got a new sign. Luckily, I wasn't drinking milk, because it would've come gushing out of my nose and onto my dashboard.
Just so that you know that I'm not making it up, I took a picture.
Yep. It's Maki Zushi – “Hardcore Sushi”.
Now, I don't mean to deprive them of anything. They are, indeed, one of the best sushi joints around. In fact, I've sat in front of Chef Yoshio Sakamoto and had his omakase, whereupon he fed me live sea urchin using its spiky, recently-breached carcass as a serving tray.
“Hardcore” is an appropriate nickname.
But that's not why I find the new sign so amusing — I laugh because when Maki-Zushi won the Best Sushi category in our Best Of Issue 2008, this is what Gustavo wrote about them:
“This place, which has a patio, can delight the most hardcore sushi enthusiast or tepid novice.”
Now do you see?
Of course, I'm not saying that Gustavo's blurb was the inspiration. It could may well be a coincidence; but still, don't you wonder?
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.