sushi

i don't usually get sushi for dinner. i always feel like it's not enough food, especially for the price. but everyone in new haven raves about miya's, and i finally tried it tonight.

i've always heard about how delicious and innovative the sushi at miya's is, but i'm of the school of thought where sushi is just sushi. yes, i understand there's a little room for creativity, but it's usually the same ingredients assembled into a roll. don't get me wrong, i love good sushi, but it's pretty standard fare.

not so at miya's. the chef draws from several types of cuisines to create his sushi and it makes it worth the price and the hype. here's the meal, in reverse order:

we ordered the japafrican queen roll, which is, according to the menu, "sushi created by african bushman to nourish them during their seasonal migrations. eggplant, goat cheese, apricots, avocado, pickled radish, scallions & ethiopian berbere spice mix, wrapped in our freshly made teff grain crepe." that's that spongy ethiopian bread! we also got a kimchee seared tuna roll, which was very simple, not at all expensive, and out of this world. it was made with tuna that was spiced with kimchee spices and seared at high heat to seal in the flavor of the kimchee but keep this inside raw. it struck a perfect contrast in texture between the seared outside of the tuna and the melt-in-your-mouthiness of the inside.

we started with tokyo fries and "it's the great pumpkin, miso" soup.

those are the toyko fries. they're really skinny and crispy fries served with spicy curry and tomato alioli sauce. the pumpkin miso soup was like miso with actual flavor.

we got a small bottle of the dragon lady sake, which is "ginger, lemongrass & clover honey sake. victory drink of lesbian chinese pirates of the south china seas. also popular with sorority girls everywhere." it was unfiltered, so it was cloudy, and came with a stick of lemongrass in it, which gave it an orangish color. it was amazing, but the sweetness overpowered the sake flavor a little too much. it was great with the meal, though, and i can understand how it could get you girl drink drunk, as advertised. next time i want to try the chinese firecracker sake, which is "aged hot chili pepper & citrus sake. painfully euphoric; contains over a thousand secret flavor components. the perfect sake to sake bomb. not for the meek."

the whole dining experience was very fun, and i would definitely go again next time i have a big budget and a small appitite. as far as creativity goes, miya's outshines every other place in new haven. as far as actual quality of sushi goes, though, i'd have to say that the jury is still out.

dior couture

christian dior jump started 2009 couture in paris this week. couture designers may have spent as much time defending their trade as they did executing it for these shows, due to the current economic climate, blah blah blah. whatever! couture has never, in my world, been something that people buy and wear. it's more like art and escapism, which people need in "times like these." dior's line was a perfect silver lining to the recession cloud. everything looked like cakes and old fancy wallpaper or fine china. it's like eating macaroons, drinking tea, and reading baudelaire in your rich aunt's upper east side apartment. scroll back up!

home improvement

if anything says more about a person than the clothes they wear and the food they eat, it's the place they live! (or perhaps the things they say, the way they treat people, their ambitions, their insecurities? ...nah.) anyway, my apartment needs a lot of work before it says anything remotely flattering about me. there are a few things i love...

other than a few great tables from craigslist, a fake fireplace, my jewelry, books, magazines, and a few other little things that i love, my little dwelling needs a lot of work. the place is wall to wall hideous carpet, there are no shelves in the "pantry," so all my food is on the windowsill, and there are drop ceilings. i didn't include a picture of those, because it's just too painful.

there's not enough room for my clothes and shoes, so soon all this crap may be homeless...

my mission in 2009 is to make this place better than just livable on a verrry tight budget. pretty soon i'll have a lot more time than money. maybe i can film the process and strike a deal with tlc or hgtv!