Sushi, Sushi, and More Sushi in The Five Towns

By The Legendary Danny O’Doul

I get the feeling that the Japanese tsunami has brought more to our shores than just
ghost ships, soccer balls and corroded motorcycles – it has brought more fresh fish
than we have ever seen in these parts before.  Back in the day, The Five Towns featured
such purveyors of fine sushi as Broadway stalwarts Takesushi (Woodmere), whose empty shell has been left intact and still vacant; Midori (Hewlett) also gone; and some long forgotten sushi shop opposite the bike store in Woodmere which never took off, closing soon after it opened and it too, remains vacant and still, basically, intact.  So those two  abandoned “ghost sushi restaurants” in Downtown Woodmere look like they blew in to town on the last ghost ship out of Kyodo, Japan.  But, alas, today we are a new “Little Tokyo” and a beacon of light unto the nations, as well as Godzilla and Mothra.  Not since
the advent of “The Hewlee” has The Five Towns gone gaga over anything as its craving for sushi.

Today, there is a virtual rebirth of this Nippon delight in our area.  Whether its Xaga Sushi, Mocha, Sushi Mitsuyan, Cho-sen Island, Wok Tov, Gourmet Glatt, Brach’s,
Supersol, or Key Food, or even the newest sushi restaurant, Sushi Tokyo, on Central Avenue, you can walk just about ten feet and encounter another place selling raw fish,
rice and seaweed.  Heck, I even think Radio Shack on The Avenue started selling sushi
last week.  Weiss’ Office Supplies has sushi on Mondays and Thursdays.  Yali’s wigs
offers sushi by appointment only.  Even the Verizon store is thinking of giving the stuff
away with the purchase of any i-Phone 4S.   Whether you fancy a maki roll, sushi or sashimi — spicy tuna, California, or Dragon Roll — there is some eatery, supermarket or guy in an alley waiting to supply your habit.  I hear that there is even going to be a chapter of “Sushi Anonymous” opening up in The Five Towns for those poor souls hopelessly addicted to the delicacy, but have bottomed out and are now seeking help once and for all.

After all, it is an expensive habit – more so than golf, antiquing and opiate addiction combined.  And, once you get yourself up to just eating sashimi (raw fish with no rice or seaweed) then, forget it, you are in for $50 a meal – just to get filled up.  Many have gone from smoking two packs of cigarettes a day to quitting cold turkey, and giving up their three martini lunches, but how many hardcore sushi addicts have been successful in weaning themselves off of their daily fixes of tuna, salmon and yellowtail?  Not many.

But, now this may all change.  The makers of the nicotine patch and nicorette gum are teaming up to unveil a revolutionary new product which promises to combine the two technologies and deliver a trans-dermal and sublingual mega dose of Omega 3, Omega 6,
fish oil, krill and cod liver oil which will simulate the ingestion of tens of pieces of sushi and gradually wean such “sushi drunks” off of their drug of choice.

But, for now, this product remains in the planning stage and with FDA approval far off, at best, don’t get your hopes up too high, yet.  For now, my advice to you, is to immediately thank G-D that you live in The Five Towns – a place where you can buy sushi just about anywhere and still buy a “Hewlee” to wash it down!

This is The Legendary Danny O’Doul who is so hopelessly addicted to sushi, and two-for-frozen yogurts at Hewlett Yogurt, that he has just written an entire silly column about it!