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)

Pure Deliciousness Hidden In Plain Sight

Nothing survives in that spot.

For years now I have witnessed so many restaurant concepts come and go in that area. You might know the stretch I'm talking about here, the one behind Old Chicago and Sauce on Campbell Avenue in the Campbell Plaza. Better known as the restaurant black hole.

I'm serious here. Not even a Papa John's Pizza made it out of there alive. Countless eateries, even some with a strong following and fan base, would eventually find themselves too cloistered behind the well visible heavy hitters up front near the busy byway. Upscale wine bars, fast casual hot wing joints, a frozen yogurt outlet, so on and so forth, just couldn't take the heat of no foot traffic so they eventually had to close their doors due to lack of business.

Well, I am pretty confident that trend is going to come to an end soon.

Now that a very popular breakfast and lunch eatery that packs them in everyday has taken up residency in the back lot restaurant vortex, right next door is a place that has been open for barely a year now and has already been hailed as one of the best sushi and Japanese restaurants in not only Tucson but Southern Arizona in general.

I give you: K Sushi.

Chef doing what he does best

Taking up residence where the old Yuki's used to be, K Sushi quietly opened up and has been slowly burning a trail to Asian fare greatness. When it did take over in the shell of a once mighty contender in the sushi ring, a lot of us just rolled our eyes and went "Yeah, good luck with that. Nothing survives in that area."

But then one day my wife, She-Ra, who is head bartender and supervisor for the juggernaut that is Old Chicago, decided to walk over and get a roll from K Sushi during a break just to check it out.

"OMG," she texted me that day, "that new sushi place is the bomb."

The bomb she said!

After that she has been a regular customer. Then other food minded friends started piping up about K Sushi, Facebooking and Tweeting images of their wares. Their Yelp page is essentially nothing but 4-5 stars. Instagrams of their ramen and rolls were to be had by various folk impressed enough to share their dining experience there with the world. Alright, I guess this new sushi joint is legit. Let's give it a shot.

So on a rather hot early May day, the Tucson Homeskillet just had to to pop in and see what all the cheering was about.

Green mussels about to go down

First off, we were the only ones there. The parking lot was packed but that was obvious due to the hot new kid in town serving up egg benedicts next door or my wife's place with 110 beers in her selection taking predominance in front. We thought maybe some of those parked around here might be inside K Sushi keeping cool from the near 100 degree heat outside, but...nope.

Just us.

At first I thought this was a sign for what we were about to consume. If a restaurant is this slow on a weekday lunch hour then some caution should be considered. But it didn't matter. We were here, we were hungry and we wanted to see if the hype was correct.

We were greeted at the door by a young and smiling girl who quickly sat us on a comfortable booth near a window. After ordering drinks we began to ponder the rather, uh, generous menu that takes up three different plastic protected folios, each scattered with various options ranging from ramen, to rolls, to sashimi to salads, to... You know, if you've been to a nice sushi restaurant you know what I'm getting at here.

"But you have to get the Bear Down Roll," She-Ra insisted. "It is literally the best thing ever."

So we ordered up a decent selection of stuff to sample and sat back and waited for the outcome.

Sashimi plate was inspired and amazing

As per usual, we got miso soup right up front. It was light and brothy and very tasty if not slightly understated. Then came the edamame. Again, perfect. Hot, salty with each pod delivering a nice chewy bite. So far so good. I mean, if a sushi restaurant screws up miso soup and edamame then my guess is that the food to follow is going to be reflected by the basics: It's probably going to suck.

Our first two introductions definitely did not suck.

Soon after, the real stuff started coming out.

First up was the green mussels. Green mussels? No, chill, it's not the color of the actual mussel itself but the shell they come in. Gosh. These things were really tasty and very well composed. Lightly seared with a topping of a good spicy mayo and then finished with masago and toasted sesame seeds on a bed of perfectly cooked rice. The rice itself actually soaks up some of the run off from the mussel and mayo so you kind of can just pick one up and suck it down like any good hand held shell fish. Thing is, you get two mussels in one shell so for two people this item was a perfect way to start the sushi fest.

