The pictures of my dinner this evening at Don Don Donki didn't turn out as nice as I hoped they would be.
Might it have been that I was hungry, might it have been that we were eager to begin eating, or might it have been the lighting, but these be the pictures I took, these be the pictures I have.
We got three kinds of salmon this evening.
First one was salmon sushi- reasonably fresh, a cheerful bright orange color, pleasantly chilled- and although this might be a typical no-big-deal kind of meal to some, it were the colors, the rice, and the taste that absolutely drew me.
Same thing too for the Aburi salmon sushi, which, in recent years, has become one of the things I look out for whenever I'm at sushi places. Aburi salmon has become one of my new favorite sushi- not so much for the slightly burnt taste that the flambe sushi has- but the soft (sometimes not so soft) texture that I get when I eat the semi-cooked salmon with the rice.
It might not look so pretty here, mind, but the teeny weeny balls of cod roe did give off a bit of crunch eaten together with the mush of the slightly chilled sushi, and the large, solid grains of rice.
My favorite, however, had to be the bowl of salmon don which presence at the table turned out to be quite a surprise. I had thought 20 pieces of sushi be more than enough for the both of us, but my friend said the sashimi looked nicely cut, fresh to the eyes, and most importantly, cold.
So he got it.
Working my way through the pieces, it got me thinking of a time where sushi (especially salmon sushi) was not as affordable, or even accessible as it is today. It was that kind of season where sushi could only be consumed in legit good classic Japanese restaurants where the word convenience did not exist.
Later conveyor belt sushi came in and things changed.
Perhaps there might be those who have eaten sushi since they were young, but no, not me.
Until I was 18, that is.
And up till now, I haven't forgotten the time I unwrapped the sealed piece bought from the convenience store in tertiary school, savoring the taste of salmon with sushi rice (plus a little wasabi) for what I think might have been the very first time.