use real butter

Here it is at last, the final installation of our Boulder Sushi Tour series! I wish I could say we ended on a high note, but… well - read on.

akiyama of gunbarrel (boulder)

It’s been a good six weeks of sushi touring in the lovely landlocked city of Boulder, Colorado. People are always astonished at the quality of the fish considering the long drive to get to the ocean from here. They’d be even more surprised to learn how much fresh fish is flown in daily. The supply is there because the demand is there. We decided our final sushi restaurant to try would be Akiyama in northeastern Boulder.

the interior

The restaurant interior is a combination of traditional and modern with plentiful sushi bar and table seating. We chose to sit at the bar. Immediately the feel of the head sushi chef was off. He didn’t strike us as a typical (or even atypical) sushi chef. I have never been served sushi by someone wearing plastic food service gloves. As Jeremy and I were groping around the floor to find our eyeballs after they had popped out of our heads in shock at the prices on the menu, we were given starter salads.

cucumber and krab (surimi) salad

And we thought Kasa was expensive. This wasn’t expensive, it was borderline ridiculous. Gunbarrel isn’t exactly the high rent district that Pearl Street is either. What was up with that? We resigned ourselves to a moderate sampling of sashimi, a few rolls, and some nigiri. Akiyama doesn’t serve ama ebi (raw sweet shrimp). Things were a little suspect already…

the sashimi assortment: skimpy on sashimi, heavy on cheap fluffy crap

Jeremy summed up our reaction to the sashimi assortment pretty well, “He should have been ashamed and embarrassed to hand us that plate.” I’m sorry, but krab (fake crab) and tamago do not count as pieces of sashimi. Where every other place we’ve been has given us at least 3 generous pieces of hamachi in their sashimi assortments, these blokes deemed it acceptable to take one thin slice and cut it in half?! The maguro was wrapped in the form of a rose. No one does that with good quality maguro. When I unraveled a piece it looked like my dog had chewed on it and spat it back out. I thought sushi chefs were trained to use a knife!? It was pathetic really, the meager quantities all gussied up with fanned slices of cucumber and dribs and drabs of avocado, fish roe, and egg omelet. This was lame. It was insulting.

the juju roll: salmon, cucumber, avocado, eel, and masago

The JuJu roll was nothing special - perhaps a bit heavy on the sweet side and it cost about double what it was really worth. I also ordered a vegetable roll which was uninspired with shitake mushrooms, cucumbers, gobo… I’ve had much better vegetable rolls elsewhere.

autumn tempura roll

The autumn tempura roll was on the specials menu. I just remember there was avocado and crab, but it wasn’t crab, it was krab. Those bastards list crab everywhere on their fricking menu and what they really use is surimi - fake crab or krab. That’s so slimy. I think it’s incredibly dishonest, but it seems to fall in line with the general practice of false advertising at this place. The roll was served on a plate with lots of sauces swizzled about, but it was unremarkable and at $12 you could call it dreadfully disappointing. There was supposed to be white tuna in there, but… I couldn’t tell it was there at all.

wasabi tobiko with quail egg - hard to screw up

My final order was wasabi tobiko with quail egg, which was actually pretty good. Perhaps that is because I was prepared to be annoyed after all of the previous WTFs? After I shot the tobiko, the chef posed and said I could shoot him too. I declined. When I’m shooting and random people want me to take a picture of them for no reason other than their ego, I don’t. Similar to my reaction to folks who ask me to link to their blogs. I don’t.

So, we were happy to get out of Akiyama because we both felt lied to and violated. How a place that serves such average and even below average sushi can charge prices so far beyond the Good sushi joints in Boulder is a mystery to me. Akiyama is big on foofy garnishes and skimpy on the fish. The quality of the fish was not too bad, I think. It’s hard to tell when all you get is one bite’s worth. Instead of feeling satisfied, I felt angry. To rank Akiyama last in our sushi tour would be an insult to the other sushi bars on the list. What a complete ripoff. DON’T EAT HERE unless you are heavily drugged and have money to burn. You have choices. Use the force, Luke.

And the final sushi rankings:
1) Sushi Tora
2) Amu Sake Bar and Restaurant
3) Ai Sushi and Steak
4) Kasa Sushi
…
75) Akiyama

Plenty of good things to bandy about on the blog today. For one: sushi, which is always a plus for me. More on that in a moment.

