Post-Holiday Leftovers

Sushipalooza may have officially wrapped up at the end of 2009, but that doesn't mean I'm out of sushi places. Heck, if it was summer I might've kept it going to a 2km radius, but that's a little far to walk in this miserable winter weather.

Below are what would've (theoretically, maybe) been the next Sushipalooza visits, if only I had more gumption.

Sushi Shop - Bloor & Church (1.0 km)

Hey, when did this happen? I went to the Yonge and Carlton location of Sushi Shop some months ago, and I've been watching for their second location to open, but obviously I'm too lazy to check every week. It looks like Sushi Shop II should've made the final cut and pushed Aji Sai to the grand finale spot. Oops!

Japango (1.4 km)

I hear good things about this place, so I kind of regret cutting things off right before I got to it. Not to spoil the surprise, but I may end up checking it out as a "bonus" trip soon.

Aka Sushi (1.4 km)

Well, I guess I wouldn't have made it to Aka Sushi anyway... I believe they closed up shop sometime in October or November.

Sushi-Q - Eaton Centre (1.4 km)

The Sushi-Q location in Toronto Life Square may be MIA, but across the street in the Eaton Centre they're still going strong. In my university days I used to occasionally go here for their end-of-day half price specials (though these days it's like 20% off or something similarly lame).

Sushi & Bento (1.5 km)

Right up the street from Kyoto House, this is another one that I totally would've gone to if the year was just a few weeks longer.

Yuki Sushi (1.5 km)

No sooner had Aka Sushi curled up its toes and died when Yuki Sushi popped up a block away (in the former Wimpy's Diner location at Dundas and University) to take its place.

Yamato (1.5 km)

Wait, is a Japanese Steak House anything like a sushi restaurant? Maybe this place would've been disqualified... I hope not, because it was personally recommended by a friend of mine.

Sushi Inn (1.5 km)

It's in Yorkville, so I'm sure that means lots of big Hollywood stars have sent their errand boys in there to pick something up. Of course we already know that Patrick Stewart prefers Tokyo Sushi.

Shogun (1.5 km)

I've been here before... they're right across from the Cumberland theatre, and you can get sukiyaki cooked on a hot plate at your table. Or is it shabu-shabu?

Sushi Baldwin (1.6 km)

The dense knot of restaurants at the east end of Baldwin includes perhaps the highest per-storefront density of sushi places in town, starting with Sushi Baldwin.

Kuni Sushi Ya (1.7 km)

A little further along Baldwin, Kuni Sushi Ya offers what I'm sure is a lovely little patio when it's not minus effing sixteen outside.

Kon-Nichi-Wa (1.7 km)

This place was closed on the Saturday afternoon I walked by, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that's not permanent. No menu posted outside, so I'm not sure if they're a "sushi" restaurant per se.

Etsu (1.8 km)

Man, going over this list is making me a little wistful for all the places I'll be missing out on. Maybe I'll check a few of them out anyway. Who's gonna stop me? You??

Fujiyama (1.8 km)

I think this is the only sushi restaurant on the Baldwin strip I have been to. I had a bowl of seafood tempura udon. The tempura was soggy, because it was floating in a bowl of soup. Duh.

Gallery Sushi (1.8 km)

If you can't find enough sushi restaurants on Baldwin, there's another mini-node around the corner at Dundas and McCaul, including Gallery Sushi in the Village by the Grange.

Just up the mall from Gallery Sushi are two Japanese-but-not-necessarily-sushi restaurants: Sakura in the food court, and diner-style Manpuku.

Sushi & BBQ (1.8 km)

Right across the street from Village by the Grange; I have no idea if this place is any relation to the Sushi & BBQ on Yonge St. Probably, though.

And that's as far out as I bothered to look. If you're counting (and I am), that's nearly 50 sushi restaurants within less than 2km of my house. Which is a lot of sushi! That was kind of the point of this whole enterprise, right? Wait, what was the point again?

Sushipalooza '09: The Year in Review

Well as you may have noticed, this week's entry marked the (second) official end to Sushipalooza '09. It seemed as good a time as any to end it, being the end of the year and all. As the weather got colder and the walks got longer, it started to feel like I was reaching the limit of what I could reasonably call "local" sushi places. I probably could've dragged it out for a few more weeks, but then I wouldn't have been able to end things at the end of the year in an all-you-can-eat joint with my family. Better to go out with a bang than a whimper, I always say!

