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Splitsville Lanes Sushi Bar
5701 Sunset Dr.
South Miami, FL 33143
305-665-5263
www. splitsvillelanes.com


Splitsville is a fun and funky bowling alley slash sushi bar slash lounge. Lanes are reserved together with comfy booths that accommodate six people, although the lane scoring system can handle eight bowlers per game.

At Splitsville they take their sushi seriously, and so we decided to give it a throw. And after careful deliberation, a couple of mojitos and plenty of soy sauce, the official SushiPRO verdict is in – it’s a strike! (more…)

Yes, Japan is hurting and those of us with a public mouthpiece need to continue to write about the terrible situation there and keep it on people’s radar. One awful thing that always happens in disasters is the media fatigue that ensues after the initial story is told. The shock value has worn off, yet the need is still severe!

All you need to know is that this island nation is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with around a quarter of a million people homeless, thousands unaccounted for, fifteen to twenty thousand dead, and a desperate need for water, shelter, food, medical supplies and all the basic stuff needed to survive the cold harsh weather.

Many people and organizations have been very generous, and it is helping. But please remember the scale of this horrible set of incidents including earthquake then tsunami and nuclear facility safety issues. This is beyond anything in memory, perhaps since World War II. (more…)

We had a sushi dinner at our place this weekend and had a lot of fun. It’s not hard to do if you don’t take things too seriously. Just remember it’s all about having fun!

A quick stop in to our local fishmonger reeled in some great catches. We chose some nice looking tuna, salmon and scallops.

They had some frozen eel that was tempting. It was anago, the salt water cousin of unagi. But it required preparation – yes these were the whole, frozen sea eels, not the nice filets we’re used to with unagi. (more…)

Uni – you either love it or you hate it, there is no in-between!

Do you enjoy uni but not really know much about it? Join the club

Here’s the basic info you’ll need to enjoy eating this delicacy. For more info, read our page about uni / sea urchin roe.

Sea urchins come in several variations, and can be colored black, green, purple, red – maybe other colors as well.

Always try to eat the uni from the pacific; they are widely regarded as the best tasting varieties (California and Chile specifically) and the populations are generally considered to be in better shape than Atlantic sea urchin stocks.

The sea urchins are cut open and five sections of uni are removed. It’s not actually the sea urchin roe, that’s a misnomer, but let’s not dwell on details here. (more…)

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Yuki Hana
1450 NW 87th Ave
Doral, FL 33172
786-331-7857
www.yukihanasushi.com

Yuki Hana is one of those places that looks so intriguing from the parking lot. They advertise Japanese/Korean food and the place looks small and cozy compared to the much larger Umami restaurant right around the corner.

We don’t recommend coming here for the sushi, however. Let’s face it, Doral is chocked full of terrific sushi bars and Japanese restaurants and this one is just average. The Korean food may stand up better to close inspection, we’ll have to leave that to people more knowledgeable in that area. (more…)

Japan seems to be starting down the long road to recovery this week, after stabilizing the situation at the Fukushima nuclear facility that was leaking radiation after the earthquakes and tsunami. Estimates now are at 18,000 dead, and millions more impacted by the devastating loss of property that saw some coastal cities literally wiped off the map.

It’s time to find people, get aid to the needy and work on shelter, safe food and water. Not everyone can go and help in search and rescue missions, go help build shelters and such. But almost everyone can do a little bit to help. Even kids can give small donations while playing online, as we described in a post last week. And adults can do much more.

This is not just a post for lovers of Japanese food and culture of course, the whole world has been moved by the magnitude of this natural disaster. But there is good news too. The laws of large numbers dictate that if we all do a little to help we can make a huge difference.

Won’t you be the one who skips one restaurant meal, or spends a little less on groceries or decides to buy one less shirt this week and donates the money instead to help those who have lost everything? With a simple text message of “REDCROSS” to 90999 you will donate $10 to Red Cross Japan. Most of us can afford that, to help folks who have lost families, relatrives, homes.