Sushi Or Not Sushi, That Is The Question

I was reading an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel the other day about making sushi at home for the holidays, when I suddenly understood the whole sushi principle. I'm not talking about the principle of raw fish not killing the patrons, which is a good principle of which I approve; I'm talking about the principle of sushi-construction. As it turns out, it sounds as if sushi chefs don't hand-craft the small, bite-sized morsels we know and love. They might instead make long rolls and then slice them up into smaller pieces. This does make more sense, even if it diminishes some of the sense of mystery of "How did they make such small rolls?" For the record, I am talking about maki sushi, as apparently there are different kinds of sushi, although I am not technically capable of explaining the difference at the moment.

The other takeaway I had from reading that article was the realization that I was hungry and had not consumed sushi since San Francisco.

Last night on my mad dash to the post office at 4:45, I passed Mobo Sushi by the Trader Joe's on Front Street, and I noted that it looked charming and comfortable, an impression that I might have gleaned from the fact that Mobo prominently advertises Sapporo.

In the spirit of our commitment to exploring Santa Cruz and trying new places to eat, Marina and I decided to try Mobo tonight, which was reported to be quite good.

It's hard to go wrong with sushi, which is almost universally satisfying, especially with the right beer. And in general, Mobo Sushi was satisfying, but there were a couple points where they did go wrong. For one thing, it seemed to take quite a while to get the sushi and then later to get the check and a to-go box for the leftovers, but that might have been simply because the place was crowded. It is evidently popular with locals, as Marina arrived early and people were lined up waiting for it to open at 5. The other failing was one of construction. Some of the pieces tended to fall apart when plucked by chopsticks. My friends will say this is because I tend to wreak havoc anytime I wield chopsticks, in much the same way that I spread chaos and confusion when shuffling cards, but I've actually polished my chopstick technique to a fine, functional competence. Also, Marina confirmed my impression of less than perfect maki-integrity. In addition, the tuna for the spicy tuna was a little soggy.

Not that this discouraged me from bringing home the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It did taste good, of course. It always does.

The beer probably helped.

So my assessment, with which Marina concurred, was that it was a pleasant experience, and I would go back, but not until after I sample other sushi restaurants, especially the first sustainable sushi restaurant in the area, which is out in Capitola, and whose name escapes me at the moment.

Speaking of trying new things, Marina decided that she wants to find a place that serves pho, another staple we enjoyed in San Francisco but have not yet found in Santa Cruz. We speculated on whether there would be time on one of Marina's sojourns to the city to both socialize and track down the Vietnamese specialty. Once again, it seemed, we came back to the eternal question: Friend or Pho?