ESPN Zone - restaurant review

We've been going to Downtown Disney in Anaheim since it opened in 2001, but I've never actually eaten at the ESPN Zone. When the place first opened, some of us went in and looked around at the games and such, and I'd heard from friends that they had a decent breakfast, but I just never got around to going. I've tried going for dinner a couple times, but the wait was usually really long, longer than we had time for, so I still hadn't gone. On a recent Friday night, we decided to give it a try, and with the 30 minute wait time and plenty of time before the movie we were seeing that night, we decided to stick it out. The husband was given a pager, and we wandered around for a bit. The little stadium set by the front entrance was kind of cool, and at first, I thought it was a game, but it just really seemed like a display, with some of the little football players twirling around. We then headed upstairs, and I was surprised that they had air hockey tables up there. I didn't remember them from before, but then, it had been years since I'd been up there. Air hockey tables seem difficult to come by now, so it's good to know there are some readily available - when I'm in the mood to be in more pain because playing air hockey tends to do that to me for a variety of reasons. We watched some people ski and shoot baskets and row and kayak and such, and we watched this one machine that was a simulated roller coaster ride. As we looked down at the line at the reception desk (usually, when they're busy, they have a podium set up outside the front doors, but for some reason, they didn't have one tonight, so everyone had to go inside to get a pager), we noticed that a lot more people were in line now, so we decided we'd had good timing in coming a little bit before that big crowd.

Our table was ready earlier than we'd been told, so we went back downstairs and were taken into the dining room. I'd seen bits and pieces of the sports show after Monday Night Football, which is broadcast from that room, so it was interesting to see the room itself. We were given menus and our drink orders taken.

There was a good variety to choose from on the menu, so I had to look for a bit to decide what I wanted. I'd remembered really liking the baby back ribs when we'd gone to Taste the year before, so I finally decided on the BBQ Ribs (half rack) and Chicken (chicken breast), which came with french fries. Both the ribs and the chicken were quite tasty. I'm not a fan of barbeque sauce that's too sweet or having too much barbeque sauce on the meat, and the flavor and amount of the sauce was just to my liking. The meat on the ribs was very tender and came easily off the bone. The chicken was very good too, though it's a pretty big serving all together, so I ended up leaving about half the chicken breast.

The husband had the grilled salmon with green beans and mashed potatoes. He thought it was just ok, nothing special. The friend who was with us had the Smoke House Burger, which came with bacon, white cheddar cheese and onion straws. She enjoyed the burger and thought it tasted very good, but she found that because the bacon was thick cut, it got a little tough because it took her a while to finish the burger.

Our server was nice, but there were times when she would disappear for a while, and we found the service to be generally slow, whether just because of the server or because of the kitchen itself. Annual passholders at Disneyland get a 10% discount, so our friend was the one who fished her AP out to give to the server - who disappeared with it for a while. When she finally came back with the check, she didn't have the AP with her and made some comment about needing to go back and get it. She disappeared for a little while longer before coming back with it, with some comment about dropping it or having to find it or something. If the service that night was indicative of how it normally is, it's definitely not a place to grab a quick bite. As I mentioned, it ended up being ok because we had time to kill, but killing it while sitting at the table just waiting for her to come back wasn't how we had planned to occupy our free time.

As we were getting ready to leave, the friend made some comment about the televisions in the bathroom, and I just stared at her, and she asked if I'd been there, which I hadn't, so needing a bathroom break anyway, we trecked over. We went to the one by the bar area, though there is apparently a larger restroom elsewhere. That restroom had three stalls - and when you went inside, a television monitor hung from the ceiling in front of each stall. The friend commented that they had the TVs so you wouldn't miss a minute of your game/show, but I commented that all three screens were on the same game, whereas there were multiple games on different televisions in the dining room, so if you had been watching one of the other games, you're still screwed. I joked that they should have a different game on in each stall so you could pick which stall you wanted. I was also surprised that there weren't televisions in the open area/sink area itself. If there was a line for a stall, you were still missing out on the games. She wasn't sure if there were televisions outside the stalls in the bigger bathroom.

