Sticky Rice dc, baltimore and richmond are having our own Iron chef sushi masters classic. Each city is hosting a night of amazingness. And flavors like you have never seen. Its gonna be huge. Their Celebrity judges and local heroes!!!

Here are the dates
Washington DC 02/12 7:00pm
Baltimore 02/19 7pm
Richmond 02/26 9pm

Volcanic Mountain
Lobster and spicy tuna wrapped in soy paper tempura fried w/spicy mayo and eel sauce and wasabi mayo.

Grilled scallop and blood orange over spring mix and goat cheese.

Grouper Sashimi
-5 pcs thin sliced grouper w/garlic, jalapeño and Yuzu dresssing

PHOTO: Bryan Bedder/The Daily
Taka Taka’s take on shrimp sashimi is marinated in lime and served in a cilantro and serrano chili sauce.

PHOTO: Bryan Bedder/The Daily
The mango and avocado roll at Taka Taka, a new Mexican sushi restaurant in New York City, features breaded shrimp, crab and cheese.

PHOTO: Bryan Bedder/The Daily
Taka Taka’s take on shrimp sashimi is marinated in lime and served in a cilantro and serrano chili sauce.

PHOTO: Bryan Bedder/The Daily
The mango and avocado roll at Taka Taka, a new Mexican sushi restaurant in New York City, features breaded shrimp, crab and cheese.
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Sushi may be a 500-year-old Japanese tradition, but its future would be unrecognizable to the shoguns and samurai of ancient Edo.

Case in point: cheese in sushi. And not just any cheese, but grilled Manchego, wrapped around sliced jalapeño, shrimp tempura and chipotle sauce. If that sounds more Mexican than Japanese, that’s because it is.

The creation of Andres Mier y Terán and his two business partners, who happen to be his brothers, Mexican sushi isn’t in any danger of being confused with familiar sushi-bar staples.

“We started with pure Japanese recipes and integrated our favorite flavors of Mexican culture,” Mier y Terán told The Daily. “But that doesn’t mean we are just adding chili powder to everything.”

Indeed, the list of unconventional sushi ingredients ranges from tortilla chips to mangoes to fried plantains.

The Mier y Terán brothers own a successful chain of more traditional sushi bars in Mexico City, and dreamed up Mexican sushi in a quest to distinguish themselves in the crowded American market. Their first outlet is Taka Taka, in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

Inside, a conveyor belt snakes around the dining tables, allowing newly converted Mexican sushi aficionados to pick up whatever looks appealing, be it a shrimp and chile piquin roll or a mango, avocado and cheese roll.

Of course a new sushi needs a new kind of soy sauce, and at Taka Taka, the traditional Kikkoman has been reimagined with lime and orange juices and even some fish skin flakes. It’s a lighter, sweeter soy sauce — well suited for cutting the spice of a jalapeño roll.

Speaking of cutting the spice, the restaurant is armed with a potent array of synergistic libations. The Michelada, for instance, substitutes soy sauce for the usual Worcestershire sauce, and instead of Modelo or Tecate, it’s all about the Sapporo.

The flavors do take some getting used to, and obviously an affection for both Mexican and Japanese cuisine is helpful.

“Without completely changing the recipes, the goal is to make you think of both cultures,” explained Mier y Terán.

Getting HUNGRY, We thought so.

Menus may vary each location. Discounts taken off at check out.

The world famous sticky balls. One of the many choices here at sticky. Tuna and crab spicy seasoned rice in a inari pocket and then tempura fried. Its that good.

Shrimp Szechuan…or with mock chicken. Sweet and spicy. Soooo good.

The tokyo burger…the huge flavor will make you come back again and again.

more pics at our Facebook page.

Sushi heaven is a late night sushi happy hour 10:30-12:30 every monday. Each sticky rice gets one of the biggest order of the week, of best tuna, fresh fish, and veggies. Then we prep it all to get ready for dinner and then the Sushi heaven madness. And the sweet and spicy!

Sticky Balls for such heaven is one of the best deals. If your a fan of fun sushi.

Lots of veggie sushi items available also!!!!

Hello Garden of Eden…tempura fried carrots and avocado!!

Click image for menu!!!

Sticky Rice restaurants are very proud of the vegetarian and vegan options available. With so many choice people are going to find it hard to decide.

Not a Classic Crab Wrap.
A jumbo lump crab cake wrapped in asian sesame slaw served with rice and black bean and grilled corn.
A Lawrence Sye creation. Cant wait to see more.

See the rest of the Baltimore menu…here. You can also see more picture of food at our flickr.com account. sticky rice bmore

And the white house roll

These and more….eat with your eyes. Taste with your tounge.

Check out some of the sushi specials…tonight in Baltimore

I feel like lately I’ve been eating out quite a bit. Not sure if the Restaurant Week is to blame, or the fact that I’ve been doing freelance cooking and photography for Robyn Webb, leaving less time for me to come up with my own recipes (other perks are awesome though!!!). Regardless, here’s another mini review of my lunch at Sticky Rice with Stephanie.

Stephanie and I signed up to take a 4 week intro to digital photography class, and this past Saturday we had a field trip around Union Station. Being huge fans of food, we decided to head out for lunch right after the class. Unfortunately, the place we were planning on checking out, Toscana Cafe, was closed for lunch. We stopped by at a nearby coffee cafe and asked for recommendations. We were told to check out Sticky Rice. I’ve heard of this place multiple times, and so Stephanie and I headed out to find this restaurant.

Thankfully, the day was sunny and warm and we happily chatted as we walked. A word of caution: I must admit that the neighborhood surrounding Sticky Rice is somewhat sketchy. It’s on its way to being hip and popular, but it’s not quite there yet. I was definitely happy we were walking there together and during a day light.

