478

Ami
Posted on March 11, 2015 by David M Willis

478 thoughts on “Ami”

  1. Jen Aside

    Taco Bell?

    1. Jen Aside

      what a horrible abuse of sushi, tho >=(

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        I wonder if they do deep-fried sushi…

        1. Tacos

          They have. Of course, I’ve only seen it since I’ve lived in the South.

        2. airyu

          I think PM meant at that particular restaurant. A lot of places do fried / tempura rolls

        3. neeks

          Love me some Las Vegas roll, mmm mmmm.

        4. Tualha

          Your grav looks so familiar but I can’t place it …

        5. Yet_One_More_Idiot

          I’m with Walky on this one, if it doesn’t serve some kind of hamburger, I’m not calling it a restaurant. 😛

          OTOH, this could be part of the reason why I’m morbidly obese… xD

        6. neeks

          Miki from “marmalade boy,” apparently. I mean, it IS, and I made the gravatar myself, but it was like fifteen years ago that I read the manga and made the avatar for my LiveJournal (yes really) and it took fellow DoA readers to identify it and remind me what it was from, lol…I have since re-read it and confirmed the source.

        7. Plasma Mongoose

          Is it better than regular sushi?

        8. Opus the Poet

          It’s different, “better” is too subjective. I like it, but then I like just about any food that can’t outrun me or doesn’t make me sick.

        9. Stewart

          Sushi’s good any way you make it. Raw, baked, tempurad… Yum~

        10. Time Sage

          I prefer the fried bits (IE Tempura) to be inside the sushi… not the whole thing be fried…

        11. MiaKitty

          I can confirm as a Texan who regularly attends the State Fair that we absolutely will fry anything. I cannot promise that we will fry it in the appropriate breading, though.

        12. Robbzilla

          Mmm…. fried cheesecake…. fried bacon… Fried Sriracha balls….

          Aw screw it… Here’s the list of winners!

          2013 Best Taste Deep-Fried Cuban Roll
          Most Creative Fried Thanksgiving Dinner
          2012 Best Taste Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll
          Most Creative Deep Fried Jambalaya
          2011 Best Taste Buffalo Chicken in a Flapjack
          Most Creative Fried Bubblegum
          2010 Best Taste Texas Fried FRITOS® Pie
          Most Creative Fried Beer™
          2009 Best Taste Fernie’s Deep Fried Peaches & Cream
          Most Creative Deep Fried Butter
          2008 Best Taste Chicken Fried Bacon
          Most Creative Fried Banana Split
          2007 Best Taste Texas Fried Cookie Dough
          Most Creative Deep Fried Latte
          2006 Best Taste Fried Praline Perfection
          Most Creative Fried Coke
          2005 Best Taste Fried PB, Jelly and Banana Sandwich
          Most Creative Viva Las Vegas Fried Ice Cream

        13. Xalthicus

          What’re them “Most Creative…” things about? They don’t appear to be related to anything else posted. They do sound quite interesting though.

        14. Charlie Spencer

          I’m from South Carolina. If we can’t fry it, we stick in Jell-O.

        15. ninja_jesus

          Panko breadcrumbs is the way to go.

        16. Romanticide

          On my hometown there is a popular recipe in all the sushi joints called “Camaron Blue” (Is deep fried sushi that has inside shrimp, bacon, cucumber, philadelphia cheese and I think cucumber… your heart will clog and sing at the time because is glorious. And I say that with no sarcasm involved.

        17. Jen Aside

          I just remembered in MY hometown is (was?) a sushi bar run by a Scottish dude… they did just the cream cheese + bacon as a roll

          the “Choleste-roll”

          [I’ve only seen it expanded upon since then]

        18. Romanticide

          “Choleste-roll”… that sounds as beautiful and terrible as the sea. *.*

        19. Yu'Karaya

          I recognize your avi and I just want to say it made me happy.

          Also I’m putting the Camaron Blue onto my culinary bucketlist.

        20. ninja_jesus

          And I recognize your avi and I loved that show when I was younger.

        21. Romanticide

          I like when other people like Skydoll and makes them happy too 😀 and by all means try it sometimes just look at this beauty http://www.sushifactory.mx/platillo-sushifactory.php?id=24&cat=4

        22. Fred

          Well there goes me twitching for the rest of the evening …

      2. Packy

        Agreed.

      3. Van Jealous

        When I eat Japanese food I always maki room for more. Sashimi later and I’ll shoyu more of most gawd awful puns.

    2. Yotomoe

      I prefer food.

      1. Doctor_Lantern

        Here, here!

      2. Doctor_Who

        Nobody wants real food at 2 in the morning. You ever pulled an all-nighter while craving a salad?