Now we were excited to see what was coming up next.

Dynamite Roll: spicy, creamy, delicious

Second we were treated to the fantastic and immaculate sashimi platter. Each cut of the salmon, yellow tail, tuna and white tuna was so fresh and flavorful that we temporarily forgot that we were in a land locked state. With tobiko and scallions covering the yellow tail that feature easily became my favorite. I mean, every piece was amazing but...c'mon. This was melt in your mouth heaven.

For real, just go back two pictures and take in the presentation that K Sushi delivers. Was it because we were the only ones in there at the time? Doubtful. With much obvious ardor that platter was constructed and considered and for that we were very grateful.

Now things were about to only get better.

The Bear Down Roll, aka quite possibly the best thing you will eat anytime soon

The Dynamite Roll was a volcano tower consisting of a California Roll that is paired with baked small sea scallops and then finished with a spicy drizzle of a house awesome dressing. The word decadent comes to mind when savoring each bite with a good fiery sting that lingers after you finish. At this point we were sort of getting close to the wall but carried on because, hey...you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.

Then, yes, the much sought after and much applauded Bear Down Roll made it to the table. This thing was huge, long, intimidating. Stuffed with incredible shrimp tempura, the Bear Down is also covered with avocado, spicy kani (crab) and drizzled with a house spicy sauce. Think crunch, think savory, think spice, think full fatty goodness...yes, the Bear Down Roll is one of the best things I have eaten in quite some time and now I owe my wife an apology for thinking otherwise. We couldn't stop eating it and when it was gone, we missed it. Sure we were full but it didn't matter. The flavors happening at that moment were too irresistible to, um...resist.

Trust us here.

Finally we were treated to the Aburi Salmon, something we were not expecting. Two precision cuts of salmon on a bed of rice were seared with a blow torch and finished with a lush sauce that delivered a bit of heat, then on top of that spice we got two big pieces of garden fresh jalapenos. Strictly sumptuous and well crafted with that sneaky burn factor that mind the back of the tongue; an extol scorch for an exquisite lingering sushi session.

To put things in perspective: K Sushi may be new to Tucson but we have a feeling they will be doing what they do here for a bit of time to come. At least we hope so.

No. They will.

Aburi Salmon, slightly charred and mostly incredible

And what exactly does the K stand for? Well, it happens to be the first letter in the last name of the family that runs and owns the place.

Kwan.

That's right, the Kwan family are Chinese, in fact they all hail from Hong Kong. Cool right? So a Chinese family living in Tucson is serving up some of the best Japanese food here or anywhere. For that alone the Tucson Homeskillet salutes them. That'd be like me going to India and operating a Jamaican food stand. Think about that.

You know what...that doesn't sound half bad.

Regardless, you need to get to K Sushi as soon as you can before they get as busy as their neighbors. I heard their ramen was amazing too. So I better stop typing and get moving along the old ramen trail here and get back to K Sushi.

Hopefully, you'll be there too.

Cheers!

Thank you K Sushi!

K Sushi Bar Japanese Restaurant

2962 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson AZ

520-305-4117

http://kjprestaurant.wix.com/home

Camera, Typing and Eating
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Star Wars Day, 2016

Metal Influence:

HIGH ON FIRE

"Bastard Samurai" 

Kneel Before The Altar Of A Meatless God!

Pretty sure it all started with a link.

It was a few years back, I had just left the life of a chef to work in a library and start a food site. Me being a lifelong fan of Metal music and also being a big time eater and lover of food, I'm pretty sure someone sent me a link via social media with the tagline: "Dude, you gotta check this guy out."

The link took me to a YouTube page dedicated to someone calling himself the Vegan Black Metal Chef. Okay. The Black Metal thing I was immediately down with as was the chef part...but "vegan"? It looked cool but I wasn't immediately sold.

So I clicked on a video where he was making Pad Thai. Sure. I mean, I was pretty convinced that this whole thing was a joke. Some guy in corpse paint, maiming food and then sacrificing it all to some slop altar all in the name of instant and brief internet fame.

