An Asian doing sushi, hold the applause please.

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I apologize. (I will try to be better...mental note). For the past 4 months, I've spent a significant amount of time learning the ins and outs of all things sushi. I must say that working in sushi has taught me a patience level for failure that I didn't know I had within me.

This picture is one of a few rolls that I made and we feature at my restaurants. The one at the top of the picture is a Spicy Crunchy Tuna Roll and the one below is a Sex on the Moon Roll. The Spicy Crunchy Tuna has tuna, kimchee sauce, tempura flakes, rice, and masago all within the seaweed . My all-time favorite is the Sex on the Moon, I love the crunchy texture of the shrimp tempura and the avocado with the eel and the cream cheese (which is weird, because I am not a huge fan of cream cheese or eel). The sauces you see are kimchee sauce and eel sauce, and they are followed by tempura flakes, scallions, masago, among other things.

Payathai Restaurant

Last night, the girls and I went out to this local Thai restaurant, Payathai. I had never been and you know me when it comes to trying out new places.

Susan and I started out with trying a Thai beer called Chang (pronounced Chung). I would say it is a light beer and if you are looking for something heavier then I would recommend taking a try at a different beer. It does not have an overpowering flavor to it, which is nice. For food, I ordered the sushi roll known as Sex on the Moon, which is their most popular option. It has the following items in the roll: Shrimp tempura, eel, crab, cream cheese, asparagus, cucumber, avocado I/O with tuna, tempura crunch, scallion, flying fish roe, eel sauce, and spicy mayo on top. And for the main course, I had ordered their Hot and Sour Seafood Noodle Soup which, to be honest, was nowhere near Hot or Sour. I had to add in 4-5 spoonfuls of chili paste into the broth to make it somewhat spicy. The soup had imitation crab chunks, mussels, shrimp, scallops, noodles, green onions, etc.

Overall, it was a good meal. I would say the menu was very competitive in terms of price, but the service...was good, not great. The server could have come around for drink refills a little more frequently, but in terms of food...I'd go again.

http://www.payathairestaurant.com/

Dinner with the girls.

Went to The Living Room with the girls (B, Kirsten, and Nicole). They had never been, so it was great to share the experience. Plus they had some live music so that made it even better.

Appetizers: Duck drummettes and the Brie cheese plate. Both have a plum topping, and the drummettes have a little kick to their plum sauce. Delicious!

Kirsten: Crab mac n cheese with cheese on top and covered with panko bread crumbs.

Nicole: She started out with a Red Velvet flavored wine, and ordered a spinach salad with grilled chicken.

B: Vindaloo curry with chicken.

Me: Mexican salad with tortilla inspired chips, avocado dressing and grilled chicken.

They just switched out their menu and have taken off some items like the Stuffed Chicken, BLT salad, steak items, etc. But they have thrown in some humor and added a name twist to the wine selections...check it out!

Dinner at The Living Room.

A few days ago, I continued on my quest to try 1 more entree off the menu at The Living Room.

I ordered the Tomato Bisque soup as an appetizer and the BLT as an entree...now before you think sandwich, know that most things here come with a twist. This was a BLT but in salad form and it came with an Avocado dressing. The salad was good, my only issues were that the lettuce was in large chunks/strips and was sometimes overwhelming. Also, the dressing didn't have a strong Avocado flavor...which could be a good or bad thing. Overall, pretty good.