There's Something Fishy About This Place

DO and I planned our trip carefully. We'd be coming through Birmingham on the way home and I'd been telling him about this great place called The Grape since I'd eaten there one year earlier. We decided to stay the night and DO reserved a room at the Tutwiler. After a rather disconcerting welcome at the Tutwiler, we settled in, rested for a while, then took the hotel shuttle down to the 5 Points area.

Much to our disappointment, The Grape was closed for renovations and we didn't want to go to their other location so we strolled around for a while trying to come up with a Plan B. Our favorite pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom, is in the area but neither of us were in the mood for pizza. Our tastebuds had been preparing for something a little different.

The Sekisui Pacific Rim Sushi Bistro and Beyond restaurant looked interesting so we went there. While the decor was rather cool, the temperature of the restaurant was not. It was muggy.

I decided to have cold saki instead of my normal favorite. I'd not yet tried the Sayuri and was pleasantly surprised. It was great. Served in a pink bottle, concern about it remaining cool necessitated a request for a container of ice in which to keep it.

The menu was interesting. None of the sakes were listed and some of the available salads weren't. The conch salad was on the menu but wasn't available. DO ordered a chicken teriyaki for an appetizer and I had the seaweed salad.

I was surprised to see that a sushi place had foie gras on the menu. I love foie gras but even the mango salsa served with it wasn't enough to make me comfortable eating foie at a sushi restaurant. It just didn't seem right, somehow.

The toro sushi wasn't listed on the menu, either, but there was a card on the table that did show it. We asked our server, Randles, if it was available. It was. I was thrilled. As I've mentioned before, we don't exactly live in a culinary mecca. To find toro sushi and foie gras within 100 miles of home was unexpected and delightful. I ordered the toro along with albacore and my standard spicy tuna. DO was thrilled to see they had a volcano roll and hoped that it would be similar to the excellent ones he'd had in Gulfport and Pensacola. California roll, a crunchy shrimp roll, and tamagoyaki (omelet sushi) completed our order.

The seaweed salad was excellent. The combination of flavors and the addition of shrimp and a ponzu sauce made it different than other seaweed salads I've had. There was also a bed of sliced cucumber under the seaweed that added to the already nice mix of textures and flavors. DO's teriyaki chicken was, well, teriyucky. At least in my opinion. If it hadn't been called teriyaki, it probably would have been fine. There was no sweetness to the sauce. All savory and no sweetness does not a teriyaki make.

The sushi arrived some time later. The plate was nice looking but didn't match the artistry we've seen at Phuket. I planned my sushi attack carefully. Light flavors first, stronger flavors later, and a bite of volcano roll at the end was my plan. I decided to have the toro first. I'd never had it before but have been looking forward to it ever since I first read about it at Slashfood and The Delicious Life. Prepared to be amazed, I took a bite. I was apathetic. It wasn't cold. It wasn't even cool. It was kind of room temperature and the room, as I mentioned earlier, was muggy. Muggy sushi, especially muggy raw sushi makes me nervous. Ever adventurous, I moved forward. I tried the albacore. Albawarm. Spicy tuna? Spicy tepid. The volcano roll was tasty but certainly not traditional. As I told DO, it made me think, "Funnel cake sushi."

The service was fair, if a bit slow for the crowd. However, Randles earned her more than 20% when she noticed which sushi had been left on the plate and I told her that warm raw sushi made me nervous. She went over and talked to the sushi chef. I wasn't trying to avoid paying for our food and think I made that clear. If it had been enough of a problem, I would have sent it back.

All in all, while we probably won't go back, I don't mind that I Paid For That.


~I Paid For That Bonus~
After DO and I left the restaurant, we wandered back toward The Grape and called the hotel to request a shuttle. While we waited, we were approached by a rather unkempt fellow who seemed to be struggling with staying upright. He walked right up to DO saying, "You're a tall man... A big guy... I wouldn't want to run up on you in a dark alley."

"You don't worry about a thing when you're with him, do you? He takes good care of you, doesn't he? I bet you take good care of him, too?" This guy was good.

An older fellow, he assured us that he was already quite drunk and was not asking for money for more alcohol but would like to buy a sandwich. Before he actually asked for money, he conversed for a while.

He talked about his interest in history and when on to name several Caesars. He wasn't at all threatening and was actually rather interesting. He finished up his little conversation with us by addressing DO.

"You got a good woman there. You better hang on to her. If you ever let her go, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. It don't matter how many other women you get, not one of them will ever measure up to her."

I gave him a handful of change. DO getting that kind of advice? I don't have the least bit of problem that I Paid for That.