As we all remember, I go out for sushi every couple of months with some friends of mine and, for the last few of those outings, I have been completely nonplussed by the experience.
大家都记得，我每隔一两个月会和朋友们去吃一次寿司，最近几次体验让我彻底无语。
This time, when the invite inevitably came, I was ready to turn it down. I asked if they cared if we went somewhere else and they all agreed.
这次邀约照例来了，我本想拒绝。我问他们介意不介意换个地方，大家一致同意。
I recently became aware of a different place near the Italian market where I occasionally shop. I looked up this new sushi place and saw that it had some great reviews and people applauded its "inspired" menu.
我最近注意到我偶尔采购的意大利食品市场附近有家新店。我查了这家新寿司店，评价不错，人们称赞它“有创意”的菜单。
Sounded good to me!
听起来不错！
So we went there and...well... I had some concerns when I got there because...literally everything was sticky. The tables, the floors, the back of the chairs, it was weird. They were advertising Happy Hour but they also had a sign on the door that said they were hiring bartenders. They also were hiring "high quality waitstaff", which made me think we'd be waiting...for the staff...
于是我们去了……嗯……进门我就有疑虑，因为……字面意义上所有东西都黏糊糊。桌子、地板、椅背，很怪。他们在宣传欢乐时光(Happy Hour)，门口却又贴着招酒保的告示。还在招“高质量服务员”，让我觉得我们会等……服务员……
The place was dark and very muggy. We were there just before 5pm so I think they must turn off the A/C until the dinner rush is going to start.
店里又暗又闷。我们到的时候还不到下午 5 点，我猜他们要到晚餐高峰才开空调。
But, knowing this now, I can say...there wasn't any rush. And you know things are going to be odd when almost the entire waitstaff are white guys...in a sushi restaurant...
但现在知道了，我可以说……完全没有高峰。而且当一家寿司店几乎全部服务员都是白人小哥……你就知道事情会不对劲……
Anyway...
Now, all that being said, the selection they had of sushi was much better than the last place. They even had some of the little nibbles that my friends had wanted to find but couldn't. Plus, the menu included things like Pepper Steak and General Tso's for people who were looking for a more robust dining option.
话虽如此，他们的寿司选择比上一家好多了。他们甚至有朋友们一直想找却没找到的小食。另外菜单上还有黑椒牛柳、左宗棠鸡之类，适合想要更实在餐点的人。
They didn't have wonton soup, sadly, but they did have the lovely spicy crabstick salad that I love and was craving!
遗憾的是没有馄饨汤，但有我钟爱又正馋的辣蟹柳沙拉！
I ended up getting a roll that was tempura shrimp with cream cheese and cucumber. I terrified the waiter with my wasabi order, but I ate 2/3rds of it.
我最后点了个天妇罗虾配奶油芝士和黄瓜的卷。我的山葵要求把服务员吓着了，但我吃掉了三分之二。
The biggest drawback to this new place was that, when I ordered my entirely necessary Diet Coke...they didn't bring me one. I don't mean they forgot...no...I mean...they didn't have Diet Coke.
这家店最大的硬伤：当我点了我必需的健怡可乐时……他们没给我。我不是说他们忘了……不……我是说……他们没有健怡可乐。
Our waiter...this was his first day...he didn't know that they didn't have Diet Coke until I ordered it and the thing he brought me wasn't, in fact, Diet Coke. I asked: "when I asked for Diet Coke, did they actually only have Diet Pepsi?" because that's what it tasted like. And he said, oh, no, its not even Pepsi. It is a cheap knockoff brand that's just called "cola", or, in my case "diet cola". It was awful. He asked if I wanted to try something else and I said: "No, I don't think I want to risk it on Dr. Paprika, or whatever."
我们的服务员……这是他第一天上班……直到我点了健怡可乐他才知道店里没有，而他端来的东西也不是健怡可乐。我问：“我点健怡可乐的时候，你们是不是只有健怡百事？”因为喝着就像。他说哦不，连百事都不是。是个便宜的杂牌，就叫“可乐”，我拿到的是“健怡可乐”。太难喝了。他问我要不要换别的，我说：“不，我不想赌什么‘胡椒博士可乐’，随便它叫什么。”
And they only put two cubes of ice in it and no ice at all in the glass of water!
而且可乐里只放了 2 块冰，水杯里一块冰都没有！
Not off to a great start, sadly, but the salad was excellent and the sushi roll was delicious. It was like the food was just done by someone with way better management than whoever it was running the rest of the place. The price wasn't bad either, although "happy hour" only took two dollars off the cost of the sushi roll.