        Hell no, you want the sort of meal where random parts of it have been replaced with bacon, like the bun or the cup for your soda. You want the sort of meal that you can’t put on a paper placemat or it’ll eat through in seconds. You want the sort of meal where you walk up to the counter and say “Give me whatever has the most made up words and misspellings in the name”.

        In short, you want a Walky meal.

        1. Solenoid

          This idea has legs.

        2. Disloyal Subject

          “You ever pulled an all-nighter while craving a salad?”
          Yes, but to be fair I specifically wanted a chicken Caesar.

        3. Huttj

          I always feel kinda sheepish when out with friends at some “meat meat meat” place, and I find myself REALLY craving a good salad.

          I eat much more healthy when out with old college buddies/gaming friends than when on my own.

      3. Time Sage

        But but but… taco bell has Dorito taco shells…

        I have eaten way too many Dorito Gordita Crunches since I realized you could order them.

        1. Azhrei Vep

          Can you actually taste the difference in a Gordita crunch? I never could.

        2. Time Sage

          …not really no <.<

    3. jeffepp

      In the future, all restaurants…

    4. Maveric1984

      It’s cheaper than real food!

    5. Riku

      Tacos are basically burgers with different ingredients

      1. Opus the Poet

        I think more like sloppy joes without the bun.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          It took until this years until I found out what Sloppy Joes were when I discovered that my bolognaise sandwiches were a type of Sloppy Joe.

        2. Vaelyn the Vex

          Taco Bell used to make sloppy joes, they refuse to bring them back though

    6. JasonAW3

      Tacos are the Tex-Mex equivalent of hamburgers.

    7. BrokenEye, True False Prophet

      Taco Bell isn’t a restaurant. Restaurants, by definition, serve food.

  2. Mr. Random

    The little sneak.

    1. Mo

      I’d probably distrust a sushi place in Indiana, too. Unless it had a Japanese name because I am kind of a weeb.

      1. Kennerly

        The first time I ever saw a Japanese restaurant where nobody, not the waitresses, nor the sushi preparers was Japanese was in Indiana.

        Heck, they weren’t even asian.

        1. David

          And the sushi was bass in potato wedges wrapped in rhubarb. Eating it was complicated since the garnishing snapping turtle had already snapped the chopsticks.

        2. Gigafreak

          It amuses me when the staff at a sushi place speaks Mandarin Chinese rather than Japanese, because it means I can kind of eavesdrop in plain sight.

          I like teriyaki, udon noodles, and tempura, but not actual sushi or sashimi.

      2. ninja_jesus

        If you ever do go to a sushi place with strictly non-Japanese staff, ask the sushi chef if they’ve been certified to make sushi. They may have the certification on a wall near them to show that they went through formal training. If not, I wouldn’t trust the place.

        Also, I personally wouldn’t go to a place where the sushi wasn’t prepared out in the open where you can see them. That way you could be the judge on how clean/sanitary their station is. Also, it’s cool to see it being made. 😀

        1. Rycan

          The assumption being that Japanese sushi chefs are to be implicitly trusted, while non-Japanese sushi chefs are to be implicitly distrusted?

        2. ninja_jesus

          Yes, and admittedly I’m biased in this regard. I’ve never had sushi from a chef who wasn’t Japanese.

          But you’re right, generally you should always know if the sushi chef is qualified to handle sushi, no matter who the chef is. Always always. Food poisoning is bad.

        3. Rycan

          Especially when that food poisoning is in the form of a potent neurotoxin (tetrodotoxin in pufferfish). I’m sorry, but that’s just crazy.

        4. Plasma Mongoose

          Maybe it’s to do with the preparation of raw meats/fishes.

        5. Kryss LaBryn

          Also if the tempura they bring you is rotten, run. 🙁

          And I was so happy to have a sushi place within walking distance, too…

  3. otusasio451

    Joyce, as a fellow picky eater, I feel your pain.

    1. otusasio451

      That said, I DO like sushi. Not cucumber or avocado, though.

      1. Blue

        Meanwhile, I like cucumber sushi, but not avocado.

        1. JessWitt

          I can deal with both. I can’t stomach mango in sushi.

        2. Rosie

          Groooooss. Mango and nori are two great tastes that do not belong together.

        3. AndieStardust

          Mango and salmon are my fav roll though! imo, the more ripe the mango, the less you taste the nori. but if you add a bit of soy sauce it just takes it to a better level xD
          It may just be my Mexican tendncies talking though, mango is awesome savory or sweet to me.

        4. Eyebrow

          Cucumbers are evil. All else is fine. The sushi restaurant near my work in Stockholm (when i lived there) was run by nice Chinese folk who spoke Chinese and Swedish only. They eventually got to know me, and greeted me with a cheerful “ingen gurka” (no cucumber!) when I came in.