But then...I kept watching.

After the initial bleating of his name over and over again in the sort of goblin squawk that some Black Metal vocalists strain, the video actually turned a respectable corner. Wearing chain mail and harsh vinyl gauntlets, the man in the makeup began to actually cook food. Brandishing a wicked blade you might see in a Dungeons and Dragons playbook and doing it all in candlelight, the Vegan Black Metal Chef took you from what ingredients you will need, what to do first, how to cook and assemble and all the while using non-animal products to do so. About halfway in I didn't even mind that he was cooking vegan. In fact, I really didn't notice. This guy knew what he was doing and I was an immediate fan.

His book, his tome, his offering unto the world

The best part was, the Vegan Black Metal Chef was funny. Keeping with the whole "Black Metal" motif, he tells you to "crush the s--t out of the peanuts" and "this is so much better than store bought because store bought sauce suuuuuuuucks!"

Not only was I learning, but I was laughing too, all the while getting my Metal fix in as blistering darkened music loomed in the background while his lesson goes subtitled seeing as he is near gargling the recipe to you in demon speak. When that video ended I instantly started another. Then another. Pretty soon I was a subscriber to his site, followed him on social media and began posting his newest videos on my own online pages.

And I'm not even a vegan. Far from it.

But I was hooked.

The man, the makeup, the lover of animals

A few months ago I got a message on social media: The Vegan Black Metal Chef was writing a cookbook and created a Kickstarter campaign to get it going. Oh, I may not have a ton of money, but this guy is going to get some of mine because I want that cookbook out on the shelves for everyone to savor. Vegan or not, the guy in the bat wing shoulder cloak knows what he is doing and I knew that his manual would envelop most run of the mill Food Network inspired cookbooks. Forget the boring old 'brunch ideas' and 'super simple supper' recipes you've bored over again and again, the Vegan Black Metal Chef is here to burn all that tripe down (well, not actual tripe, that would mean cruelty to a cow) and build a tasty fortress of gastro-ingenuity without the use of real cheese or meat.

I've seen it be done on YouTube, now I just need it bound and printed.

There was even an incentive to donate to his cause. If you gave a certain amount, not only would he get closer to publication and you get a copy of the book once it was published but he would mention you and promote your website as well. This, I thought, was too good to be true. Seeing as the Tucson Homeskillet was in the infancy of its rebirth at the time, we could use all the help we can get. Heck, we still can! So I gave what I could and waited...

Ingenious recipes, easy and animal free

Then one day I got an email. It was from the man himself. He received my donation and just needed the link to my website. So I sent him the address and not too long after he responded:

"Your website has an image of a piece of pizza that clearly has animal based product on it. Since I cannot condone the use of animal based ingredients, can you send me something else?"

So I sent the Vegan Black Metal Chef a few articles that could be deemed "vegan"; one was about a local beer house and the other was a local brewery. That's...what I had. Luckily those links seemed to satisfy the dark lord of the kitchen and on November 3rd 2015, myself and the Tucson Homeskillet got a nod from the wicked sorcerer de cuisine sans animale.

A couple of months later, a package arrived. In it was his cookbook.

Immediately I flipped through it and just as quick I knew this thing was amazing.

Breaking it down like the villages of the forlorn doomed to have their huts engulfed in flames

"The Seitanic Spellbook" (for those that might not know, seitan is pure wheat gluten that a lot of vegetarians and vegans use in the place of meat, it has a similar consistency to some lean proteins especially when cooked and seasoned correctly) is what you would expect from the magic realm of the Vegan Black Metal Chef. Right off from opening the blackened folio of heightened consciousness cuisine, there are skulls, fire, pentagrams and most importantly a mission statement.

The master invokes the conclave of what "traditional" plant based cooking is meant to be and smashes that notion like the brains of his enemies. He sticks tried and true to keeping as close to non-animal based components as possible but using his own experience and taste to elevate each dish. But just like his website and videos, the VBMC crushes the usual elitist and sometimes tasteless takes on what it means to eat and live vegan. This guy makes it fun. Like really fun.