There are a few things on the menu which look interesting, so I'd be willing to give the place another try, but if the service is as slow next time, it may be my last.

Do you write with an accent?

A friend who's been making a lot of overseas trips for work sent this picture around, which he has given me permission to post here.




His comments:

Apparently, Singapore Airlines still hasn't bought any Flux Capacitors. No flights to the future or to the Old West. ... I should state that they did finally change the sign. I didn't take a picture, but as I was boarding it did say, "Have a plesent{sic} flight".

Thanks, Matt!

"The Dark Knight" - spoiler movie review

This is definitely not your parents' Batman.

The husband and I had planned to see "The Dark Knight" opening weekend, either on Saturday or Sunday. Because of a friend's suggestion, we ended up deciding Thursday afternoon that we'd go to a midnight screening that night. It had already been a long day (started at 5am that morning), and even though I'd had about a 10 minute nap at 10:30pm, I was still very tired. But staying awake during the course of this movie was no problem at all because it was riveting.

I found this movie to be absolutely amazing. It also had a lot of twists and turns that I found myself having to make my way through. There were terrific performances by Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhall and, of course, Christian Bale, but the spotlight appropriately shown brightest on Heath Ledger. He was definitely a far cry from Cesar Romero's Joker of the television series, but even as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker had become, Ledger's performance blows him away. The television series was obviously done with camp, and even though the more recent movie series was done more as a regular drama, the new incarnation with Christian Bale is different yet, as we saw in "Batman Begins". But nothing, nothing in the live-action film or television versions of the Batman story comes close to preparing you for the depth and darkness portrayed in "The Dark Knight". This is not the menace and danger of a terminator or Darth Vader or Borg or a cylon. As much as I love the fantastical, the terror in this film comes from an ordinary human being - insane and psychopathic enough to be able to inflict death and the worse harm and pain to another human, but what makes him even more lethal is that he's not insane enough to have lost control. Instead, he still has complete presence of mind to plan and pull off his deadly and horrific schemes.

Heath Ledger does an amazing job with this character, giving him physical ticks and mannerisms, and playing him generally very understated, which to me is more powerful than playing him over the top. It could be attributed to the fact that I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else, but I never for a minute saw anyone but Joker onscreen, whereas I never forgot that the other Joker was being played by Jack Nicholson. Ledger's calm delivery of so much of his performance leaves you feeling the underlying menace he exudes.

I think what really worked for me wasn't just that Ledger turned in a terrific performance, but that he and Bale's Batman were great foils for each other. One of my complaints about the 1989 film has always been that while the film was called "Batman", the only interesting character in the movie was the Joker, and Batman was completely uninteresting compared to him. Nicholson wiped the screen with Michael Keaton. In this film, Bale also turns in a memorable performance, and to me, watching Joker and Batman do their dancet with each other was like watching Clarice and Hannibal in "The Silence of the Lambs". Joker was toying with Batman every bit as much as Hannibal was toying with Clarice, and both Joker and Hannibal have a controlled insanity that really just strips them of any empathy or moral compass while leaving them with their full faculties to indulge their whims with no remorse. This film would have been much weaker had Christian Bale not also been up to the task.

I hadn't really been paying attention, so I was a bit surprised when I discovered that the film was rated PG-13. Looking back at the film, there wasn't a lot of graphic violence - most of it was implied. Sure, there was a lot of action and chases and things being blown up, but that's all par for the course. I don't tend to swear much during films, but it's been a long time since I was swearing this much during the course of the film, either because of plot developments themselves or unexpected actions. No, that's not how I even vaguely thought he'd make the pencil disappear, and no, I wasn't expecting the dead faux Batman to thump against the window. But to me, the most adult aspect of this film is Joker's motive. As explained by Alfred, he's not really driven by a particular desire like revenge or greed or something like that. He just wants to create anarchy for the sake of having anarchy. It's easier to explain someone's bad actions because they were power hungry, or money hungry, or just plain greedy, or desperate, or angry, or out for revenge. But how do you explain someone who hurts people just for fun, just because they can, just to see what it's like?

