After a minimal wait (shortened by my plying the owner Billy with questions about visiting his native Mongolia- and bless him for feeding my fantasy of a month long Mongolian bike trip,) I was handed my own terrarium and marched down Marquette in search of a suitable perch upon which to dine. The massive dome it’s packaged in does draw attention to the food, which is probably good for business. But I don’t much like attention and felt conspicuous. My search for a perch landed on the ledge of a flower bed on Nicollet in front of Marshall’s. This is a fine place to eat if there’s one or two busses at the bus stop on 7th but if a third pulls up the subtlety of the sushi is lost in exhaust.
The sushi was fantastic and well worth the $15. The roll was huge (8 large pieces) and filled with avocado, three types of fish (tuna, salmon, and mutsu, whatever that is) and cilantro. The fish was delicate and fresh and the cilantro counterbalanced the richness. This is the perfect lunch for the hot summer days ahead- filling but not heavy.
Back at my desk I googled the Sushi Fix menu to send to a co-worker to plan another trip. When I found the menu didn’t load correctly, I shot off a quick email notifying the webmaster and added I thought the packaging was excessive (I love food handed to me in tin foil or butcher paper.) I did haul the empty hull of the terrarium up to the office and popped it into the recycling bin-again feeling conspicuous.
The next day I received an email from Billy saying nice to meet you and of course he could put the sushi in a different package for me if I wanted, but please don’t let that that keep me away. I’ll be back for sure. But either I will have to address my distaste for attention, resolve the fact that too much packaging happens in this world, or ask the chefs to stuff the gorgeous roll into a smaller container. My guess is it will be the latter, and gauging the high temps this week, it’ll be sooner than later.
Morchella’s interest in food is an unintended consequence of her hardworking mother having raised three children on the food of the ‘70s and ‘80s: Banquet Fried Chicken, Tuna Helper, and Creamettes with Ragu. To this day neither Morchella nor her brothers eat spaghetti. Morchella likes to start her day counting breaths in salamba sirsasana and finish it biking home in the dark.