I avoided Friends Sushi for years because of its reputation as “the cheap sushi place” featuring sub-$10 lunch boxes and $1 sushi on Mondays. Having been an early and enthusiastic recipient of Anthony Bourdain’s culinary wisdom nearly a dozen years ago via Kitchen Confidential, I know that Monday fish specials are bad news. I still haven’t visited Friends on sushi Monday, but have to grudgingly admit that this place is pretty good. And it is cheap. Do you know why? Smaller nigiri for starters. What would be a two-bite affair at Edokko or other area sushi restaurants is a small mouthful at Friends. For years I have correlated the size of sushi pieces with the quality of the restaurant, but I’m starting to re-evaluate. Sometimes bigger is better, sometimes it’s not and sometimes it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Let’s just say that the motion of the ocean is quite vigorous at Friends. I’m starting to prefer the smaller pieces. I just find it more manageable to eat small nigiri in a single bite rather than awkwardly stuffing a giant hunk of fish into my mouth.

Worse yet, attempts at eating nigiri in two bites are almost always disastrous. Once a piece of sushi falls from your chopsticks and is disassembled into it its component parts, it loses any magic it might have had. The sushi bento box lunch special gets a lot of attention, and rightly so. For $8.95 you can get two nigiri, one maki roll, soup, a mini-egg roll, salad and crab rangoon (which they hilariously and accurately call a “cheese cracker”). Eating sushi at most places in the United States isn’t going to be a genuine experience of Japanese culinary culture and I suspect that Friends’ bento box lunches are a prime example of that. There are many options for the bento apart from sushi, but I’m not getting anything else if I go to a sushi restuarant. So I’m not saying that this is the best food in the world; I’ll leave that to every other food blog in town. But I am saying that this is a well-sized, affordable lunch special that arrives quickly and tastes good.

If money isn’t an issue, by all means order sushi a la carte. I’ve done it and it’s really quite good and still won’t set you back a fortune. And the sushi isn’t sketchy. I’ve never had anything that seemed less than fresh or anything that was cut or prepared oddly. I even tolerated the likely presence of mayonnaise in the spicy crunchy salmon roll and enjoyed it immensely. Friends is the most laid back sushi restaurant I have been to in Kansas City. Due to sushi’s elevated price point, most places tend to be slightly fancier affairs. The style of food lends itself well to casual but hip fine dining and semi-douchey night club-esque implementations. Friends is more like the Japanese Succotash with colorful walls (each painted a different bright color), utilitarian furniture and crude design accents like bamboo branches attached to the walls of the dining room. What differentiates it from Succotash is the very good service. There are always plenty of servers available to tend to the dining room as well as a host/ess seating prospective diners.

This place is really quite small but fortunately the primary dining room is separated from the entryway, sushi bar and waiting area. It does mean that servers often spend downtime wrapping silverware or doing other sidework at the sushi bar, particularly during lunch. magic sushi mobile game onlineIt doesn’t bother me much but it’s a little awkward to have servers performing work other than serving when in full view of customers.sushi to go palm springs That’s all I have to say, not having been eaten there more than a few times. how much sushi does the average person eatBut I thought it was worth saying that Friends isn’t scary, sketchy or gross. sushi tei menu and price

Rather it’s quite good sushi for a good price. Maybe someday I’ll foray farther into the menu.Maki and Nigiri at Tsukiji Modern sushi was invented in Edo (modern day Tokyo) in the 19th century. takeout sushi downtown torontoOriginally a street food sold from carts, shops, and theater concession stands, all forms of sushi are intended to be eaten with the hands, though chopsticks are perfectly acceptable as well.how to order sushi without seaweed This photo was taken near Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, where sushi is eaten as it was intended: fresh, quick, no frills (or plates!), and seriously delicious—even at 6 a.m.fish for sushi san diego The most ubiquitous and approachable form of sushi in restaurants today is makizushi (wrapped sushi).

It's formed by rolling seasoned rice and a filling inside a sheet of nori (dried sea kelp) with the help of a bamboo rolling mat. Thick rolls with multiple ingredients are called futomaki (fat rolls). The California roll is a classic American example of this style that uses crab or surimi (seafood stick) while in Japan, the fillings are typically a mix of vegetables and pickles, chosen for their complementary colors and flavors. Thin rolls with a single ingredient are called hosomaki (skinny rolls). The two most classic are tekkamaki (tuna rolls) and kappamaki (cucumber rolls, often eaten as a palate-cleansing intermediary between different varieties of fish). The absolute simplest form of sushi to make, the temaki (hand roll) consists of a half sheet of nori wrapped into a cone shape around the sumeshi and several fillings. The fillings run the gamut from vegetables and pickles to raw and cooked fish, or chopped tartares like spicy tuna or salmon. Oftentimes, they are seasoned by the chef before serving, but if eating an unseasoned roll, only the corner of the nori to be bitten should be dipped lightly into soy sauce, so as not to saturate the rice.

As with futomaki, contrasting colors, textures, and flavors are essential. Made by draping pieces of sliced raw or cooked fish, shellfish, omelet, or occasionally meat over an oblong block of sushi rice, nigiri is the form of sushi that a sushi chef should be judged by. It requires the most precise knife skills and the most demanding shaping technique of any form. Despite lacking a nori wrapper, nigirizushi is designed as a finger food and it is perfectly acceptable to pick up with your hands. When consuming, the edge of the fish should be lightly dipped in soy sauce (never the rice, which can fall apart if moistened), and the entire piece should be consumed in one or two bites, without returning it to the plate between bites. Inarizushi starts with frying a thin shell of tofu skin then chilling it and marinating it in a sweet sauce. The tofu pouches are then slit open and stuffed with sumeshi and various other ingredients. Some common varieties include reconstituted shiitakes, sesame seeds, or umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums), though really any vegetables can be added.

When the fried tofu pouch is replaced by a thinly-cooked omelette, it becomes chakin-zushi. Tofu pouches can be bought fried, marinated, and ready to stuff at most Japanese supermarkets. The closest commonly-consumed modern relative to the original narezushi (fermented sushi), oshizushi is a specialty of Osaka. To make it, ingredients such as pickled mackerel, raw fish, or vegetables are placed in the bottom of a wooden bamboo mold with a removable top and bottom. Sumeshi is then packed on top of it and firmly compressed into a tight block. After un-molding, the packed rice and toppings are sliced into bite-sized pieces. Often, an extra middle layer of ingredients or nori can be added for flavor or decorative effect. Chirashizushi translates as "scattered sushi." It's made by adding multiple contrasting ingredients directly on top of a bed of sumeshi, and is traditionally served in small lacquered boxes. Because of its minimal preparation and simple technique, it's the most common form of sushi served in the home, and is great for feeding a crowd.