      2. Time Sage

        Exactly agreed on all points. I prefer Sushi that’s basicly tempura crammed into Sushi with crab on top.

      3. Freemage

        My wife loves sushi, but can’t abide seaweed–she has to ask for soy paper, and hope they have it. (It’s usually an up-charge on rolls, but not huge).

        1. otusasio451

          I once felt the same way. Then, a Korean student of mine brought in seaweed-wrapped rice balls stuffed with tuna. I HAVE NEVER LOOKED BACK.

        2. ninja_jesus

          You could just order nigirizushi, which is comes without the seaweed.

        3. otusasio451

          It is also delicious.

      4. andmangrewproud

        Strangely enough I’m not a big fan of sushi rolls but I do love me some nigiri.

      5. mick4state

        It’s all about the spicy salmon tempura.

    2. MeghanTheWorldEater

      Joyce is a bit more than a picky eater remember when she made and them disassembled a taco?

      1. Rycan

        When I first saw this, I was wondering why her sushi roll had yet to be dissected.

        1. No Name

          She has to know what she’s dissecting first, to see if it’s worthwhile.

  4. Djer

    Mmmmm, sushi. Walky’s missing out

  5. Maveric1984

    I have the freaking “Everything is Awesome” song stuck in my head now…

    1. otusasio451

      Oh, yeah, I hate it when that happEVERYTHING IS AWESOOOOOOOOOME
      EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU’RE PART OF A TEAM

      1. Doctor_Lantern

        Right. It really suc-EVERYTHING god-IS damn-AWESOME it.

        1. Urukak

          Behold, the solution to your problems: whenever you start thinking of “Everything is Awesome,” just think of “Everything is Batman” instead.

        2. Gadgeteer Smashwidget

          DARKNESS
          NO PARENTS
          I’M BATMAN

        3. otusasio451

          SUPER RICH
          KINDA MAKES IT BETTER

        4. ninja_jesus

          …It’s snowing on Mt. Fuji.

        5. Doctor_Lantern

          But… that makes the song EVEN BETTER!

          EVERYTHING IS BATMAN! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU YOU’RE ONE WITH THE NIGHT!

        6. otusasio451

          EVERYTHING IS BATMAAAAAAAAAAN
          AND IT’S TIME TO TAKE FLIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!

        7. Urukak

          See, when I said it would solve your problems I didn’t necessarily mean you wouldn’t still have a song stuck in your head.

  6. Doctor_Who

    Dammit, now it’s after midnight and I want sushi.

    1. m-m

      it’s before 12 and I want sushi.

      1. CptNerd

        It’s a day ending in “y” and I want tonkatsu. Mmmm bulldog sauce…

    2. Disloyal Subject

      It’s Tuesday, so I want a taco, but I’d be happy to stuff it with sushi.

    3. saltchocolate

      Is there such a thing as a 24-hour sushi place? I would move there . . .

      1. MindLink

        Oslo has 24 hour delis, which sell prepacked sushi-combos, they’re all-right, as long as you check the preparation date.

  7. Hoboturtle

    Joyce and Walky find common ground

    1. Mr k

      Maybe that they both hate redheads?

  8. Kathleen

    Is Becky EVERYONE’s foil?

    1. Jones

      Now I want to see Becky v Mike.

      1. Doctor_Lantern

        This is the only context I have left in which I feel I would be interested in seeing Becky anymore.

        1. Halloween Jack

          I liked Becky before it was cool, and I’ll like her after it’s cool.

        2. Majere

          Becky v Sarah Round 2 would probably be interesting.

        3. jesslin

          What Doc Lantern said :/ I would, however, be very afraid that Becky and Mike would actually respect each other’s …difficultness… and they would form a team that would be nigh unstoppable.

      2. Opus the Poet

        Now I recognize your gravatar, you’re Jones from Kiwi Blitz.

      3. tim gueguen

        Becky soon finds herself outsnarked, and begs Mike to be his student.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Less of a foil and more of a bludgeoning instrument.

      1. Kosine

        Ha! A fencing joke! I like the cut of your jib.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          What can I say, I have a rapier wit. 😛

  9. Plasma Mongoose

    Subway seems to be lacking in the burger department.

    1. Riku

      “In what world is a meatball sub a substitute for a burger? You know how you make a meatball sub? You take 4 burgers, roll them into balls, and put them on a bun that holds 5 burgers.”
      -Jim Gaffigan

      1. Riku

        I wish I could edit, the 5 in that last sentence is killing me

        1. Rycan

          Maybe the footlong sub is actually a bun that’s a foot in diameter!

