Searching for Sushi in Cowtown
By Alexandra Smith

Kansas City is known to many as Cowtown or the BBQ Capital of the World. With more than 100 barbeque restaurants, eating barbeque in this city is a way of life passed on from generation to generation.

While BBQ will forever be the staple cuisine of this city, there is a new kid on the block in the KC area. This cuisine has substituted ribs, burnt ends and BBQ sauce with rice, fish, and wasabi. That’s right– we’re talking about Sushi. While it’s safe to say that you can’t find 100 sushi restaurants in KC, it can’t be ignored that raw sea critters and spicy tuna are satisfying more Kansas Citians than ever before.

Sushi in Kansas City has hit the ground running with more and more restaurants popping up around the metro area. But unlike mouth-watering BBQ, there seems to be a definite love/hate relationship towards the rice covered raw seafood. On one side of the table are the addicted raw-fish advocates who can’t get enough of the bite sized delights. On the other side are those who simply believe that food should not be eaten “half-alive.” Regardless where your taste buds stand for these rolled culinary creations, you can’t help but try Sushi at least once. As I always say, once you try a California Roll you’ll keep coming back for more. Before you know it, your sushiphobia will disappear!

We went around in search of some finger-lickin’ good sushi in Kansas City, and this is what we came up with:

Best Happy Hour Sushi: Kona Grill


This Plaza favorite not only has great sushi and a variety of American dishes, but it’s also a great spot for grabbing a drink or two. When it comes to their rolls, take your time to look the menu over because they offer a diverse assortment of sashimi and rolls. The Volcano Roll is sure to bring you back time and again. A note to the wise, impatient and hungry– you may want to make reservations unless you enjoy waiting 90 minutes to be seated for dinner. There’s a lot of traffic at this restaurant, especially on the weekends.

Best Sushi Rolls: Sushi House & Jun’s


If you’re looking for some excellent Sushi in a great setting then don’t miss out on Sushi House in Town Center. The Spicy Temptation Roll is sure to tempt your taste buds and the Tropical Roll is anything but Midwest. A full bar and menu of teriyaki, noodles, tempura, and bento boxes is also offered for lunch and dinner. If you want private dining that is relaxed, take off your shoes and try out one of Sushi House’s private rooms. This place has such amazing sushi that you actually forget you’re eating in a strip mall in Leawood.

Another great place for delicious rolls is Jun’s Japanese in Prarie Village. Enjoy tempting tempura, sukiyaki, sashimi or hamachi. Order a bit of sake to wash everything down, and you’re all set.

Best Sushi for Beginners: Nara


If you’re a little weary about diving into the depths of sushi, then Nara is a great choice. At Nara, there’s an assortment of menu items, ranging from Wakko Noodles to Lemon Grass Chicken to the Kobe Burger. Sushi beginners can try the Philadelphia Roll– anything with cream cheese is automatically a good thing! Aside from the diverse menu, the bar and outdoor seating make dining at Nara a great night out.

Best Place for a Sushi/Steakhouse Compromise: Ichiban


Not quite sure if you want sushi or steak? Well don’t worry– you can have both at Ichiban in Westport. Ichiban Steakhouse and Sushi Bar serves up great entertainment right before your eyes no matter what you order. But if it is Sushi that you are craving, try the Plaza Roll and the Casper Roll both excellent choices, you won’t be disappointed.

Best Cheap n’ Good Sushi: Friend’s Sushi & Bento Box


If you’re craving good sushi but on a tight budget, then try Friend’s Sushi & Bento Box, especially on Monday night. The sushi is just $1 per piece and select rolls just $3.99.

Best Neighborhood Sushi: Domo


If you’re looking for some Einstein bagels, then you’ve come to the wrong place because you will now find Domo in this Brookside location. Perhaps their Philadelphia Roll will satisfy your cream cheese cravings. If you’re looking for a wide assortment of traditional nigiri and exotic maki rolls then you should definitely try Domo out.

