After a week of eating almost nothing but Thanksgiving leftovers (turkey omelets, turkey salad, turkey sandwiches, turkey stew, turkey pot-pie) and every heavy cream, cheese and/or starch-laden side dish known to man, I'm ready for a few lighter meals to give my mid-section a much-needed break.
Like sushi!
If you're in the same bloated boat, make tracks to Capitol Market to pick something nice from Sushi Garden. The market's newest tenant is now up and running, offering a selection of simple and fancy rolls, Asian apps and salads, spicy wraps, party platters and more - all made fresh daily.
Pretty good ones, too.
And now that opening week glitches have given way to more consistent supply and demand, it only takes a few seconds to grab ready-made items from the cooler - or just minutes to watch them make you anything fresh off the menu.
If you've always wanted to be your own sushi mastermind, they also take special requests, too. If you have an idea for a custom-made roll and they've got the goods, they'll whip it up for you speedy-quick.
The West Virginia Roll is a best-seller, and my only complaint with its combo of crab, avocado, cucumber, salmon, tuna, cream cheese, tempura batter and roe in gluten-free rice is the use of imitation crab. (I know that's a pretty widespread practice, it's just one I still don't readily embrace.)
The Sushi Garden Roll's mix of crab, cream cheese, avocado, diced shrimp, mayo and sweet-spicy sauce is good also, and the House Roll of crab, cucumber, avocado and sweet-spicy sauce topped with crunchy onions is even better.
I've also sampled crab shumai (decent), steamed dumplings (good) and a new one for me, inari, which is simply lightly sweetened sushi rice stuffed inside deep-fried tofu "pillow" pockets. I later learned this is one of the most low-brow types of sushi there is, but it was strangely appealing to me.
Other items up for grabs include most traditional sushi rolls, more exotic varieties featuring spicy tuna or eel, and wraps of tapioca paper stuffed with spicy veggies, shrimp, salmon or tuna.
But the new spot's best sushi by a long shot is the Yum Mango Shrimp Roll featuring shrimp and cucumber in rice, topped with chopped mango, crunchy onions, tempura batter, black sesame seeds and spicy sauce.
I discovered this one after already eating lunch one day, so I grabbed an order to take home to enjoy later. I walked out, placed it in the passenger seat, started the car and thought, well, just one little bite now while it's fresh.
Two minutes later there was nothing left but an empty tray. I'd inhaled all 10 pieces right there in the parking lot, with engine running and people staring.
But I couldn't help myself and made no effort to stop.
IF YOU GO: Sushi Garden, next to The Purple Onion at Capitol Market, is open during regular market hours. (That's 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday through the holidays.) For more information, email sushigarden11@gmail.com or call 681-265-9374. The full menu also is posted online at www.capitolmarket.net.
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Speaking of good eats, a longtime Charleston resident needs our help finding a local plate of baked steak as good as the ones he used to enjoy at restaurants around town many years ago.
"Dear Guy of the Clan Food," writes J. Michael Mollohan. (I like him already.)
"When I first moved to Charleston, and for years after, there were a plethora of local restaurants that served superbly delicious baked steak and gravy. I'm torn between The Corner Restaurant on Stockton Street and the old Empire Dinner on Summers as to which had the very best. Needless to say, both were excellent.
"The Cutright (Waybright?) Cafeteria on Washington Street West and the Rose City Cafeteria on Lee Street downtown never failed to please. There was also the B&B Café on Summers, The Coffee Shop where the CAMC General ER is now, and probably a dozen other places scattered about over the town. (Rick & Charlotte's on the East End comes to mind). Never did I have a bad meal at any of these places."
But fast-forward to 2015, and it seems no one offers a decent version of this "hometown delicacy" - or at least not one to his liking.
Baked steak dishes at Diehl's (Nitro), Mayberry's (St. Albans), Top Spot (Sissonville), Boom's (Kanawha City) and Tudor's (statewide) have all failed to impress, he says.
"People try but seem to fall way short of what once was apparently easy enough to do that everyone did it," he laments. "Is there any place in the area where I can get a decent plate of baked steak and gravy?"
Good question, my friend, but I'll have to pose that question to readers.
The old restaurants you mentioned were all before my time in Charleston and I can't recall a baked steak I've had in town that left any kind of impression. (Maybe at South Charleston's Farm Table years ago?)
So, fine folks, any help for our ol' buddy J. Michael?
Steven Keith writes a weekly food column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. He can be reached at 304-380-6096 or by email at dailymailfoodguy@aol.com. You can also follow him on Facebook and Pinterest as "DailyMail FoodGuy," on Twitter as "DMFoodGuy" and read his blog at http://blogs.charlestondailymail/foodguy.