          Now I wonder if anyone actually serves something like that…

      2. Élie de Combys

        “What leve of delusion are we in
        Where we view a meatball sub as a healthy alternative
        To a hamburger.

        It’s like how do you make a meatball sub?
        You roll five hamburgers into balls…

        Cover them in cheese,
        And put them on a bun that holds five hamburgers.”

        That’s the exact quote!

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          Hamburgers can be perfectly healthy. Just probably not at a chain fast food place. The ones I make are fantastic, though.

          Pound or so, whatever, no biggee, of medium or lean ground beef, optionally also some ground pork (about 1/3 the amount of beef), 2 eggs to bind it together, diced onion, oregano, garlic, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, pepper (doesn’t really need salt too but you can add a dash if you like), and tear up a couple slices of bread (doesn’t have to be white) to fill it out and lighten the texture. Cook, serve, enjoy!

          Also works for meatloaf and meatballs; is fantastic made into meatballs in an oven-proof dish, covered with my mum’s homemade barbecue sauce, and baked. Serve with mashed potatoes for maximum awesomeness.

  10. LiaHansen

    *chanting*

    DRUNK MIKE WAITING TABLES DRUNK MIKE WAITING TABLES

    1. Jen Aside

      Drunk Mike is the CHEF

      1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        No wait! McAwesomes is ALSO a Hibachi place and Drunk Mike is smiling and creating onion volcanoes!

        1. LiaHansen

          YES that

        2. MiaKitty

          I have a sudden intense need for exactly this.

      2. Rycan

        Then they better not serve fugu!

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      That would really be (Mc)awesome. ^_^

    3. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      This. So much this. **joins chant**

    4. Doctor_Who

      I bet Mike has never even drank in this continuity. Shame it’ll take about a hundred years for him to turn 21.

      1. Solenoid

        Agreed, and also… he may not even have such a drastic personality change when drunk. I put that character trait on the same level as Robin being the fastest thing on two legs: not for this universe.

        1. LiaHansen

          naw, Mike’s semi-believable ridiculousness is transcendent

        2. Gigafreak

          Ruth is the one with the “alcoholic with sudden unsettling mood shifts” thing going in this universe.

        3. Gigafreak

          I must’ve botched the link. Here’s the URL.
          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/jurisdiction/

      2. JessWitt

        Drinking age limits didn’t stop Billie – why not Mike?

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Motivation.

      3. PoweredBySucrose

        With any luck, we’ll get to watch him get drunk for the first time on-panel.

    5. Kathleen

      Yesssssssssssss

  11. Mr k

    I just realized something. Becky likes Sushi, But Joyce doesn’t. I guess they’re not meant to be.

    1. Maveric1984

      Well, if sushi is anything like olives, the Olive Theory from the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother says that they’re meant to be.

    2. Yotomoe

      Yeah I bet Becky likes all sorts of sea food.
      Like Clams and fish tacos.

      1. newllend(henryvolt)

        But Joyce likes tacos too, but what kind of tacos do they both like is what I’m wondering.

        1. Rycan

          Joyce likes to dissect tacos! Completely different.

        2. Gigafreak

          Joyce is responsible for nuclear technology. We split the atom by telling Joyce it was her food.

        3. Rycan

          Joyce is a born particle physicist – or a Bond villain who wants to disassemble the universe on a subatomic level. She’d be the most bubbly Bond villain ever!

        4. Kryss LaBryn

          Joyce only likes tacos if the bits involved never actually touch, though.

      2. Halloween Jack

        Ha ha, you made a joke about vulvas!

    3. Varius

      apparently the taste and light scent of fish are agreeable to Becky.

      Who’da thunk it?

      1. neeks

        That always confused me about my ex-bf, who claimed to love performing cunnilingus but hated tuna. I mean, his reasons for disliking tuna notwithstanding, that’s weird, right?

        1. Barf Ninjason

          Well, I don’t think so. Personally I love performing cunnilingus, hate the taste and smell of all fish, and think that whole “vaginas smell like fish” thing is just something people with contempt for women say.

        2. neeks

          As a vagina-haver I always thought there was a similarity in scents, but could never figure out if that was just indicative of my personal hygiene, or, like…a thing.

    4. Kathleen

      of course, Becky loves eating Joyce’s tuna for her.

    5. Deanatay

      Wait, srsly, one of the most tenacious ships in this fandom, sunk by sushi??

  12. andy

    Welp im back on the becky is awesome bandwagon

    1. Sailor_Arashi

      *waves the Becky flag*

    2. saltchocolate

      This is a moment when Becky is being funny that doesn’t rub me the wrong way. Walky brought this on himself!

