The MVP - Kobe, as in Kobe Beef

Some friends and I made a trip to Geisha House recently. The experience was great, the food could have been better.

My favorite that night was the Kobe Beef Carpaccio. The menu listed wasabi as one of the ingredients. When you get the dish there's no wasabi to be found, until you take a bite. They've strategically placed delightful, tiny, caviar-like wasabi balls around the dish. They pop as you chew and provide a new texture and flavor that's not expected. It's quite nice.

The second favorite was the fried sesame chicken. The batter was almost right, just a tiny bit heavy. But it did carry out a good sesame flavor, which most Japanese places seem to not get the hang of.

The Over the Rainbow Roll and Red Samurai Roll were just OK. There was another dish but I can't even remember what it was so it must not have been good or bad enough to remember. Just mediocre.

I would fight that terrible Hollywood traffic just to have the beef carpaccio again. But if given a choice, I'd rather go to Sasabune.

Gimme More

The place: Sasabune. I wish I could afford to go there more often. sigh

The players: DrinkYourDrink, JustOneShot (together, they are the Tequila Sisters) and Fat Girl.

The occasion: Fancy birthday lunch for DrinkYourDrink.

I had hyped up this place so much it became a big event. So big that we all took a day off work just so we could have plenty of time to enjoy the food and, of course, dilly dally a bit. We wanted to get there ahead of the lunch rush and sit at the sushi bar.

We each ordered the Chef Special. You don't know what you're getting but you will not regret it. The freshest sushi ever! The yellowtail...so buttery. drool We ordered extra yellowtail and salmon because we had to, just in case that was the last time we ever ate sushi.

The Chef Special ended with a tremendous crab roll. So good that we each ordered another crab roll. After we finished our rolls we ordered yet another plate of assorted sashimi. The Chef looked at us and you can tell he wanted to say: You're kidding me, right? You can eat more?

The Tequila Sisters and I had no shame. We spent a solid two hours at the sushi bar. Top 100 best two hours of my life for sure.