scallops are renowned for their miserable, chewy textures, this little piece of sushi was so smooth! It was an absolute pleasure to consume. Who knows? I may even have to convert to eating raw scallops from now on.
In addition to the hotategai sushi, I also ordered (surprise!) a piece of Unagi sushi. Now I’d like to take the time to point out that this piece of sushi is very different from what I first blogged about. The variation is apparent in the sense that this is what the Japanese actually refer to as sushi. This is in contrast to the ‘sushi’ I mentioned in the first blog, which is known as maki (lit. ‘roll’) in Japan. When sushi is referred to as maki, that is to say the fish (or whatever ingredients) are rolled in the middle of a layer of nori (seaweed) and rice. The Japanese are more accustomed to eating the individual pieces like those I ate than maki, which is more common among Westerners. And as usual, this piece of sushi was utterly delectable. I am extremely partial to unagi sushi because I adore the way the Japanese prepare eel. The eel was soft, well cooked and marinated in the perfect amount of eel sauce.
Sadly enough, the worst part of my meal was the entrée - a chicken and shrimp Pad Thai. It really was my fault though; I should never have ordered a non-Japanese meal from a (so-called) Japanese restaurant… The noodles were barely cooked. They were chewy, leathery and extremely difficult to swallow. In addition, they were slathered in an extremely sweet sauce that I had to counter with two servings of soy sauce and wasabi. The taste was barely masked and to make matter worse,the noodles were also completely overpowered by a serving of bean sprouts (which I added, hoping the sprouts would make the dish more appetizing. Oops…). I really don’t like to send food back, but if the customer isn’t happy then the patron should try and fix that, right? So I sent the noodles back and opted for an order of Special Fried Rice. (Not that this meal was terribly Japanese either, but at least it seemed a little closer to home.)Needeless to say, the Fried Rice was a marked improvement. The rice was fresh, hot and bursting with flavour. The vegetables (carrots, onions, edamame beans, bean sprouts and scallions) were crunchy and juicy. Due to the eggs and the meats and the variety of the vegetables, the dish was quite colourful, and as a result, very aesthetically pleasing. The serving size was also hearty and therefore, worth its price.
Overall, disregarding the little hitch in the middle, the meal was quite good, and left me ready for my late-night flight back to Atlanta.
For this chapter of my culinary adventures, my journey took me to a restaurant called Sushi Maki, located at gate D29 in the Miami International Airport. I have eaten in this very same restaurant with my mother before, so I expected a pleasant meal as was typical. I ended up ordering a pot of green tea and two pieces of sushi to start and an order of Pad Thai (rice noodles in a special Thai sauce, topped with crushed peanuts) for my main course.
At first, I was rather surprised when my meal came. Firstly because the waitress clearly had no tact and as such, brought out all my food at once! So as I sat enjoying my sushi I was simultaneously lamenting that my noodles were growing ever colder…
The first piece of sushi I ordered was written on the menu as “Hotategai.” My other surprise was because on this piece of my sushi, the hotate (scallop) came raw! At my local sushi joint I am accustomed to having the meat buttered, seasoned and most importantly, cooked. Yet I feel a wee bit ashamed at my shock since I know enough Japanese to know that the suffix “-gai” implies that it is uncooked… Nevertheless I was pleasantly surprised because even though scallops are renowned for their miserable, chewy textures, this little piece of sushi was so smooth! It was an absolute pleasure to consume. Who knows? I may even have to convert to eating raw scallops from now on.
In addition to the hotategai sushi, I also ordered (surprise!) a piece of Unagi sushi. Now I’d like to take the time to point out that this piece of sushi is very different from what I first blogged about. The variation is apparent in the sense that this is what the Japanese actually refer to as sushi. This is in contrast to the ‘sushi’ I mentioned in the first blog, which is known as maki (lit. ‘roll’) in Japan. When sushi is referred to as maki, that is to say the fish (or whatever ingredients) are rolled in the middle of a layer of nori (seaweed) and rice. The Japanese are more accustomed to eating the individual pieces like those I ate than maki, which is more common among Westerners. And as usual, this piece of sushi was utterly delectable. I am extremely partial to unagi sushi because I adore the way the Japanese prepare eel. The eel was soft, well cooked and marinated in the perfect amount of eel sauce.
Sadly enough, the worst part of my meal was the entrée - a chicken and shrimp Pad Thai. It really was my fault though; I should never have ordered a non-Japanese meal from a (so-called) Japanese restaurant… The noodles were barely cooked. They were chewy, leathery and extremely difficult to swallow. In addition, they were slathered in an extremely sweet sauce that I had to counter with two servings of soy sauce and wasabi. The taste was barely masked and to make matter worse,the noodles were also completely overpowered by a serving of bean sprouts (which I added, hoping the sprouts would make the dish more appetizing. Oops…). I really don’t like to send food back, but if the customer isn’t happy then the patron should try and fix that, right? So I sent the noodles back and opted for an order of Special Fried Rice. (Not that this meal was terribly Japanese either, but at least it seemed a little closer to home.)Needeless to say, the Fried Rice was a marked improvement. The rice was fresh, hot and bursting with flavour. The vegetables (carrots, onions, edamame beans, bean sprouts and scallions) were crunchy and juicy. Due to the eggs and the meats and the variety of the vegetables, the dish was quite colourful, and as a result, very aesthetically pleasing. The serving size was also hearty and therefore, worth its price.
Overall, disregarding the little hitch in the middle, the meal was quite good, and left me ready for my late-night flight back to Atlanta.
Taste: ****½
Texture: ****½
Tummy Happiness: ****½
Texture: ****½
Tummy Happiness: ****½
Image source:
http://shop.fiu.edu/_assets/images/aramark-vectors/sushi-maki.png
(More pictures to come! Trying to figure out my phone camera… :\)
http://shop.fiu.edu/_assets/images/aramark-vectors/sushi-maki.png
(More pictures to come! Trying to figure out my phone camera… :\)
You are a bold woman to eat raw scallops at an airport restaurant. And I love your description of the noodles as "leathery"--I can feel and taste them. I have so much enjoyed following your adventures with fish of all kinds all over Atlanta and now into Miami. An excellent, if challenging, theme in our landlocked city. This post is delightful, as always.
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