Southerners really DO deep fry everything.

Matthew and I went out on a date last night to celebrate our favorite holiday, Tuesday. He took me to see the Vow, which I have to admit, I was really super excited about. I felt justified in going to an undeniable "chick flick" with him, since we watch an episode or two of Top Gear every single night on Netflix. :-D I'm not complaining at all, but I had definitely racked up enough Man TV Points to bump up the femininity notch a bit. Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, we were going to see The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams (so much love) and Channing Tatum (so much of that other 4-letter 'L' word):

The movie was, needless to say, very lovey dovey. I would venture to say that Matt and I both liked it pretty good...to use a local turn of phrase. The point of this post, however, was what preceded our movie. The movie was not until 7:00 PM, and Matthew gets off work at 5:00, so we went to Shogun Japanese Steakhouse to eat sushi. And oh did we ever.

For our first course, Matt wanted squid salad...but the chef was out of squid (bummer), so we went with baby octopus salad. Okay, weird. I did not remember to take pictures of all these bizarre delicacies, but I promise it really did look like tentacles. It also really didn't taste bad or even weird. It didn't taste like much of anything. Teriyaki sauce, I lied. It all had been doused in teriyaki sauce. End salad course.

There were approximately 838593573920295687 things on the menu to choose from, so Matt picked one roll and I picked another roll. Matt's was called a Bagel Roll and mine was called a Happy Roll. Trust me to go for that one, right? I don't surprise anybody. (Fun trivia fact on that note: I have always disliked Eeyore. Why is it okay for a character to be morose all the time? That is sending kids a terrible message. "Oh, Eeyore's just never happy about anything, and everyone still likes him. You can have a bad day everyday too! And your cute little face will still wind up on sweatshirts and backpacks all over the world!" Ridiculous.)   There they were, bagel roll and happy roll. I was ready. I've had sushi before, and I know there's really not a whole lot that can be put in it to make it taste bad. Plus, the few things that I would think might make it taste bad - read: baby octopus - I had just tried, so really there wasn't much to worry about.

I found this picture online, but it is pretty close to what ours looked like.

Our sushi arrives fresh out of the deep fryer. Wait, what? Yes, it was covered in what I guess was tempura and deep fried. Perhaps this really is normal, and Japanese people all over the country/world get out their Fry Daddy to make their meal a little warmer than raw fish and seaweed. At this particular moment, however, I just thought it was hilarious. Never in my life have I seen deep fried sushi, but it seemed like a completely Southern cliche playing itself out in front of my eyes. I hope I'm not offending anyone. But really, if you can order something deep fried that is by all definitions in the common world served raw, nevertheless COLD...well, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore. Or the north, because who knows what whacky things go down in Kansas.

Found on www.fibers.com

My disclaimer for the evening though? The Happy Roll and Bagel Roll were both absolutely delicious. I mean, really. The Southern Japanese Americans are really onto something. After the heart attack on a plate was gone, Matt and I decided to order to more rolls, a mackerel and a Tokyo roll. They were both okay but just normal sushi. Less thrilling. I would recommend anyone that can find a deep fried sushi roll on their menu at the local sushi restaurant to try it. It's just as healthy as it sounds, and you won't regret the extra calories.

And these last photos are just for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy very small people dressed up as the above mentioned delicacies.