Best Date Sushi: Matsu


This great restaurant located in trendy Westport is just the place to have a quaint and relaxed sushi meal for two. The truly adventurous leave their culinary fate in the hands of the Sushi chef by selecting the Matsu special. The chef chooses a sample of raw and cooked sushi, sashimi and rolls. What are you craving? You better be ready for salmon, tuna, crab, caviar, snapper, eel or alligator!

Check out these other great KC area Sushi restaurants:




Kyoto Sushi & Steak House


Izumi Japanese Steak & Sushi


Jins Sushi


Kato


KC Sushi


Kokoro Express


Maui Express


Sushi Gin


Sushi Haru


Sushi Station


Wa (Lawrence, KS)

http://TastingSpace.com is Kansas City’s exciting new online restaurant guide. At http://TastingSpace.com you can search over 1,000 Kansas City restaurants by menu item, cuisine, Kansas City neighbhorhood, and more. Rate what you ate and leave comments for your friends. Eat. Drink. Taste KC! For more information, go to Kansas City’s restaurant guide, http://TastingSpace.com

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How to Make Sushi Part 1 – Extreme Sushi Explosion, Kapow!
By Mark Hewitt

Let’s talk about Japan’s greatest creation, just barely edging out Ghost in the Shell, bento, Otsuka Ai, Iron Chef, comedy routines based on torturing Morning Musume and Pocky. Sushi!

First, we have to clear up one of the most common misunderstandings in multicultural culinary experience. Sushi is a category of traditional Japanese food consisting mainly of rice mixed with seasoned vinegar, seaweed, vegetables and either cooked or raw fish. The fish doesn’t have to be raw, people! In Japan raw fish is more often used, but it’s still perfectly “authentic” using cooked. Actually, till now I’ve held a general rule that I won’t eat raw fish unless I’m somewhere on the coast, but lately I’ve heard from a lot of people saying that this is mainly a paranoid fear story that we get fed, and raw fish off a fishmonger or supermarket shelf is quite safe to eat.

Anyway, on with the sushi thing. I’ll talk about ingredients and preparation today, and construction tomorrow, as I think this is a subject which deserves detailed attention.

First, you need the right rice. This is easier to obtain than you might have been told – a lot of places (I see it mostly in health food shops) sell “sushi rice” which is usually overpriced and not particularly special. I have made great sushi from this, from arborio rice (italian risotto rice), pudding rice and regular big huge economy bag short grain rice. As long as it’s short grain and cooked the right way, it’ll be fine.

“Cooked right” means cooked the way I’m about to tell you, no deviations. This method of rice cooking is 100% bullet-proof and 99% idiot-proof. It’s derived from the guidance of Yasuko-San, who is an actual bona fide Japanese mother. You do not mess with a Japanese mother when it comes to cooking rice. You shut up and cook the darn rice they way they tell you to. Actually I had to adjust the figures a bit because the rice we get over here has a different absorption ratio, but the principle still stands.

(for 2-3 people) Take one and a half cups of short grain rice, wash it till the water runs clean, and put it in a saucepan with 3 cups of water. The saucepan must have a tight-fitting lid. Now, put the saucepan on a medium heat, and simmer it for 15 minutes. DO NOT move the lid at any time or Yasuko-san will find you and beat you with her samoji*.

Now, crank the heat up to the top and cook the rice for 1 full minute. You should hear it start to sizzle at the bottom of the pan at the end of the minute. If you’re using electric hobs (as I am cursed with, living in a high-rise), have a hob preheated to high heat and just slide the pan over onto it. Then take it off the heat, with the lid STILL TIGHTLY ON, and let it stand for 10 minutes WITHOUT TOUCHING THE DARN LID.

Rice cooked in this way will have the perfect consistency, will need no draining (because all the water is absorbed), and actually tastes better. For long grain rice, it will be firm and smooth – with a quarter teaspoon of salt added to the boiling water, I’ll eat a plain bowl of white rice cooked this way with gusto. For short grain rice it will be sticky but the grains will keep their shape, perfect for sushi or rice balls. All hail Yasuko-san! Ganbatte! Ganbarimasu!

