Advertisement
Sushi At Sushi Academy
Here's the rainbow roll in the making Scheduled today - California Sushi Academy
We are up early and pumped up. On our last visit to Los Angeles, Trish bought a guide book that had a blip on the California Sushi Academy. Needless to say, we didn't visit. But this time we figured we would give it a shot. The class was set for 1030am and with our experience the previous day, we made sure we had lots of cushion time. We drove to where the class would be held and had a look around. It really is a small unasuming store front on a side street. Check!
On their website (http://www.sushi-academy.com/pages/aboutcsa.html), we were informed to bring a container to take our sushi home with us, so we traveled down Santa Monica Blvd to the nearest Walgreens to find some sealable containers. After walking through the store, grabbing the containers, and visiting the Coffee Bean next door, we had an hour to burn. So we decided to travel down to the Santa Monica Pier and have a quick drive around. I was really happy to see that traffic was light and quick to travel there and back.
10:20 hits and we are second in the class
Hughie and Trish in front of Roll
Here we are in front of one of our creations room. We are greeted by Hashimoto and take a spot. The centre of the small room is a stainless steel table with 10 sinks and cutting boards. As we wait quietly, other couples arrive. We wait five more minutes as we are informed there is another couple slated to arrive. Jim and Melanie arrive and the class is off.
We are informed by Hashi, that we will be learning to make cucumber rolls, california rolls, rainbow rolls and spicy tuna handrolls. After a rousing round the table of introductions, we went through the equipment in front of us. A few of the "secrets" of sushi were revealed. This was awesome, only 10 minutes in!!! This was the stuff that cookbooks dont tell you. I was pumped!!!
We gathered at the head of the table to watch the first roll demonstration, and we sent back to give it a try. True to form, Hughie was the 1st to finish with a so so performance. Trish was in the middle of the pack, but with a much better roll. We were then walked through the slicing of the roll, and then invited to eat our creation. So much better than
Hashimoto
Our instructor - Hashi our at home attempt!! The California Roll was next, followed by the spicy tuna cone which is Hughie's favorite. In a sushi restaurant, this is one of the 1st rolls considered. Secrets are revealed, jokes are told, the environment is brilliant.....
And then we finish 30 minutes early. Hashi looks a little concerned and does a quick inventory of what is left at each student's station. Hashi then informs us that he will teach us one more roll and leaves the classroom through the front door. Fortunately there is a grocery store right next door. This allows us some time to chat with the other students. As usual, they are all interested to hear of Yellowknife, the daylight, snow and the like.
Hashi returns with cucumbers and avocados to a resounding applause! We are shown the secrets of the Caterpillar roll and everyone is pretty excited. We take some pictures with Hashi and exchange cards with Jim and Melanie to be able to send them some pictures we took of them. As we leave, Hashi gives us an extra bow and handshake and we head down the street with a big box of our own handmade sushi.
Trish enjoying
Trish enjoying one of her creations During the class, we are informed of a Japanese grocery store "not far" from the classroom, so we head out in search of Mitsuwa grocery store.
Here's another hard lesson of distances in Los Angeles. What we considered "not far" ended up being 6 miles and a few uturns before we found Mitsuwa. But once we got in, it was worth it. Trish and I love local grocery stores and have been to more than a few asian markets, but not one that was specifically Japanese. And this one was. I think we spent an hour combing the shelves, which i think was only about 12 rows of goods. Not much by any means, but well worth it as we picked up more than a few items
We figured that while we were in the area, it would be a great opportunity to head down to Santa Monica Pier. We found some parking and headed to the beach with our box of sushi. This was unlike any beach we had been to in the past as there seemed to be a mile of sand before you get to the water. This beach was geared for volume, no doubt!
Our Instructor
Hughie, Trish and Hashimoto It was a little overcast and windy so this made for pretty scarce crowds. We grabbed some real estate and people watched while finishing our sushi.
After our sushi was finished, we headed to the pier to take in the offerings. Set up like a fair, there were food booths, trinket boots, ferris wheel, roller coaster, booths with games of chance, and street performers. We stopped to watch a breakdance routine and headed to the end of the pier where there were 20 or so people fishing.
Santa Monica pier was eclectic, but I'd suggest going an hour before sundown so you can catch it at the end of the pier and see the lights of the pier. I was more impressed by night pictures than I was during the day.
With 4 o'clock approaching, we figured that Downtown Disney wouldn't be a huge haul and hopped in the car towards Anaheim. Again, more lessons in traffic!!! We arrived at Disney by about 6 o'clock.
Fortune smiled upon us again as crowds were pretty mild. We milled about the stores where Trish found some goodies that we'd pick up later. As we enjoy movies in big
Santa Monica Pier
At the end of Route 66 theatres, Robin Hood was opening and we headed for the 6:30 show.
After the movie, we picked up Trish's goodies and headed out back into the traffic. We got back to the hotel by 11pm and were pretty beat.
Trish's Comments
Sushi class was fantastic, nice group, all willing to make fools of themselves trying something new. Sushi was great. So cool that I can make this at home, or at least try with what ingredients we can find at home. Being from Northern Canada helps break the ice with people, always questions about snow or sunlight.
Crowds are smaller than I expected. Not that I thought that places would be over-run but it's kinda quiet.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0616s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pat Loeppky
non-member comment
Love reading your blogs!! They are so entertaining. I can't wait for the next one to come out. And this one had pictures also which was great. Keep enjoying!!