Suuuuuushi!

Oh sushi, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Thou art beautiful, compact, delicious, varied, spicy, exciting, shiny, crunchy, pungent, fresh, sinus-clearing, and arranged with graphic perfection. You appeal to my Virgo sense of order, and are always satisfying without being overly filling. Even if I stuff myself, I never feel the same level of regret/discomfort as if I'd eaten a comparable amount of say, pizza or French fries.

While the Pioneer Valley is not at Vancouver levels of sushi perfection, we do have some high quality spots for satisfying that sushi jones. My friend Tracy and I have regular sushi nights. We like Arigato in Amherst, which for some reason seems to have a bad rep around town. I've always had great sushi there, and their cooked food is good too. In fact, the background image of this blog is sushi from Arigato. We still can't quite figure what the vaguely sweet sea foam green sauce is that comes on their Amherst roll, but we can live with that.

We also like House of Teriyaki in North Amherst, which has a great variety of sushi. They don't sell alcohol, but you can bring your own, which keeps costs down. 

As far as gluten free issues – as long as you stay away from anything tempura-battered or containing teriyaki, you'll be safe. Neither Arigato nor H.O.T. has gf soy sauce, so I always bring my own bottle.

Osaka, in Northampton, has my vote for best sushi in the Valley. Bonus points for also having gf soy sauce and enough gf non-sushi menu choices if for some reason you're not in a sushi mood. Dinner on their veranda when the weather is nice is a great way to unwind after work and makes for great people watching.

Zen in Northampton, is a close second for best sushi. Their staff is helpful answering questions about which menu items are gluten free and they have gf soy sauce and a pretty extensive Saki selection. (Their website is also really cool.) 

At a recent visit with Tracy (and our significant others) to Zen, the following food was consumed:

Grilled chicken satay with lemongrass peanut sauce.

Chicken dumplings. (Jim's saying, hurry up and take the damn picture so I can eat my dumplings!)

Caterpillar roll.

Special chicken roll wrapped in lettuce with three sauces. (This had some other more official name, but I forgot to write it down and it isn't on their regular menu).

Nigiri sushi dinner.

Zen special roll with bonus Nigiri tuna rolls. (Another non-regular item I neglected to write down.)

Bulgogi.

Sushi. Good.