Sushi c/o Shiroi Hana

Once I get sushi into my head,there's nothing to be done but to eat it. I must admit that of all the small hypocritical things I do in life, eating sushi is perhaps the one in which I take the greatest pleasure. In other words, I know that our world is falling apart and that fish of all kinds are rapidly disappearing from the oceans, which in turn lead to other fish struggling to survive, and yet ... goddamn if I don't like a good piece of salmon or white tuna. On this particular evening I planned to meet up with LW at Shiroi Hana to properly quench my sushi hankering. I hadn't been back since a similar meal with LW last year around the same time. Since we were only two, not three, people, we didn't order quite the same level of sushi, though we did split the Sushi Deluxe platter. We then added a few extras...I ordered ikura and white tuna while LW requested a passion roll.

I chose to accompany my meal with hot sake, which was an entirely enjoyable choice. Sidenote: I actually walked downtown a bit too early for our reservation, so I meandered for a while before stopping at Estia for a glass of retsina to kill the time. A few observations about that experience: it's got a live music guy in the sort of main lobby/vestibule area, which is neat...though he's playing with the accompaniment of a back up track, which was weird. When I sat down at the bar it there were about four other people there, all of whom with drinks or food in their hand. The two ladies behind the bar talked for quite some time before either even looked in my direction and I had to assert myself and ask for a drink as opposed to having one of them come over and ask me what I'd like. Just seemed a little off, especially after I got my bill. I didn't look at a wine list because I knew I wanted a glass of retsina, so it's no one's fault but my own that the glass was $14 without tax or tip and that maybe I wouldn't have ordered it had I known. But damn, it was a solid glass of wine. End sidenote.

We also ordered a spider roll that had the right crispiness of the outside with succulence of the inside to make me smile. I do think they messed up my request for a piece of white tuna...as it was nothing like any other piece of white tuna I've ever had. Now this may just be a reflection of the fact that we rarely get the fish we think we're getting, and what I have long considered white tuna is actually something else entirely. Hard to tell.

Shiroi Hana does it right. No pretense. A modicum of style in the decor. Generally friendly staff. A step up from the more discount sushi joint's fish quality. A pleasant meal. Then LW and I went on over to the Bards and played darts for a bit, which wasn't without its own comedy.