We really need to import this gameshow to the States

Big surprise, I was craving sushi this evening and really wanted to try Kuni's togo. As much as love sitting at a sushi bar and seeing the fish in the case I felt that I needed to try the most raved about sushi in Buffalo. I was not disappointed. The storefront and counter are very clean and attractive. It is full of books, sushi dish sets and assorted food items. The woman working the front counter was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.

I ordered several of my standard items including maguro, hamachi, ika, spicy tuna hand roll, tobiko and a new item I have never had tako-su. The chef(s) at Kuni's really know what they are doing. The sushi rice was well...perfect. It was not to sweet or over powered with vinegar and it was packed loosely. What I really loved was every piece of nigiri had a small dab of wasabi sandwiched between the rice and fish. With the exception of the tobiko all of the pieces I ate were fresh, delicious and at par with what I expect when I have sushi. The tako-su, which is octopus, wakame seaweed and cucumbers sprinkled with sesame seeds, was very good. It's served with a thinned out sweet soy sauce.

The downside to this place is its only take out. Which I was well aware of going into it. I also thought the tobiko was barely edible. The spicy tuna sauce was straight sriracha out of the bottle, which is sort of too easy, although the rest of the roll was really awesome. All in all I thought this place had really great food and I can't wait to go back and try their other offerings.

I'm so thrilled to have a job again! I suppose this is kinda my second job in Buffalo after one week. Unfortunately Rue Franklin was only willing to give me two shifts a week which = James being broke. So I took a job this morning at Laughlins, which is actually next door to the Rue. So fortunately I will still be able to walk to work. I have never really eaten there so I'm not sure how the food is, but the beer selection there is pretty impressive. So I suppose I had better live it up for the next few days while I'm still on "vacation".

Not only do I get to post good news in this journal but this is my 10th blog. Hopefully that <10 thing will go away!

Btw, do either of you know of a place downtown that has fox soccer channel? I had to go up to Tully's on Niagara Falls Blvd to see the Manchester v. Reading game today. Is there anywhere closer to Allen st?

I had an early dinner tonight at O . I was craving sushi since I haven't had it since I moved to Buffalo. Although I have had many people proclaim Kuni's as the best sushi in town I was really in the mood to sit at the bar and order till I was full.

When I arrived I ordered a small bottle of nigori sake and I was served Edamame complimentary which was nice however it was tasted as though it sat around in the steamer tray for quite some time before my arrival. I ordered a spicy tuna hand roll to start while I perused the overwhelmingly extensive menu. O touts itself as a Japanese fusion restaurant yet it seemed as though it was nothing more than a hodgepodge of mixed cuisines featuring items such as Pho, Kimchee Fried Rice and Steak Frites. The spicy tuna hand roll I must admit was pretty decent. The spicy mayonnaise rivaled the best that I have ever had. After speaking with the chef I was informed that they had just switched purveyors and many of the things on the menu were not available today. No worries though I found items that I was in the mood for. After my first plate I ordered two pieces of Hamachi, 1 piece of Maguro, and 1 piece of Ika. All the fish was very fresh and was served in large hunks. Unfortunately the sushi rice was crap. It was not only too sweet, but packed so tightly that it was a mushy, starchy ball of goo.

The service was pleasant yet I felt very rushed especially since I was the only one eating at the sushi bar. I really just wanted to relax and enjoy it and not have a waitress asking me if was done more than once. Maybe I just resented the fact that they kept calling me "sir". The atmosphere would have been more enjoyable had it been dark. That way I may not have noticed a filthy soy sauce bottle, dirty fish case and a chef with an unlaundered shirt.

The final plate I had was two pieces of striped bass, which was on "special" today. I was concerned by this but figured they had just way too much of it (I suppose I will find out tomorrow). It was on par with the other pieces I had ordered, however when I received my bill it was double the price of the other pieces even though it was supposed to be 2 for the price of one. It was probably a mistake that I just didn't feel like raising a stink about.

