Sushi

Well after spending 2 weeks in San Francisco and the South Bay area I know have to face up to the fact that sushi in Paris now seems second-rate. The fish is fresh but almost every resto offer the same fare, the same choice.

Last week I was munching on the Santa Cruzer (smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber), Ultra Bitchig (shiitake, avocado, cucumber, fake crab, topped with a slab of warm barbecue unagi and wrapped in BBQ eel) and the Rasta Roll (macadamia nuts and several kinds of seaweed).

This week in Paris, the most exotic maki on offer is a Californian roll. :-)

Has anyone been to a a good and varied sushi place where I won%26#39;t find the same ol%26#39; dishes as everywhere else?

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Many Japonese tend to stay at hotels near the 1st and 2nd arrondissemts. Also 8th. Several hotels cater to them.

A good area to look for sushi is the 2nd arrondissement.

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Thanks, but what I meant is that in 8 years I have yet to find a sushi place in Paris that offers something different than the hundreds of other sushi places.

Most vary on soups or rice dishes but not on the fish dishes.

Will I have to fly to the States to get another helping of %26quot;Mamahasu%26quot; -

(eggplant and zucchini cooked in a yellow miso sauce and shaped inside a five-pointed star made of zucchini that was garnished with edible, purple pansy petals.) !

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Lol, why would you care about sushi in Paris? Funny you mention this as I currently live in Japan and am soon headed to Paris with my Japanese girlfriend. When I casually mentioned that there are some Japanese restaurants in Paris, she flipped out. %26quot;Why would we go there and get bad Japanese food?%26quot; haha.

I have to admit, after seeing online what Paris had to offer, it all seemed pretty silly and tacky.

%26quot;topped with a slab of warm barbecue unagi and wrapped in BBQ eel%26quot;

BTW, unagi means %26#39;eel%26#39; in Japanese, so you just said a slab of barbeque eel wrapped in BBQ eel.

BTW, if you wanna try something really Japanese, make some simple corn and mayo sushi. Pretty popular in Japan...especially with kids. Personally, you won%26#39;t find me eating any, but the Japanese do seem to love their mayo... they even put it on top of pizzas.

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%26lt;%26lt;Lol, why would you care about sushi in Paris? %26gt;%26gt; lol - we live here. after a year or so French food really looses it appeal.

ptegan - welcome to my hell. Now try getting a decent tortilla... :- )

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Zentraedi, because flying to Japan every time I get sushi (almost every week) would be a little costly :)

phread, have you been to Fajitas by the Pont Neuf ?

Not bad food and the fact that there%26#39;s an actual Mexican in the kitchen makes a difference too.

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So forget the sushi - Stick to the delicious falafel, which got my approval (and my critical husband%26#39;s) when we were in Paris.

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ptegan, I%26#39;ll give it a try. I usually go to Anahuacalli, which is the real deal, but I don%26#39;t always think of reserving in time. Hope you had a great time in SF, its my hometown and I still love it.

shoesy - now I am really impressed. Still miss CA cookin%26#39; though.

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The question that has to be asked here is;

Were you actually eating sushi in California? It doesn%26#39;t sound like any of the ingredients you listed would be included as sushi........... (especially fake crab, avocado or macadamia, respectively american, mexican and australian ingredients)

I visit Australia a lot, and there is a lot of %26quot;pac-rim%26quot; food in Sydney, which is a thrown together jumble of stuff which is then catagorised by what it most resembles. Eat sushi in Australia (or Indian or Thai) and it will not actually resemble the crusine of any of those countries. I would hazard a guess that the sushi in California is a strictly US west coast invention, and would not be rated as sushi (nor, knowing the Japanese and the way they like to licence things, would it probably be allowed to be called sushi)

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Probably true Wizard, it%26#39;s more than likely a West-Coast USA thing.

In saying that though, I%26#39;ve also had sushi in NY and while it wasn%26#39;t as good IMHO, it was still different and varied.

Imagine visiting different French bistos only to find that each offered the same 9 dishes with only one dish being different between each. That%26#39;s how I feel about sushi in Paris. Quality may be fine but variety isn%26#39;t an option.

Take the %26quot;Dynamite roll%26quot;

%26quot;Dynamite roll is a kind of sushi usually containing a piece of prawn tempura along with vegetables like radish sprouts, avocado or cucumber as well as Japanese mayonnaise.%26quot;

I%26#39;ve had this in NY, CA and Tennessee and Google tells me that I can order them in London and Perth yet it looks as though I may have to wait a while before it hits Paris :)

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PT,

you%26#39;ve been around for a while now and what you say about sushi can be extended to whatever variety of none french food (even this one is not always an exception). I mean Idian food is not the least hot, chinese food is completely standartized, so is north african food. There are very few places where you get the %26quot;real%26quot; thing. Compared to London Paris is a complete nightmare when it comes to something else than french food and as I said even this one suffers more and more from the steak frites attitude...