By: Sara
Sushi has often been described as an acquired taste, reaching marmite-levels of love it or leave it. At first glance, it may seem unappetizing to the naked eye. Plain white rice, suspicious looking seaweed and, more likely than not, uncooked fish would lead a newcomer to believe it to be unsafe to eat and gross to look at. But, as is often the case, appearances can be deceiving. Prepared the right way, the blend of rice, fish, veggies and sea weed, in any combination, is melt on your tongue delicious.
My first introduction to sushi was actually by watching the film The Breakfast Club. Soon after Andy pulls out his shopping bag of goodies for lunch, Molly Ringwald's Claire takes out her bento box of sushi. Much like Judd Nelson's Bender, I hadn't the slightest idea what it was and her description sounded unappetizing, especially to my tween-aged ears. A few years later, sushi was the only food option available at a friend's birthday party. Not one to be rude, (or starve, I mean, honestly) I tried my first bite of sushi. I loved it, naturally, otherwise this would be a boring read, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sushi has often been described as an acquired taste, reaching marmite-levels of love it or leave it. At first glance, it may seem unappetizing to the naked eye. Plain white rice, suspicious looking seaweed and, more likely than not, uncooked fish would lead a newcomer to believe it to be unsafe to eat and gross to look at. But, as is often the case, appearances can be deceiving. Prepared the right way, the blend of rice, fish, veggies and sea weed, in any combination, is melt on your tongue delicious.
My first introduction to sushi was actually by watching the film The Breakfast Club. Soon after Andy pulls out his shopping bag of goodies for lunch, Molly Ringwald's Claire takes out her bento box of sushi. Much like Judd Nelson's Bender, I hadn't the slightest idea what it was and her description sounded unappetizing, especially to my tween-aged ears. A few years later, sushi was the only food option available at a friend's birthday party. Not one to be rude, (or starve, I mean, honestly) I tried my first bite of sushi. I loved it, naturally, otherwise this would be a boring read, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now, many years later, I can say that I've had sushi literally anywhere
possible. Grocery store sushi? Been there. The airport in Rome? Done
that. My favourite place to go for sushi is actually an affordable
option, with the added bonuses of being all you can eat and having an
amazing atmosphere. Now, all you can eat doesn't always sound like it
offers the greatest quality. It's true that you can likely have better
sushi elsewhere, but for value for money, absolutely nothing beats Kanda
Sushi. The closest location happens to be on Bishop and de Maisonneuve,
just across the street from the Hall building, but they have since
expanded to include locations in the West Island and Laval. Depending on
the time of day and day of the week, Kanda offers various menus at
several price points. From Monday to Friday, you can choose from a pared
down version of the menu of all you can eat sushi options for $15.
Healthier, more filling and certainly more appealing than a $5 trio from
McDonalds, wouldn't you say? Then comes Sunday to Thursday's dinner
menu: an expanded version of the lunch menu, with more choices, as well
as hot food from the kitchen, expanded to include dumplings, barbequed
squid, udon noodles, etc. This comes at a price point of $23. Friday and
Saturday are their busiest nights of the week, happen to be more
expensive at $26, but this is naturally rewarded with more choices on
the menu: additional sushi options across the board, along with more hot
kitchen items.
In part due to its proximity to the main campus of Concordia, Kanda is always busy, regardless of time of day. They're open for three hours at lunch time, then closed for a few hours to prepare for the dinner rush, then they reopen for the evening service at 5pm. The sushi there is such good value for money, regardless of the day of the week that if I've missed the lunch service, but still had a hankering for sushi, I'd wait around downtown for a few hours until they've reopened for their dinner service. In my opinion, absolutely nothing beats a sushi dinner, followed by a movie. Kanda's location makes it an excellent place to grab a spot of dinner and walk to the cinema, working off the pangs of my inevitable overeating.thumb_PhoenixRoll.jpg
My favourite roll to order at Kanda happens to be the Phoenix roll, sadly unavailable for lunch, but mercifully available every night on their dinner menu. Kanda has put its own spin on the Phoenix roll, as I've never had anything quite like it anywhere else. The recipe available on japanesesushirecipes.info, as well as others I've found, offer a recipe completely different the roll that I order at Kanda. Both rolls include the nori wrapper and sushi rice, followed by a deep frying in panko batter, but that is where the similarities end. Recipes call for tuna, salmon, crabstick and avocado, all of which are missing from the Kanda roll, which includes chicken, mushroom, shallots and caviar. The deep frying allows for both an effervescent crunch, not to mention warming the sushi roll, to give it a new texture, as compared to the traditionally cold or at least room temperature sushi. I'd consider it a must-have, but there are options for any level of sushi eater - from the newcomer to the daring.
Additional References:
"Phoenix Roll Recipe." Japanese Sushi Recipes. Web. Accessed on 30 May 2012. <http://www.japanesesushirecipes.info/phoenix-roll-recipe.html>
"Lunch Menu." Kanda Sushi. Web. Accessed on 30 May 2012. <http://www.kanda-sushi.com/>
Hughes, John, dir. The Breakfast Club. Universal Pictures, 1985. Film.
Image source: Flickr
In part due to its proximity to the main campus of Concordia, Kanda is always busy, regardless of time of day. They're open for three hours at lunch time, then closed for a few hours to prepare for the dinner rush, then they reopen for the evening service at 5pm. The sushi there is such good value for money, regardless of the day of the week that if I've missed the lunch service, but still had a hankering for sushi, I'd wait around downtown for a few hours until they've reopened for their dinner service. In my opinion, absolutely nothing beats a sushi dinner, followed by a movie. Kanda's location makes it an excellent place to grab a spot of dinner and walk to the cinema, working off the pangs of my inevitable overeating.thumb_PhoenixRoll.jpg
My favourite roll to order at Kanda happens to be the Phoenix roll, sadly unavailable for lunch, but mercifully available every night on their dinner menu. Kanda has put its own spin on the Phoenix roll, as I've never had anything quite like it anywhere else. The recipe available on japanesesushirecipes.info, as well as others I've found, offer a recipe completely different the roll that I order at Kanda. Both rolls include the nori wrapper and sushi rice, followed by a deep frying in panko batter, but that is where the similarities end. Recipes call for tuna, salmon, crabstick and avocado, all of which are missing from the Kanda roll, which includes chicken, mushroom, shallots and caviar. The deep frying allows for both an effervescent crunch, not to mention warming the sushi roll, to give it a new texture, as compared to the traditionally cold or at least room temperature sushi. I'd consider it a must-have, but there are options for any level of sushi eater - from the newcomer to the daring.
Additional References:
"Phoenix Roll Recipe." Japanese Sushi Recipes. Web. Accessed on 30 May 2012. <http://www.japanesesushirecipes.info/phoenix-roll-recipe.html>
"Lunch Menu." Kanda Sushi. Web. Accessed on 30 May 2012. <http://www.kanda-sushi.com/>
Hughes, John, dir. The Breakfast Club. Universal Pictures, 1985. Film.
Image source: Flickr
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