July 5, 2006 Archives
For some weird reason, I've been in the top ten Google hits when looking for "Odaki Sushi". Odaki is already an uncommon Japanese term (might even just be a typo from a real romaji). Anyways, there are not a lot of reviews on Odaki sushi, just people blogging about it within the Montreal-based blogosphere. My review is by no means a review. All I did was complain that the food wasn't good, and that while well-groomed, the staff was unexperienced, I haven't been back since then (January or February, I think).
To Kanda, either, since I heard rumours that they increased their price to something outrageous, like $30-something (which proved to be totally false - unless they backed off). Been yesterday, and it's as good as usual. However, paying $28 (taxes, tips, tea incl.) all-you-can-eat is only a few dollars shy away from a regular "high-class" sushi place. Kanda does offer sushi that, while un-original in flavours, is generally good. It used to feature a smoking section, where we were parked twice b/c the dining room was too busy, but that's a thing of the past with the new smoking law. Unlike Odaki, the side dishes are fully part of the buffet. At Odaki, at least when I went, one was limited to a certain number (ten?) of side-dish items (teriaki chicken/salmon, shrimp tempura...). Odaki had vegetable tempura, which Kanda doesn't have (but they added small fish, and squid), although they were not the eggplant or sweet potato you usually find, but weird stuff like from the frozen vegetable mix you get at Cosco (brocolli, cauliflower ... carrots? o_O).
Both places bear huge similarities. They are both run by Chinese, they charge $20 for the buffet from Sunday to Thursday, and have that trendy environment with the well-groomed staff. Among people questionned, Wee prefers Kanda, Tenzin prefers Odaki, and so do some people on the dragon boat team. I've really got to try Odaki again (although it will be b/c other people drag me to it), to decide whether I just had a single bad food experience.
(Are both the two only known sushi buffet in downtown, that I know of. I realized that the city keeps being bigger than I thought.)
Fantastic to sublime. I especially like "Novabossa", and its English-covered/comic-ified version "Cat Bossa". Unfortunately, the server of my former student group seems to have crapped out this week, so no distribution. :/ (I haven't even been following the discussion, and since I haven't exactly helped them physically or spiritually (heh) for a while, is definitely not nice to ask what's up. The ups and downs of DIY.)
It's Clazziquai, or Clazziquai Project? I seem to be months late on the phenomenon, as the flist raved about this Korean band already 3-4 months ago. Things come around, I guess, so you might not have been caught by the first apparent wave, but can still catch up to the later ones. It's not original music per se, but it's the first non-boy/girl band or solo vocalist I've heard of Korea. They just stick out, just like when I discovered HK indiepop last year. You can probably qualify the music as dancy. R&B at times, jazzy too, even bossa nova (the songs afore-mentionned)... Brain cramp. Ok. It's a lot of "cool" things.
Damn, "Cat Bossa" is so cute. It goes, "gently pushing myself // get up and pat me // show me you care about me // feed me with healthy food".
As for bossa nova, it's cool to see it being sung in every language now, including Cantonese Chinese and Korean. I happen to have liked a French-singing Montreal band called Bet.e and Stef back in 1999-2000 [they seem dead since 2002, although I swear it wasn't so long ago that I've heard of them]. Don't know how they're faring, but have since then heard them at my uncle's, who is a fan of expensive loungy music (i.e., we sampled the latest Gotan Project last week during family dinner/bbq).
Seven Swords, Jeudi 6 juillet, 9:30
Tokyo Zombie, Vendredi 7 juillet, 7:20
The Maid, Samedi 8 juillet, 5:10
A Chinese Tall Story, Dimanche 9 juillet, 4:45
Funky Forest, Jeudi 13 juillet, 7:20
The Great Yokai War, Samedi 22 juillet, 7:30
Re-Cycle, Dimanche 23 juillet, 7:00
We'll see if I can take more...