Steven and I went to a Japanese restaurant last night where I ate beef teryaki which was excellent(!), and he had sushi. He's been trying to talk me into eating sushi for a long time now (well, relatively speaking... we've only been together for a very short time, much of which he's being trying to convince me to eat sushi). I enjoyed the eel (fully cooked) sushi which was delightfully crispy in just the right spots, and not at all tough. The eel sauce that it came in was just as yummy.

I did not try anything raw, and I refused the crab roll slice when I found out that it had fish eggs on it (those could have been grown-up fishies one day...). I just cannot find myself enjoying fish eggs. Steven's response, of course, is "well then, no more scrambled eggs for you." The thing is, I like eating grown-up fishies. I'm not as excited about chickens. We have an abundance of chickens. Even if they did die off completely, I doubt I'd be too sad about it. Chicken is too bland and boring (how else could everything taste like chicken, but not like the other things that taste like chicken?). Plus, chicken eggs, also not that exciting to me. Too many of them (which is basically more than 1 at a time) makes tummy rumbly (in the words of Satchel, the cutest fictional dog ever).

But the beef was awesome. I'm not a beef fan, either. Most meats do not inspire thrill and happiness with me. In fact, a steak seems more like a chore than dirty dishes do. But this teryaki beef was beautifully done. The sauce was great, but they put a bit too much on top, in my opinion. The beef itself was quite tender, done to order (that's never happened to me before), and in chunks I could bite with no cutting required. Perfection.

And the Washington Apple Martini made me smile. Not because it was alcoholic, of course, but because it was a nice nod to my home-state. It had that apple stuff in it that they put in apple-flavored drinks, some sort of booze, and cranberry juice. If you didn't know, a significant portion of the cranberries that are grown in the states are found on farms in Washington. You need to have nice wet weather that's not too hot in order to grow good cranberries, which makes Washington the perfect place.

The desert was what really sold me on the whole place. We got tempura banana with ice cream and caramel sauce. I know tempura banana sounds a little odd, but it's actually really delicious. It caused us to be late to the movie (Open Season in 3-D--hilarious!).

Oh yes, and now I feel sad about cooking. I have no idea how to replicate good Japanese food, aside from my teryaki sauce, which I really like.