Chinese New Year 2013

Happy year of the snakes!

This year we celebrated my mother's birthday and Chinese New Year early. Since both dates were so close to each other we decide to kill 2 birds with one stone. Traditionally, the eve of Chinese New Year, families gather and have a big family reunion dinner, but since my family is scattered all over the world: 2 sisters in B.C., 1 sister in Germany, and a whole lot of aunts and uncles in Singapore, we could only celebrate it with my parents and two younger siblings. 

This year, my dad took us to Sakana in the Crowfoot area for some Japanese food. I really like this place for as a Japanese chain restaurant as I tend to find a lot of other Japanese chain restaurants plain and bland. I actually used to hate this restaurant because back when I was in high school, every so often my friends and I would go to the one in Chinatown for their sushi boat. It was alright, kind of boring and we only chose it because of our cheap budget.

But, over the last few years, my family started coming here as their go-to restaurant for Japanese food and my sister and I have been ordering their specialty rolls ever since. Let me tell you, their rolls are something! The sauces that they use are wonderful! There's different kinds of sauce that they drizzle over their rolls from avocado sauce, to kiwi sauce and mango. You would think fruit sauce with sushi is weird, but it works!

We only just converted my father to start eating their sushi approximately 2-3 visits ago. He's only used to his fancy sushi when we lived in Singapore and he's never liked eating sushi in Canada. So when he says he likes the rolls here, it's gotta be some special!

Our appetizers for this meal were the Large Assorted Tempura and the Takoyaki. They were both delicious. I mean hello? Deep fried batter food, yums. But remember now, only in small amounts. The tempura was super crunchy and the prawns weren't over cooked. And the takoyaki? Mmm, these cute little battered dumplings, with a chunk of octopus in it, topped with bonito flakes, mayo and takoyaki sauce, are exactly what I imagine I would find on the streets of Osaka.

Now here comes the stars of the meal. The salmon and tuna sashimi were fresh and at the perfect temperature to enjoy them. For the rolls, we chose the Cowboy Roll, House Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Dynamite Roll, Caterpillar roll, and some other roll with mango. All the rolls were a hit with my family. It was was delightful and fresh. They don't over fill the sushi with rice like some places do. It was the perfect amount. I think sushi has come a long ways from when I used to eat it as a child. It's just so fancy now, but it's okay with me because I still love it. 

I would personally stay away from the Caterpillar Roll as you really couldn't tell there was oysters in it. I think they tried to overcompensate with a crap load of rice in that. That one was miss, you really couldn't tell what is going on with that roll. I would not get the Cowboy Roll if you have a weak stomach to raw beef. Even though the beef is grilled lightly, it's still pretty raw. I actually love raw beef and it is probably my favorite roll out of all the rolls we order. So if you don't have a weak stomach and you're adventurous, try it! 

Top to bottom: Caterpillar Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Mango Roll, Dynamite Roll, Cowboy Roll and House Roll.

Mango Roll and Dynamite Roll

Cowboy Roll

House Roll

The service here tends to be pretty good every time that we go. Unfortunately this time we got a pretty terrible waitress who was rude. I think it's terrible when service people treat their customers with horribly, but expect to be tipped? Mmm, okay. 

I generally don't expect much from Asian waiters but she thought that we were just another typical Asian family that couldn't speak English and she would act so brash and make herself seem so high. I CANNOT stand it when we go to any type Western food and Caucasian waiters do this to us, but when another Asian does it to us... It's even more infuriating... My family may be Chinese but English is our first language. It's the only language my parents speak to me. My father was even educated in the UK. 

Anyway we survived dinner because the food was worth it. The waitress started clearing some dishes and came back with our bill to which I thought was really rude because we brought a cake in to celebrate my mother's birthday and she hadn't brought it out yet. I asked her about it and she's like 'Oh, I didn't know you were celebrating a birthday", to which she leaves to go grab it. This wasn't her fault as the hostess forgot to tell her. Generally, they're pretty on top of things like this when we bring cakes in to celebrate. 

They brought out their whole crew to sing my mother Happy Birthday in English and Japanese and took a Polaroid picture of her in their dress up clothes. LOL. I love how they celebrate big occasions here. It's fun. Afterwards, our waitress just became super nice and kept wishing my mother Happy Birthday non-stop. UM WHAT?! 

Though this time wasn't a pleasant dinner, we will DEFINITELY come back because it was 1 out of the multiple times we've been here. Plus we always get different waiters when we dine there. 

To conclude I want to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year and some well wishing phrases. 

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

Shen ti jian kang! - Good health

Wan shi ru yi! - May things go as you wish.

My slowly growing pile of red packets.