Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Jessica Biel of Sushi


Friday is a favorite night around the McBrown house. Friday is SUSHI NIGHT. Our little mini-tradition dates back to The Surge when I could not bear to cook another boneless skinless chicken breast the size of a pack of cards and longed to go to a restaurant like a normal person. If we went to a normal restaurant, I would run the risk of capitulating to the terrorists/calories, so sushi was the answer.


LA is, of course, saturated by sushi. We have 3 local favorites: Shintaro, Sushi Ike, and Katsu-ya. Shintaro is at the base of our hill in a very unlovely strip mall - good sushi, and excellent fusion appetizers. Sushi Ike is really old school sushi (no crazy rolls) in a really grim strip mall off Hollywood Blvd. Katsu-ya has 3 outposts - one new fancy trendy one in Hollywood, one old fancy trendy one in Brentwood, and one not fancy or trendy at all (yep, in a strip mall) in Studio City. We go to the unfancy one. Terrific sushi and they clearly put some sort of highly-addictive psychotropic drug in the spicy rock shrimp tempura because once I start, I. Must. Keep. Consuming. Spicy. Rock. Shrimp. Tempura.


They are all mildly amusing in their way. If Katsu-ya was an actress, she'd be Marilu Henner - someone who was cool once, and is very well-preserved, but kind of faded. The Katsu-ya in Brentwood would be Cameron Diaz and Hollywood would be Jessica Biel (or maybe someone a little more a-list.). My beloved Shintaro, with all its hipster Asian hottie waitresses and strip mall ambience is sort of Ellen Page-y. Sushi Ike is a little more challenging - like Adam Goldberg - who I actually saw there once. Jeez I'm bored today. I could do this for hours.

No comments: