Death by Sushi

swimming upstream
Originally uploaded by rrrichard.

We went out for all-you-can-eat sushi last night for a friend's birthday at Kiku Sushi in Monrovia. It has been a while since I've had all-you-can-eat sushi, so I made sure I ate moderately during the day to leave enough room in my stomach.

However, that became a problem when it turned out we wouldn't be eating at the appointed time of 7:30PM. Kiku Sushi is a tiny place and there were sixteen of us, so we had to wait an hour for tables to clear up. I was already hungry by 7:30. I was ravenous by the time I sat down a little after 8:30. The problem when I get really hungry is that I eat way too fast.

The first orders of sushi were terrific. Not the best sushi I've had, but certainly quite good, and at $25 for all-you-can-eat in one hour, a very good value. Along with my Asahi, I was satisfying my disgruntled belly. We ordered a bunch of different things for the first round--spider rolls, tuna rolls, lobster rolls, unagi--and we were still famished for more. However, we were way too aggressive in our ordering. By the time the first plates came from our second batch, we had all slowed down. For me, what had been a satisfying sushi experience began to feel like torture. The lobster roll that I thought was so good earlier began to taste sickeningly rich in my mouth. I had to force myself to chew and swallow.

By the end I had to stand up because I just felt way too full. In fact the full feeling didn't go away for a couple of hours. We went to Dave and Buster's afterwards and all I wanted to do was sprawl on the floor and massage my belly.

At least I didn't puke, though, like another member of our party. As we were walking to our cars he began puking--in front of my car. No harm done. He just ate too fast.

Would I go back to Kiku? Of course. Next time I'll just pace myself better.