Some people come into the restaurant and automatically cringe at the sushi menu. They envision globs of slimy, raw fish with a bit of rise. This is so far from the real truth about what sushi really is. First of all, the definition of sushi is "Cold cooked rice dressed with vinegar that is shaped into bite-sized pieces and topped with raw or cooked fish, or formed into a roll with fish, egg, or vegetables and wrapped in seaweed." Thus, it can be anything other than raw fish.

If you go to a restaurant that serves sushi, you will see different items offered. Generally, items such as shrimp, smoked salmon, eel, octopus, and crab meat are cooked. There are also some non meat items frequently offered such as sweet potato, avocado, cucumber, mango, tofu, and tamago (an egg omelet). If you are looking for raw items, look for items such as tuna, salmon, scallops, giant clams, squid, yellowtail, striped bass, macarel, fluke, sea urchin, fatty tuna, tuna belly, white tuna, flying fish roe, and salmon roe.

Now for the menu. You will see the sushi menu divided into different section. One section is the items offered as sushi or sashimi. Sushi, or often called nigiri, is nothing more than the listed item served offer a bit of sushi rice. Sashimi is just the listed item with no rice. Sushi comes in two pieces while sashimi comes in three pieces and generally costs a bit more. Another section is called makimono. This is all rolled sushi. The chef takes a piece of nori (which is seaweed), places a layer of sushi rice down on top of it, arranges various items in the middle, rolls it into a log, and cuts the log into pieces, ranging from 5 to 8 pieces. Now if the idea of seaweed makes you gag, many places can accommodate you and have it rolled using a soy wrapper. Makimono has it's usual favorites such as the famous California maki (crabstick, avocado, and cucumber), spicy tuna maki (tuna with spicy mayo and tempura crumbs), and crazy maki (shrimp tempura, cucumber, flying fish roe with spicy mayo). Many restaurants carry their own specialty makimono rolls. These are created by the sushi chefs to display their talents and creative sides. At our restaurant, the most popular rolls include the Red Sox maki (salmon, scallions, flying fish roe, cream cheese, deep fried in a light batter, rolled with tuna, topped with a special house sauce) and the Snow Mountain maki (sweet potato tempura, rolled and topped with a crabmeat/tobiko/special mayo combination).

There are also sushi appetizers availble. Many of them include edamame (steamed soy beans), seaweed salad, avocado salad, shrimp tempura, and tuna tataki.