The Girl Who Ate Everything

spider roll

Amy and I went to Izumi yesterday, where I took my first bite of a spider roll. I don't know why it's called a spider roll. DO YOU SEE SPIDERS? NOOO. THANK GOD. This had crab tempura, cucumber, avocado, and probably other stuff. Whatever the combination, it was heavenly. Oh. Man. I rarely eat freshly made sushi, usually getting it in the form of something that's been sitting in a supermarket cold case for a while allowing the sushi to solidify and gain a less than desirable texture, but few things compare to eating sushi that was made just a few minutes prior to shoving it into one's mouth.

Obviously, something must be done about this. MUST EAT MORE SUSHI! YAARH!

Yesterday, all I ATE was Japanese food. Skipping lunch because I wasn't hungry (and I didn't have enough time), my stomach was saved for Izumi. Besides the sushi, I also got a hijiki seaweed salad.

hijiki salad

Hijiki is probably my favorite seaweed. The first time I had it, I thought it tasted kind of ...meaty. No, it doesn't taste like chicken, but it tastes less seaweed-y than other seaweeds. It tastes good, trust me. I ate my entire bowl of hijiki, along with the shiso leaf and shredded turnip.

miso eggplant

Amy ordered miso eggplant for an appetizer. Holy ...crap? This thing is freakin' huge! I think she ate most of it and if not, it was because she was getting full. "I want to save room for ice cream." Ah, Amy, I like the way you think. But before the ice cream, she had to polish off her sushi platter.

tricolor sushi

And polish the tuna, yellowtail, and salmon, she did, save for one piece of salmon. So. Onto the ice cream!

red bean ice cream tempura

We both got ice cream tempura, although she ordered green tea. I've only had fried ice cream once before about ten years ago and it wasn't really tempura, so I'd consider this the first time I've had ice cream tempura.

Wow. I've been missing out on this my whole life? Ice cream by itself tastes pretty good (I don't usually eat it two nights in a row) but wrapped in a warm, soft, oily (not in a bad way) crust, the ice cream eating experience is escalated to a new height of something ...really good. (How was that for a disappointing revelation?) I ate the whole thing, of course. My only complaint is that they put the ice cream ball on a paper doily, which became mushed and ripped up in the ice cream eating process. I wouldn't be surprised if I ate some paper.

It's unlikely that Amy and I would ever go to Izumi again due to its location in Chelsea/Garment District (pass a bunch of gritty wholesale stores and out pops a Japanese restaurant) but we'd recommend trying it out if you're in the area. We went there at 5 PM and appeared to be the first dinner customers, but it filled up (and this place is tiny, mabye around 15 seats) over the next hour.

...man, I could really go for some sushi considering I made oatmeal with chopped apples for lunch and it wasn't very satisfying. :\

Oh, and an update on the burn I got last Wednesday: a scab didn't necessarily form, but the patch of skin that was burned is just a thin layer of skin, protecting the pink, embryonic skin developing underneath. How do I know this? I accidentally got a little scrape on my arm while doing laundry and a bit of the skin came RIGHT OFF. Washing it made the tiny bit of fresh skin sting. Thankfully, it developed a scab thing today. I should probably get a huge bandage to put on it.