Sexy Mama Sushi, Roasted Beet Ice Cream and a Showgirls Slam

The perfect weather Saturday night required the pursuit of an evening to match so we sought out tons of fun and found it in spades. Ronnie and Jeff joined us for a night out and a typical night with these fine fellows generally involves hearty laughter. Continuing the streak, we headed downtown to attend our first Screenland Slam.

The burning need for some scrumptious sushi took precedence though, so we hit the hip and happening Nara-A Japanese Robata for dinner. Dazzled by the sleek and modern décor, Ronnie and I ordered up cocktails. Not a simple decision; this-the wine list is extensive and impressive and the sake list is downright intimidating. The server was helpful and we went with some bright, citrusy cocktails to pair with the brilliant weather. Ronnie chose a cranapple-ginger drink with vodka, ginger liqueur, apple pucker, sour and cranberry. I went with the lemon three-way: ginger-lemongrass infused vodka with lemoncello and lemonade…like a sunrise in a glass. We sipped these fine elixirs, enjoyed our excellent view over the patio and decided on our sushi. Between us, we ordered six rolls:

-Vegas Roll-salmon, crab mix, cream cheese tempura fried and bedded over eel sauce (pictured at left with spider roll)

- Jalapeno Popper Roll- jalapeno tempura-fried with cream cheese, avocado, yuzu mayo sauce and dynamite sauce

-Spider Roll-cucumber, deep-fried soft shell blue crab and kani-kama (imitation crab)

-Happy Family Roll-lobster salad, tempura shrimp, cucumber, apple, avocado, jalapeno wrapped in soy paper with eel sauce

-Sexy Mama Roll-spicy tuna roll topped with escolar and avocado layered over sliced orange and tempura flakes drizzled yuzu ponzu with fish egg (pictured at right)

-Eel Roll-fresh-water eel with cucumber and avocado and eel sauce

We thoroughly enjoyed all of our rolls but our agreed-upon favorites were the Happy Family and the Jalapeno Popper. The Happy Family conjures up an anime-like vision of goofy joy but it packs some type of happy, scary spice that had us all gulping our waters. The sushi was super-good and had we been visiting the previous night we might have experienced the oddball body sushi. Best not to repeat the barrage of rude humor this precipitated.

Motoring over to the south end of the Plaza, we returned to our favorite house of nouveau ice cream goodness at Glace. Adding our suburban behinds to the long line of hipsters waiting to be seduced by Christopher Elbow’s palette-teasing ice cream flavors; I took a quick opportunity to try the flavor that won a Facebook contest….roasted beet and goat cheese ice cream. It sounds a tad wretched, I know….but it was amazing. In the end, I chose my favorites Venezuelan dark chocolate and Fleur De Del caramel….yum.

Finally, we arrived at the main event: the Screenland Slam. The premise is several comedians posted at the front of a theater providing running hilarious commentary as a bad and/or campy movie flickers on screen. The film in this case was howler classic Showgirls and the comedians included a director of a local School of Rock and drag performer extraordinaire Daisy Buckets. Showgirls is bad enough that its own insane dialogue would be funny enough, but when the comedians start riffing like a live version of Mystery Science Theater, the crowd gets raucous. Certain scenes (like the main character's interesting relationship with food and a swimming pool scene for the ages) become so over-the-top hilarious, that I would become convulsed in an embarrassing fit of snorting, hiccuping laughter…..but, oh what therapy for the soul that laughter is. We all heartily recommend the Slam!

Another boffo night in mighty KC.