  13. Doctor_Lantern

    I’m with Joyce and Walky on this one… Gross… I’d rather eat a burger. Then again seafood makes me really sick, so…

    1. Maveric1984

      A California Roll has no seafood in it. It’s vegetarian.

      1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        I think the imitation crab (which is made from fish) would disagree.

        1. Maveric1984

          Huh, TIL. I didn’t think there was any crab, imitation or otherwise in a California roll. Guess I wasn’t paying much attention since I was eating Spicy Dragon Roll instead.

        2. Opus the Poet

          That depends on what variety of California roll you get. There are ones with no animal-derived seafood aside from the seaweed.

        3. airyu

          How is seaweed “animal-derived”? It’s a plant.

        4. Orbit Junkie

          According to the Wikipedia article, the mechanical harvesting methods used in seaweed (nori) production occasionally catch small fish and barnacles and such, and they end up being ground into the nori itself. However, I’d probably do more research on this since that portion of the article looks like the most poorly written.

        5. snogglethorpe

          I suspect most plant-based food products have a non-zero amount of animal matter in them as well, from insects, insect eggs, etc….w

        6. Sailor_Arashi

          Yeah, if you’re worried about that, you’re gonna have a hard time living once you realize exactly how many tiny organisms are slaughtered to give you clean drinking water…

        7. Doctor_Lantern

          Yep. And even the hint of seafood (a scent, the cracking of crab legs, etc.) makes me queasy. It isn’t a food allergy, but kind of a mental allergy?

        8. Luke

          I think the technical term is “phobia”.

        9. David M Willis

          In this case the term is “taste aversion.”

          I… have a few. And have created a few in others!

        10. Em

          Eee me too! A friend of mine told me that the tapioca balls in bubble tea reminded him of pond sludge and I’ve never been able to eat them since! I just order the milk tea.

        11. Disloyal Subject

          I couldn’t eat ramen for years after being told by a nurse that its dense form was modeled after human intestines: one long piece bent & packed into a relatively small space.

        12. Solenoid

          I take it you think walnuts look too much like the human brain to eat?

        13. DuckDuckMoose

          That’s awesome. There are those of us who, Calvin-like, are only encouraged by such evocative descriptions. I need ramen and bubble tea post-haste.

        14. Rycan

          Like describing how jello is made? Ooh, try describing the manufacturing process of hot dogs!

          That gives me an idea for dissuading kids from underage drinking! See, I used to work in a lab where we would perform warm autopsies. Sliced up bits of bone would be stored in conical tubes filled with neat ethanol…

        15. David M Willis

          Pffft, no. Taste aversion is nothing about how food is made. It’s a stimulus callback.

          See, here’s how it works. Say, for example, you’re about eight and your sister is two, and you’re always pissy that she eats all the Cheerios the night before breakfast time, right out of the box, never leaving any for you. Well, you decide you’re going to fix this. So your eight-year-old self finds her one day and start feeding her Cheerios that you’ve already put in your mouth. Sister now hates Cheerios! Cheerios are gross soggy things! Problem solved!

          PROBLEM SOLVED FOREVER, SISTER STILL REFUSES CHEERIOS, SHE IS LIKE THIRTY NOW, THE THOUGHT OF THEM MAKES HER GAG.

          #bestolderbrother

        16. Deanatay

          Mr Willis, you’re a terrible, terrible person.

          #oneofus

        17. Solenoid

          …. Soggies may rule…

        18. Rycan

          My human-tissue-in-ethanol idea may still work, if you manage to pair the smell of ethanol with a stomach-churning sight. Luckily for me, those tubes were capped, so I can still work with ethanol without puking.

        19. Deanatay

          Yeah, like me and mushrooms. Used to love them, then one day started to think about what they were. Now, can’t stand them.

        20. Kryss LaBryn

          My little brother actually went through a couple of months when he was about two when he was actually terrified of mushrooms.

          He and I were playing on the other side of a very rickety fence one time when he saw something big and purple and gross and started to freak out. Mum came running, thinking maybe there was a bear (rural area, real possibility). Could see him and me but no danger so, being unable to climb the fence as it was too rotten, she tried calling him over, but he wouldn’t go past the thing that was freaking him out. When she figured that out, she said, “Oh, that’s just a mushroom.”

          His take-away wasn’t, “Oh, I thought that thing was scary and might hurt me, but it’s just a wild mushroom, so it’s fine”; his was “That thing is scary and it’s a mushroom therefore mushrooms are scary.”

          For a while he’d freak out if he saw any in his food, which to five-year-old me was hilarious.

          Fourty-four-year-old-me still thinks it’s pretty funny, too. 😀

        21. Doctor_Lantern

          They don’t scare me. It isn’t a phobia of seafood. They just downright make me sick to my stomache. A physical illness.

