While most people celebrate with a traditional birthday cake, I celebrated a milestone with a sushi cake from Sushi Tei. The big 3-0 was ushered in with a lovely layered surprise of my favorites--salmon, yellowtail, and tuna. The monstrosity is made up of layers of sushi rice, avocado, nori, and your choice of fish. Who needs frosting when you can have spicy tuna and sashimi roses? The hubby knows exactly what to get this birthday girl.
How could we leave Portland without enjoying some of the best sushi in town. Our experience at Miyake topped a slew of a list of delicious honeymoon eats.
Last year we had a very satisfying bowl of ramen at its sister restaurant, Pai Men Miyake and couldn't wait to dive into this pick-your-own four-course dinner.
Marinated Salmon: [Thinly sliced raw salmon with capers, mustard vinaigrette, and oba shiso leaves] This unique carpaccio-style sashimi was tangy and briny with beautiful velvety slices of salmon but the pickled plum was the crowning jewel.
Tuna 3 Ways: [sashimi, zuke, tartare] The least innovative dish of the night was this classic trio which lacked the punch and wow of others. Not that it was terrible, just not as exciting. 
Tai Kubuton: [Tai snapper head marinated and braised in sake, soy, dashi and ginger] Now that's a face only a mother could love. It was a bit of a Hannibal Lecter moment but it's one of the best cuts; the flesh is melt in your mouth tender. The simple fragrant sauce was just what this dish needed and nothing more.
I take lunch pretty seriously, especially since I work in Downtown Albany. In looking back at my favorite Downtown Albany lunch spots, I can't believe I totally neglected to mention The City Beer Hall! Sure CBH is great for happy hour and dinner, but it's much quieter and less crowded during the day. With a gorgeous patio space out back, it's a perfect lunchtime getaway break in the summer.
The lunch menu has evolved into a a lighter, fresher one using seasonal ingredients and it's been a nice alternative to days when I've had a 518 burger and felt too stuffed to work the rest of the afternoon. To be fair, it is probably the best burger I've had in Capital Region. Can't go wrong with quality grass fed beef cooked to a perfectly juicy medium rare. Other go to comfort foods that have stayed on the menu (and that I've obviously had more than once) are variations of delicious, cheezy things: truffled mac 'n cheese; gourmet grilled cheese with aged cheddar, pear, and jalapeno jam on sourdough; and the fried chicken sandwich with cranberry goat cheese and arugula. So when I came across the Heirloom Tomato and
Watermelon Salad, it was a nice break from the comforting carbs and for days when I try to eat more vegetables. I've been loving watermelon salads lately and the panko-crusted goat cheese medallion that accompanied the salad was a nice creamy, tangy element to the mix and the basil-mint vinaigrette rounded the dish well. It was the perfect light salad on a warm summer day. My only gripe was that the portion needed to be bigger but I guess it would be a great duo to balance the mac 'n cheese, which is now a smaller portion as well.
The inner french-Canadian in me squealed when I saw poutine on the menu. We all know that I have high standards for poutine. Since I got J hooked on poutine since we started dating, I couldn't have a bite without my partner in crime. We stopped in for a snack today and went all out: poutine with the pulled short rib. I've come to the conclusion that cheese curd here will never taste the same or squeak the same as the ones in Canada, with the exception of the local Montreal Poutine Truck. I'm always disappointed when the curds come melted but alas, this version was pretty tasty nonetheless. The short ribs were super tender and the beef gravy was made with beer which gave the dish another interesting dimension. The fries could have been more crispy but props for using hand cut fries.
Since J and I thought ordering two orders of poutine would be overkill, we got a side of the fish tacos instead, which turned out to be an awesome decision. This taco has an asian flair: pan-seared rare tuna on a corn tortilla with ginger-soy slaw and drizzle of wasabi mayo and pickled pineapple. We love sushi and this dish was right up our alley. Good thing we ordered this dish because it was a light refreshing bite compared to the heavy greasy goodness of poutine. We've been big fans of Chef Menagias since his days at the now defunct Wine 'n Diner and even more so now since HopChef. Still dreaming of those HopChef hanger steak and eggs chef ;) We're happy to see him back on the culinary scene here at the City Beer Hall.
