We've been spoiled living on the Eastern Seaboard. We love sushi, oysters -- fish of all kinds. Living in a major metro area like D.C. made it easy. We could even be scornful of sushi places we now would be drooling over. We so miss Hank's, where we were regulars and where we got engaged! In Ann Arbor, there are lots of sushi places, but reviews wax eloquent about the rolls and tempura -- a great tipoff that the patrons are not big into the FISH.
We found Monahan's -- a great market with a wide variety of goods and some awesome fish. We got some wonderful tuna: and I mean wonderful! We made our own sushi (OK, we're a bit rusty on the rice so it fell apart) and sashimi and it was out of this world: buttery, clean, crisp and oh-so-tasty.
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| Dan carving up some tuna sashimi |
Dan's View
Since moving to Ann Arbor, Cathy and I have found some real gold nuggets in dining in the area, a few of which you wouldn't think that the case judging from the building facades. There has been a fairly wide variety of types and ethnic styles to choose from. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a good sushi restaurant in the area that is on par with Tachibana in Mclean, Va. or Fujiyama in Northbrook, Il. (in a separate post I will discuss another favorite sushi haunt of ours that came to a tragic ending). I'm sure there is a sushi nugget in the area, but we have yet to come across it. So, when you can't find it, make it instead!
Some Googling here and there and we came across Monahan's Seafood. Located in Kerrytown (the old northern section of the center of town), it is situated among many thriving shops. The cobblestone streets are in need of repair, but in a way it adds to the charm of the neighborhood. When you walk into Monahan's, it is all hustle and bustle with narrow aisles crowded with fresh fruits and vegetables, coffees, various dry goods, meat, poultry, and of course, seafood. There are several tables and a bar area set up in front of the seafood displays where people are always enjoying something to eat -- fish and chips, fried shrimp, chowder. All very fresh I'm sure, if the look of the fresh fish is any indication. From an earlier visit to Monahan's I knew that we had to be on the lookout for when they would have sushi grade fish available. Fortunately, they have a Facebook page, so I became a member of that group and saw a post on Friday about an influx of sushi grade fish. Unfortunately by the time we drove there on Saturday afternoon, they only had tuna and sea bass left, and since we never had sea bass in sushi form, we opted for the tuna. And what tuna it was! It was easily the best quality that I've purchased, and rivaled sashimi we've ordered at some of the restaurants we've visited.
The only negatives about the entire experience was that we only ordered 1/2 pound when 3/4 would have been better (Cathy might disagree), and the fact that my knife was simply not sharp enough.
Time to invest in a good sushi knife at Williams-Sonoma..
I forgot to mention that the dogs are huge fish fans. Especially sushi. They really enjoyed the very little amount we had leftover from slicing. We would normally use those leavings to make spicy tuna rolls, but weren't making rolls that night. We should have taken video, but maybe you are lucky we didn't.
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