        22. Doctor_Lantern

          And Willis beat me in responding with the actual term for what I have. TIL. Thanks Willis!

        23. airyu

          I have that for onions due to a traumatic experience.

        24. saltchocolate

          I have it for polenta because I got food poisoning the first time I ate it.

        25. Halloween Jack

          Lemme guess, you’re from Innsmouth and subconsciously see it as cannibalism.

        26. MindLink

          I used to have that about shrimps, but since I’ve always believed that all taste preferences are simply choices, and I’m very, very stubborn, I decided to test my theory one day. Ate shrimp almost every day for a year, the first few months were the worst, had to force down my stomach content several times, but after six to seven months it started to become OK, then after nine I actually found myself LOVING it! But when, after a couple of years, I stopped eating them regularly, they lost their appeal to me. I’m still not repulsed by them, as I used to be, but they’re more “meh” food, I’ll eat it if I’ve got nothing else and I’m hungry. I guess most aversions can be changed that way, the body is incredible at adapting when it “has to” (probably fooled it to believe that shrimp was suddenly a necessary part of my survival diet, just like how most people (even vegetarians) are able to eat other humans in extreme circumstances)

        27. airyu

          You can always have vegetarian rolls. Cucumber, radish, mushroom; there’s a lot of really great veg sush out there.

        28. Doctor_Lantern

          There are a few Veggie sushi rolls that I’ve enjoyed. Rice, seaweed, ginger shavings, and a mustard/wasabi sauce drizzle… It was one of the best veggie dishes I’ve ever had.

        29. Durandal_1707

          Not to mention Korean gimbap, which is often found in vegetarian form and is quite delicious.

        30. snogglethorpe

          After eating crab prepared by my roommate, I’ve been pretty crab-doubtful…

          His method: (1) buy live crabs (2) bring home, chase around kitchen when they escape (3) catch, throw alive into boiling water (4) after cooking for about three seconds, take out, use giant cleaver to cut into 4-5 pieces, without regard for er, parts (5) put pieces on plates as-is, serve

          oO;

        31. David M Willis

          Well, great, now I’m hungry.

        32. Disloyal Subject

          And my respect for The Willis triples.

        33. nothri

          I am also hungry.

          For justice.

        34. Rycan

          It’s not done properly unless you catch the crab yourself, and precede the other steps with waving around the crab while it has a vice grip on one of your fingers!

          If you’ve ever seen how dull the claws on a Dungeness crab are, let me put it this way – they can pinch with enough force to draw blood.

        35. Julez

          I peench.

        36. Jen

          When I was little, I was allowed to play with the live crabs until my mom and aunt cooked them. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized how morbid this was.

          Those crabs were darn tasty.

        37. Gigafreak

          “Don’t play with your food.

          Unless it’s still alive. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

        38. Rycan

          Took me a minute to realize that their claws were probably banded. You people and your supermarket-caught crabs…

    2. airyu

      I think Joyce isn’t bothered by seafood. She seems to not like cucumbers. Which prolly feeds Becky’s suspicions that she didnt like what’s in boys’ pants, hurhurhur

    3. Dr. T

      Too bad for Walky that they did not visit that restaurant when the strip first started running. I think it was still a place to get some decent kabobs.

  14. Herrackman

    … I think Walky would dig a sushirrito, tho. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1w1Zhe5NhhA/TxC4KCF-KHI/AAAAAAAANDc/0bO8lHWjyWA/s1600/IMG_4530.JPG

    1. Maveric1984

      That is a lot of imitation crab…

      Oh, and KHAAAAAAAAAN!

    2. LiaHansen

      h-holy shit

    3. Ailorn

      I Want One!

    4. Disloyal Subject

      Figures that someone else came up with it too. Mine was still delicious.

  15. m-m

    flashbacks to my college girlfriend who only ate chicken & only drank sprite — we spent a week in Mexico annoying the waitstaff.

    1. Maveric1984

      How did she live to be 18? And did she weigh 1000 lbs from all the pop?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Guy who lived on chips and baked beans died at 20

        1. LiaHansen

          I wonder if i can get away with refried

        2. Arianod

          Natural selection at work. Gotta respect a dude who makes such a neat job of removing himself from the gene pool.

        3. Lord Geovanni

          That article actually lightened my mood and gave a slight hope.
          on an unrelated note i have been eating pizza most of the last year and wendys grilled chicken/asiago for most of the past 4 with certain periods that i had a more diverserty with little more health effectiveness

    2. Deanatay

      Was she related to Dina? #cerealandmtndew

    3. Clare

      When I was in college I dated a boy who only ate cream cheese (like full bars of it), tic tacs, and french fries. I don’t understand how he lived to see his 23rd birthday….