And that is something the lifelong devotees and the curious onlookers of the vegan cabal need these days. 

I know I do.

Your unearthly trip across the globe

The book starts off with a breakdown of cuisine from around the world. Not too sure what they are dining on in Hell these days, but I am sure it might involve a lot of garlic and some Sriracha, which the chef here uses a good amount of.

Peppered among the glorious offerings of less than barbarous fare are essays and helpful hints to assist you in your ascent into a food coma oblivion. Such as, and I had no idea about this, there are "vegan" wines compared to other wines. Did you know this? We sure didn't.

Apparently some wines are filtered through bone marrow and fish parts....but why? Anyway, the good thing is that vegan wine is cheaper than those that invoke gelatin to make them sweeter or more palpable to the common tongue and for that we bow our heads before the enlightened deity and continue forth on our quest for real yummy vittles. 

Further uses of the components you already possess in your pantry of doom

You are taken on a journey from Euro-American, through Asia, South America, Indian cuisine, Italian and the Middle East. Each stop, much like the notion of this entire hell spawn of recipes and concepts, breaks down the "traditional" approach to each dish. The best thing is, the change is really quite simple. All you have to do is tweak a bit here and there, perhaps spend more time at Asian markets and co-ops to get you ingredients, but overall the switch really isn't that grotesque.

And this is coming from a Metalhead that eats whatever he wants. Honestly, "The Seitanic Spellbook" really makes me want to challenge myself and go vegan once in a while. I like vegetables. If it wasn't for the potato how would we get french fries and vodka? Think about it.

Perhaps you going vegan wouldn't be so rough if you follow the examples set in this book. I bet you can do it.

Let's see if you can.

Metal Mark's weakness, Indian cuisine, which is nearly vegan to begin with

Each section opens up to one initial recipe, folded between the two pages. On the left, you have the "Spell Reagents" (aka the ingredients), which are always stripped down and easy to obtain and follow. Next comes the play by play on cooking the dish all done with the vernacular that we have all come to love and fear from his online videos. Sure there's no Black Metal playing (um, this is a book yo), so you're going to have to supply that on your own.

Might I suggest some early Emperor, Mayhem, Dark Throne, Carpathian Forest and that Chris Gaines thing that Garth Brooks did trying to do some sort of switcharoo on us and all he did was don a black wig and flavor savor.

Oh, and you need to cook by candlelight. And with a dagger of eternal nightmares. And pepper.

Lots of pepper.

Scoop out the flesh of yon avocado of death

Intertwined in these works of gloom and deliciousness, are the Chef's advice on how to shop. Oh you think you can just waltz into any Piggly Wiggly, buy some non-meat item and then be all "Hey, looka me...I'm all vegan and crap!" No. You need to read the labels, you need to seriously give some thought into what you are putting in your cart and then putting in your mouth. Hidden in so many so called "vegetarian" products contain microbes of animal spleen or cricket dust. It happens and if you want to follow the doctrines of the Vegan Black Metal Chef you are going to have to change the way you shop.

All it takes is perhaps a course to a different food supplier, maybe sourcing from a local farmers market or not supporting the gratuitous big box gluttony that is slowly poisoning you with their labels of "organic" and "healthy". This scripture of evil benediction will guide you into the darkened light of a new consciousness with just the simple task of modifying a thing or two here and there.

Regardless, this book is just chock full of instructions on how to inventory your kitchen to create the best freakin' food you could possible conjure up to appease the wicked gods of the culinary underworld.

Did you know you can recreate the flavor of shrimp by using the Japanese Konjac root and a few spices?

Me either.

Apparently bacon is a state of mind, not just a fatty pork product

My favorite parts have to be the "Oracles of Inspiration" which are extensions of the meal plan and recipe you were just provided with and uses the components to further your excursion into the deep forest of flavor.