I also like how Batman is being drawn, similar to how many "superhero" types are being drawn now and quite unlike what it used to be. Superhero movies before just focussed on the superheroes' good deeds, and you only really saw them when they were "at work". But what about when they're not? What about their off hours? They had no identity, no existence, other than as superheroes. That's not as true now. There are aspects of the burden of always saving the world in both the X-Men movies as well as the Fantastic Four movies, and you definitely get that in the current Spiderman movie series as well as the Batman movie series, and you even get that in the current Superman television series "Smallville" as well as the now-off-the-air television series "Buffy and the Vampire Slayer". These are not protectors who have no life outside of their superhero-ness. Instead, they do pay a price for the benefit they provide people. They must sacrifice some part of themselves - time, friends, lovers - in order to save the world because they have to be careful who they trust if their extraordinary abilities need to be kept secret, and they have to be careful about who they get close to because they're potentially putting these loved ones in the line of fire. They have the same problems and concerns and fears and insecurities as everyone else, but they also have to routinely put those aside to save the world from yet another apocalypse.

Bruce Wayne in this film is the reluctant hero, who must battle not just the bad guys but also ordinary people who are impersonating him, who don't understand what it takes to be him, that it's not just a suit, and ultimately, these copycats make it worse for him. He also has to be separated from the one that he loves, and except for a few confidantes, he must maintain the dual identity. I loved watching his struggle and then watching him come out the other side, ready and able to do and take what he needs to in order to protect Gotham. They couldn't let the Joker win by being seen as succesfully tearing down the idealist Harvey Dent, so instead, Batman agrees to become the outlaw.

There's going to be a lot of attention focused on Heath Ledger, both because of his powerhouse performance and because of his tragic death, but by no means should any of the other performances be overlooked. The movie works as well as it does because it's a great ensemble effort - each one adding a layer and texture to the work as a whole.

Unfortunately for the franchise, I'm not sure they can ever recast Joker. He's a great, complicated character - but I would think it would be impossible for another actor to step in. Oh, sure, they've re-done Batman with multiple different actors, and they even got someone new to play Rachel this time around. But Rachel in "Batman Begins" doesn't make anywhere near the impact that Joker does in this film. I don't think you could have another actor reinterpret the character at this point and have that be accepted. But I'm also not sure you can find an actor who would basically be willing to try to imitate Ledger in another film.

Would I recommend this movie? Yes, with precautions. Some people can't handle films that are this dark, films that delve this deeply into the human psyche, one that is twisted and warped. Those people should definitely not see this movie. But if that's not a concern, then this is definitely a movie not to be missed. And with the ending of this film, I'm excited to see what else will be in store. I'm still going to nominate Anne Hathaway as Catwoman - I think she would be terrific.

Silent Library

I was left an anonymous comment on a previous blog entry about crazy Japanese game shows in which I was directed to look up "silent library" on YouTube. Actually, I was told to "youtube 'silent library'", but even though I seriously object to the use of youtube as a verb (Yeah, I know, I did that with twitter, but that's different.), I actually did as was suggested, and I happened upon a treasure trove of videos.

It does not appear that these are actual television shows, though maybe that's where it originated, and these are just how the phenomenon has propagated. The point is that people get together in a place like a library, where you're supposed to be quiet, and they do things that are wacky in and of themselves, but in addition, they have to not react vocally because of the environment, so no yelling, screaming, laughing. You'll notice that a lot of them often have their hands over their mouths to stifle their sounds.

This is the one I've found to be the best so far.



As you can tell, they weren't so much all that quiet. I love the slapping machine one. Who comes up with that sort of idea, and how do you "smuggle" that sort of contraption into a library? Everything else is small ticket items you can hide in a backpack.


Here's one that was done at UCR, which I'm assuming is U.C. Riverside. They use a hidden camera, and there's one part where some kind of patrol is in the room, so they just sit there doing nothing, but it's worth waiting it out.




Here's one done in the Netherlands.