  16. tim gueguen

    I hope Walky intends to wash those pants soon. I would imagine they’ll smell pretty fishy pretty much immediately.

    1. Yotomoe

      They’re in his shirt pocket.

      1. Maveric1984

        Nah, he’s trying to cosplay as an Amazon, who cut off one breast in order to be better archers.

        1. Barf Ninjason

          No they didn’t.

          http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2133/whats-up-with-the-amazons

    2. Thor

      The bulge is in his *shirt* pocket.

      1. Gigafreak

        …Or is he just happy to see you?

  17. Opus the Poet

    They had something similar to this over at El Goonish Shive, both Elliot and Tedd stop reading the menus when they find a hamburger.

    1. Rycan

      It’s amazing how many places will serve hamburgers in the US, no matter how out-of-place it may be on the menu.

      1. timemonkey

        Hamburgers sell, it’s a simple fact and will keep you in business.

        1. Gigafreak

          Here’s the reverse situation for you: there’s a burger joint near me that has wine on the menu.

          The place is called Shake Shack and the wine is the only classy thing on the list. I mean, the place isn’t UNclassy, and the food is great! But “burgers and shakes” just isn’t terribly compatible with “romantic wine.”

          It baffles me.

        2. MindLink

          Wine goes with meat, simple as that, it’s not “classy” unless it’s ridiculously expensive or come in a schmancy bottle. Coke used to be made from wine, so there’s a secondary connection too!

        3. Gigafreak

          McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Five Guys really need to get with the program then

        4. Kamino Neko

          That’s not actually true. Coca-Cola was invented to replace Coca Wine, but the latter was never used in the production of the former.

        5. MindLink

          I read the original recipe once, the coca-wine one, and that was called Coca-Cola. I also got the opportunity to try a “home-made” version of that once (red wine, brown sugar, cocaine and carbonated water) and it tasted surprisingly like regular Coke.

        6. Deanatay

          Are you in CA? Wine on a burger menu, strikes me as a CA thing.

  18. Lawzlo

    On one hand, anyone who doesn’t like sushi is a freak*. On the other hand, they’re in Indiana, and california rolls are about the only sushi I’d trust that far from the sea. Maybe they’d get fish from Lake Michigan, but that also seems like a really bad idea.

    I don’t know how long I’d survive that far inland.

    —————————————————————————
    *I’ve met people like this… one of my best friends won’t eat sushi. Freak.

    1. Doctor_Lantern

      Or some of us can’t eat seafood without being sick…

      1. Lawzlo

        Doctor Lantern, I feel bad for you. I don’t mean for this to sound sarcastic or condescending or anything, you genuinely have my sympathy.

        (And back to jokey mode:)
        On the other hand, you get to be both a Time Lord and a Green Lantern, so you have that going for you.

        1. Doctor_Lantern

          Yeah. I wish It wasn’t an issue, but sai la vie, (french spelling is awful).

          And *insert Bill Murray meme here* xD

        2. Disloyal Subject

          *twitch twitch*
          “C’est la vie.”
          I don’t even like French.

        3. MiaKitty

          Say la vee? *is shot*

        4. begbert2

          Okay, if you insist: “la vee”. *is also shot*

      2. MindLink

        What I really can’t stand about seafood is the taste of the ocean itself, I used to think it was something to do with fish bones or some weird consistency of the fleshy bits of fish/crustaceans, but then I tried whale beef, which IS real meat, and it still gave me the shivers, which made me recognise the taste better. Same taste as when I accidentally swallow sea water, it’s like I can taste all the dead algae, plankton and pollution.

    2. Thor

      But this is McAwesome’s, so it probably has the best sushi in the entire US.

    3. Plasma Mongoose

      Not a big fan of sushi myself and I have been a freak most of my life.

    4. Varius

      All sushi is required to be frozen then thawed before serving in the USA. Kills the potential parasites. 🙂

      1. Lawzlo

        Oh, I’m certain my position is irrational.

        1. Varius

          not so much irrational as unnecessary. Frozen fish travels quite well!

        2. snogglethorpe

          On the other hand, it deprives you of the fresh briny squirt when chomping into a still-squirming mini-squid… oO;

        3. OnyxIdol

          Now that made me queasy.

    5. begbert2

      Why would I want to eat sushi? I have lots of other food available to me that actually, you know, seem appealing.

    6. drs

      I’ve had decent sushi in Bloomington, IN, where this comic is set. As mentioned, the fish is probably frozen anyway, even in a big coastal city. The people running this restaurant are probably Korean.

      Of course, there’s almost certainly stuff like teriyaki chicken or tonkatsu available, and other “cooked meat and vegetables over rice” dishes.