All in all O's sushi is well...ok. They don't have a very large selection of nigiri. They have a lot of special maki rolls that I'm not a huge fan of but many people are, maybe those are great in comparison. I think management should really step of their game on the cleanliness issue and maybe tone down the menu a bit as well. Next time when I have a craving for sushi I should take the advice of (e:zobar) and go to Kuni's instead.

So today the gas man came over and turned on my gas. I was so excited to take my first hot shower in bflo and to make some dinner that required cooking. So I hopped on my bike and found Guercio's and picked up some summer squash and olive oil. That place seemed really cool but I kinda dashed in and out because I don't yet have a lock for my bike. So I got home and I started seasoning my wok and chopping vegetables. Maybe 1 minute after turning on the stove the smoke alarm started beeping. I looked over at the wall and saw the smoke detector. I opened it and the beeping stopped. Then the beeping started again so I ripped it off the wall. I thought wow this thing is sensitive. Then it beeps again and I realized the thing in my hand isn't beeping. I scanned around the apartment a second time and see there are 2 smoke detectors, one on the wall and one directly over the stove. There can't be a worse place to put a freaking smoke detector than directly above the stove! Why do I have two smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector?

I can't wait for my internet connection to be installed. Every time I check my email I have to move around my apartment. For some reason today I can only seem to get an open network in the bathroom. Oh well at least its something for now. Shout out to Linksys, Belkin and 04Z409122421.

Things did not start out as I hoped. I went through my checklist of things that needed to be done and I realized my inspection expired at the end of July. I had done a few things at the beginning of the summer to have the car pass with flying colors, or so I thought. Apparently I needed a new right front wheel bearing in order to get my neato $20 state issued sticker. The shop was more than willing to do it for $195. But me being cheap, or stupid, or both decided "I'll just do it myself". So after picking up my car and jacking it up I started to take the lug nuts off of the wheel and noticed I only had 4 lug nuts. I also noticed there was a shiny one next to 3 rusted ones, and it was really loose. I guess the mechanic lost 2 of my lug nuts and just slapped any old nuts he could find laying around. I made a phone call to the shop and asked them "if they thought it was safer to be driving around on my old wheel bearing with 5 lug nuts or my new one with 3 lug nuts". I was less than cordial with these dickheads after that. So I took the rest of the afternoon driving back and forth to the auto parts store and once I had the right tools it took all of 30 minutes to replace. It's amazing how much these car places charge. It cost me $62 for the part. So that means the car place is charging $133 to install a part that a novice mechanic did in 30 minutes!! I really hate taking my car to the mechanic. I always wonder if they are actually doing the work right or just slapping it back together quickly in order to scam somebody else out of $350 for a brake job.







My newest addition to the Cav


Cars are feakin Dirty!

Saturday morning after dropping the Cav back off to get re-inspected I went to pick up my U-Haul. As I was walking into the store there is a customer yelling at the counter guy because U-Haul didn't have a truck for him. I guess he was moving to Rochester yesterday. So I walk up to the counter next to him to find out I am in the same boat. No fucking truck on the day I'm supposed to move! I was so pissed I just walked away. Drove to the nearest Penske rental place and paid just about double for a truck that needed to be returned the next day back in Syracuse. Luckily my friend Ted offered to take the truck back this morning. It did entail getting up at 5:00am this morning however. So once we arrived yesterday we had an early dinner at Fat Bobs. They have some really awesome ribs there. I thought the brisket was ok but a bit too dry. The vegetable side dish they had was quite good as well. I'm glad they are only a couple blocks away.


The new dwelling is slightly messy

My last week in Syracuse has been so busy that part of it was in Connecticut. I have taken the last week to visit my top three favorite restaurants here. L'adour is a French bistro in Syracuse that has a partially French waitstaff and some of the best food I have ever eaten. It's very expensive unfortunately so Saturday night in lieu of dinner I ventured out there for a shot of my favorite Czech liquor Becherovka and my favorite French beer Fischer Amber Ale. It's such a cool restaurant and usually they do a celebration for the Beaujolais Nouveau.



