Do you know the tingly feeling that you get when you’re on your way to a sushi restaurant? And do you avoid eating all day, because you’re going to an all-you-can-eat-sushi restaurant that night? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you are an extreme sushi lover, just like me. I love sushi, there’s nothing that I love more in life than sushi (okay… that might be a bit extreme, I also love my friends, family, dog and boyfriend), but you get my point.
Lots of people love sushi, so you might be able to relate to this. However, then you also know the struggles that come with being a sushi-lover. If you don’t like sushi or if your love for sushi is not as extreme as mine, then let me introduce you to the three biggest struggles in the life of a sushi lover:
- It’s expensive!
This might sound like an open door, but sushi is expensive. As a student, there are many nice places to grab a quick bite to eat, even at the end of the month or before the salary comes in. You could go to Happy Italy or de Stoep, order an entree and a few drinks and finish the night with only 15 euros less in your wallet. With sushi, however, this is not the case, as all-you-can-eat menus are often somewhere between 25 and 30 euros. This is already expensive, but then you have to order drinks and that’s the real problem. The salty soy sauce makes you very thirsty and with 20 cl drinks, you need at least five to help you through each round.
- You can’t understand people who don’t like sushi.
Sometimes, you’re in a conversation with someone about food or where to go out for dinner and you suggest going to Sumo or Shabu Shabu and your friend answers: “Well, I have never had sushi before.” “What!!” For me, that’s hard to understand, but it still gives me the opportunity to show these sushi-amateurs how much you can love rice and fish. However, what really baffles me is when people say they don’t like sushi. It’s rice and fish and it tastes delicious: what’s not to like?
- Sushi takes away my focus.
Whenever I make plans with my friends to go out and eat sushi, it is literally all I can think about for an entire week. Last Sunday, I went out with my hockeyteam to eat sushi and I was excited for it all week. I was already thinking about nigiri, maki, fried shrimps and seaweed salad on Monday and I still had to make it through the entire week.
I know some of you might think that I’m exaggerating, but I also know that there are people out there who love sushi as much as I do. People who get excited when they see the beautiful colors of the different kinds of fish and vegetables. People who just get really happy when they put that first piece of maki, drenched in soy sauce, into their mouths.