On The Hook

Adventure - "an unusual, exciting and daring experience", most often associated with items like sky diving, swimming with sharks, rock climbing, oh yes and eating sushi. At least that was my opinion for years, and eventhough my parents had filled my dreams with travel and my mouth with escargots, eel, herring, duck, Rijsttafel and dare I say, a sip of champagne, all before 2nd grade, sushi was not eaten very often. A trip to the Japanese Nippon Club at age 9 forever stays in my mind, with miniscule quail eggs, paperthin tuna and dozens of blushing sushi displayed in the most intricate designs with some sense of Mondrian meets Picasso and Braque. In the ensuing years I would choose Pate' and Foie Gras over maguro, Carpaccio and Pasta over unagi, and somehow my protein of choice no longer was seafood or fish, but chicken and fowl.
Jose Luis, on the other hand was a die-hard sushi fan, so during the eighties I would accompany him to his favorite sushi restaurant on 79th Street Causeway in Miami, but shame on me, I would order California roll, Shrimp sushi and chicken teryaki. After my gastric bypass surgery in 2000, my palate and taste changed dramatically and a 180 degree turn later I was craving fish, raw, cooked, baked, sauteed, grilled, you name it and sushi headed to top of the list. In those 7 years we have been lucky enough to have eaten in dozens of different restaurants, most often at the sushi bar, where the chefs dexterity and often flamboyance, has awed us and inspired us to implement the visuality of food.
Having tried 5 sushi restaurants in St. Pete, and disappointment weaving through our meals at 3, we come back, time after time to Hook's, where he subscribes to the motto of "All Fish and no Bull". Although we also enjoy the mastery of the sushi chef at King and I, and some of his specialty roles are masterpieces within masterpieces, we prefer the King for Thai and Hook's for sushi. With the Mexican, TNT, California and Dragon, all familiar names and similar presentations, it is the quality of his seafood, the friendliness of his staff and the reasonable prices that justify the fullfillment of our sushi cravings here.
When he plates a barely seared Maguro sashimi over paperthin tuna with tobiko and a secret sauce, we almost swoon, his slightly warmed Unagi with fish sauce, then dipped in ponzu is the cat's meow, while a seaweed salad (now also served spicy) with its briny sweetness hits a home run.
When you are the only patron in a sushi restaurant during lunch hour it does not bode well, but we had received some recommendations for Ai Mei Thai and Sushi, and being conveniently located around the corner from our house, it was only a 4 minute drive. Halfway through the so-so sushi and having to listen to 3 waitresses, loudly talking about their lives, we were bored, but that is when it got interesting as we heard 2 of the sushi "chefs" arguing about the seafood, that they could still use the old mussels and bad tuna. We simultaneously put down our chopsticks, forfeited the rest of the meal, paid and hightailed it out, and blame it on the 2 chefs, eventhough the sushi did not taste horrid, we did not want to take a chance. Our experiences at Sushi Rock, Ratchada (great Thai food e.g. Basil Duck) and Bangkok #9 never were on an even par with Hook's so why switch.