You have the vegan cheese and made black bean "cheese" burgers...now what? How about mac 'n cheese? A burrito? Lasagne maybe? He doesn't just proclaim "Go get me some green beans for this one dish!" and then leave you hanging. Using the index in the back, locate 'green beans' and pursue your way into the vortex of heavenly spite and yummy tummy scorn. There is no end to the concepts of eating vegan in this book and flavor is just the beginning.

Or the end. Bwahahahahaa!!!

You all have spiked bowls of infernal grimness I hope

Through it all, the Vegan Black Metal Chef arrives on occasion to inspire and be the torch down the long dungeon of uncertainty and possible fleeing. With that razor sharp wit and confidence, he has pages dedicated to knowing what the book's intentions are, what it means to live a cruelty free life and to be the best darn person you can be. All the while cursing, praising Satan and making you laugh the whole time.

This cookbook may not be for all people just due to the subject matter and the use of Black Metal and skulls to mach your guacamole, but no one can deny the care, thought and time it went into creating such a demonic reach of exquisite food and flavor. If you are looking for fancy vegan cuisine using only the dried berry emulsion from the rarest bloom found on the tallest mountain only cultivated by a secluded indigenous people for one week out of the year...you need to talk to you dietitian/yoga instructor named Chip because this guy uses onion powder and stuff you can purchase down the street. The idea of going vegan shouldn't be terrifying or really that hard. It should be about awareness and caring about how you live in this world and what you do as a part of it. That and eating some good stuff.


The only "terrifying" thing is his collection of battle weapons. I mean, how do you chop a leek with a double bladed axe? Not too sure, but the Vegan Black Metal Chef makes it look so easy.

And fun.

By the fires ov Hell, the food was delightful

"The Seitanic Spellbook" needs to be in the collection of any serious home cook looking for options, vegetarians and vegans needing a well needed push into safer territories and for Metal fans because this man does it right. It's smart, it inventive, it cracked me up and above all it made me super hungry. I look at cookbooks all the time and this one actually had me panting and drooling. Best part is, there isn't one animal ingredient in any dish and I'd like to see Bobby Flay pull that off. Plus I don't think he could pull off the corpse paint either. Or maybe he could. I'd like to see him try.

Blessings and curses to you Vegan Black Metal Chef. This scroll of savory darkness is one to cherish and keep bound forever in a sarcophagus buried deep in the forlorn wastelands of Nefelheim only to be procured by the summoning imps beyond the freezing damnation mist when their hunger becomes malevolent.

Or keep convenient on top of the fridge like I do.

Either way.

We of the Tucson fold know our tacos, and these are good tacos

You can visit the Vegan Black Metal Chef HERE

Watch his videos HERE

Eventually buy the book but for now get it for your Kindle HERE

Camera and Typing
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
In the Permafrost of Late Winter, 2016

Metal Influence:

GORGOROTH

"Carving A Giant"

QQ Sushi: A Moveable Feast...Literally!

So I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you a story. I'll try to be brief even though it's quite a lengthy tale.

She-Ra, my wife, and I met when I was still living in San Francisco. My day job was bartending near Fisherman's Wharf and I was her, and her friend's visiting from Arizona for a few days, bartender. According to her, I was the worst bartender ever and in two days we were engaged. 

Unfortunately, she had to go back to Tucson but she did come and visit for a week before I made the decision to drop everything and move to where she was, which was here in Tucson. During that week visit, on a walking tour of the city, we stopped into a sushi place, a style that she had never seen before and I had been to a handful of times. It was a "rotating" sushi restaurant, or a "sushi boat", which meant that rolls, appetizers and nigiri sat on different colored plates that floated on a steady stream of water, like a food armada, and the color of the plate indicated how much you would be paying. For example, if you grabbed a roll on a red plate, that meant you paid $3 for it, or a blue plate was $5, stuff like that. It was at this place that we realized that not only were we meant for each other but we both harbored a deep love for good sushi.  Well, food in general.

Now lets cut to ten years later and a sushi boat restaurant opens up near the university. Called QQ Sushi, it has the promise of being the first, if not the only, revolving or rotating sushi joints in town. Feeling nostalgic and, like always, hungry, we saddled up on a warm weekday afternoon and decided to check it out. 

