Tomorrow is my birthday, but Monday is a horrible day to have a birthday, so I’m officially celebrating it today. That means that I had a nice big breakfast, pumpkin pie for mid-afternoon snack, and sushi for dinner.
I also opened the presents that were here. (I figure that a few presents will be late, so it averages out. I don’t mind presents being late, by the way; it just makes the holiday last longer.) Mom gave me a pair of hand-knitted argyle socks, and Dad sent a handmade wooden plate, cup, and spoon. Meg gave me a stunning culinary reference book. Jeff didn’t give me a librarian action figure, because we’re together almost 24/7, and they were out of stock when he went in today. (Next shipment is Nov. 13.)
Sushi was absolutely lovely. I had the deluxe sashimi,
which was a chef’s selection of the 8 freshest fish that they had that day. I chose it because it meant that I didn’t have to pick what I wanted, I knew the fish would be as fresh as possible, and it was a very good value (at least 2 pieces each of 8 kinds of sashimi, for $17). The 8 kinds were dark tuna, white tuna, salmon, scampy, scallops, octopus, squid, and clam. I’m not so keen on the squid (rubbery at first, then slimy when chewed), but everything else was lovely, including the octopus. Jeff had a bowl of tuna and rice for himself, but I made him taste the more exotic bits on my plate.
The meal was more expensive than I can afford on a regular basis but much less expensive than I had expected. It was also surprisingly filling, and Jeff says that raw meat has enzymes that vegetables don’t and that are destroyed by cooking. (He also says that he might be wrong, but he’s pretty sure on this one.) If he’s right, then I can not only relish the memory of delicious sushi but feel satisfaction that I’m nourishing my body well.