Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

The Sushi takeaway on Totteridge Lane has opened in the past week or so after threatening for close on a year. Tonight being games night, we traditionally order in. The two concepts rather melded, though I would rather have had a curry from the trusty and long-established Bayleaf myself.

I have never had sushi before. Never fancied it. The thought of small portions of wet, raw fish sitting on ornate pedestals of rice never appealed. It did appeal to the other three, though (colonel_maxim rarely orders in these days unless it is Chinee, so the other three, not the other four), so I went along with it. Nicely presented, I'll grant. Rather expensive, too, for the size of the portions and that odd seaweed paper that is inedible yet an integral part of the meal is just too odd. I never did work out which was the catsoup, or whatever it is.

I was gratified to find out that some of the stuff actually is cooked, so I had a chicken thing. Hmm. It was OK, but Indian and Thai cuisine goes for better curry. I had a strange duck wrap, too. The Chinese do better duck.

I was left with a strange understanding of why the Japanese hanker after whale steaks if this is the stuff they eat generally. It also opened a window on why they might want to invade China, Manchuria, Thailand or indeed anywhere in the Western Pacific or Eastern Asia rim with a distinct and toothsome cuisine. We should not forget that apart from stealing and adapting western technology and then undercutting us, the highest expressions of Japanese culture are fancy lacquer boxes, wood and paper (!) houses, shoes with stilts on (for when it rains - galoshes are too clever for them), dysfunctional and disturbing "erotic" cartoon art with altogether too many tentacles in places that shouldn't know what a tentacle is, and exceptionally sharp swords which can take your head off as soon as look at you. If you stop and think about it, that is a dark and disturbing mix. It shows in their cooking, too.

I shall make do with a cheese sarnie and a mug of coffee next time sushi is order of the day; it is odd food begot of an odd people with odder ideas and as a plain-spoken man from the English West Midlands I want naught of it.