Fish Heads In My Sack Lunch

A few weeks ago, my 6-year-old told me she didn't want to take onigiri in her sack lunch for her field trip.  I suspected that this day would come, but I had to ask just the same.

"Why don't you want to take onigiri?"

"Just 'cuz." I could tell she didn't want to tell me something. Upon further pressing, it became clear that she really wanted Uncrustables for her sack lunch. Being the lazy mama that I am, I was pretty easily persuaded that this was the way to go. If you don't know, Uncrustables are frozen, pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts removed. You throw one in your kid's lunch in the morning, and by lunch time, it is thawed and ready to eat.

I have to admit, as much as I should have against this processed food product, they're pretty darn good. And convenient.

This exchange reminded me of my own homemade lunches my mom would pack when I attended school in the U.S. It was always a demoralizing experience for me. My mom never packed PB&Js. Never. Nope. I got the pleasure of opening up my lunch to onigiri, dried whole fish, and seaweed. Also some type of vegetable or fruit. But that wasn't the problem. It was the onigiri, dried whole fish, and seaweed. The moment I opened my lunch, my mortification would begin.

"Ewww. What stinks?"

"Ewww. What IS that?"

"Ewww." "Ewww." "Ewww."

Now, some 20 or, er, 30 years after the fact, here is the answer to your questions. Here is onigiri:

Onigiri is a ball of rice, seasoned one way or another, often filled with something, and often wrapped in dried laver/dried seaweed. In my case, my mom seasoned the onigiri with salt, and either filled it with roasted fish or umeboshi. (Umeboshi is a salt-preserved plum-type fruit.) It was always wrapped generously with dried seaweed, and always shaped liked his photo--a triangle. I loved them and I still do, but I hated finding these little treasures in my lunch just for the attention it attracted.

Dried fish. My mom, despite the fact that we lived in Northern Utah, and Japanese food items were scarce, somehow always had a plentiful supply of these little guys. They are called niboshi, and are usually used to make soup stock, but my mom was truly a non-cook, so she gave them to us as highly nutrition snacks.

They are slightly bitter, slightly salty, somewhat fishy, and I liked these just fine as a kid, but hated finding them in my lunch.

Despite my feelings about these Japanese lunches, my mom never stopped making them, and I always dreaded opening my lunch with my friends. I later found out that my friends actually looked forward to seeing what was in my lunch because they were so interesting. In hindsight, I think I should have shared some of what was in there, but I was too embarrassed to bring too much out into the open.

Years later, when I would come home to visit, my mom would often send me off with a sack lunch of onigiri, dried fish, seaweed, and veggies and fruit when it was time for me to leave. I loved these and, as an adult, I was always happy to show off the goods. After I married, my husband also grew to look forward to these onigiri lunches we would take with us when we left her home.

I wonder now if my kids will also feel some embarrassment at some point about having a different lunch from everyone else's. I also wonder, however, given that we live in a much more global community, if they will fit right in. Well, either way, I'm happy to make onigiri, but absolutely not above throwing an Uncrustable into a sack and calling it lunch.

Dinner and a Sushi Movie

We had reason to celebrate, and there was a movie Jake was interested in, so we indulged. Jiro Dreams of Sushi was in town. If you like food, and you particularly like seafood, I highly recommend it. It's a documentary about an 85-year old man whose tiny sushi shop in Tokyo has three Michelin stars. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie left us craving sushi, of course, so we opted for Sushi Den.

We had eaten here before, and as you can see, it is on my list of recommended places to eat in this town. While I always thought that this is definitely a cut above most other sushi joints in Denver, I never was super-super impressed. I always felt the menu looked a lot like every other sushi place in town. However, I know that the fish at Sushi Den is as fresh as it gets here, so that's why we chose it tonight.

So, here is what I learned tonight. When going to Sushi Den, definitely, absolutely order off of the Today's Special menu. In fact, you can't go wrong if you order exclusively off of it. Not too long ago, Jake and I overheard an obnoxious conversation in which the guy stated that one should never order the daily special because that's where they get rid of the stuff that's going to go bad. Not so in this case.

The Special menu at Sushi Den is full of fresh, seasonal, and unique items. We were seated at the sushi bar, where we were served by a nice, young, yet knowledgeable chef. We decided to order a handful of sushi items off of the special menu, a few of our regular favorites off of the regular menu, and sample one of the several ramens offered on the special menu. We had seared scallops, smoked monkfish liver (ankimo), oysters on the half-shell, seared mackerel, uni (sea urchin), and yellowtail. Our favorites, by far were the scallops and the ankimo. The ramen was filling and delicious--I had a basic miso ramen, while Jake had a luxurious and generous lobster wonton ramen. The chef informed us that the broth for the lobster ramen was made completely from fish stock--no pork, chicken, or other kind of stock. It was very, very good.

Later, we realized that we hadn't ordered any of the standard sushi fare, such as tuna. In fact, most of what we had were foods that were newer to our palates. In particular, ankimo and uni are seafoods that we only recently discovered were delicious. That discovery has led us to try things that we would have never considered putting in our mouths a decade ago. During dinner, as I watched the many California rolls and other creative combination rolls leave the sushi bar, I felt bad for those people who were missing out on the stuff we were eating.

Tonight, I was super-super impressed. All because we ordered almost exclusively off the Today's Special menu.

So here's my message today:

1. Order off of the Today's Special menu when you are at a top-notch place like Sushi Den.
2. Be adventurous. Order the weird stuff. You'll be surprised--whoever decided monkfish liver was food was a friggin' genius!
3. Call me if you need a double date for sushi night.