Category Archives: Japanese

December 28, 2012 · 7:26 pm

Sushi Pop

Recently, my sister moved back to Orlando, and I’ve been so excited to have her nearby. It was great to have her around during the final stages of my wedding planning and I just love being able to see her more often. A few weeks ago, we met over on her side of town in Oviedo to give Sushi Pop a try. I had heard mixed reviews, and I was excited to try a place that I heard pushes the envelope and likes to throw creative twists on their dishes. The place was hopping due to reservations, which I found surprising for a weekday evening. Kathryn and I sat at the sushi bar to give the tables to the bigger parties and to ensure quicker seating. We started out with an order of shrimp and crab potstickers.

Sushi Pop-Shrimp and Crab Potstickers

The potstickers were surprisingly light and not greasy. The filling was very flavorful. The potstickers were a great teaser for the main course: sushi, of course. My sister loves sushi just as much as I do, so we ordered a few rolls to share.

Sushi Pop-Rolls

Like I mentioned, Sushi Pop likes to push the envelope and come up with unique combinations. There are very few traditional rolls.

For example the “Hot Mess” (far right in the photo) has smoked salmon, avocado and tempura flakes with honey kabayaki, topped with baked tuna, salmon, yellowtail, flounder, spicy mayo,  smelt roe, chives and rendered  bacon. Yes, bacon.

All of the rolls just have really unique flavor combinations. One had pickles, and another had a very strong citrus-y flavor. I really liked all the rolls, but I think because the flavors were so unexpected from sushi, it didn’t quite satisfy my sushi craving. I thought there was just too much going on. I think I would return if someone wanted to meet up there, but I don’t know if I’d suggest it as my first choice for sushi. Who knew I was so traditional?

Even their soy sauce dispensers were different.

Sushi Pop-Soy Sauce

I do want to try some of their non-sushi dishes. The potstickers were delicious, and I think their culinary creativity would be better appreciated in a normal dish as opposed to a sushi roll.

I’m glad I got to experience Sushi Pop, and it’s nice to know that Oviedo is getting some new restaurants.

What is your favorite sushi ingredient? I’m sure some people love bacon in their sushi!

2 Comments

Filed under East Orlando, Japanese, Sushi

July 16, 2012 · 8:20 pm

Date and girls night

Mondays always seem to come around so quickly, but I like to see that as the sign of a great weekend. Kevin and I jumpstarted our weekend Friday evening with a trip to Shin. The weather that evening was surprisingly nice with a break in the humidity and a breeze in the air. We took advantage of the weather and sat outside. Coincidentally, Kevin’s parents drove by while we were eating. They were planning on grabbing dinner just two doors down from us at Citrus…and they were meeting my parents there. What a small world. We swung by to say hello after our meal. Is it embarrassing that our parents were out later than us?

We started out our evening with some drinks. Kevin ordered a giant beer, and I ordered lychee sake. I love the difference in our drink sizes.

Shin - Drinks

Of course, I ordered sushi at Shin. Shin is quickly becoming my favorite sushi place in Orlando. I ordered their spicy sandwich (spicy tuna and avocado between rice and bean sheets) and a rainbow roll. Shin’s sushi always tastes so fresh, and I love the originality of their menu.

Shin - Sushi

Kevin ordered the chicken katsu, which he really enjoyed.

Shin - Katsu Chicken

What a perfect start to the weekend. On Saturday, I was busy in the kitchen using two of my favorite ingredients:

eggs

bacon

I attended a girls get-together Saturday evening and wanted to bring an appetizer. My friends Katie and Sharon hosted the party, and we seem to always order deviled eggs when we go out to eat (example here, here and here), so I decided to make a homemade batch. I found a recipe for bacon cheddar deviled eggs. The recipe is super simple to follow. My only modification was that I used extra sharp cheddar cheese to really make sure the flavor came through.

bacon cheddar deviled eggs

I used a frosting piping bag and tip to fill the eggs. They were a hit at the party. Of course, I had to conduct some quality control before I served them to the girls.

plate

These are truly delicious. It was hard for me to not eat them all before the party!

How was your weekend?

6 Comments

Filed under Appetizer, Asian, Eating In, Japanese, Sushi

June 21, 2012 · 6:51 pm

Shakai Sushi

Sometimes when I go out to eat, I want the bang for my buck. I tend to eat pretty healthy at home, so I’ll splurge when going out. Other times, I try to keep my calories and portions a little more in control as to not regret the meal later.

When Everyday Health, a website dedicated to all sorts of healthy living resources, reached out to me to share their guide to The Healthiest Choices at the Sushi Bar, I immediately found it applicable to my life. After all, I love sushi and eat it often. Everyday Health has MDs medically review their articles, which adds a layer of credibility.