Once we found Sticky Rice, we were told there’d be a 25 minute wait. Both of us had a look of surprise on our faces as we clearly could see at least 3 empty booths. Turns out, they only serve food upstairs on Saturdays. Ok, we decided to wait.

Once upstairs, I absolutely LOVED the decor, and was happy to have my Canon Rebel with me so that I could snap a “few” photos.

I find these paintings fascinating! Can you imagine tattooing something like that on your back? I must admit I’ve been fascinated with tattoos for a long time. But I dislike making decisions and dislike pain–>making getting a tattoo rather difficult.

Ok, let’s talk about food now. By the time we were seated, we were both starving. The menu was quite versatile: anything from tuna rolls (the most out-of-the-box combinations) to grits with shrimp. And yet, I decided on a combination of tater tots (haven’t had those in ages), eggs, bacon, cheese, scallions and red onions. OMG this was so good! I could have easily taken 1/2 of the portion home, but I was a trooper and finished everything on my plate

Stephanie chose a few items from the sushi menu. The presentation was spectacular, and the one I tasted, Sticky balls (tuna, crab, siracha rice in an inari pocket deep fried and topped with scallions, wasabi dressing and eel sauce) was very impressive. I really liked the combination of different textures, flavors and colors.

I really enjoyed brunch at Sticky Rice. Great service, atmosphere and food. If you go, make sure to schedule some time for a nap afterwards.

This Saturday is my last photo class with Stephanie. Luckily, this is not the end of our eating adventures!

Oh, and on the way back from the restaurant I found gorgeous purple Italian yarn. A great day!

Anguilla japonica

We serve Unagi in several forms- alone as Unagi Nigiri, and in a Unakyu roll. It’s also in our specials from time to time, so be on the lookout for this tasty treat!

Eel is best during early Autumn. They live in fresh water for 5~10 years and they swim towards the ocean to lay eggs during this season. It is these eel that taste the best. Unlike regular fish, fresh water fish smell exceptionally good when they are grilled with soy sauce and sugar. It is known that the amino acid methionine in the soy sauce, sugar, and hypericin in eel create a scent that triggers hunger when they are grilled together. From the early days, ungai restaurants vented the smoke they created towards the streets to gather customers.

Depending on the season, some eel have bellies with shades of gold, and they where initially called munagi, or yellow chest. This name has been altered to plain ungai after the 1700’s.

Three different preparations of ell exist in Japan. The first is the Tokyo style (thus used for sushi), The Osaka style, and the plain shiroyaki or “white grill”. The Tokyo style is unique for its steaming involved in the process (please see Eel Sushi), and filleting it from the back. The Osaka style butterflies the eel from the stomach and keeps the head on. It is then grilled over open flame and then basted with sauce. Grilled eel in Osaka has a firmer flesh than the fragile and flaky Tokyo style. “White Grill” is simply grilled eel with salt, but it is eaten with wasabi, or grated daikon radish.

Tako Tako Tako! If you haven’t had octopus, you’re really missing out. It’s got a fantastic texture and a delicate flavor and it’s a much more approachable dish than most people assume. We serve Mushi Tako, a more common octopus to the Japanese, but a rare treat for patrons of Sticky Rice. Here’s the low-down on tako from the Sushi Encyclopedia:

Octopus is always poached for sushi, and the leg is the section used. It is eaten raw as a sashimi plate, but it requires to be sliced very thinly because it is tough to chew on. The second reason it is cooked is because it is too bland when it is raw. It has sweet aromas, but it is very hard to taste.

After poaching, the octopus’s sweet aromas are enhanced, though still very faint. Like the squid, it is hard to make into a nigiri because the slice is flat and stiff. A belt of nori is commonly used to fasten the octopus to the sushi rice. Some people like the crunchy texture of the tentacles, so they are sometimes all removed, one by one, and served as a boat roll or gunkanmaki.

via www.sushiencyclopedia.com

Salmon are not trout! They get confused for each other all the time but salmon migrate into the oceans for awhile and their cousins stay in the rivers being lazy. Salmon make their way back into fresh water to lay their eggs then they die. I guess, they get depressed having fulfilled their life duty.

On a lighter note, salmon tastes way better than trout on sushi rice and we can prove that. Come in and try the Salmon Rolls, Spicy Salmon Rolls, and a number of our delicious specials year round.

Now onto the facts!

Some salmon are extinct or gone.
When salmon die they are food for many animals like eagles, otters,and bears.
People that study fish are called ichthyologists.
All salmon know when to return to their spawning grounds by how long the day is and they can feel what season it is.
Most salmon can swim about 14 km per hour.
It is against the law to fish in spawning grounds.
Salmon change to red a couple of days after spawning, then they die.
Since salmon are nearsighted they have to always use low frequency sound waves to find food in far away places.
Chinook salmon or king salmon are the largest in the Pacific Ocean. They can weigh over 100 pounds.
Polluted waters can kill both baby salmon that are developing and adult salmon on their way to spawn.
In the wild, less then one out of 1,000 salmon eggs laid live to be spawning adults.
In order for the salmon to survive and be comfortable the temperature of the water should be 55 degrees F (12.8 C).
All salmon spend part of their life in fresh water and part of their life in salt water.
Salmon can find the right stream to spawn in by the smell of it.
Rainbow trout can be called steel head trout. They are really Pacific salmon.
Female salmon may lay 1,200 eggs into the nest.

Ummm…. a battleship style nigiri with spicy yellowtail and avocado.
5.50$

Okay, this is just weird but we wanted to share. Sprinkle the fairy dust.

Every Monday at 10:30pm we offer half price sushi.