So what have we learned? Lots! Though very little of it is of any use:

• Total sushi restaurants visited: 33 (not counting out-of-town extra places).
• Furthest distance traveled: 1.4 km (actually, 1.37).
• Total spent: $896 (!... and I didn't even pay for a couple that people genorously treated me to).
• Best meal: Omi on Carlton.
• Worst meal: Mariko.
• Blowfish-related food poisonings: 0.

Well, that's that. More or less. I'm sure I'll still eat sushi from time to time, and when I do, probably I'll be unable to resist the urge to photograph it and blog about it. So there's that to look forward to.

Thanks for joining me on this fantastic quest, imaginary readers! It's been a slice! Happy New Year!

Announcement: A Sushipalooza Milestone!

Well, 25 weeks in, we've finally turned a major page here at Sushipalooza... as of Sushi Club, we have officially exhausted all the sushi places within a one kilometre walk of my house! I know, according to the distances I've posted, it may appear as though I reached the 1km mark a couple weeks ago, but those distances are rounded to the nearest 0.1 km... in fact Sushi Club was only 990 m. You know, give or take a couple. But definitely less than 1000.

Let's just pause a moment to reflect on that: there are twenty-five sushi restaurants within a 1 kilometre radius... and that's walking distance, not some as-the-crow-flies nonsense. That is a whole lot of sushi.

And yet, so much more sushi remains. What will the next kilometre hold? Let's find out!

Sushipalooza Summer Wrap-up (Sort Of)

Wow, can you believe Labour Day has come and gone already? As I'm sure my faithful readers will recall, the original plan for Sushipalooza was to start on Victoria Day with the closest sushi restaurant to my house, then visit the next-closest place each week of the summer and see how far away from home I was on Labour Day. Well, with this week's visit to Asahi on Church, we can finally reveal the answer that we've technically known all along!

(*Cue fanfare*) Ladies and gentlemen, the final results of the Great Sushipalooza Experiment of 2009 are as follows: After 17 weeks of visiting progressively-further sushi restaurants, the maximum distance I have had to walk from my home is...

0.8 kilometres!

That's right, 17 sushi joints within a scant 800 metre walking distance... for you people who prefer wacky old-timey measurements, that's about half a mile, or like 160 rods or something.

Other facts not worth noting:

• The Summer of Sushipalooza began and ended with the only two places located on Church St (so far) -- Omi in Week 1 and Asahi in Week 17.
• Speaking of things Omi and Asahi uniquely have in common: they both share names with other nearby restaurants; there is another Omi and another Asahi on Carlton St (over 0.8 km away, so I never made it to either).
• There are still many other sushi restaurants within the bounds of what can reasonably be referred to as "my neighbourhood".

This last point troubles me. I really wanted an excuse to go to some of those places. And once I get into a nice little rut, I like to stay in it. So I am pleased to make the following big surprise announcement... (*cue fanfare again*) Sushipalooza '09 is going into overtime!

Yup, I'm just going to keep right on visiting local sushi restaurants (still in increasing order of distance, naturally), until I reach some yet-to-be-determined radius, or until I succumb to mercury poisoning, whichever comes first.

How long can I keep this up? How many sushi places can there possibly be within a reasonable walking distance? There's only one way to find out... onward to sushi!

Coming Soon: Sushipalooza '09!

It all started a few months ago, when the Sunset Grill on Yonge St. closed down, and was replaced with a "Coming Soon" sign for a new take-out sushi place. And I thought to myself, "Another one? This neighbourhood's already got like... say, how many sushi places are there around here anyway?" I figured you could eat at a different sushi joint every day for quite some time without straying beyond a comfortable walking distance.

Based on a suggestion from Karen, I decided to turn this into an actual experiment. The methodology goes something like this:

1. On Victoria Day, visit the closest sushi place to my house.
2. Each week, continue to visit nearby sushi places in increasing order of distance
3. On Labour Day, note my final distance from home

Of course I could easily determine the answer right now without actually going to all these places, but what fun would that be? Also, I'd lose the chance to answer some other important questions, such as: How long will it take me to get tired of sushi and abandon this ridiculous project? How long until I get food poisoning? Will all the places currently operating actually make it the whole summer before they buckle under their collective weight and implode?

Check back every week to find out the answers!