I grabbed some of my friends/coworkers to accompany me for a sushi lunch today so I could put Everyday Health’s guide into action at Shakai Sushi Lounge in downtown Orlando. Shakai used to be Ichiban, where I celebrated my last birthday. They revamped the space and menu to be more of a late night destination and expanded the bar.

As the guide suggested, I started out with an appetizer of edamame to avoid over-ordering the sushi. Broth-based soup is another good option they mentioned.

Shakai Sushi - Edamame

Now for the main event. Everyday Health suggests ordering rolls heavy on the vegetables and swapping out white rice with brown rice. They also said to avoid battered rolls and ingredients, cream cheese, mayonnaise-based sauces and chili oils.

Shakai does serve brown rice, but they were unable to make rolls with it, so I decided to just leave the rice out altogether.

Shakai Sushi - Sashimi

I ordered the sashimi platter, which had a nice variety. The guide lists salmon, tuna and halibut as prime sources of Omega 3s, but you also have to be careful of the amount you consume in your diet due to mercury concerns.

The guide suggests avoiding the salty soy sauce and using the wasabi and ginger for flavor instead. Skipping the soy sauce was hard. I used the wasabi and ginger but missed the taste of it all mixed with the soy sauce.

With the absence of the rice, I was afraid my lunch wouldn’t fill me up, but the protein in the edamame kept me full for the rest of the workday. It felt great to not feel like I was in a food coma when I had to go back to work for the rest of the day.

My dining companions ordered an assortment of rolls and seemed to really enjoy them.

Shakai Sushi - Rolls

Shakai Sushi - Rolls 2

Everything at Shakai Sushi tasted very fresh, and the menu had a variety of options. They offer hot dishes in addition to sushi, and I’m excited to check out their evening scene. They also have some very reasonable lunch options.The décor inside is very reminiscent of a spa. Everything felt very tranquil.

I’ll also have to revisit on a splurge day.

What are your tricks to eating healthy when eating out?

7 Comments

Filed under Downtown Orlando, Health, Japanese, Sushi

March 13, 2012 · 7:34 pm

Shin

Today was a day full of awesome things. First of all, my friend Sharon brought me some homemade jam she bottled. I can’t wait to dig into these.

jam

The reason why I haven’t busted into these yet is due to awesome thing of the day number two. I had a huge lunch, and I’m still not hungry. I went to Shin, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Orlando. I had been wanting to try Shin for awhile. Everyone seems to rave about it, so I was excited to finally have a taste for myself.

We started out with edamame for the table.

edamame

Shin offers a unique dish called sushi sandwiches. I got mine with spicy tuna. The spicy tuna is sandwiched with avocado between seaweed, rice and bean sheets. They look just like little tea sandwiches but with a delicious spicy tuna-y bite. I also ordered a salmon crunch roll. I cleaned my plate.

sushi sandwich and salmon crunch

Also ordered at the table was a spicy tofu salad and assorted rolls.

tofu salad

rolls

Lunch was absolutely fabulous, and I can’t wait to return to Shin.

The final awesome thing of the day happened after work when my sister decided to stop by. She is usually away at college at Illinois State University, but this week she’s in town for spring break. We’re grabbing dinner tomorrow, but I was super excited to get to see her a day early. So was Parko.

Kathryn and Parko

What awesome things happened to you today?

8 Comments

Filed under Downtown Orlando, Japanese, Lunch, Sushi

December 6, 2011 · 9:12 pm

Sushi Lola’s

Located outside of Baldwin Park, Sushi Lola’s is a small Japanese/Korean restaurant in a strip mall with a bunch of little shops. It’s a very intriguing concept. They have a typical sandwich, soup and salad menu at lunchtime, then at dinner they have a full sushi and Japanese/Korean menu. The lunch menu hanging on the wall looked pretty delicious, but we were dining in for dinner.

The restaurant is very small, so it filled up quickly. A lot of people were stopping by to get orders to go. Kevin and I met up with my step mom and her good friend, and we ordered a lot of food. All of the food could barely fit on the table.

bulgogi

Bulgogi is a Korean dish consisting of marinated beef topped with scallions, sesame seeds and kim chee.

chicken tempura

Chicken tempura

fried rice

Fried rice

salmon don

Salmon rice bowl

sushi 2

sushi

They have a pretty large sushi menu with a lot of interesting combinations. The sushi was really delicious.

tempura banana

Our waiter brought out complimentary banana tempura with chocolate syrup and whipped cream for us to try. You really can’t go wrong with deep-fried banana.

I really liked the family-owned feel of Sushi Lola’s. They seemed to know a lot of their patrons, and everyone who walked through the door was greeted with a warm welcome. We will definitely be returning.

It seems like we’re always trying new sushi restaurants—not that I’m complaining. I’m excited that there are so many sushi restaurants near me.

Are they tons of sushi restaurants popping up near you too?

9 Comments

Filed under Baldwin Park, Japanese, Sushi