1. SUSHI WORLD GUIDE HITS 3000
2. TELL THE IRON CHEF I ONLY EAT COOKED FISH
3. THE GRACIOUSNESS OF EUROPEANS

1.
SUSHI WORLD GUIDE HITS 3000

My favorite sushi website is The Sushi World Guide at http://www.sushi.to. The website creator, Michael Bentele, is a German living in Cologne, and his intention is to document all the sushi bars in the world outside Japan. To do this, he needs help and asks people to send him restaurant information.

When Michael hit sushi bar number 3000 in his database, he decided to celebrate by sending out a suggestion to the four Americans who have contributed the greatest number of restaurants to his website.

The suggestion was that Michael would fly to the US, and we all would meet in Philadelphia for dinner at Morimoto, the new restaurant run by The Iron Chef of TV fame. A bunch of people who had never met before gathered to eat sushi - that was an opportunity Randy and I knew we could not miss.

Philadelphia, here we come: Randy and I flew in from St. Louis, Steve O. took the train from Boston, Michael and Claudia flew in from Germany, and Steve S. and his son drove down from Vermont. The restaurant was dramatic (the tables change colors as you eat); the clientele was trendy; the bartender told us we would be sitting at the very same table where No Doubt had dined. I had no idea who No Doubt was, but I was ready to eat.

2.
TELL THE IRON CHEF I ONLY EAT COOKED FISH

My menu choice was the Omakase. This is Japanese for "Chef's Choice" - based on the diner's dietary restrictions - and my restrictions were pretty restricting: I told the waiter that I only eat cooked (not raw, not seared) fish, and I ate no land animals or birds.

Our dinner started at 7:00 PM and ended at 11:00 PM. Here is the Omakase that I was served:

COURSE #1: Lobster meat and lychee fruit compote with Osetra caviar.
COURSE #2: Chilled puree of endamame with flash-fried lotus root garnish topped with a sprig of shiso leaves.
COURSE #3: Giant trans-Pacific oyster seared in hot sesame oil with a ginger dressing.
COURSE #4: Red snapper salad garnished with cress on a bed of cucumber shavings.

PALATE CLEANSER: Wasabi-yuzufruit sorbet served with a sugared beignet.

COURSE #5: Rock shrimp tempura with a kokuchan aoili dipping sauce (Kokuchan is a spicy red pepper popular in Korea) served with Belgian endive leaves and an edible orchid.
COURSE #6: Black cod in a miso-mustard sauce, served with sweet black beans and pickled red peppers.
COURSE #7: Tempura roll, which had been dipped in a light batter and deep-fried (a tempura tempura roll?) accompanied by a pureed basil pistou and a creamy gorgonzola sauce.

I had forgotten how gracious Europeans are.

When we sat down at the table, Michael announced that he was paying for dinner. From his emails, we had no idea he would be doing this. Michael was so pleased that we would all come and have dinner with him; altho he was an ocean away from home, we were his guests. Being his guests, we waited to hear what Michael would order. He chose the most expensive item on the menu; the rest of us followed suit.

And the next morning, Randy and I were in a Philadelphia shopping mall, and passed by a Wet Seal store. The store had a larger-than-life photo of No Doubt in the window.