Minami - Yaletown

Cuisine: Japanese

The Down Low: Sit at the sushi bar and order something with their homemade miku sauce

Favorite Dish: The Champagne (Roll) deserves to be carried out like bottle service at a club in Vegas

Music Pairing: As a rock band from Tennessee, the Kings of Leon are an unusual pairing for a Japanese joint, but considering how much I love both KOL and Minami, I am going to make the pairing work. Here is their "new" album Walls

Minami was the original inspiration for my food blog, and where I adopted the name Irasshaimase.  The restaurant has a special place in my heart...and my stomach. I live next door, so I go almost every week. It's a problem. But it's a problem I enjoy having. 

In the spirit of sharing, some other "Minami problems" that I have, include:

• Loving the Champagne, Salmon Oshi and Ebi (prawn) Oshi sushi rolls so much that I have explored little else on the menu. Very unlike me to be so close-minded, especially when it comes to new food.

• Going alone almost all the time, so instead of making new friends, distracting the sushi chefs with my seat-dancing as I groove to the music pairing (a problem that others in my office deal with, but unlike the sushi chefs, they do not have to worry about high risk work with sharp knives)

• Fumbling with chopsticks, because no matter how many times I have used them, my sweaty palms still contribute to terrible grip. Maybe those sweaty palms are also why I cannot get a regular sushi date? The wrong type of clammy for a seafood restaurant.

• Consuming outlandish amounts of ginger. In the world of sushi, ginger is eaten in between rolls as a palate cleanser, and in traditional Japanese restaurants it would be considered bad manners to be eaten together with the sushi. As a pale, lonely-looking white guy, they must give me a break. But maybe someday the sushi chefs will go Super Saiyan on me.

•  Also normally overdoing it with the soy sauce. At Minami the servers will actually make a comment because some rolls come pre-glazed in soy sauce. "Interesting" fact about properly eating sushi, you shouldn't dip the rice in the soy sauce, but instead dip one side of the fish, and never shake after dipping.

• Using my fingers to eat roll sushi. But wait!! Did you know sushi consultants will actually tell you this is the correct way to eat roll sushi?

Sometimes when I am feeling especially dancey, I will take the sushi bar home and use my condo speakers to really appreciate the music pairing.
(I would probably die happy choking on a roll from Minami with Kings of Leon playing in the background)

If you are interested in the food preparation process (or rather have no one else to talk to), ask for a spot at the sushi bar. You will see the Aburi flame searing technique in action.

I've been told ladies love when they get a picture of my chopsticks

Another "interesting" fact about sushi. Did you know that even slight temperature differences at the sushi bar counter and at a customer's table will result in taste variations? Something professional sushi chefs are actually mindful of in the preparation process.

Time from counter to mouth should also then have an impact. If that's the case, I eat way too slow for any taste consistency.

Minami does have some tough competition....
($2.99 for a dynamite roll is actually concerning)

Wait patiently for my review of Minami's sister restaurant Miku in the coming weeks. I hear it is also in the running for "Best Sushi in Town." Different caliber of critics though.

Tasty dreams,

JB