Sushi

I recently spent a week cat sitting for my friend Jeanne.  She said she wanted to take me out to lunch to say thank you.  It's a fantastic gesture but my initial reaction was " Going out to eat is not as much fun anymore."  Although I am doing really well making creative and varied vegan recipes at home I don't go out to eat often and so I'm really not comfortable or confident yet.  She suggested Japanese and I was initially skeptical.  My experience with Japanese/sushi has been limited to some mediocre tempura and the sushi from Shaws.  But I went online and browsed some menus and was really pleasantly surprised and the amount of food that I could choose from and how appetizing it all sounded.  Instead of having to pick the one thing on the menu that I can eat and just dealing with it this sounded like it could open up a whole new world of eating out!

We decided on Yosaku on Danforth Street.  I had walked by many times during the summer and they have a great patio and it always looked like people were enjoying themselves. Although the weather was cold the sun was bright so we headed out for a short walk and then we arrived:

They have a really great menu that was laid out in a very clear way for a sushi novice like myself.  It was even highlighted to show those items that were vegetarian.  I had done a little homework before so I felt ready to order.


We started out with the steamed, salted edamame.  I love edamame and it's a great way for me to get a shot of protein.  Plus, as Jeanne said, it just feels good to suck those little buggers out of the pod.

Below is my meal.  Ume shiso (plum sauce and mint) roll on the left and sweet potato tempura on the right.  I have nothing but yummy praise for each of them.  Throw in some ginger and a nice hot tea and it definitely made a meal.

 

This is Jeanne's lunch.  She shared an avocado and cucumber roll (on the left) with me.  On the right is chicken tempura. 

 So, Jeanne knew our lunch was going to become a blog post so she wanted me to throw in some story about how a table of hot guys hit on us.  However, I'm sure if that table of guys had seen us acting like this it might have made them think twice.  What a great meal :)