Tora Tora Tora

If we think there is too much germs or parasites in raw fish, we shouldn't ever eat: beef - madcow disease, pork - foot and mouth disease and chicken - bird flu. Nothing is safe in this world any more. Besides that, what do Japanese people eat when they're pregnant?

I finally called Gail, Dr. A's nurse, to inquire the possibility of soothing my taste buds with some uncooked seafood.

"Pei, Dr. Austin said you could have sushi only if you bring some sushi for us." She said cheerfully over the phone, "But please only do moderate amount."

That's all we need to get going. We were at the best sushi restaurant in Boulder right after work. It's called Tora (虎），which reminds me of the Pearl Harbor attack during the 2nd world war. We'd only been there once before. We ordered seaweed salad, caterpillar rolls, squid rolls, a full-size sashimi platter with white fish, yellow tail, tuna, octopus and salmon. When all these were fitted into our stomache, I stared at Biajee and said woefully, "I'm hungry. I'm more hungry than when we got here."

He waved the waitress for the menu and I put in another caterpillar roll, spicy tuna roll and Tora House Roll for us. Biajee asked for the hotpot as well. I became perky and evil again when I was digging into these nice dishes, "I think I'm feeling much better."

I miss Japan so much. Having lived there for 2 months and then paid weekly visits to different cities in Japan certainly indulged me in their food culture. Raw fish is the healthiest food I can think of in this world. Japanes people have the longest life span on the globe. The key is: they have to be fresh. All the seafood in Tora was aired from Japan every day. The flavor is top-notch, the price is sky-rocketing as well.

However, it's still nothing comparable to what you get in Japan. I used to have it all day long when I lived with different Japanese families. They always took me to the best local restaurants and poured the plates with sashimi, sushi and sumo-hotpot (special for the Japanese wrestlers). I drank whisky, sake and beer with them every night. I need to train the baby's rawfish tongue starting from the very beginning so that he wouldn't be surrounded by burgers and pizzas all his life...