Students Again

For this individual restaurant review a group of us decided to go to Sapporo restaurant for happy hour and experience some new food.

During our several hours of attendance, were we there from about 5:00p.m. until 8:00p.m., we were able to sample several different food items and a few drinks. The first thing I order was a Sapporo beer. I have never tried this beer and found it rather amusing to order at this particular restaurant. This beer was light, clear, and crisp tasting. Considering that I have never had a Japanese beer before I thought is was rather tasty. However, the really interesting thing about this particular beer is that it is a rice beer. Wow, I never knew that there was such a thing as rice beer. The night was shaping up to be a good night and now it was time to start a marathon sampling of food. The first thing we ordered was some sushi. I have tasted some sushi in the past, but I was not a big fan so I was rather hesitant in this experience. I figured the purpose of these restaurant reviews were to expand our horizons and try new things so I gave sushi a concerted effort. We stared off with some sushi rolls. The name of the roll we ordered was Caterpillar. The roll consisted of eel and cucumber wrapped in sushi rice and topped with avocado and eel sauce. Much to my surprise I rather enjoyed this treat; I am definitely open to eating eel anytime because it was very tasty. After the Caterpillar roll we moved on to another roll named Tootsie. The Tootsie roll was crab and cucumber wrapped in sushi rice and topped with eel sauce. This was another good choice. At this point I am beginning to grow fond of sushi. Now it was time to be a little more adventurous. Now we were ready to order some Nigiri. Nigiri is a type of sushi that consists of a mound of sushi rice with a thinly sliced piece of raw fish on top. I wasn’t too sure about this, but I was committed to giving it a genuine try. We ordered the Unagi (fresh water eel), sake salmon, and Maguro (tuna). I was all for ordering the eel after my experience with the rolls. However, the tuna and the salmon made me a little uneasy. I love both tuna and salmon, but I love them cooked. As expected I really enjoyed the eel. The tuna was not bad either. I would definitely give the tuna another try at a later date. As for the salmon, I could definitely do without another piece in my life. For me, it encompassed all of the horrors that flash in my brain when thinking about eating raw fish. It was mushy in texture; it looked like it had a coat of slime on it, and overall just did not taste very good. It was literally tough for me to swallow the salmon, but I got it down and can now say I have tried it. The last thing we tried was less  adventurous, but it was something I have heard of and was really intrigued. This was a Kobe beef burger. Kobe beef has become very popular over recent years as evidenced through the many televised cooking shows. Once I saw this on the menu earlier in the night I knew I had to try it. As the burger arrived at the table I salivated in anticipation of some new fabulous magical burger. Maybe I built it up too much in my head, but it ended up being just that – a burger. Yes, it definitely had a different flavor to it, but in my opinion it wasn’t so fabulously different that I am completely able to understand the hype. In the end it was a good burger and it was something new that I could say that I have tried. The really positive thing about this
whole experience is that I liked sushi for the first time; not that I can say I have tried it much or gave it a fair shot in the past.

The ambiance of Sapporo was rather modern and interesting, but I highly question the cultural connection. Sapporo was enclosed in wood with blue neon light accents. I am not familiar with Japanese restaurant décor, but I would have pictured in more quiet and refined. I guess I would imagine a more introverted atmosphere rather than something reminiscent of a night club. As for the food, I think it was probably pretty close to traditional. Maybe it was somewhat Americanized in the spectacle of some of the sushi. The sushi obviously took an extreme amount of skill to produce and really appeared somewhat artistic. Now, I can not be certain because I have never been to Japan, but I would imagine the sushi to be more simple and pure and about the fish. It would still take a tremendous amount of skill and be beautiful, but still simple. I think this possibly Americanized version of sushi is a main factor in its popularity today. This definitely has had an impact on American culture, making sushi a main line American food choice.