Red Lantern Sushi - January 26, 2016
It’s been… a while. Subsequent dinners, work events, vacations, side projects, an annual malaise, friends’ issues, more recently a car accident and car shopping. Mostly just terrible excuses. Being a first rate procrastinator, if I don’t do something almost immediately after deciding to do it, it sometimes often falls to the back of my memory. Still there, still nagging, but not in my line of sight, waiting to be pushed out entirely or rationalized away because it’s not that important. But.
I’ve entered support mode on one side project, so I’m down to some that I just plug away on. I don’t have any vacations planned for a couple months. Work events are done for a while. The sun and passage of time are resolving the malaise. I got the car issue resolved. Most importantly a friends seem like they’re going to be okay. It did make me question some stuff though.
This might be unique to me, but if my mind is in a state to write code, it’s not always the best for writing, well, not code. (This could be another terrible excuse, I’m not sure I’ve given it a great volume of effort when trying to do both.)
So I’m going to keep coding. I’m going to keep writing.
Shared enthusiasm is by far my favorite foundation for friendship (while normally intended that alliteration was unintentional). Food, Facebook, Instagram, mutual friends, and frequently dining at their establishment is how I’ve become friends with a few really great people in the local food industry.
I’m always keen to dine out with someone, pick their brain about their world, enjoy their company, get recommendations for new food and media to consume. That’s how I ended up enjoying dinner at the new location of a previously suburban only sushi restaurant that is now inhabiting the space of a former sushi restaurant with an awesome member of Zen Box Izakaya’s crew.
Addie and I agreed upon a date when we’d grab go checkout the new Red Lantern spot after rave reviews from some of our mutual friends.
Rolls are fun, but sashimi, nigiri, and chirashi are where it’s at. I’m always glad when somebody else comes with when I have sushi, if I dine solo I always need to do chirashi or an udon soup, otherwise I don’t know when to stop. I want to do omakase at Sushi Fix but I think that might be a dangerous proposition. Who knows.
Seaweed Salad - standard and solid.
Nigiri of Saké, Toro, Hamachi, and Uni covered in shiso leaf - I’m not usually a fan of salmon, but this saké may have swayed me, lightly torched, it was amazing. The toro and hamachi were great. The uni?
Uni - probably one of the best pieces of uni I’ve ever had. So good.
House made Tamago - really good. I like the texture and appearance of this iteration. We shared the last two pieces, I can see why it gets ordered and enjoyed.
Oyako roll - okay, okay, so maybe sometimes you go for a roll, especially if it has salmon skin, meat, and eggs. If the torched salmon belly didn’t win me over, this definitely did a fair amount of heavy lifting.
Butter Unagi - They do something nifty here. Immediately after torching the flesh, they put a piece of butter on the eel and finish wrapping it. A different experience than the standard, and very, very enjoyable. I still dream about this.
Shishitos and “hot dogs” - So glad we got this. The occasional heat from the shishitos paired great with the subtle sweetness of the hot dogs. And the snappiness of the skin was a great contrast to a lot of the textures we’d enjoyed that evening.
Drunken Pork Ramen of Pork, Egg, Menma, and Tequila - the flavors were good but this wasn’t my style of ramen - and this is all personal preference. I like a thinner pork slice, and ground is growing on me. I like the eggs softer so I can use the egg as a pseudo sauce. I was a fan of the quantity of menma (fermented shoots).
I’ve recommended Red Lantern to several friends already, and they’ve said it was great. I’ll recommend it to you too. Go for the sushi, even some of the weird stuff, if you feel moreish, maybe try the ramen.