Not that I am a regular at Dinosaur by any means but I did have my usual 1/4 rack of ribs and beef brisket, with a side of macaroni salad and something called chicken velvet soup for lunch on Tuesday. Dino is my favorite BBQ around here and their waitstaff is so good they have a little bit of attitude. I have never had a bad meal there and the prices are really not that bad so long as you stay away from the beer.

Tonight I stopped for dinner at the restaurant I work in till tomorrow, Tokyo-Seoul. I was in the mood for some Sushi after a long day of insulating my friend's house. The sushi chef Ricki made me a spicy tuna hand roll with kaiware (daikon sprouts) to start. Next I had 2 orders of maguro (tuna), and 1 order of Hamachi (yellowtail) nigiri. The next two plates were complimentary, the first one consisted of very thinly sliced fluke draped over a leaf called ohba (that looked similar to mint) and topped with sea salt. This was probably the best piece of nigiri I've eaten there. I was instructed not to use soy sauce. It was very lemony and vinegary and a little bit salty. The next order was a piece of ika (squid) and a piece of fluke both done nigiri style but with a plum paste on top. I didn't catch the name of that sauce however. It was ok but sour. I prefer my ika made into a spicy ika salad with masago on a bed of red leaf lettuce. Tokyo-Seoul by far has the best sushi chef in Syracuse. There are other good sushi bars here but this one is something special.


Ricki

I am going to miss my favorite restaurants here but I'm looking forward to trying what Buffalo has to offer. As far as French and BBQ go how are Rue Franklin and Fat Bobs? I haven't really heard a whole lot but it sounds like these might be good. Where is the good sushi in Bflo???

Last night my friend Ted and I drove out to Hartford, Connecticut to see the Police at Rentschler field. I have been waiting to see this band live for a long time. It was definitely worth the wait. That was probably the best live rock show I have seen with the exception of maybe Radiohead. They played together unbelievably well. It was nice to hear a band play tunes that aren't exact copies of their albums. I didn't really dig the opening band much. They were called Fictionplane. Nobody else in the crowd really seemed all that interested either. It was semi predictable that most of the fans were really only interested in tunes off of the Greatest Hits album. I thought the entire show was great.
    
It was pretty amusing to watch drunk forty year olds try to dance. The people behind us were a bit out of control. They were most likely drunk in the parking lot long before the show ever started. They missed a good portion of the show either buying more $9.00 beers or flushing them. They didn't really bother me much till they spilled beer on my seat then spilled beer on my neighbors soccer jersey. Speaking of sportswear I saw three Whalers jerseys tonight. I'll bet they are still bitter about the team move. Anyway I had a laugh when the lush who dumped his beer fell flat on his ass. During the encore he was starting to doze off. Seems to be a bit of a waste to be trashed for a show that not only costs that much but is also unlikely to come Connecticut anytime soon.

Last night I went to Jazz in the Square in Syracuse. Being a fan of the jazz I try to go to it every year that I can. Previous years have had some great bands and I have always had a good time. This year however my former coworker Dan managed to procure two extra VIP seating passes for my friend Ted and I. VIP seating is really nothing all that special except for the fact that there is a tent filled with free booze and seafood for all pass holders. Free beer really sounded like a great idea at about 6pm, actually it still sounded like a great idea around midnight. However I must tell you free beer was not the best thing for my digestive system. Normally I can push through a hangover. But my stomach is angry today. To make matters worse I must go work from 1pm till 10pm. I suppose if I had an office job that wouldn't be all that bad. Unfortunately I work in a sushi restaurant and the thought of smelling salmon roe today actually triggered the gag reflex. I'm almost certain that my boss Mrs. Kim is going to tell me I look "so tired" today. The only thing I'm looking forward to is a heaping bowl of white rice to settle things down in there.