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"

Volcano Tuna Don At Samurai Sushi....You Our Only Friend!

So let us take you back to the time that brought us closer to this here culinary delight:

Gaze upon the glory of the Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style)!

It was about a year ago and the gastro-adventureness that has preceded us caught up when a close like-minded eater bud inquired:

"Have you been to Samurai? That place on Oracle? Man, so good."

We hadn't in fact. Not yet anyway. To be honest we were a bit nervous about going there (yeah, this coming from a crew that seeks out restaurants in gas stations, back alley eateries and the fish fry in dive bars) because the place is receded in a near abandoned strip mall and it just looked wonky.

Wonky we tell you!

Here's the landscape of where Samurai resides:

Not exactly the definition of 'wonky' but...you get the idea

See what we mean?


Well anyway, one day, as fate would have it, we were hungry (duh!) and up for a new food adventure.

"Hey. You wanna try that Japanese place on Oracle? What's it called...?"

"Samurai."

"Yeah. That one. C'mon, let's go. Should be fun."

We looked up some reviews online and, wouldn't you know, it was all 4-5 stars across the digital board. Alright, we're in. Let's do this.

Investigating closer, we kept finding a bread crumb trail to a dish that everyone was raving about, in fact, our pal from earlier even mentioned it in passing:

"They have this dish," they said after asking us if we had been to the restaurant, "called the Volcano Tuna Don. It's a pile of spicy tuna on rice with, like, spicy mayo and cucumbers and fish eggs and, dude, all sorts of crazy stuff. You gotta try it."

So we looked at each other and said: "Let's try it!"

And we did.

And we then kicked each other for not trying Samurai earlier.

The Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) was, and is, amazing.

Look for it. Do you see it?

Samurai itself is very nondescript. A few tables scatter the cramped floor and you order at the counter because the place labels itself as "fast food". It's more fast casual because the food at Samurai is, oh, a few if not many rungs above what is normally deemed 'fast food'. Everything we have had at Samurai is fresh and delicious and, yes, served up very fast. This is the perfect spot for a quick lunch if you are short on time but want real delicious food.

The Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) though is in a category all its own. For some bizarre reason all of the elements in the dish, well...bowl, harmonize in a near perfect character.

Let's break it down shall we?

There it is! Yay!

The Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) is a bowl of perfectly cooked sushi rice which is then topped with a mound of spicy sushi grade tuna.

Oh, they could have stopped there but...no.

The tuna is then surrounded by cucumbers and topped with tempura flakes. As if that wasn't enough, the entire pile is finished with a spicy mayo, a fair drizzle of Unagi/eel sauce, diced scallions, seaweed strips and eventually completed with a good dose of Masago (fish roe...you know, eggs).

The end result looks something like this:

You need this...we all need this

Oh yeah. It's incredible.

The ballast of the spice and the sweet is about the first thing you will notice as you dig into it. The crunch from the Masago and tempura is equaled to the smoothness of the tuna and the firm texture of the rice. Brightness from the scallions and cucumber is married with the viscous of the mayo and eel sauce and when you put it all together...

Boom!

Pure wonderousness served up in a bowl and all for about $10.

We often dream about the Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) and sometimes, when we do get around to eating it again, we are so happy to be doing so that we want to celebrate its existence.

In fact one hot summer day when we got the chance to gorge on a bowl of the majesty that is the Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) we were so thrilled to be in its presence again that we took it out on a fun romp around town.

Why?

Because we love you Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) from Samurai!

And here are just some of the antics we got into with our lunchtime treat:

First we took Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) to the park where we played Pokemon GO!

You got a Squirtle! Good job pile of fish and sauce served over rice!

Then we watched "Grease 2" because as we always say: They only made the first "Grease" so they could make the far superior sequel.

Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style)'s favorite song is "Cool Rider". You go bowl of tasty Asian inspired bits!

Afterwards we headed over to our local library just in time to participate in storytime.

Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) loved the one about the friendly dragon. It is a sucker for a happy ending...

We then made our way to a community garden where Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) harvested some heirloom tomatoes.

"But there aren't any tomatoes on me," said Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style). We know scrumptious food dish...we know.

Later we cranked up some classic rock and jammed on some heavy guitar riffage.

Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) enjoyed Boston but didn't like Aerosmith so much...that made us love it even more!

Finally Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) was introduced to Lil Poundcake, our resident cat and food critic.

You can have some Lil Poundcake, just a little...no! She ate the whole thing! C'mon Lil Poundcake. Well, if she liked it, you know its good.

Thank you Samurai Sushi for creating such a delicious dish. And thank you Spicy Tuna Don (Volcano Style) for just being you. We will definitely be back for more and next time we'll take you on a waterslide!

We promise.

Cheers!

Just look at this thing...look at it! Now go and eat it. You'll want to take it on a play date too...

Camera, Typing and Eating
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Second Week In July, 2016


Metal Influence: 

VOLCANO

(Japanese Thrash Metal Band)