开局不佳，可惜了，但沙拉很棒、寿司卷很好吃。仿佛食物出自一个管理远好于店面其他部分的人之手。价格也不差，虽然“欢乐时光”的寿司卷只便宜了两美元。
Sushi! But this time its disappointing... < absolutefutility > 2026-05-06 05:01
寿司！但这次令人失望…… <绝对徒劳> 2026-05-06 05:01
Last time I had sushi, I had some version of it that came wrapped up in pink bean paper or something stupid like that. I tried to like it but I couldn't. This time, I looked through the whole menu and nothing else sounded as good as the one that had the awful pink bean paper. I was going to ask if they could just make it with the nori instead but it said: "no substitutions" at the top of the page!
上次吃寿司，点了一种用粉色豆皮纸还是什么蠢东西卷的。我努力想喜欢，做不到。这次我把整份菜单翻遍，再没有一款听起来比那个裹着可怕粉色豆皮纸的更好。我想问能不能改用海苔，结果页首写着“不接受替换”！
We were not amused.
我们一点也不觉得有趣。
I picked a different roll that sounded good but...it was not so great. I ended up disassembling it and eating the shrimp, crabstick and asparagus innards. Even drowning it in soy sauce couldn't help.
我挑了另一款听起来不错的卷，但……不咋地。最后我把它拆了，只吃里面的虾、蟹柳和芦笋芯。泡在酱油里也救不了。
The saddest part was that I stumbled across a new sushi restaurant on the way to this one but no one wanted to try a "new" place, they wanted to go to the OLD place.
最难过的是，去这家店的路上我偶然发现一家新寿司店，但没人想试“新”店，他们要去“老”店。
And, by "old", I mean we'd been there twice before! Our real "old" place closed down after years of dwindling interest. They had great sushi but an A/C unit that was sporadic at best and spiteful at worst.
而所谓“老”，是我们才去过两次！我们真正的“老”店在人气逐年下滑后关了。寿司很棒，但空调时好时坏，坏起来还带脾气。
This place we're going to now has a really cute waiter and I think that's the only real reason we keep ending up there.
现在这家有个很可爱的服务员，我觉得这才是我们一直又回到这儿的原因。
This time, while the rest of us got sushi, one person got bibimbap. This last thing is Korean, actually, and is kinda like the Korean equivalent of fajitas. It comes out in a sizzling-hot stone bowl; its meat and veggies and a fried egg on top. It smelled good, but I could tell it was spicy as hell when they set it on the table and I wasn't going to have any of that.
这次我们其他人吃寿司，有一个人点了石锅拌饭。那是韩国菜，有点像韩版法士达。端上来时石碗滚烫滋滋响；是肉、蔬菜加一颗煎蛋。闻着很香，但一放到桌上我就知道辣得要命，我一口都不碰。
I think I've mentioned a few times before that I had a problem with spicy things. I have figured out, over the years since it started, that my problem seems to be limited to the capsaicin in the peppers. This is what makes peppers spicy - from the lowly banana pepper at around 100 Scoville units all the way up to the Carolina Reaper at about 2,000,000 Scoville units! Sometimes, I'm so sensitive to capsaicin that Ketchup can be too spicy.
我记得我提过几次我对辣有障碍。这些年我弄明白了，我的问题似乎仅限于辣椒里的辣椒素。辣椒素就是让辣椒辣的东西——从约 100 史高维尔的黄椒一路到约 200 万史高维尔的卡罗来纳死神椒！有时候我对辣椒素敏感到番茄酱都嫌辣。
I know, someone is going to whine that tomatoes don't have it, but they have the ability to make it in their genes... THAT is how sensitive I am!
我知道会有人哀嚎说番茄没有辣素，但它们的基因里能造出这东西……我就是敏感到这个地步！
So what do you do if you like a lil spicy now and then?
那偶尔想来点微辣怎么办？
You switch to isothiocyanate!
换成异硫氰酸酯！
Isothiocyanate is the chemical, the "capsaicin" of things like horseradish, mustard and wasabi.
异硫氰酸酯是辣根、芥末和山葵里的那种化学物质，是它们的“辣椒素”。
For whatever reason, as sensitive as I am to capsaicin, I am NOT sensitive to isothiocyanate. I can eat raw horseradish and not even break a sweat. I can have wasabi an inch thick on my sushi and be: "gee, that's a lovely tang!" I can eat spicy mustard on anything and it doesn't bother me at all: try Colman's English Mustard if you don't think that's a feat!
不知为何，我对辣椒素那么敏感，对异硫氰酸酯却完全不敏感。我能生吃辣根都不出汗。山葵在寿司上糊一英寸厚，我还能说：“哟，好可爱的冲劲！”辣芥末我涂什么都行：不信的话试试科尔曼英式芥末！
But, even today, a thick layer of wasabi couldn't make the sushi better. I was nonplussed.
但即便如此，厚厚一层山葵也救不了那寿司。我还是无语。
I came home and had an ice cream cone.
我回家吃了支冰淇淋。
What did you have for dinner?
你晚饭吃了什么？