Week 17: Asahi on Church (0.8 km)

Hello everybody, and welcome to an extra-super-special edition of Sushipalooza!

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that Labour Day marks the official culmination of Sushipalooza '09... but more on that later. To mark this momentous occasion, I teamed up with Todd from Toronto Sushi!, who has also been spending his summer running around town visiting and reviewing sushi restaurants. With some 40 restaurants and counting, scattered all over the city, his approach to the task is obviously more comprehensive but less O.C.D. than my own.

So let's get to it! I know of at least two places named Asahi Sushi; this one is on Church St just south of Bloor, in a converted house with a lovely little front patio, perfect for a Labour Day sushi dinner. (As you are no doubt aware, eating indoors on Labour Day is prohibited by law).

Somehow, with all the not-so-authentic sushi I've eaten this summer, I still hadn't tried a "sushi pizza", which seems to be a staple on most menus. Time to right this wrong! It was pretty good... salmon, tobiko, and cucumber in mayo on a "crust" of crispy fried rice. And mercifully, no cheese.

The first thing that caught my eye on the menu was the "Fuitopia roll", maki containing some unspecified mixed fruits. Weird! I like weird, so I ordered it. Alas, they were out of some key ingredient (pineapples? lychees? plums?), so I had to do a last-minute substitution of Caterpillar roll. Built around BBQ eel, it was declared a hit by my sister (and Sushipalooza co-inventor), so I guess it worked out OK in the end.

Sadly, my picture of the Caterpillar roll didn't turn out because my camera stinks. But here's the Red Dragon roll, which also tasted as good as it looked. Maybe even better, because you can't see the tempura shrimp in this picture.

Of course man can not live by special maki alone, so we also got a couple orders of... slightly more normal maki. Actually, I guess bulgogi maki's not very normal. It was tasty, but a little on the dry side.

As for how Todd and his sister enjoyed their meals, you'll have to read his review to find out!

So that's it! Summer's over, and so is Sushipalooza '09! (Or is it? Hint: no.) So what were the final results? What conclusions did we reach? What important life lessons did we learn? And where do we go from here? Stay tuned for all the exciting answers in the Sushipalooza Summer Wrap-up!