Here's one done in Ontario, Canada, which is really good.




Here's one done in Reno.




I would totally be into doing a silent library as long as I was willing to be subjected to all of the possible punishments. Some of those are things I would definitely never agree to. But I have a feeling I might lose and get kicked out pretty quickly. Suppressing uncontrollable laughter is not my forte.

"I Survived a Japanese Game Show" - July 15, 2008 episode

Picking up at the end of last week's episode, Meaghan was happy that she won the elimination competition, but she was still mad that Donnell wanted to go back on his word about her immunity.

At the beginning of the new day, mama-san arrived and told them she was going to teach them some useful Japanese phrases, including "How much is that" and "I'm sorry", the latter of which she taught to Cathy because Cathy was late so often. This was actually a nice intercultural learning moment that didn't focus on the "stupid Americans", so I liked it.

The team competition this week had all the team members on both sides dressed up as big babies, complete with bib, diaper and bonnet. Three team members would be put inside a crib with a sort of lazy Susan in the middle that would spin them. After a certain amount of time, the spinning would stop, and the first team member had to get out (dizzy from the spinning, most likely), fill two cups of milk and then make their way through a difficult obstacle course, pouring whatever they might have left in their cups into their team baby bottle. The first person to go would have had to spin for the shortest amount of time, and the longer each team member took, the longer each subsequent team member would be spinning before attempting the obstacle course with the milk, so the third person to go could be spinning for some time before their first chance to try the course. The team with the most milk at the end of the competition was the winner.

The Yellow Baby Penguins went first, and since they had an extra member, Bilenda sat this one out. When the spinning stopped, Cathy went first, but she fell almost immediately after filling her cups, spilling all of the contents. However, even though she had no milk left, she had to finish the course, after which she ran back to the crib to hit the stop button. The next person climbed out, and she climbed in, and the spinning resumed. The next person was Andrew, who did ok, with almost half a cup in each cup. Next up was Justin, who did the best of the bunch, finishing with both cups more than half full. When Justin was coming back, Andrew asked Cathy if he could go again, which she readily agreed to, considering how awful she'd done and how worried she was for herself if her team lost. Andrew had about half a cup in each cup on his second try, but he didn't make it to the baby bottle before time expired, so that milk didn't count.

The Green Baby Monkeys were then up, and their strategy was to keep their eyes closed as they were spinning, hoping it would help ward off the dizziness. Donnell went first, but he was wobbly from the start and very soon spilled all of his milk. Meaghan made her way through and ended up with about a half cup of milk total. Mary was last to go and had been on the spinning crib the longest, but she did the best of both teams, spilling very little of her cups, and she alone had about 3/4 in each cup when she poured the milk into her team baby bottle. Donnell went up again, but again, he spilled all of his milk, and he finished his circuit and hit the stop button on the spinning crib just as time expired.

When they revealed the results, the Yellow Baby Penguins were the obvious winner, and their reward was to go to a Japanese village where the best soba noodles were made. The Green Baby Monkeys, who had just suffered their third defeat in a row, were already demoralized, but it only got worse when they were told that their punishment would be shucking clams. Because Meaghan had volunteered for the last elimination round with the stipulation that she was safe in the next one, everyone was discussing whether or not her immunity would be honored. Donnell tried to talk himself out of the elimination round by saying that he would be kicking off whomever went against him, and since Mary did so well, it wouldn't be fair for her to be kicked of, so Mary and Meaghan should go up against each other. Considering that he did the absolute worst among his teammates, I thought it was pretty bad that he tried to get out of the elimination round altogether. And considering that he had just completely sucked at a challenge, I don't know why it was assumed that he'd automatically beat whomever he might be up against when they had no idea what the competition would involve.

Andrew, Justin, Cathy and Bilenda were awakened the next morning and taken to the village where they were told soba noodles originated. A soba master made noodles right in front of them and then cooked and served the noodles to them, which they enjoyed.

Donnell, Meaghan and Mary had a much less pleasant day as they were taken to where women were already shucking clams. The first thing that hit both Meaghan and Mary was the stink of the place, and they struggled to get through it. Meaghan had a particularly hard time when she realized the clams were still alive.