The first thing we were hit with once we entered, was the scale of the place. It was pretty big; slightly cavernous and very very clean. The stainless steel that snaked around the tables and booths were wiped to a military regime shine. On these polished metal counters slithered a conveyor belt train that moved seamless throughout the wide open space. 

Ah HA!, I thought. This is the reason we came here. Cool man. Sure it was bigger than most of the sushi boat restaurants I had been to, a lot bigger, but the idea of having little plates of sushi float up to you table made me...

Wait. I didn't see any mini trays of rolled fish skimming on water. In fact, I didn't see any water. Come to think of it...there wasn't even any sushi at all! 


What we did see was this:

That's right. Laminated cards with images and descriptions of the food, moving around the seats in a weird jangly motorized dance. Immediately we were a bit disappointed, unable to recreate the first time we had sushi together in a cramped sushi boat joint near Chinatown...because there were no boats. 

Then what's the point of having a "revolving" or "rotating" sushi restaurant where there isn't any sushi that's revolving or rotating around you? 

Laminated placards on stands? This is odd. I mean...what's the deal here?

Okay...but where's the actual Tiger Roll?

Looks good. Just no real Ninja Roll.

I'll take, uh...well, nevermind.

Okay. Maybe we were getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Sure, this is Tucson, in the summer!, so maybe having lil tug boats of fresh fish and seaweed navigating on tepid water isn't the best idea. Especially in a room as big as this one. So, why the flowing belt design then? Is this like a "gimmick"? We were kind of confused but we took a seat regardless. 

Here's the thing: we were the only ones here at the time. Like I said, it was mid week, mid afternoon and mid summertime near the U of A. Not a lot of traffic on the streets this day. So maybe when its slow they convert to advertisements on stands rather than real fish. According to our very nice and very attentive server (which made us perk up a bit because getting great service on non peak hours is rare) this was not the case. Just rotating signs. 

Here's how it works: You find the food item you want to eat (which can be tricky because they move at a fairly rapid clip), place it on the end of the table, a server will grab it then bring you the dish. Right. Sounds easy enough. But why... Oh forget it. I still didn't really see the pint of it but, whatever...we were really hungry and started grabbing laminates that seemed reasonable to quell our rumbling tummies.

Wait! Slow down! I'll have... C'mon!

We needed apps and snacks stat. The edamame advert whizzed by and we grabbed it. Since we were the only ones here (well, one couple walked in a little later but, they don't count) our server grabbed the sign and within seconds, fresh, salty and steamy beans were on our table.

Umm...okay.

The edamame came in a bowl that was topped with a plastic dome, sort of like a sushi grade Tupperware. The server popped it open and we were met with grassy vaporous beauty. It smelled really good. Digging in we were very pleased to find that they were lovely and fresh; soft and flavorful with a good crunch. 

So, do they have some kind of sushi sorcerer back there making this stuff hot n' ready in no time flat, or does this place know how to prep for efficiency and massive flavor? I voted for the latter, even though I always go for the wizard chef ideal.  The edamame was really good and was in front of us in a few seconds. Amazing.

Then it occurred to me: what if QQ is out to be a sort of Jimmy John's of the sushi circuit? I could see that. In fact, while I grabbed placards for some miso soup and gyoza, I suddenly had this image of the place jamming it out on a packed Friday night. I saw servers running and swirling around each other, picking up orders off of tables and then grabbing the pre-made food before dashing back to the table, opening up the top and watching the hungry patrons dive in. 

Sure. I could see that. But how does the hot food stay hot? Microwave? I guess. That doesn't seem very fair but...whatever. The miso soup was hot and full of rich flavor in a light broth and the gyoza was done to a piping crispiness and loaded with succulent vegetables and seasoned meat. Quite yummy.

Suddenly, I began to really like QQ. But I was still scratching my head.

Hot brothy miso soup was actually really tasty.

Gyoza was flavorful and meaty. So far, we were really impressed.