I spied some incredible looking mammata as I left the cancer center this afternoon. I had my camera with me (it goes just about everywhere I go) and was able to take a few shots from the parking lot before it dissipated. We get a lot of these in the summertime down on the flats - all of that atmospheric instability makes for gorgeous cloud formations. It made me recall something Tom told me recently, “the best camera is the one you have with you.” So true (what I would have given to have had my camera in my lap instead of in the backseat of the car when a bobcat crossed our path a few weeks ago driving home).

ominous

After that neat sighting, I went and sat in my car and opened a package that had ridden down the canyon with me to my radiation appointment. I had been running late, so no time to open the package. It was from Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi!

so beautiful… whatever could it be?

wonderful wonderful things

A care package is like a hug from far away. I only “met” Bee recently, but what a sweetheart she is. Just look at all of the goodies! Of course, I can’t possibly let this go without a retaliation package. Just you wait, Bee and Jai. Just you guys wait… Thank you so much. xxoo

Jeremy and I resumed our sushi tour after a one week hiatus (just too much shit going down last week). This time we tried Kasa, a relative new-comer to the Boulder scene. It has been in business for a year and we happened across it one day after walking from the post office to Pearl Street pedestrian mall.

kasa means umbrella

The restaurant sits on a prime corner location and the interior is very bright because all external walls are windows onto Pearl and 15th. The restaurant has a hip and artsy black and white theme wrapped all around the sushi bar, sake bar, and table seating.

great natural lighting

We found the service to be a complete mishmash because it seemed that whoever was nearby would take our order, serve us food, refill drinks, give us our bill… Inconsistent in a strange way. There didn’t seem to be a clearcut sushi chef in the traditional sense either. But that was okay because the quality of the fish was superb. On par with the best of them. Here, have a looksee.

start with some light seaweed salad

sashimi deshoku (chef’s choice)

red dragon roll: spicy tuna with avocado and anago

#9 roll: shrimp tempura, crab, cucumber, salmon and avocado

nigiri: tobiko with quail egg, scallop

The seaweed salad was a little less seasoned than I prefer, but it was still enjoyable. Everything else was terrific, awesome, delicious, fresh. The presentation was gorgeous, as you can see. The rolls were quite good, but they didn’t have that magic combination of flavor, texture, shazaam-in-your-mouth experience that we got with other sushi joints.

Here is my beef with Kasa: it is ass expensive. Okay, all sushi in Boulder is expensive, but for some reason Kasa’s sushi and sashimi run a few bucks more per item than other places on the tour. Add to that the fact that their selection isn’t as extensive as any of the other sushi bars (they were out of toro today). Jeremy noted that they must pay an arm and a leg for their rent. Perhaps, but Tora is also on Pearl Street, their chefs are the real deal, and their selection is unsurpassed.

I like Kasa. I mean, I didn’t even need my tripod to shoot because it’s so well lit! We both loved what we ate for dinner, but considering the financial damage I would rather walk the extra 5 blocks to Sushi Tora.

New rankings:
1) Sushi Tora
2) Amu Sake Bar and Restaurant
3) Ai Sushi and Steak
4) Kasa Sushi

Anyhoo, that’s another sushi bar under our belt. After getting home and feeding the pup her dry kibbles (oh shut up, she LOVES that stuff, she loves *anything* - she’s a lab for crying out loud), we went to survey the state of our local columbines. Ramping up and looking good. These are for you, Diane! See the rest on the photoblog.

blue columbines - the colorado state flower

I was going to poll you guys about what lens I should get next, but then I started researching online and basically found the lens that *I need to have* and ordered it just now. And I thought Kasa was expensive… We’ll see what kind of pretty I can wrangle with the new glass once it gets here.

