Sushi Kanata, Ottawa

Look at all the snow! I was such a wuss about the cold when I first moved back to Ottawa but now it's like second nature again. I was in serious denial that I was back in the cold, and for the longest time, I refused to wear a proper winter jacket. That didn't last long!

Sushi Kanata is my default sushi place in the west end. Now that I'm back in Ottawa, I get to come here all the time again. Yay! I swear I come here at least once a week.

Sushi Kanata doesn't serve the finest sushi in town, but it is consistent and fresh. This is where I meet up with my good friend Aky to talk about football, the bright side of life, and more football!
Our meals always start with a bowl of miso soup with chives, tofu bits, and kelp.

Miso Soup

My standard lunch is two sushi rolls, and without a doubt, I will always order a spicy tuna roll. My second roll will vary between salmon, sun kissed roll, rainbow, or unagi. On this particular day, I decided on the rainbow roll.

Their spicy tuna is da bomb! Full pieces of tuna with a spicy mayo sauce.

Spicy Tuna Roll and Rainbow Roll

I love mixing loads of wasabi with my low sodium soy sauce. Clears the sinuses with every bite!

Low Sodium Soy Sauce Mixed with Wasabi

A sexy close up of the rainbow roll. The rainbow roll is a California roll topped with thin slices of salmon, tuna, mackerel, avocado and sprinkled with dried seaweed.

Rainbow Roll

Aky orders one thing and one thing only. All the waitresses even know his order by heart! The chirashi bento set is a box set of 12 pieces of sashimi with white rice, a mini salmon roll, a California roll, spring rolls, seaweed salad, and a fresh orange slice.

Chirashi Bento

A close up of the sashimi before it was completely devoured.

Sashimi

The owners of Sushi Kanata also own the Sushi Kan buffets on Baseline and Innes Road. I'm not a huge sushi buffet person, so can't say I've been.

Sushi Kanata
655 Kanata Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Telephone: 513-599-0009

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Japanese Cafe Restaurant EMON, Sydney

CK and I were craving sushi while in Sydney recently, and we decided on Japanese Cafe Restaurant EMON for dinner. We have walked by this place numerous times, and wondered each time, whether or not their food was good. Well, we finally found out.

The staff here was very polite and their sushi roll portions were quite large. Overall, the food here, I would say, was average.

For an appetizer, we ordered the renkon chips...chips that are made of thinly sliced lotus root. This was neat but a little salty.

The salmon and avocado roll was my favourite. The fish and avocado tasted extremely fresh. I don't usually care for avocado, and I loved it that night.

Their unagi roll was also good.

Althought it looked very nice, their soft shell crab roll wasn't very good. Soft shell crab doesn't have a lot of taste to it, so when stuffed with a bunch of lettuce, it completely masked the crab.

For dessert, I had to try their black sesame icecream affogato. Now, this is an affogato with a Japanese twist. Instead of the traditional vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso, it is black sesame ice cream with a ristretto shot. The verdict? Not so hot. When mixed with a little bit of the black sesame ice cream, the coffee turned sour and when mixed with a lot of the ice cream, the coffee tasted very bitter. Either way, it wasn't very good. It is a neat idea, but the Italians definitely do it better. The icecream alone, however, was great.

CK had the tiramisu and that wasn't very good either.

All in all, this place wasn't bad for sushi. One thing I do have to note was that their wasabi was super fresh. They chopped up their wasabi really fine and served it that way. It was not like the paste I normally see.
I would recommend their salmon and avocado roll, and would advise against the soft shell crab roll. For dessert, stick to the ice cream.

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Black Rice Sushi and Ramen Noodles

I am on my way to Sydney to visit CK, and I am so excited. I haven't seen him in about 6 months, and the phone relationship just hasn't been cutting it lately. He is usually in school when I visit, but this time he is off, and we have booked a trip to New Zealand...woo hoo! I am in Sydney for 2 days (just enough time to get rid of my jet lag) and then we are off. We are doing a 10 day road trip around the South Island, and I am just crossing my fingers that I'll be ok driving on the other side of the road (first time ever). I get bad motion sickness when reading or doing anything in a car, so I will be doing all of the driving on this trip while CK will be the trusty navigator.

I had a layover in Vancouver en route to Sydney, and naturally, I could not resist the opportunity to pop into the city for some good food. I called my friend K and we hit the busy streets of Davie and Denman for a whirlwind Japanese dinner.

Our first stop was Akira Sushi. This place is well known for its black rice sushi. Not only is this place cheap, but the food is great too. We ordered a spicy tuna roll and a spicy salmon roll with black rice. Black rice, aka Forbidden Rice, is less starchy and more nutritious than traditional white rice. It is high in fiber and rich in iron. We quickly downed it, and set off for our next destination.

Our next stop was up 4 blocks at Kintaro Ramen for, of course, fresh hand-made ramen noodles. There is always a long line up at this place, and it is reminiscent of a typical ramen joint in Japan – open kitchen, small space, energetic staff, and tight seating.

I ordered the Miso Ramen and K ordered the Shoyu ramen. I would have to say that the ramen was ok…I have had better. However, I heard their cheese ramen is worth trying.

I was insanely full at this point, but there was still some time to kill. I needed something to calm my stomach, so I decided I needed some tea. I started reminiscing about this flower blooming tea I had in San Francisco, and I asked K if he knew where we could find some. Luckily, he had seen it for the first time a few weeks back, and said it was close by.

Our last stop was at Shanghai 1949 for Chinese flower tea. Unfortunately, the tea had absolutely no taste, but the $2.50 was well spent for the entertainment value. When the tea first comes out, it is in the shape of a closed ball. After steeping in hot water for about 60 seconds, the ball blooms into a beautiful flower.

This all accomplished in 2 hours…in time for me to get back to the airport to catch my next flight. Not bad.

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