God help me, I hate shopping malls. But I needed new clothes, I have been wanting to learn what all the fuss over H&M is about, and sometimes, there is nothing for it but cross a giant swath of asphalt and dive into the belly of the suburban consumer beast.
Our biggest nearby mall is Southcenter; it’s now using the shiny new name of Westfield. I can’t help but ask where the field is because there’s no sign of if and to the west, there are six lanes of traffic dumping commuters into Interstate 5 and the smaller highway that goes to the airport.
Westfield on an early September evening is packed with a lot of good looking people from all kinds of different ethnic backgrounds, it’s a chain retailer’s American dream fantasy come to life. At the south entrance to the mall, there are a handful of restaurants, a giant Barnes and Noble, and a three or four story parking garage. Oh, and Blue C Sushi. As we walked past, the husband said, “Hey, it’s Fish Wednesday, how ’bout sushi?”
Why fight it? I agreed and we found ourselves in a booth next to the conveyor belt while brightly colored plates slid quietly by. Tempura eel with cream cheese. California roll. Spicy tuna roll. Braised tuna with a special dipping sauce. Sesame noodles. The random plastic toy. A bottle of soda. A plastic sign that said “Beef, it’s what’s for sushi.”
Behind the counter a bunch of cheerful Spanish speaking guys cranked out roll after roll of sushi goodness, slicing and stacking and setting in motion. I like Blue C, it’s fun to watch the little plates roll past. It’s fun to stack up the plates by color. To watch the videos of Japanese hipster kids on the big screen monitor at the back of the restaurant. There’s a lot going on but it’s not noisy (or it wasn’t last night) and most of what we had was really yummy, save the tuna sashimi, which should have been a better cut of fish. I had a Cricket Cola at the recommendation of the young man keeping an eye on us – it was tasty too.
Sushi is pretty labor intensive and it’s hard to reproduce the kind of variety you’d like at home. Blue C isn’t the best sushi I’ve had – I think that was at some nondescript place in Honolulu – but it was really quite good.
Blue C has four locations, go check it out.
Ha! Sushi. Love it. Also loved this post. So full of rich details.
Sushi. Just about any way, any how…..fabulous or mediocre….I’ll take it.
Hope you are well, Pam.
Sushi from spanish chefs…love it!!!
I’m a big fan of sushi…i had it monday. I love the conveyor belt sushi, i usually rack up like 10 plates……mmmm
good to see another sushi lover.
Love the keiten! (assuming that’s how it’s spelled) My ex and I went to one in Tokyo and, crippled by our inability to communicate, had to watch all kinds of yummy things (including one that looked suspiciously like eggplant) get swooped up by people sitting earlier on the conveyor belt. A good time, regardless, and, unlimited pickled ginger!
When you come to Santiago, you might want to forego the sushi. It’s very Chileanized, tons of (farmed) salmon, avocado and cream cheese, and way.too.much.rice.
Loved the post. Looking forward to more!
@all: Nerd’s Eye View readers=lovers of sushi. I find that reassuring, for some reason!
Eileen, it’s “kaiten,” which I think means conveyor belt. Don’t feel bad about Chilean sushi. You should see what Japanese people do to pizza! (Squid and corn, anyone?)