In Which Our Hero Conquers Many Fears

2010 was a pretty awesome year.  I overcame more than a few fears (solo travel, bungee jumping, various smaller, less blog-worthy activities, etc.)  2011 promises to be more of the same. In fact, just today I conquered two very significant (to me) fears: Asian markets and sushi making.

That's right folks, I went there.  To the Asian market on Amherst street that is.  Lordy it was confusing.  There were so many colors, and the organizational scheme would make Sheldon Cooper die on sight.  I think it went roughly (left to right, facing in from the door) "non-edibles", "crunchy, dry edibles", "squishy dry edibles", "sauces and pickled stuff", "more sauces", "cold stuff".  There was another section of "cold stuff" along the back, too.  Nothing neatly stacked, just crammed in where it would fit.  It wasn't dirty at all, it just looked like they had a lot to provide and not a lot of space in which to present it.  That said, the daughter (I assume) was VERY helpful, and even pointed me to the Japanese pickled plums when I'd accidentally grabbed the Chinese ones.  Turns out they're pretty awful either way, so I think I'll be throwing those in the work fridge and calling them a delicacy from a friend.  Blech.

Anyway.  About that sushi.

Quiet before the storm.  Bless him, Nick made the rice for me while I was at the gym...thank god for that or we (or at least I) would have been eating just sushi fillings last night.

Starting with the prep.

Mmmmm bbq broiled eel...

Makings for eel rolls, California rolls, and Philadelphia rolls.

I did it!  Immediately after this picture, I picked that sucker up and waved it around the kitchen like a baton until Nick reminded me that rice is not Gorilla Glue and it might be a good idea to do my celebrations without flinging rice around the kitchen.

So I cut it into big pieces.

Loaded up the next one with way too much avocado and some roe.  God I love roe.

The end result.  One of each kind of roll.  The philly roll turned out nicely in terms of how well it held together, but the other two not so much.  I think I needed to put the rice more towards the far end of the roll, rather than spread evenly from start to finish.  Oh well, I'll know better next time.  :-)  It was a yummy way to conquer a fear!