It was too hot to eat dinner while the sun was still up this evening. Wait a sec… *we* felt it was too hot to eat dinner while the sun was still up this evening. We didn’t sit down to our meal until 9 pm and it was still light out (love that, actually). While I waited for the house to cool down a little, I stepped out onto the deck to admire the skies to the west and enjoy the cooling mountain air. I love clouds because they can form some incredible patterns, but I especially love clouds at sunset because the light can play some beautiful colors.

like a magic show

it almost looks organic

3000 feet lower in Boulder, the daytime temperatures are standing solidly in the 80s (F) and flirting with the 90s (F). What better timing then to continue our sushi tour? On Wednesday, we dined at Amu for dinner. Amu is situated next to and operated by Sushi Zanmai. Zanmai is a darling of Boulder and probably one of the venerated favorites. My experiences at Zanmai have always left me feeling that 1) I spent a lot of money 2) I got mediocre sushi for the price 3) the service suuuuuucks and 4) every damn YUH (Young Urban Hipster) and aging hippie flocks to the place making the wait all the more annoying considering what you get at the end of it all. However, my chemo nurse assured me that Amu was different and very good.

the sign is easily missed

The interior of the restaurant is small and narrow. There was a table for 6, ten seats at the bar, and maybe a private room or two in the back. We were asked to remove our shoes before sitting at the bar.

enter the bar through a giant noren

seats soon to be filled

For those in search of California rolls or the generic assortment of sushi - that dog don’t hunt. Not here anyway. This bar serves traditional Japanese fare and the menu has specials from the kitchen and sashimi from the bar. No sushi. If you want sushi, go next door and suffer the crappy wait staff at Zanmai (yeah, I really detest those blokes).

to start

Our little dish of complimentary starter was a delightful cold “salad” of broccoli in a miso dressing with some kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) and what Jin tells me is konnyaku (part of the voodoo lily family - thanks, Jin!). I decided on an order of marinated seaweed because I thought I was ordering a seaweed salad.

mozuku

That wasn’t quite the salad I was expecting. In fact, it was nothing like what I was expecting. However, mixed with the minced ginger, it was a tangy and savory almost noodle-like dish. I was lukewarm about it. Jeremy was not loving this one at all (the man frightens easily when it comes to certain foods), so I finished it. I mean, seaweed is supposed to be good for your hair… that is what Grandma tells me. It’s about time my hair started to grow back, yeah?

sashimi assortment

Enough screwing around though… it was time to get down to business, and that business would be gorgeous, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth sashimi. Why fill up on rice when you can enjoy protein in its loveliest form? If sashimi were a man, it would be a metrosexual because it is so pretty - and I would date the hell out of him. Oh yes… I would… All of the sashimi (sake, maguro, bonito, hamachi, tako) was fresh and tasted like a rich kiss in the mouth. Excellent quality.

binnaga tataki

Next up: the seared albacore tuna. This delicate fish was dressed in a citrusy ponzu under a mound of shiso chiffonade, green onions, fennel, and garlic. The combination of vegetation was terrific and had a wonderful perfume (the shiso is so refreshing), but overpowered the subtle flavor of the albacore somewhat. I enjoyed the plate, although Jeremy was suspiciously generous about letting me finish it off.

halibut sashimi special

I watched with fascination while our sushi chef, Yuki, prepared a long fillet of halibut. That’s right, folks - we had a female sushi chef. My first ever! And she was AWESOME. Yuki trained in Japan for 5 years and in Boulder for 13 years. Although she doesn’t tele, she does ride at Vail, her resort of choice. *Sweet* Because if you live in a state blessed with powder, what the hell are you doing if you aren’t skiing or riding?

Okay, back to the halibut. The sashimi was served with ponzu for dipping. It was fresh with a good, firm texture. Yuki also advised that we dip the little omelette rolls in soy sauce. Those little omelette rolls were amazing. She wrapped a thin egg sheet around slices of halibut with shiso and thinly sliced cucumber. The combination of the flavors and textures was *brilliant*.

ahhhhh, hamachi

We ended the meal with a final order of hamachi sashimi. The hamachi was sublime and the pieces substantial. Our server asked if we wanted to order any dessert and I informed her that hamachi is essentially dessert to us. The service at Amu was the best of the sushi tour thus far. It’s a little hard to compare with the others because it is so much more authentic (Japanese) and the style of the food is quite different. We certainly felt Amu was a good experience and it comes close to dethroning Tora, but… Sushi Tora is still #1 for us, by a hair. What we are discovering is that Boulder - in the middle of a landlocked state and over 1000 miles from the nearest coast - has a lot of great sushi to offer.

1) Sushi Tora
2) Amu Sake Bar and Restaurant
3) Ai Sushi and Steak

I’m just so thrilled to be eating sushi again, and sushi this good. Yip!