As the elimination round drew closer, there was more pressure put on Mary. She was already up by the time mama-san had come to wake them for the clam shucking, trying to figure out what she was going to do. She knew that she had done the absolute best in the challenge, not just for her team but among all the contestants, and she didn't think she should be up for elimination, but she was also struggling with having given Meaghan her word about the immunity. Everyone, including members of the Yellow Penguins, was telling her what they would do and suggesting what she should do, and by the time the Green Monkeys took the stage, a decision had still not been made. When asked by the host, Mary finally chose herself and Donnell to compete in the elimination round, as she felt that keeping her word to Meaghan was more important.

For the elimination round, both Mary and Donnell were stripped to basically their underwear, and they wore chicken masks on their heads. They had to cover themselves up with oil, and then when the competition started, they each slid down into feathers and had to roll around in them until they were completely covered. They then had to break eggs (really, giant, egg-shaped balloons which when popped had something simulating egg yolk inside) only with their butts, basically sitting on ("hatching") the eggs. Mary was chosen to go first, and she started off doing really well and breaking eggs easily and quickly, but as time went on, the oil was making it slippery, so she was falling on the ground as well as slipping off the eggs rather than breaking them. She attributed her problems to the fact that her "booty" wasn't very big. She had also lost most of her feathers by this time, so that did make it even slipperier, but I'm also wondering if having the feathers didn't help her in popping the balloons as well. She ended up with a total of 10 hatched eggs. It was then Donnell's turn, and with his bulk and weight (and his bigger booty, said Mary), he had almost no difficulty breaking the eggs. He slipped and missed a few times, but he was able to break 11 eggs fairly quickly, and the game was over. In the end, Mary said she was sad to go, but she didn't regret her decision, and she took her elimination graciously.

Star Wars - Comic-Con and "The Force Unleashed"

Comic-Con is something I've obviously heard about, both from friends who have attended and because I'm involved in events and discussions where Comic-Con is often brought up. I've never actually been interested in attending, especially when I've heard how crazy and crowded it's gotten, but when I recently found out what would be happening on Star Wars Day this year on July 25, 2008, I actually considered making a last-minute day trip. Most interesting to me are the ILM and Hasbro seminars. ILM will be having a panel on the effects they did for "Crystal Skull", which I enjoyed, and it's been so long since I've seen ILM do a presentation. Multiple years ago, I was fortunate to be able to attend a number of presentations done by ILM, including one on the effects done on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "The Abyss", and I loved seeing all the steps in the process of getting the effects to the screen. My favorite seminar was when they had a presentation for their 20th anniversary, and included was an 8 minute segment that showed some of the highlights of the films they'd worked on, and it was mentioned that the segment was shown to employees, some of whom had been with the company from the beginning, so they saw 20 years of their lives flash by in 8 minutes. Hasbro will be having a presentation to talk about the toys they will be releasing in 2008 and 2009 in the Star Wars and Indy lines, and since we're big collectors in both those areas because we love their stuff, I'm excited to see what I'm going to be spending money on in the next year.

So I was unsure about whether I really wanted to take the day off and drive all the way down to San Diego and deal with wading through Comic-Con, but the decision ended up being made for me when I discovered that registration is already closed because the con is sold out. Oh, well, at least I don't have to make the decision for myself. I'm sure there will be multiple write-ups on the net about Hasbro's presentation, so I'll just have to remember to look for those in a week or so.


In other Star Wars matters, the new videogame "The Force Unleashed" will be available on September 16. This game has been in development for years, and we've been hearing about it and seeing footage from having attended seminars at WorldCon and Celebration IV the last couple years. The husband can't wait for this to come out, and it's pretty much the reason he wanted to get the PlayStation 3, though he has also enjoyed playing the Star Wars and Indy Lego games. I'm not really into the gaming as much, though I like watching it, so I expect I'll watch a bit when he plays, but I'm actually interested in the underlying story/plot, so I'm excited that the novelization is going to be released on August 19. I've been jokingly taunting the husband that I'll get to read the novel a whole month before he can play the game! :)

LucasArts has released an official trailer that shows the look of the game as well as the backstory. (In case the trailer doesn't show up correctly below, here's the direct link to it.)




