Will work for food

Sushi menus have always intimidated me. I can never remember which fish I like, or what roll I enjoyed. Is the negiri the roll in the seaweed, or just the fish flesh atop the rice? Do I use chopsticks or my fingers? Do I dunk in the soy sauce with the green stuff, or not. I break out in hives I get so nervous. Hajime Sato, owner of Mashiko's in the West Seattle Junction, makes it easy. He fixes us dinner.

We walk up to the bar and Hajime starts Dave's spider roll, after that, it's Chef's choice. I always order a masu of the Momokawa Pearl sake. The sake is served chilled in a wooden bowl (the masu) set on a small plate. The masu is overfilled so that some of the sake spills onto the plate. When you've drunk your masu down, you pour the rest of the sake from the plate back into the masu. It's like a small moment of coloring outside of the lines.

I wish I could describe dinner last night, but I can't. I don't have the vocabulary. While I'm still learning about Japanese food, I sit down & eat what's put in front of me.

I'm gonna miss dinner at Mashiko's while we're gone. I get these hankerings.