Lines Drawn in Starlight

In spite of the loss of a few yeahs and maybes, Sushi Night at Ohana went well. This was my first time to the Japanese Polynesian tikki bar, and while I had heard reports of its goodness, I was still happily surprised. From the decor to the food, it's a lot of fun. The service in the bar while we grazed on happy hour gyoza and sushi hand rolls (the cone shaped ones) and the service at the table rated far above the typical. A glance at the menu might make Ohana look like an expensive place, but as ironymaiden noted, the drinks are enormous and don't skimp on the booze. All the food that we ordered was delicious. I strongly recommend the "half-baked" sushi roll and the bananas on fire dessert.

( What we ate )

I was happy to spend some time talking to varina8, who I don't see often enough, and amheriksha, who is now employed in downtown Seattle, which means more after-work socializing, yay! As ever, ironymaiden and llynecat and samildanach are great company & conversation at dinner. Hopefully, heidimo and graphxgrrl and the rest of you sushi-nighters will join us for the next one. Ohana does happy hour all evening on Monday nights; we may need to go there again.

It looks like it'll be happy hour+ at Ohana, next Wednesday, Aug 16th. A proper post will be up, I need to review the poll more closely, but I wanted to give y'all a heads-up before I crashed tonight.

(edit for date correction)

llynecat smartly suggested Shalimar for a quick dinner before the "Stardust and Rare Earth" lecture last night. The butter chicken, chicken tika, and the spiced potato appetizer that we had were all tasty. I also ordered a spiced Darjeeling tea; it had the same failing that I have found in all the chai and chai-like drinks that I have had in restaurants. I am fairly certain that more coffee drinkers would be tea drinkers as well if the tea wasn't so often weakly brewed. I recommend Shalimar if you are in the U District (and if you have this year's Entertainment Book you can get 2-for-1 on dinner entrees) though I prefer the biryani at India Bistro, and Flavor of India overall -- particularly for prices & portions.

The lecture was an overview, not very technical and also not too in-depth. The speaker was lively and enthusiastic. His love of his field was obvious, and you know I love to see that. He has a pocket sized rant about how everyone should know what an isotope is. I agree that it's not a difficult concept. I think the problem with science's reputation is that that science, like Shakespeare, is thought by the general populace to be the purview of smart people.

We arrived only a few minutes late due to finding our way. L won a free book of award winning science articles. (And now she is mildly anxious about gravity leakage.) Introductions were made between bdkellmer (don't forget about that shrimp recipe!) and llynecat & samildanach, so once again, the world grows smaller through LJ. If thewronghands or spider88 were in attendance, we didn't know who they were, though I was looking for clues.

As cool as comets are (and they are), I am now facinated by aerogel. Dude. It has the same density of air but is essentially glass. This was the medium used to capture the comets and transport them to Earth. I wish the speaker had brought some actual aerogel with him. Like a little kid, I'm more interested in the bubble wrap than the Ming vase. (Metaphorically speaking. In actuality, I am equally interested in both Ming vases and bubble wrap.)

I know it's not sushi.

I created a username on Citysearch so that I could put up a positive review for Flavor of India. The review takes 24 hours to appear. If you could, please pop over to it tomorrow afternoon and mark the "Was this review helpful" with a yes. If you came to dinner last night, please take a few minutes to sign up and leave a positive review for the restaurant, also. Like Wild Fish, this is a good restaurant that has been overlooked. They are both too often empty. It will be difficult to continue the "crawl" onto another restaurant.

Especially because the food is so good. The waiter (the only server that I have seen there) is gracious, soft-spoken and welcoming. He made sure to say, "until next time" when we thanked him as we left. He brought us a free dessert! ( a list of what we ate )
( and how it was )

And the company was pretty good, too. {grins} We missed you, varina8 and spazzychic! Both of you, get well soon so you can come out & play.

Sushi Wednesday #4 (for real this time) is on December 28th at 7pm, that's this Wednesday, at Wasabi. I'm not going to make reservations this time; show up at 2nd & Bell in Belltown and we'll see what happens. amheriksha can use a ride home if anyone can offer one.

Some of us are going to meet up before dinner at Casuelita's , something that seems to be becoming a tradition. (No complaints here.) Meet-up is whenever people get there, somewhere around 5:30 seemed to be the concensus, early = happy hour. (Around 6 for me.) That's on Western & Vine (?), a short walk stumble to Wasabi.

I have used my creativity elsewhere today, so all I can offer you now is a meme full of answers I've given before. ( Did you know that 4 is considered a very unlucky # in Japan? )

I need a sushi icon.

Here's where I get to be evil and make you pick a day, place, and time. If you aren't sure, or want to see who's going on what night, that's okay. Pick your "most likely", or leave a comment and add your choice into the poll later.

( Day, Place, Time )

Shall I write fondly of the divine meal,
Of how we laughed, of ev'ry lovely dish,
Tempura fried to aesthetic appeal,
The beasts and beauties created in fish?

How seven sat with chairs enough for eight,
How even while we dined without one there,
His absence had a near and subtle weight,
Presence marked by more than the empty chair?

'Tis true, Dave introduced most of our lot
To each other, in his own grenade style,
But I must ask, was this part of the plot --
The women's talk, the shared, sarcastic smile?

We parted late, in camaraderie;
'Twas greatly fun ~ 'twas brilliant company.


Not exactly iambic, but it's only been about 14 hours. ^_^;