Of Birthdays & Sushi Bars

Himself wanted sushi for his birthday dinner, so we headed to our fav neighborhood sushi restaurant, Kuru Kuru (which charmingly can mean, among other things, “crazy crazy” in Japanese).

"birthday sushi"

We sat at the bar next to a good-sized party of birthday revelers that stretched almost the entire length of the bar and around its side. Himself ended up seated next to the Other Birthday Boy (OBB). The two of them shared bites of sushi and sips of sake and talked about their shared birthday (too close to Christmas, etc.), both sitting more or less under the same black helium-filled mylar balloon that bore some sentiment about being over the hill.

We started with what OBB was having. Chef whipped it up for him on the spot (I love it when they do that!) and called it “birthday sushi.” It was excellent, a melange of tiny cubes of salmon, halibut and tuna, mixed with a couple of types of julienned seaweed and tossed with a sweet-sour-salty dressing. This roll is going to need a proper name, because it’s certain to become a standard on the menu. Excellent stuff!

Himself and OBB oohed and aahed over the lavish serving of uni that OBB’s party ordered. We later discovered when we tried to order some that every time this group comes in, they order ALL the uni in the house, so there was no uni for us this night. We asked Chef to bring us something he knew we’d like, and he did, some fine red snapper sashimi that had just arrived from Japan. It was rich, yet delicate in texture and taste.

Fresh-off-the-plane red snapper, the best I've ever had.

After much hand shaking, well wishing and backslapping, OBB’s party cleared out, and a pair of guys came in from a couple of doors down and took their place next to us. The one seated by Himself was a serious aficionado of the outrageously hot. He ordered and quickly consumed things that made our eyes water even more than his did, and we were mere spectators in his blitz of pepper-laden raw fish.

Tuna with heat, heat and more heat.

Chef mixed a bowl of minced tuna sashimi with a generous squirt of sriracha sauce and fashioned a handroll with rice, the tuna mixture, fresh serrano and jalapeno peppers and cucumber. While Himself and I typically dissolve a small dollop of wasabi in a dish of soy sauce for dipping, this guy prepared a paste made of a lot of wasabi in just a touch of soy sauce. He dredged that fiery roll through the paste and ate it in just two rapid, tonsil-incinerating bites. The chefs flinched. Then he ordered another and ate it in the same manner. The chefs flinched again! But he never stopped smiling, even when his face turned beet red and the sweat began to pour. It was quite extraordinary thing to witness.

Chef offered Himself a sample of the hot tuna mixture. He said, sure, why not?! He handled it in good stead, and the chefs were impressed that he ate it and enjoyed it. He said the flavor came on the front of the bite and the heat, at the finish. While it was incredibly hot, it wasn’t so much as to obliterate the flavors. In fact, he said he might try it again sometime.

Tempura-fried ice cream

At the end of the meal, a special birthday dessert arrived courtesy of the house, tempura-fried green tea ice cream. It was just enough for the two of us and the perfect finish to a festive evening of unplanned socializing.

With the bill paid and our farewells said, we strolled back to the car and agreed–as we do every time we go there–that we love the impromptu party that always seems to happen when we visit. That’s the great thing about sitting at the bar when you go out for sushi. You end up chatting with people you’ve never met and sometimes sharing food with them as well. Tables segregate. But the bar brings people together.