To me, it actually looks like a trailer for an amazing new animated movie. I'm looking forward to reading the book and watching the husband play the game.

magical memories - Happy Birthday, Disneyland

On Disneyland's 53rd birthday, I find myself thinking back to the events of three years ago with the gala celebration of Disneyland's golden anniversary. Disneyland hosted an event called Celebrating 50 Years of Magical Memories, and we were lucky enough to be able to attend. It's been the only time we've stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel, and we spent five days at the resort, the most consecutive days we've been there, and yes, we were dorks and made sure that we were scanned into Disneyland on each of those five days.




It was a very busy five days, and the three days of the event itself all started early and ended late. But we had a fabulous time, with so many highlights: cooking seminar with Napa Rose Executive Chef Andrew Sutton; A Taste of the Disneyland Resort dinner; the live auction which was so much fun to watch; the beautifully set-up and very relaxing Lillian's Lunch in the Garden; and the wonderful Orange Grove Party which included the absolutely amazing "Magical Memories" show that I still can't believe they went through all that preparation for just a one-night show.

Through pure chance and good fortune, we also became acquainted with an artist who creates artwork for Disney for events, and we've managed to keep in touch with him over the past three years and to see him when he's in town for Disney-related matters.

The most magical memory of all, though, occurred on the morning (the *very early* morning, I might add) of July 17, 2005. Event guests were let into the park extra early, and I remember riding on the monorail, looking at the throngs of people, most of whom had waited overnight to be sure to get into Disneyland. But the biggest thrill of all was being able to have breakfast on the Mark Twain as the Twain made its way around the Rivers of America.




Breakfast was quite delicious in and of itself, but to be able to enjoy it sitting on the bottom deck at the front of the Twain as the Side Street Strutters played for us is a moment I will never forget.





Another advantage of being in the park that early was that event attendees were the first group to be able to purchase merchandise released that day, so it took a relatively short time as opposed to the hours that many people spent in line. And then when we made our way to Main Street, we watched as guests came streaming into the park, past the line of Cast Members who had lined Main Street to greet the guests with such enthusiasm. What an amazing sight to see that generated smiles all around.





I look forward to being able to experience Disneyland's 75th and 100th birthdays as well, but the 50th will always have a special place in my magical memories.

"Hellboy II - The Golden Army" - spoiler movie review

I think this may have been the first time I've seen a sequel without having seen the original. In most cases, if I didn't already see the original film, I'd usually end up renting it and watching it ahead of time, but in this case, I didn't get a chance to. The husband had seen "Hellboy" and liked it and was excited about the sequel. The trailer for "Hellboy II - The Golden Army" looked good, so I read the summary on themoviespoiler.com to get myself acquainted with the story in the first film in preparation.

Overall, I'd say I liked the movie, though I didn't love it. I wasn't as engaged with the characters as I would have liked to be.

I liked the animation at the beginning that told the backstory of the battle between the humans and the creatures and how a truce came to be. During the course of the movie, I found myself much more interested in the creatures than in the humans - Jeffrey Tambor did a decent job, but I just wasn't interested in his character. I appreciated all of the spiffy creatures and the cantina-like atmosphere, but I kinda wanted more substance rather than just show. The creature with all the eyes figured fairly prominently in the trailer, but it was only in a very small part of the movie.

The scene of the aftermath of the killing spree in the auction house was pretty gross, especially when they realize they're stepping on the left-overs of the eaten people. Ewwwww.

I was seriously not happy with the disguised troll who eats cats. At least the demons on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" only used kittens as ante. I did laugh when they were at the troll village and Hellboy encountered the creature with the "baby" - "I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor".

I wasn't thrilled with the prosthetic of Hellboy as a child - it looked very static and almost like a mask. I liked the look of the Golden Army, though for some reason, they reminded me a lot of Super Battle Droids.

