Sushi Trains and Mother Truckers

Keith took Friday off and we enjoyed a three-day weekend together that was relaxing and nicely food-centric. We kicked off Saturday with breakfast at Ginger Sue's (yes, again, don't judge me, it's the bee's knees) with Cress and TJ and a stroll around Liberty Square to take in the Liberty Farmer's Market bounty. One of Keith's farmers market regulars, the good folks at Hilltop Greenhouse, also sets up at this one and we bought some flats of fresh tomatoes to take home for making and canning salsa. We were also planning to work our way through much of the last of the Cookbook Challenge, so we were shopping for bell peppers and and what not for our recipes. I discovered Debra's Kitchen at the market a tad too late to get the whole delicious picture but did buy what turned out to be a heavenly loaf of rosemary-focaccia bread and a sausage-pepperjack scone as well. As heard from one of DK's fans, their bacon-onion-cheddar scones are amazing as well, but they were out. Good to see commerce faring well in the shadow of the Jesse James Bank Museum on the corner of this historic square...the site of the outlaw's daylight(first in the U.S.)bank robbery.

That evening, we joined Ronnie and Jeff for a terrific night out. We journeyed to Shawnee to check out Sakura Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar. This is a smallish, unassuming place that features a unique sushi bar experience: the Sushi Train Happy Hour. That's right....plate after plate of delectable, creative sushi arrives by toy Amtrak train and chugs by while you try to decide which one to try. This was admittedly a bit disconcerting at first...K and I remain sushi novices and I like somewhat of a description of what I'm about to devour. Luckily, Jeff and Ronnie are pros and recognize most of what rolls by, however, by the time I decide to go for it, I miss a couple of passes. After a few runs, we have the process down and are having a ball. Shrimp, salmon, tuna and eel are all sampled; some are spicy and some are savory and there are also delicious dumplings and stuffed mushroom caps. Forgive my weak descriptions, I'm just not experienced enough to identify every ingredient and don't want to be erroneous but suffice to say, we loved the sushi and the K-Man even declared it the best sushi he had eaten yet. He's always been a toy train fan so anything that keeps him digging the sushi experience is a-ok with moi. Check out the video I took of the sushi train in action at the bottom of this post.

We stopped off at one of our fave warm weather spots Glace where we indulged in their latest fabulous flavors of ice cream. We all tried the sweet corn and I settled on a small mix of Bananas Foster and Fresh Mint with Chocolate Flake. Onward we moseyed to La Esquina; the Urban Culture Project performance space where the latest beloved antics of Ron Megee and his merry band of madcap actors were on display. This theater is still BYOB for adult beverages, so we returned to the ever-atmospheric Royal Liquors down the street to find something among the Colt 45 bottles and Gangster air fresheners. We departed through the bullet-hole decorated, bar-covered door with drinks in hand and made our way back to La Esquina. This performance was a sequel to a play Ron and the late Night gang did years ago by the name of Mother Trucker. This follow-up; called Mother Trucker 2 chronicles the further adventures of Ruby Lee, her main squeeze Deke Crenshaw and her son Teddy Bear. The play nods its Stetson to those CB radio-lovin' 70s flicks like Smokey and the Bandit and does so in endearingly wicked ways. Love the set with the awesome pick semi as the centerpiece! Kudos to everyone involved with this hilarious production especially writer-director-producer-actor David Wayne Reed, who in addition to holding down the quadruple-threat title, sang an amusing but beautiful Willie Nelson tune and Ron Megee, who I could watch recite the phone book at this point. Honorary and very special mention to Ashley Otis and Shannon Michalski, whose multiple roles were all hysterical, especially the born-again biker chick and the gut-busting truck-stop hookers. Thank you, Ron and company, as always, for another hilarious night out.

On the next post, we tackle the Cookbook Challenge but good....