I cannot begin to tell you how well we ate in Maine. Our vacation culinary adventures began in Portland, Maine. This coastal city is foodie bliss. We've written about our weekly sushi cravings and being right by the sea coast, we couldn't resist taking advantage of some of the best and freshest seafood in town. What I really wanted to try was Miyake, mainly because Alex Guarnashelli declared their mushroom miso soup The Best Thing I Ever Ate and I remember seeing Andrew Zimmern making a Bizzare Foods stop, but being on a limited budget and because J hates mushrooms (one of these days he'll be a convert), we decided to go on a Yelp sushi search.
Our findings led us to the best sushi meal we've ever had at Benkay Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar. We consider this our #1 all-time sushi spot now. Too bad it's now 4hrs away from Albany. We might very well consider a weekend trip just to eat this sushi again.
The pressure of the inaugural blog post... Let's preface our first blog post with a disclaimer/introduction: J. and I are by no means culinary experts. We are merely foodies who enjoy tasty treats, love to dine out (even though we have a terrible streak of getting awful service), and we are fanatics of Food Network's Chopped and Restaurant Impossible.
80% of our culinary escapades are to sushi joints. We crave it on a weekly basis and it's only a matter of time before we get mercury poisoning. Sushi isn't hard to find in Albany; the Capital Region is saturated with mediocre places. Hell, even Wal-Mart carries it, *cringe*. Amazing and quality sushi on the hand, can only be found at a handful of places. Here are our regular and favorite sushi spots:
1. Sushi Tei (Guilderland): Blink and you can easily miss this small and pleasantly quiet and quaint place. It is hands down one of our favorite spaces for authentic and delicious Japanese food without the frills of loud weird techno music and glowing gaudiness (*cough* Sushi X, cough cough). Our go to here is a dinner box: your choice of two rolls, fruit, chef's choice of an appetizer (we've had gyoza or seaweed salad) and one of the reasons why we love the dinner box so much is a side of crab salad (crabmeat, panko crumbs, tobiko, and cucumber). Salmon here is top notch when at its peak of the season and one of our favorite appetizers is the tuna dumpling (crab salad wrapped with tuna sashimi) and the raw scallop sashimi, which comes with lemon slices and really elevates the flavor and sweetness of the scallops. Also, try the udon noodle soup at least once. All Over Albany has all the udon details here.
2. Mr. Fuji Sushi (Stuyvesant Plaza): We're always greeted with a smile and have never had bad service here. Our go to is the boat for two. That's right, a boat of sushi. Once in awhile we'll deviate and some stellar standouts include specials like the naruto roll (mixed fish rolled with cucumber instead of seaweed and rice); raw scallop sashimi; and jalapeno yellowtail. J is a fan of the salmon and I think Mr. Fuji hands down has the best white tuna sashimi. Mr. Fuji, whoever he is, also makes spicy rolls that are actually spicy and not too heavy on the sesame oil and breadcrumbs.
3. Sake Cafe (Albany): We come here solely for the Crazy Couple Roll (a spicy tuna and spicy yellowtail roll) that no one else seems to make. Another favorite is an appetizer called Treasure Island (mixed fish in an avocado half with spicy and eel sauces).
Honorable mentions: Sushi Thai Garden (Saratoga & Clifton Park) and Sushi Na Ra (Latham)
On the flop side, one of our worst sushi experiences have been at Sushi X (Latham). At first we were jaded by the "all you can eat" aspect of it. Each time we went back, service was worse and worse (i.e. took 15-20 mins for first round of food to come, long time to get our check, waiter forgetting our drink order) and so was the quality of the fish. It lacked flavor and full of fillers like breadcrumbs and too much rice to fish ratio. We kept going back hoping things would get better but the last time we went, the waft of stinky fish odor that greeted us as we walked in the door was a definite sign for us to never come back.
So we're curious, what are some of your favorite Capital Region sushi joints?
Happy sushi eatings,
J & R
Tuna 3 Ways: [sashimi, zuke, tartare] The least innovative dish of the night was this classic trio which lacked the punch and wow of others. Not that it was terrible, just not as exciting. 
