oh.....my.....sushi

so, i kept hearing raves from my friend Liz about Yoko's sushi on SE Gladstone. when ben and i decided, last friday night, that we were once again not in the mood to make dinner, we headed there in search of sushi heaven. and did we ever find it. the rumors are true. first of all, i'm impressed to learn (for whatever reason) that yoko's has the only female sushi chef in portland. there must be a level of sensual enlightment a woman lends to sushi, because i literally tasted the love in this food. i think the main differentiator (you can take the girl out of marketing, but not the marketing out of the girl) is the attention to ingredient detail:
1. taka's tuna - finely chopped scalllions crumbled over chunky tuna soaked in spice, on an avacado-sheeted bed of a crispy, fried rice.
2. the rasta roll - a philly roll on vacation. it's the unexpected combo of smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumber, AND mango. I think my insides tingled with delight with every bite. seriously.
3. nigiri - we had maguro tuna over rice with the PERFECT amount of sinus-clearing wasabi. i'm sure anything would have been just as good, but we're clearly tuna-obsessed. we put in a second order after our main course just to be sure we were in love.
4. the walla walla roll - unfortunately, a slightly fishy crab was paired with an amazing walla walla onion tempura. i wish this was done with another fish, maybe yellowtail or a snapper. i love tempura and this worked for me, on a conceptual level.

there's nothing that beats some sushi and a shared kirin (the budweiser of japan, the label makes it elegant) on a friday night.