Gastrolust

Recently, I went to Moshi Moshi in Ballard–the type of place where I typically don’t like to eat sushi, for reasons I’ll be explaining in the next issue of Seattle Dining. (Food lovers should sign up for a free subscription.) Basically, it’s about Asian cocktail bars serving food that’s bland, bastardized, or just plain bad.

My partner and I sat at the sushi bar and each ordered chirashizushi, as we both wanted bowls and then to be done. Chirashi means “scattered,” and our bowls had an assortment of sashimi scattered over sushi rice, along with tamago (egg), ikura (salmon roe), and a few other items. For the record, the variety of fish was good (to be expected), but the quality was just so-so. You can get better, more flavorful cuts of fish at Kisaku and Sushi Kappo Tamura–the two places I’d most highly recommend.

So what does Moshi Moshi’s chirashizushi teach us about sex?

It’s about the never-ending connections between sex and food–and here at Moshi Moshi, the whole experience.

Strangely, the sushi chef spent an inordinate amount of time talking with my partner (she’s from Tokyo) about his love life–or lack thereof. I found his ramblings–at least the translated parts–slightly amusing to start, but then they got increasingly annoying as he’d interrupt our conversation and our focus on the food. While my partner indulged his stories about relationship woes (perhaps we could have done an intervention or complained, but there were some cultural issues at play; besides, I’d later consider complaining that the price in the restaurant was more than the price advertised online, but that’s an issue for another time), I contemplated the bowl before me. The scattering of fish and the dish as a whole represented a scattering of “greatest hits” of sex and food connections from previous Sexy Feast columns, including:

• Meskel’s kitfo, and doing it raw (here, sashimi)
• Kaname’s shishamo, and ravishing the whole body (here, seafood)
• Blackboard Bistro’s brisket slider, and the value of lubrication (here, soy sauce)
• Madison Park Conservatory’s octopus, and the intrigue of tentacle porn (here, tako)
• Issian’s onigiri, and the handling of balls (here, ikura)
• Brave Horse Tavern’s pretzels, and the price of pleasure (here, the cost)
• The Walrus and the Carpenter’s boquerones, and the meaning of bathing (here, marinated components)
• Travelers Thali House’s thali, and the joy of variety (here, all the toppings)

And for my friend behind the sushi counter, any of the other Sexy Feast columns might help with sex and relationship issues he might be encountering now or in the future.

First published in Seattle Weekly’s Voracious on March 1, 2012.