No more Mr. Rice guy; sushi: it’s no raw deal

By CARTER HALL, Staff Reporter |

There is a confession I need to make … I love sushi. No matter what Japanese restaurant I visit, there’s a great chance there will be a sushi menu in my hands. So I am here to tell you about my favorite sushi spots in the city of Amarillo.

There once was a time that I would look at sushi and want the complete opposite. Then I met some friends who invited me to lunch at Young’s Sushi Rocks. This changed my life because it was the first time that I tried sushi.

The sushi menu looked foreign to me. “Kissing roll? Maki roll? Crunch roll? What is all this?” These names scared me and when it was my turn to order I panicked. The words “kissing roll” came out, and I must admit, after biting into my first piece I was in love. The kissing roll is something I always order when I go to Young’s. 

The tuna roll is another type of sushi that I enjoy there. The flavor of the tuna mixed with a little soy sauce or wasabi is out of this world. The sushi at Young’s tastes fresh and you can spot people at the sushi bar preparing your meal.

There is another local restaurant that is kind of lowkey, but once you try their sushi; it will become a secret gem. Bangkok Tokyo located on Western has some great sushi. I have been going there since I was in high school, and I always liked eating their spicy Bangkok Tokyo fried rice so going from eating spicy rice to eating spicy sushi was not that difficult.

A friend of mine who also is a sushi lover told me to try the volcano roll. When the volcano roll came to my table, it was as if I fell in love with sushi a second time. The flavor of the spicy sauce and the scallops made me want more.

I never thought I would eat sushi, but now it is a dish that I thoroughly enjoy when I go out to eat at a Japanese restaurants. To me, sushi is something that anybody can eat.

There are many types of sushi, offering something for everyone. People do not have to jump straight to the extreme sushi such as eel and octopus. Start out with a simple California roll and work up.