Church of Friday, April 30th was a very special event. Jason Boss, Ian, Michael, and I hatched this plan at the previous church. The idea was to have a sushi party at our house (Pam & Ian's, that is). I think that Jason and I had a somewhat different idea about how it work than Michael did, but that's OK - it was an awesome party!

Michael was the sushi chef. He made a practice batch of rice, and procured almost all of the supplies. He and I met right before the party to pick up the fish. Michael brought half of his kitchen over to our place. I sanitized some counter space for him, and he got to work.

People started filtering in as Michael worked. There was a beer and sake run, since Ted had not brought the "right" sake (that is, not the really tasty stuff). Once we had enough food to sit at the table, we gathered round and the real eating began.

Michael fed us off and on all evening as he was able to make the sushi. Sake flowed, as did the funny stories, and before we knew it, it was getting late. It had been kind of awhile since any sushi had appeared from the kitchen, and John had left some time ago. But I knew Michael was working on something because he had me make a crepe-like egg pancake, and I still saw fishy evidence.

Just we were kind of wondering where the next course was, Michael presented a giant "poor people's" bowl of (chirashi-zushi) rice and fish, with neatly-cut-up fist-sized squares of nori with which we could scoop up the mixture.

There was simply silence for a little while as we feasted. At some point we could eat no more and the sake was gone. But the finishing touch was still to come - Chinese steamed buns and Japanese green tea made the Japanese way.

Everyone was pleased with Michael, and Michael took great pride in the tremendous job he'd done single-handed.