Fun with Sushi

Sushi is one of my favorite types of foods; unfortunately the price tag is often a little too steep to truly get wild and crazy with your selections or quantity.  That was until we discovered the glory that is the sushi happy hour.  I have been to two different locations now for their late night happy hour (sometimes it pays to eat after 9 pm), one being Miyako Sushi Bar on Kirby near 59, and the other being Aka Sushi House on Alabama between Kirby and Shepherd.  Of the two my favorite is Aka, the selection is wider and the atmosphere is a little less dark and cramped.

It was Aka that we took our faithful little food friend Kevin to on one of his recent trips to Houston, and let’s just say we learned our lesson.  The moment the menu was opened it was like he had won the lottery of sushi, and I am pretty certain that when it came to decided what we wanted to eat it was basically Kevin just reading down the list.  So after getting the leash on Kevin we settled on a variety of scrumptious dishes that made the night awesome.

First came one of my favorite Japanese appetizers, edamame, or steamed soy beans.  As you can see these were generously salted by the kitchen, yet they were plump and full of flavor and disappeared shortly after arriving.

Then came the delicious vegetable tempura, various pieces of vegetables in a light crisp batter served up with a sweet sauce that is quite possibly one of the best tempura sauces I have had.  As you can see there was a mushroom, some zucchini, green bean, sweet potato, and a slice of squash. 

These are a dish that we keep coming back to Aka for, these little crab and cream cheese wontons are stellar.  Usually when I have a wonton it is a thick bubbly fried wrapper, but these are thin and crispy and don’t take an ounce of flavor away from the fillings.  Then of course there is that sauce drizzled over them, a mango based sauce that at first made us balk at it, but after jumping off the edge on these there is no going back.

Finally, how can you go to a sushi bar and not get sushi?  That would be wrong on all accounts so we had to rectify that situation.  The top right rolls are Philadelphia rolls, a roll filled with smoked salmon, avocados, and cream cheese, basically a rich flavorful roll that is perfect for the less adventurous or not so fish friendly folks.  The bottom right rolls are the Spicy Tuna rolls, usually this is one of my favorite rolls in a sushi restaurant for its simplicity and flavor, but these were diabolical, you ate it and thought it wasn’t too bad then a slow painful burn crept up on you and lingered.  Finally were our adventurous Crunchy roll, a mix of crab, avocado, tempura crunch, sesame, spicy mayo, and masago.  It was a good roll, but I like to be able to taste the flavors more than have them all covered up with tempura and mayo, so next time we will get something different.