And as Hellboy was fighting Prince Nuada (a great action sequence) with Abe's caution not to hurt him because whatever happened to Prince Nuada would also happen to Princess Nuala, it occurred to me that the easiest way to kill him was pretty much to kill Princess Nuala, so it was actually kind of cool that she ended up stabbing herself in the heart to stop Prince Nuada from further attacking Hellboy after Hellboy refused to kill him.

I think Ron Perlman did a decent job, but I never really felt connected to Hellboy. Maybe that was accomplished in the first movie so there wasn't a need to do that again in the sequel. Selma Blair was ok as Liz, but the standout for me was the character of Abe Sapien. His budding relationship with Princess Nuala made him much more memorable and fleshed-out as a character. The actress who played Princess Nuala and the actor who played Prince Nuada were both very good.

So while I don't regret having seen the movie and didn't think it was a waste of time or money, it's not something I'd be inclined to really recommend. The movie did have one lingering effect, so I'd really like Barry Manilow to stop singing to me. At least it can only last for a few more days at most, because after Friday night, I'm going to have lots of other songs ingrained in my head, songs I actually won't mind running through my head constantly.

Kushiyu - restaurant review

On Sunday night, the husband picked Kushiyu as the place where he wanted his birthday dinner. The husband had been introduced to Kushiyu by his boss, and the husband usually goes there with co-workers at least once a year. Kushiyu specializes in multiple varieties of sushi and kushiyaki, though they do have some other traditional Japanese items as well.

Kushiyu is a smallish restaurant in a strip mall in Tarzana on busy Ventura Boulevard - not where you'd necessarily expect to find great sushi, but I've come to not be surprised at what treasures you can find in unexpected strip malls. There's a parking lot out front as well as some underground/covered spaces as well.

We arrived shortly after 8pm, and the restaurant was very crowded, with people waiting for tables outside the restaurant. On our last visit, which was on a Saturday night, the restaurant wasn't nearly as crowded, so I was surprised at how busy it was. That had been in late August of last year, so maybe the mid-summer crowds are heavier. The bar was completely full, and it looked like the restaurant was as well, but luckily, there was a small two-person table available in the front corner, so we were seated immediately.

This was only my third visit, so since the husband was much more familiar with the restaurant, he did most of the ordering. They have one sheet of sushi items, one sheet of kushiyaki items, one sheet with the regular menu, and one sheet with the daily specials. Oh, and then there's the separate sheet of hot and cold sake. Yes, there's a lot of stuff to look at.

The husband initially ordered several items, and then we kept some of the menus in case we wanted to order more. One of the things I love about sushi places is that you can order a couple items at a time, so if you're still hungry, you can order more, and if you're full, you're not stuck with too much food, and you don't have to decide at the outset of the meal how much you might want to eat.

The first items brought to us were two items of kushiyaki - lotus root with chicken paste (which had two pieces on a skewer) and chilean sea bass (one long piece). The lotus root was quite tasty, but then, I'm a fan of lotus root. I like its crunchy texture - lotus root can sometimes be overcooked - and the seasoning on the chicken and what tasted like teriyaki sauce on top was delicious. The chilean sea bass was just heaven, moist and tender, melting in your mouth.

Next up was the halibut sashimi with yuzu sauce and caviar. I loved the spicy citrus flavoring on the light halibut.

Next was the salmon tower, which the husband likens to sushi nachos. I've had this every time I've been there, and it's definitely something he has every time he's there as well. Cubed salmon sashimi is mixed with chopped tomatoes in a sauce with masago on top, and it's all placed on a crispy fried won ton wrapper, with three of these stacked on top of each other. The mix of flavors is just really nice, and the crunch of the fried won ton adds a bit of interesting flair to the dish.

