It’s probably no secret here that I love sushi. It’s probably no secret that my kids love it, too. We’re all a bunch of sushi fiends and my husband just rolls his eyes when it’s suggested as a dinner alternative every time we talk about going out to eat. It’s the standard DAILY answer both kids give if asked “What shall we have for dinner tonight?”
I didn’t even try sushi until I was 30 years old. I had friends who tried to convince me that it was really good but I was adamant that nothing so disgusting (raw fish! ew!) would pass my lips. THIRTY WASTED YEARS! It wasn’t until I met Anders and he took me to a sushi restaurant in the first few weeks of dating that I caved in and tried a sushi appetizer: love makes you do all kinds of things you wouldn’t otherwise be amenable to…look what else he managed: I had children!
I use my own example with sushi as the perfect way to get my children to try something new or even to try something not so new that they’ve tried before and didn’t like. It’s different with foods you have tried as a child and rejected…you have to keep trying things, because your tastes change over the years. Someone once told me that your tastes change every 7 years, which is just folklore, but it is true that your cells, your personality AND your perception changes over time. So it’s definitely a good idea to keep pushing yourself (and your kids, if you have any) to keep trying things, even if you’ve tried it before and didn’t like it. You never know; it might just grow on you!
Though surströmming is definitely in the exception to the rule list. At least I can say I DID try it once. That was enough.
After my intro to sushi with Anders, my friend Val finally was able to convince me to go to a real sushi restaurant with her and try out different menu items for real. We ordered a boatload of sushi, and since that night I’ve been a bona fide sushi fiend. The last 2 years in Chicago, before Anders and I moved to Sweden, I must have eaten sushi a couple of times a week, if not more. It was cheap and plentiful and restaurants abounded in the area downtown where I lived.
Once we moved to Sweden, I had a much harder time feeding my habit. There was ONE sushi restaurant in Malmö 15 years ago (Izakaya Koi on Lillatorget, which is still there) and it was extremely pricey. More than 3x what I paid for sushi back in Chicago and since I wasn’t working, sushi and, for that matter, eating out in general, was a special-occasion luxury.
Nowadays, there are more than a dozen sushi restaurants in Malmö, at least 5 in Lund and we can afford to eat it more often, and do. I probably eat sushi at least twice a month, and have the possibility to have it for lunch every day at work, if I wish (though it’s not as good as fresh from the sushi bar). I organize AWC sushi nights every couple of months, and am glad to know I am not alone in my sushi-madness: we’ve had as many as 20 people sign up for an outing!
My kids and I are united in our love of salmon. I could eat it every day, prepared pretty much any possible way there is of serving it. Martin is partial to crabsticks, all of us will eat tuna and shrimp, but a tender slab of raw salmon with a dab of wasabi on a pefectly plump rice-pillow is very nearly the best thing we can think of to eat. YUM NOM MUMS.
Tonight is an AWC sushi night at yet another new sushi restaurant in Limhamn. There are 13 people plus 3 maybes signed up. I had a half-day of work today (day before a holiday: All Saint’s Day) and what better way to end the week than indulging in our favorite dinner?
Happy weekend everyone!