Joy Mart

Holding my breath....east of the 405....holding my breath....we're still going....holding my breath....we're off the freeway and things in L.A. are strangely reminiscent of Detroit....holding my breathe and we arrive at a quaint little village in the midst nothing and freeways and chaos. This was my first trip to Little Tokyo and we went to Joy Mart for dinner. Reservations turned out to be unnecessary as we were, for a blissful hour, the only customers in the place.

This place has rolls that can only be described as kick-ass. We started out with a shrimp tempura roll that wasw wrapped with carpaccio (slightly seared, thinly cut beef). there were so many flavors going on with each piece that you felt you needed to turn it around in your mouth over and over again to take it all in. The spicy scallop dynamite was next. This literally melted--there was no way not to break into a smile while putting one of these in your mouth. The Ahi Tuna sashimi was crusted with cracked pepper and sesame seeds. This was the one thing that looked better on the menu than it tasted in reality. Not bad, just not blowing your expectations out of the water either. Finally, a spicy yellowtail maki roll to which we added avocado. Ten pieces served spaced like seedlings on a long, thin sushi dish. The presentation of this was the coolest part. Very good, but so, so full.

For dessert, blue potato ice cream. This was more like a purple color and served with whip cream and a surprise treat of cornflakes at the bottom. Strangely enough, the combination went really well together. Despite my general protest against dessert, the ice cream helped smooth out all the flavors gobbling together in my tummy. The accompanying paper umbrella may prove useful in a collage someday as well.