sooshi toosday
Mar. 30th, 2004 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clickieToday I went on a spontaneous sushi jaunt with my sushi-loving friend Ned. We haven't gone to Sam's in quite some time...well, I haven't. Presumably Ned has gone countless times in the interim.
In any case, Ned told me that he had started doing this new ordering routine at Sam's, though I forget what it's called. Basically, you just get fed a lot of sushi. You don't order anything, you just get loads of exquisitely prepared nigiri, one piece of each kind. I must've had at least ten sorts of nigiri: the usual kani and toro, baby lobster, spanish mackerel, amberjack, red snapper (with salad and almonds on top!), seared saba, white king salmon, arctic char, ocean trout, ark shell. Huh. That's eleven. That's a lot of fish.
This reminds me of a recent obsessive thought of mine: I was reading an article in Scientific American that I've told a lot of you about by now, but will sum up one more time. It said that too much choice makes people suffer. People apparently either aremaximizers: they try to make the absolute best decision and always choose the best thing of all available options, or they're satisficers: they go with a decision that's good enough of the currently available options. Apparently extreme maximizing correlates with clinical depression.
How does this connect to sushi? Well, in Baltimore, Kitty and Andrew took me to their favorite sushi place, which was very good, don't get me wrong. But it epitomizes the suffering induced by too much choice: They have this menu that is three columns, front and back, of different sorts of rolls. That's a lot of rolls. This is in addition to the main menu, mind. I freaked and couldn't make any decisions at all...it took forever. Too much choice. This contrasts directly with tonight's complete lack of decisionmaking: I had a marvelous meal, I tried lots of things I would never have ordered, but enjoyed immensely, and I got to eat like eleven sorts of fish.
Sometimes friends will go to Sushi Sam's by themselves and come back and tell me that it wasn't anything special. I tell those people that they're just eating the wrong things. The normal sushi at Sam's is fine; very fresh, very tasty. The great stuff are the specials: Super Sam's hand rolls: crab salad, shrimp tempura, unagi sauce in a handroll. Seared toro nigiri with ponzu sauce and some grated daikon. Ocean trout with shredded onions and a lemon slice. Seared saba with daikon and brown pepper. Oh my god, it's so good. We just stopped talking for most of the meal (no mean feat for Ned and me) and savored. Mmm.
We then went to Kepler's, where Ned asked me for advice on books about California biology. Very exciting to recommend books on a subject I know so much about! I got a book about invasive plants of California and the book about how too much choice makes people sad. Appropriate end to the evening.
In any case, Ned told me that he had started doing this new ordering routine at Sam's, though I forget what it's called. Basically, you just get fed a lot of sushi. You don't order anything, you just get loads of exquisitely prepared nigiri, one piece of each kind. I must've had at least ten sorts of nigiri: the usual kani and toro, baby lobster, spanish mackerel, amberjack, red snapper (with salad and almonds on top!), seared saba, white king salmon, arctic char, ocean trout, ark shell. Huh. That's eleven. That's a lot of fish.
This reminds me of a recent obsessive thought of mine: I was reading an article in Scientific American that I've told a lot of you about by now, but will sum up one more time. It said that too much choice makes people suffer. People apparently either aremaximizers: they try to make the absolute best decision and always choose the best thing of all available options, or they're satisficers: they go with a decision that's good enough of the currently available options. Apparently extreme maximizing correlates with clinical depression.
How does this connect to sushi? Well, in Baltimore, Kitty and Andrew took me to their favorite sushi place, which was very good, don't get me wrong. But it epitomizes the suffering induced by too much choice: They have this menu that is three columns, front and back, of different sorts of rolls. That's a lot of rolls. This is in addition to the main menu, mind. I freaked and couldn't make any decisions at all...it took forever. Too much choice. This contrasts directly with tonight's complete lack of decisionmaking: I had a marvelous meal, I tried lots of things I would never have ordered, but enjoyed immensely, and I got to eat like eleven sorts of fish.
Sometimes friends will go to Sushi Sam's by themselves and come back and tell me that it wasn't anything special. I tell those people that they're just eating the wrong things. The normal sushi at Sam's is fine; very fresh, very tasty. The great stuff are the specials: Super Sam's hand rolls: crab salad, shrimp tempura, unagi sauce in a handroll. Seared toro nigiri with ponzu sauce and some grated daikon. Ocean trout with shredded onions and a lemon slice. Seared saba with daikon and brown pepper. Oh my god, it's so good. We just stopped talking for most of the meal (no mean feat for Ned and me) and savored. Mmm.
We then went to Kepler's, where Ned asked me for advice on books about California biology. Very exciting to recommend books on a subject I know so much about! I got a book about invasive plants of California and the book about how too much choice makes people sad. Appropriate end to the evening.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 03:24 pm (UTC)but yes, as i said before, i agree: too much choice makes the mind boggle and no choice is made.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 04:59 pm (UTC)Cryptic Menus
Date: 2004-04-04 02:41 am (UTC)