Next up was the only regular sushi we ordered, though "regular" is definitely not the way to describe yellowtail belly. It was very tender and buttery and moist. Yellowtail belly was one of the best things (right up there with spanish mackerel) that we were introduced to a few years ago. As I mentioned, while we did have a lot of other raw fish (which were technically on the appetizers list), this was the only regular presentation of sushi that we had. All the other dishes were on a plate with sauces and other things. One thing that I've come to notice about the distinguishing features of a good sushi restaurant is the quality of their rice. The rice that came with the yellowtail belly was soft and not too thick, a nice complement and accompaniment to the fish, but not enough to overwhelm it. I find that at lesser sushi restaurants, the rice can end up being a hard rectangular block, and it really detracts from the taste and texture of the fish.

Last of the dishes originally ordered was the salmon sashimi with diced vegetables, which included okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. I'm not sure what the sauce was on that, but it was really just amazing, and the coolness and texture of the finely chopped vegetables were a real complement to the salmon. The plated sashimi appetizers came with about 8 generous slices of fish, so there was plenty to share between the two of us.

At this point, we decided to order a couple more things. The husband ordered the spicy tuna on rice cakes, which came with four pieces, and I ended up having one of them. The little rectangular rice cakes were crunchy, but not hard, and it was a nice mixture with the spicy tuna on top.

I ordered a regular tofu and seaweed miso soup (they have a couple different varieties of miso soup), and it was a very generous serving, with the bowl filled to the top. Very tasty too. I also ordered the monkfish liver with tomatoes. I've been a fan of monkfish liver since being introduced to it by a friend, and I find it interesting the different ways that different restaurants serve it. It slightly changes the taste, and it definitely changes the presentation of the dish. Well, when they brought the monkfish, I was definitely impressed with how it looked. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but what I got sure surpassed that.




It was apparently impressive enough to catch other people's attention, as I heard a nearby table ask our server what the dish was after she'd dropped it off. The flavor and texture of the monkfish liver was very good, and the hearty tomato flavor was a nice addition, not to mention the ponzu-based sauce.

For dessert, we decided to split the mochi, getting one mango and one strawberry.


Because of how crowded the restaurant was, I was expecting a wait for our food, but our first dish arrived in a fairly short amount of time, and subsequent dishes arrived with good timing - not all at once, but we also weren't having to wait around for the next dish because we'd already finished the dish we had. Our server was running around the restaurant pretty much the whole time, and our glasses (the husband had water, I had water and green tea) were generally refilled promptly, and she was very helpful and pleasant, as were the rest of the staff. The freshness and flavor of the fish was outstanding, and the kushiyaki was very tasty. One of the dilemmas you'll find at Kushiyu is deciding what to have from the sushi menu, what to have from the appetizers menu and what to have from the kushiyaki menu, because you can't possibly have it all. I'd love to go back when I've prepared myself that I won't be having much sushi because I definitely want to try more of the kushiyaki. There was a duck breast on the specials menu that was quite tempting, but I was just too full to try it.

Given the amazing quality of the food and the terrific service, this is a restaurant I would highly recommend.




Kushiyu
18713 Ventura Boulevard
Tarzana, CA 91356
(818) 609-9050

What better way to celebrate the French than with Canadians?

In honor of Bastille Day, I thought I'd introduce Monique to those yet unfamiliar with her.

I was made aware of Monique many years ago. I was working for a lawyer at the time, and he kept referring to a "reluctant executive" sketch done by The Kids in the Hall, and he likened our relationship to theirs. He managed to capture the sketch on video one day and brought it in for me to watch. We showed that tape to many of our co-workers, who all enjoyed it as much as we did.

So, without further ado, meet Monique.




There are so many amazing moments in that sketch, and to think, it was during an episode in the first season of their show. I think my favorite line is "everyone is so flammable". I also love Monique's indignation when the assistant puts out the trashcan fire, not to mention when Monique is about to set fire to the second piece of paper handed to her, and the assistant uses the fire extinguisher and knocks the paper out of her hands.

In watching the clip again, I realized there's a continuity error, so there must have been more than one take. When Monique first comes into the room, she shuts the door behind her. When we cut back to her as she's setting his coat on fire, the door is wide open. Or maybe she has magical powers because she's from France.

Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé