Crazy for Kazoku!

The hunt continues.

The need for the next best sushi place always seems elusive yet enticing.

Just like our lusts for rickety food trucks, broke down taquerias and burger shacks that seem to attract the wrong crowd for all the right reasons, locating and locking down a sushi joint that amazes and surprises that isn't a glossy chic with prices to match always proves a challenge.

It's easy to run downtown and follow the steps of those glued to up-to-the-minute review sites telling you where to go and what to do or soft openings operating in hushed tones that only social media zealots whisper to you online before it closes once the truffle infused udon abstraction has all sold out. We here at the Tucson Homeskillet don't (really) care about all that fluff. We like food. Good, honest, relatable yet unpredictable yummy food.  And we have found our fair share of hidden gems or questionable spots that serve up some sumptuous eats. It's what we do. It's the reason for this dopey food site.

Sort of.

So coming across a building next to an auto yard that looked as if it were closed or at least on its way to be on Speedway Avenue, we just had to hit the brakes and see if this place was either A) crap or B) the opposite.

Once we stepped inside and were met with a gracious host, a bowing chef and an impeccable dining environment, we knew we had discovered something that was most definitely option B.

Cucumber salad to get things rolling

The place was and is called Kazoku Sushi and Japanese Cuisine.

The interior was so much different than it exterior. No noisy clanging of machinery from the auto repair lot, the chugging traffic of the busy byway was all but silenced and the weather worn shingles and marquee of the building had warped into a near medical sterilized environment yet mixed with the warmth of a caring staff and (hopefully) food to match.

Once we were seated we took our time to glance over the fairly substantial menu. Of course the appetizers had the ubiquitous edamame, gyoza and eggrolls, but we were happy to find two different styles of "dynamite" (think a type of really spicy mayonnaise over seafood), a kaki fry which are deep fried oysters and, what's this...a quail egg shooter? Oh man.

Wait, and a sea urchin shooter? For real this place rules.

Who does this in Tucson?

Oh, wait...Kazoku does.

Apparently.

Duh.

Nigiri in all of its glory

Outside of the adventurous possibilities, we entered the realm of 'let's keep it safe for right now' due to the fact that this was our first time and if they screw up the bare essentials then we know we have to move on.

Nope. We stayed.

The miso soup was some of the best we have had...anywhere. Really rich and brothy with a heavy miso tang. The edamame was glorious, warm and salty. The cucumber salad was good if not a bit pickley...that is if 'pickley' is actually a word. Which it is not. The cucumbers were tasty but it was a little heavy with the vinegar.

We then got a plethora of stuff to sample. Being big adventurous eaters and not afraid to try what could be "challenging" in a possible "iffy" location, we decided to get a good load of nigiri, sashimi and sushi rolls. You know, the raw stuff.

All we can say is: Wow.

Feeling passionate about their Passion Roll

It can be a bit intimidating to eat raw fish in a land locked desert city but, whatever...

The nigiri, ranging from yellowtail to tuna to salmon to unagi were simply stunning. Fresh and buttery, all four options were sumptuous and made us close our eyes for a second as we took them in one by one. Absolutely delicious.

The salmon and tuna sashimi were right up to par with the nigiri. Big hunks of precision cut fillets that were at first imposing from just the sheer magnitude of their thickness, proving a little ambitious a bite, but then melted in your mouth and sent you reeling from its texture and flavor.

And to think we were about to just drive by this place. Who knew?

The sushi rolls were awesome as well. How could they not be? The little chef at his station is and was a culinary wizard and if he can pull off a serious sashimi and nigiri then the rolls should be a snap.

Some of our favorites included the Passion Roll which features spicy tuna with avocado then topped with tempura flakes and drizzled in a spicy kani reduction. The Kamikaze Roll comes equipped with a lightly battered fried fish cake, shrimp tempura, white onions, more avocado, more kani and finished with masago and a rich eel sauce. We also dug the "Y" Roll. This one has tamago (egg), cucumbers, a spicy mayo, masago and stuffed with fried sweet potatoes. Really fun and playful to eat.

There are so many sushi options and we could only hold down so much so you are just going to have to get over to Kazoku to eat and discover for yourself. You'll thank us. No really. You will.

Oh yeah...the California roll was good too. Always is. They got that one right for sure.

Sashimi and California Roll in repose

Here's the thing:

Kazoku was literally almost empty, as far as customers were concerned. This was shocking because reading their reviews and check-ins online it would seem that this place would always be bumping. It was quiet, like real quiet. Mind you it was a hot Wednesday afternoon and when we returned for a second time it was pretty much the same: Silent.

Not that we mind. We actually like eating delicious food in a peaceful environment so we can concentrate even more on what's going on in our mouths and down on the plate, but we felt bad for the chef and owner. She didn't seem to mind though, in fact the owner appeared to embrace the calm.

Perhaps they kill it on weekends and at night. But for $10 at lunch you get a full plate of amazing food and appetizers you'd think this place would be packed from the moment they opened. Not on the times that we have been there. We'll have to come back for dinner to see what their rush looks like. And we wont mind waiting a bit for our food if they are indeed a little slammed; quality and flavor of Japanese cuisine such as this is far worth the wait.

So we are telling you here Tucson Homeskillet readers: Get yourself over to Kazoku sushi and see (and taste) for yourself. And if you don't like it, then....you're wrong.

Sorry. There are plenty of other food blogs to hang out with.

Oh did we mention that they finish off the whole dining experience with a bowl of plum ice cream? We didn't? Well now we did. But we forgot to take a picture of it. Why?

Well we just did! We were lucky to get the photos we did take for this post. The food there is just too good to always be taking pictures. Gosh.

But we are a food blog and so...we need to take photos. So there's that.

Again, sorry.

Thanks Kazoku! We'll be back for more soon.

And thank you for reading this and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed this food. Because we did. It's pretty apparent right? Yeah.

See you next week.

Cheers!

So fresh and so delicious...thanks Kazoku!

Camera, Typing and Much Sushi-ness

"Metal" Mark Whittaker

A Very Warm Mid-October Day, 2016

Metal Influence:

TESTAMENT

"The Legacy"

"Hey, Tucson Homeskillet, All Of The Food Action Is Downtown...How Come You Don't Write About It?"

When I moved to Tucson in early 2006 from San Francisco, downtown wasn't much of anything really. I mean, it had a few cool bars, a decent pizza place, The Grill which sold tater-tots and a venue where I spun Hard Rock and Heavy Metal tunes to a captive audience of no one. Honestly, downtown Tucson didn't do much for me and I rarely took the leap of cruising on over there, mainly because the parking sucked. Other than meeting the occasional pal for drinks or playing old Slayer and Motley Crue songs to an empty space, what's the point?

But then, in just the last few short years, something happened. An explosion it seemed, kind of out of nowhere, started slowly erupting downtown. Suddenly upscale bars, restaurants and brewpubs began spouting up everywhere and as a food guy, this made me pretty excited.

That is...until the Tucson Homeskillet made the way down there.

One of many places everyone insists we have to try, and after we did...*shrugs*

Don't get us wrong, we do love some fancy food now and then among chef driven eateries. The mastery of flavors and courses has always been a decadent delight. Heck, our Twitter feed and Instagram is basically just food from the delicate care yet well worn hands of chefs from all over the world. Do you not think we want to see and taste what Rene Redzepi is doing to inky cap mushrooms for his renown restaurant Noma? Or watch Magnus Nilsson perfectly cook huge sea scallops over burning juniper branches in the kitchen at his place, Faviken, in some remote outpost in Sweden? Or dream about the sausages April Bloomfield creates for her various eateries and then go hang out with her drinking a cold beer and talking about what cheese goes best with roasted beets?

(a good stinky goat cheese variety most likely...)

But, for whatever reason it may be, so far...the downtown food scene just isn't doing it for us right now.

Sure its amazing but just not our scene

Look, when the Tucson Homeskillet got revamped almost two years ago, after briefly contributing on another local food website, our goal was to focus on the hidden gems, the lil' out of the way places, the possibly questionable food trucks and dive bars with kitchens and overall funky mom and pops that dot this wide, dusty and chock full of possibilities desert city of ours. That's the food we like and that's the style we feel comfortable in.

Does that mean we should just write off all the higher end and "fancy" dining options here in Tucson? Of course not! But...here is the thing:

You've got so many other options, websites and publications as a go-to for what's the next big thing in upscale Tucson dining, why should our humble eat and drink blog try to muscle in on the big boys already established food writing territory?

Huh, when you put it that way, maybe we should.

We kind of prefer our ice cream from old drug stores and windowless vans

Thing is, at this point, the Tucson Homeskillet is just hitting its stride and it's going to take awhile for us to catch up to trusted and well rooted publications and websites. We don't get invited to soft openings to new eateries....yet. The email isn't blowed up with early notifications on what is being planned for that empty space that used to be a speakeasy now that some bigwig restauranteur from LA bought the place and is considering an artichoke and rum ripple concept. Or even getting press passes to food and booze events. We're just too DIY and small (yet well cooked) potatoes right now. But hopefully that'll change soon and the Homeskillet can hang out with the cool kids.

For now, though...we'll stick with the weirdos at table nine.

World of, well...I guess

It's not like we haven't tried to get into the downtown food action. In fact, just recently, we have taken tours of downtown in hopes that a restaurant or gastropub peaks our interest and we crack out of our rather un-hip shell. All of the menus looked...fine...but just not enough for us to break the bank and risk getting not great service (which we have heard about way too many times and that would bug the crap out of us). The over saturation of Tucson culinary chic in a fairly tight area, along with the parking situation, for the most part just keeps us on the lookout for a food cart with amazing fry bread tacos that no one has heard about or how delicious the Friday fish fry is at that bar that looks like should be condemned or even some crud hut that sells beads and dreamcatchers but also serves up some of the best pozole in town.

We even have friends that own places on Congress and more that even work in that area, so let this blurb here set as an apology for not hanging out as much as we'd like. We'll get down there again...someday. We promise.

Now, if we did get the invites and "comped" course meals, you better believe we will be there! Who wouldn't? When those opportunities arrive we will grab them by the apron and face dive into the food and let you know what we thought and how the event transpired. Even if we don't dress or look the part.

Is it cool to wear well scuffed old school SK8 Vans to a white linen multi-course tasting event? Hope so 'cause that's what we got...

Uh...no

Tucson is so rich with an amazing food culture which continues to grow and expand right before our eyes and tastebuds with uncharted culinary terrain yet to be discovered. For that reason alone, being a food blog and big eaters makes us chomp at the yummy bit as to what more is out there and what is in the works for the near and distant future. Downtown Tucson is fine for most but for the time being we will leave the food coverage there for the kids with the money and contacts. We really don't have the money right now. And our one contact can get us a free taco now and then. Not enough to be considered "big competition" at present. Is it? It's a pretty good taco.

But we can write good though...right? Us write good! Yay! Thanks for reading.

That's all. And we find the Hi-Fi Lounge rather terrifying. So many TVs. So....many...douchenozzles.

Sorry. But that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Have fun!

Didn't take this picture, don't know these people

Photo Uploads, Typing and Griping 
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Last Day in March, 2016

Metal Influence:

TESTAMENT

"Apocalyptic City"