Ottawa Foodies

This is the best sushi in town. Bar none. I am talking melt in your mouth goodness. I found out about it when I was in the hospital from a nurse.

I like their cold noodle salad too, it's sooo delicious! me and my bf always orders an extra!

we also like their beef tataki(?) - fresh chilled raw beef slices served with spring onion, green onion in the soy-flavoured sauce, it's so good!

Pingu, it sounds like Hiyashi Chuuka, which is apparently sometimes served with a little mayo mixed in.

Here are some recipes:
www.bento.com/tr-hiya.html
theanimeblog.com

This is my favourite Japanese restaurant in Ottawa. Does anyone know what they put in that appetizer they give you at the beginning? It's a cold noodle, bean thread, I think, with mayonnaise, spices and finely shredded veggies and crab meat. The dressing is so delicious! I covet this appy. I will be forever grateful to anyone who knows the recipe.

This is a really good sushi restaurant. Their salmon sashimi is consitently mouth watering.
One of the best japanese restaurants in Ottawa.

Ugh.. that was my first digital camera ever and it made everything look so blue! Great food and good times though! :-)

Some simple tempura. Ask the Fresh Foodie if he remembers how they tasted. They look damn good!

I ate here on June 9, 2001 and my brother took some great shots of the food. This was when I was really just discovering the joys of Japanese food and I recall this meal being one that made me a sushi-fiend for life. This looks like an appetizer.

I remember hearing that when the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa has guests from Japan, they take them to Ichibei. It does seem very authentic.

Here's a sushi plate from Ichibei. My favourites are unagi (BBQ eel), mackerel (saba) and tuna (maguro maybe?).

More Ichibei sushi. God this makes me hungry!

A sampling of sushi from Ichibei, again from 2001.

Here's some delicious sukiyaki from Ichibei. It's served with a raw egg that you crack at the table in a little bowl. It's for coating the sukiyaki pieces. Then you eat the egg-coated morsels with a bowl of white rice. At first I was hesitant to eat raw egg, but it's the authentic way, and you just got to live dangerously sometimes!

Oh, and that's my sake-containing Tanuki (Japanese raccoon) posing with the food.

Natto are fermented soy beans. They are essentially half decomposed by bacteria! They are coated with a slippery, cheesy, stringy sauce. They don't smell very good at first whiff. But they are an acquired taste, so if you keep trying them, you, too, will eventually grow to love natto. I know a person who loves them so much, he maintains a natto stash in his freezer! This natto is from Ichibei, and it comes with tuna, which is a very nice combination.

Here are Ichibei's Japanese pickled vegetables. The pink ones are cucumber, the purple ones are eggplant and the yellow pickle is of daikon, a member of the radish family that looks like a giant, white carrot. As usual, my little tanuki is presiding over my delicious appetizer.