Dinner at Sushi San

Reporting LIVE from the O’Hare Airport.

It’s a beautiful Memorial Day in Chicago, and after spending the last 96 hours moving apartments, I’m ready to not touch a cardboard box for a while. On a smooth scale of 0 to Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas, our move was about a 2.6. Most of the things that can go wrong (furniture not fitting and needing to be air-lifted through the balcony, flat tire, dead car battery, two hours-long waits for AAA and a mechanic, etc.) went wrong. But, Greenie and I prevailed. We are officially moved into a beautiful new home and I have already christened the grill with some brats, corn on the cob, and sweet onions. 

I also went full Farmer Nor(m) and planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, green onions, and jalapeños. From seeds. So let’s see who pops out of the ground in the next couple months, shall we?

Over the last few days, there have not been a lot of fresh vegetables in my diet. But there has been a lot of face-stuffage. When I’m stressed (see: moving) I want comfort food. Comfort food can assume a variety of definitions. In my definition, it includes things like sushi, fried chicken and tuna salad. All food is comfort food. 

We had a Lettuce Entertain You gift card burning a hole in Greenie’s AG jeans’ pocket, so when we saw an opening at newly-ish opened Sushi San, we jumped on it. The set-up is very similar to sister-restaurant, Ramen San’s layout and decor. Industrial, loud, blaring old school hip hop. I can dig it. The menu is structured by small bites, nigiri/sashimi combinations, maki, and robata dishes. We started with the tako tacos (spicy mayo-laden octopus in a crunchy nori shell), and they were crushable. I could have had fifteen. But, serving sizes, social norms, blah blah blah.

After a HARD sell by our waiter who was likely very, very stoned based on our interactions, we decided to say, “screw it,” and get an omakase-style combination of fishy things called “The Megatron.” For a cool $98, I had relatively high expectations. They were met, my friends. 

I didn’t take a ton of pictures because I didn’t have my camera and the lighting was terrible, but I wanted to at least document the uni maki that came with our Mega-menu. Uni, a.k.a. sea urchin, is one of my favorite flavors. You know when people don’t like something because it “tastes fishy?” Imagine concentrating that fishy ocean flavor to 100x potency and giving it the consistency of buttery jelly. God, that sounds gross, but that’s what uni tastes like. And I love it. It’s also very expensive, which probably adds to why I like it. #bougie

That little orangey friend with the wasabi on it. That’s uni.  

The rest of the menu included salmon belly, fatty tuna, fluke, yellowtail, eel, spicy tuna maki and soft shell crab maki. Nothing disappointed. In fact, we were really impressed by how fresh all of the fish was. The majority of it is flown in from Japan, so for Chicago sushi (lol), it was pretty damn good. 

The cocktails were also PDG. I had one with Shochu and grapefruit La Croix, served in a La Croix can. Gimmicky? Yes. Delicious and boozy? Absolutely. 

We walked home, buzzed and full, and stopped to babytalk with every dog we saw out walking. It was a good night.  

The Forkling says: 8.4 forks out of 10.0   

For the next couple weeks, I begin what I’ve been calling my wedding gauntlet. This week I will be in San Francisco to train for the new gig. Should there be even a fleeting moment of free time in my agenda, you better believe I will be hunting down the nearest dim sum establishment to stuff my face.

And with that, it’s time for my flight to depart. Fievel is going west.