For the seasoned vinegar, combine a quarter cup of white wine vinegar (best of all rice wine vinegar), 1 and a half tablespoons of sugar and 3/4 teaspoon of salt in a small pan, and heat it just to boiling so it all dissolves. Once the rice has finished its 10 minutes rest, spread it out in a shallow container (I use my vertical-sided saute pan which is perfect) and drizzle the vinegar mixture over it, then dig it in well with a spatula or wooden spoon. Try not to squash the grains too much, you want them firm and well-shaped for perfect sushi.

Now you need to cool the rice before rolling. A real sushi chef would fan it by hand. Actually, scratch that, a real professional sushi chef would have one of his underpaid kitchen monkeys fan it by hand. Fortunately we have the benefits of modern technology, and an almost-total disregard for tradition. Stick it in front of an electric fan for about a minute, then dig it around with a spatula to bring the hot rice from the bottom to the top, and leave it there for another minute. This will leave the rice cool, and slightly drier (but still moist and sticky enough to shape well).

So you’ve got your rice ready, perfectly cooked and seasoned, awaiting your rolling skills. Now all that remains is the final transformation. Find out more tomorrow, as we venture deeper into the world of sushi! Thrills, spills and seaweed! There’s danger at every turn!

* Rice paddle

Mark Hewitt is an English foodie, cook, philosopher, geek, shaman and writer. At the start of 2007 he sold or gave away almost all his possessions and left on a backpacking journey round the world, the purpose being (at least in part) to figure out why he would want to do such a thing. You can follow his journey and find other articles at: http://www.scadindustries.com

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Author: Simmy Redalph

How about as many bananas as you want every morning and down it with warm water? Well this is the foundation of the Japanese banana diet; the diet that started to make some noises last year. So how does this Japanese banana diet works? Well here is short description and a plan for the Japanese banana diet that made noises and continues to make noise of the right kind this year.

Planning is a key in the Japanese banana diet

Here we list the five major key points that should be remembered by the interested person if he or she wants to take the Japanese banana diet seriously:
• For breakfast. You need to eat one or a few pieces of banana and you need to wash it down with warm water. This is the important requirement for the Japanese banana diet.
• Lunch. Sensible lunch choices and the good thing here is that there will be no restrictions on what you will eat for lunch.
• Snack. Is it nice to see a diet that allows room for snacks? Other dieting plans will scrap the need to have a snack hour since this will only contribute to the growing amount of calories in the body. But not with the Japanese banana diet. With the Japanese banana diet, you get to have your snack time and according to the Japanese banana diet you can get your snack at around 3pm.

Feel free to choose dinner for Japanese banana diet but dessert is out of the question
• Dinner to be set before 8pm. There will be no restrictions for your dinner too, but of course it pays to make sensible choices in your Japanese banana diet. If you make sensible choices under the Japanese banana diet, then you improve your chance of slimming faster and healthier. One key point for this time of the day is for you to avoid desserts. This is quite logical enough; you will pile on added calories since desserts are often packed with calories. And finally, the Japanese banana diet calls for you to;
• Sleep before midnight. It’s nice to give the body a rest. This is the perfect end for the Japanese banana diet plan.

Stick with the 5 key points of Japanese banana diet to get results

And when you stick with these five key points on the Japanese banana diet, then you ensure that you will slim down in a short period of time. But why does these five-step Japanese banana diet works? And what’s with this Japanese banana diet that makes it one of the best known diets to have come out of the country? There are a number of reasons why this kind of diet works. First of all, you can really lose weight when you eat any kind of breakfast- whether those are bananas or pancakes. Eating your breakfast will offer that metabolism boost that can help your body burn as much as 300 calories per day. And when you eat a banana every morning under the Japanese banana diet, then you will only get 100 or around 200 calories which is really small compared with the other breakfast food items. This alone makes this five-step suggestion of the Japanese banana diet works.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/5-key-points-in-your-japanese-banana-diet-804606.html

About the Author:

The Japanese Banana Diet is all the craze right now. With just one small change to your breakfast you can start losing weight right NOW! Find out how Breakfast Banana Diet can be helpful at japanesebananadiet.com