The appetizers had won us over so far. They arrived with lightning speed and precision and were really yummy. Not the best we'd ever had but definitely not the worst. Far from it. Hot, delicate and done to near perfection. 

Now it was time for the real mama jammas.

The sushi!

Salmon nigiri.

First up we ordered, well...'grabbed and put at on the edge of the table', a couple of nigiri. This is a true test for a landlocked sushi restaurant: can they deliver a fresh and delicious bite of raw fish with no ocean in sight for miles? So far here in Tucson we have been lucky to have had some incredible nigiri...and some not so much. But can a place such as QQ, with it's already prepared concept and near instantaneous dispatch of food, promise to have such tasty morsels? 

The answer...is yes.

Tuna nigiri. So good, so fast...who knew?

The fish was fresh and full of flavor with a smooth buttery texture. I personally thought the rice was a little tough, but She-Ra thought otherwise. Just a slight dip of the fish into the soy sauce brought me back to coastal days in California, except it was 100+ degrees out and I couldn't see an ocean. 

We've had better but for the price and the fact that I couldn't see a sushi chef anywhere impressed me that perhaps we are eating future food. Did they teleport the stuff from Sushi Island? Is that really a place? The fish was good, tasted like decent tuna and salmon and cut with precision. Great. How are they doing this with such a limited staff and in the middle of the Sonoran desert? 

We didn't care. It was time for some rolls.

Spicy shrimp crunch roll.

When we go to a new sushi restaurant we always order some standards. That way, if they screw up a California roll or the like, we know not to come back. Once a sushi joint has been established with us, then it is off to the neither races of oddities and house specialties when we come back to visit. So we kept it safe here with a spicy shrimp and crab rolls. 

Once again, with the efficiency of a ADD cheetah on meth, the rolls arrived within no time. 

The spicy shrimp was really good. Had a definitive tang from the chili oils and spices and was cooled off by fresh seaweed and little pops from the roe. A lovely roll indeed. 

The crab was offset by tempura vegetables and cream cheese and topped with an almost bar-be-que sauce and crunchy tobiko. Again, we were vastly impressed. All of these flavors came together in a very surprising  and symbiotic way. The sushi rolls were quite good and we will most likely be back to try some, say, more "challenging" options. 

If they got the basics down on lock like this, I'm sure QQ can deliver other tasty items and, I'm sure, in the fastest way possible.  

Again, how do they do it?

I didn't care. I was too busy eating and enjoying myself. 

Crab tempura roll...yes please!

Recently we got word that a QQ sister restaurant just opened on Swan and Grant, in an old Chinese buffet space next to Chipotle. Sure. I'm game! If it's anything like the original QQ Sushi here my bet is it will be a busy boon to that side of town. 

As far as this location is concerned, we liked it a lot. Good food, really attentive, friendly and efficient service and the quality of everything was quite surprisingly top notch. Plus after all the food we ate, we walked out of there with a bill that was less than $30, not including tip. Uh, yeah. We will most likely be back. 

But I'm still not sold on the 'signs on stands on a conveyor belt' concept rather than floaty boat trays carrying sushi bites. Maybe it's just the nostalgic nerd in me, but I really loved all of the sushi boat restaurants I visited in the past, especially that one in San Francisco where we talked all afternoon and knew we wanted to get married. Oh well. Maybe that concept is just not meant to be here in the desert. Sigh.

In summation, QQ Sushi is a hit. Not a grand slam, but a good double or triple play and I can only see them getting better. If you are in the neighborhood please drop in and see for yourself. Maybe the laminates make more sense to you. Who cares though? The food was awesome.  

Although if there is anybody reading this that wants to open up a real sushi boat joint, let me know. I'll be the first to say "Yes!" and be the first in line opening night. 

Cheers!

Wait. They have a full bar? Why didn't you tell me? Jeeze!

You can find QQ Sushi at 1011 N. Tyndall between Speedway and 1st Ave. 

Visit them at: www.qqsushibar.com 

Camera and Typing
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
On a Sunday in early August


Metal Influence
Boris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwK2s734DQ