  19. Varius

    McAwesome’s! Where is Mike?

    Is it across the street from Galasso’s Pizza?

    Two places at which Becky could apply for a job!

    1. Opus the Poet

      Yes the real life sushi place this is modeled on is across the street from Galasso’s, it’s in the title text.

      1. Varius

        Duh! I forgot to look at the hover text!

  20. Sporky

    Why do Walky and Joyce hate good food so much? Some people are just picky eaters but truly anyone who doesn’t like sushi rolls just plain and simple has terrible taste.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      I became very picky with food after suffering from tonsillitis for 4 years from when I was 2 years old, I have slowly improved over the decades but I’m still pickier than the average person.

    2. Arianod

      I do enjoy sushi. My opposition to it is mostly ethical: it just isn’t acceptable to pay so much money for such a tiny amount of food 😛 Sushi is a sometimes food, for those times is when you really feel like giving yourself an extra-expensive treat. And even then, there are usually more cost effective options.

      1. ninja_jesus

        It’s a matter of quality over quantity, hehe. 😛 The expensive kind needs savoring.

        1. Gigafreak

          Fuck that shit, I’ll take 50 nuggets for 10 bucks rather than 10 sushi for 25 bucks.

          (I also dislike sushi because my taste buds are calibrated all weird, but more importantly I’m a cheapskate son of a cheapskate lady!)

        2. ninja_jesus

          Hah. At least I know my sushi is fish. Are you sure your nuggets are chicken? 😛

        3. Gigafreak

          Yes. They are made of mashed chicken pudding. Disgustingly delicious mashed chicken pudding.

      2. Z

        There’s a few all you can eat sushi places around here for like 15 bucks (during lunchtime, 25 for dinner). I assume those restaurants must exist in other non-Canadian countries too, so you should try to look into them.

        1. drs

          I’m guessing you live in Vancouver, where I found multiple all you can eat sushi/sashimi places for CAN$18, which was US$12 then. They were good!
          San Francisco had one for US$25. I was scared to try it, and a friend said it wasn’t good.

          Portland OR had cheap kaiten-sushi (sushi boat), like $2.50 for salmon when I’m used to $3 for egg in Boston. So I’m guessing the Pacific Northwest has cheap sushi, but I don’t know about all you can eat. Certainly not ubiquitous.

          I can get a decent meal for $10-12 though. Part sushi, part vegetables, part soup.

      3. Kryss LaBryn

        It shouldn’t actually be expensive to have a decent meal with sushi, unless the place is really upscale, same as a Western meal.

        When we lived in Surrey, BC, Canada, most places charged about $2.50 for a California roll, so you could have lunch for like five bucks plus tea. Ten, tops. Then we moved inland and couldn’t get a California roll for less than $10, and that was with the fake crab!

        TL;DR: A lot of places really over-charge relative to what you’d pay in the more ethnic areas of cities, and to the actual cost of the ingredients.

    3. Anonymous

      Some peoples’ palates just stop developing after age 7. If a food can’t be summarized as “fancy McDonald’s” or “one topping pizza” they don’t want to have anything to do with it.

    4. begbert2

      “Good food” is extraordinarily subjective. I could easily say I don’t like *weird* food and be on pretty solid ground.

      On the other hand, my aversion to most vegetables I can defend by saying that my mom was really, *really* lousy at cooking them, and thus I’m conditioned to react to them the way you would to a giant turd on your plate. Like, pavlovian conditioned.

      1. StClair

        It took me years, literally decades, to get over my first exposure to spinach.
        My elementary school served it in scoops, finely chopped, with the result that it resembled nothing so much as grass clippings fresh from the underside of a lawn mower and smelling strongly of “greens” (which your typical kid is already not inclined to).

        1. DuckDuckMoose

          Ew ew ew. That’s terrible. The spinach of my childhood wasn’t that bad, but it was always pretty mushy and tasteless. As with a lot of vegetables, I didn’t learn that it actually had a flavor until I claimed some territory in my parents’ garden and grew it myself. Very fresh spinach, eaten within a day of being picked, is better than most food.

      2. insanoodlyguy

        I’m with you on this. I honestly thought I hated squash till I discovered there were very different ways to pepare squash. Ways that would be considered “better”.

      3. jesslin

        I’m slo-o-o-owly reacquainting my husband with many vegetables that his (otherwise lovely) mother utterly wrecked. Housewives of the 50s, man – if it ain’t boiled grey, it ain’t cooked o.O It makes me physically *hurt* to think of it. Squash/zucchini have always been my utter favs, so I was very glad to introduce pan-sauteed goodness into his life.

        On the other hand, there is nothing like being 6 and voluntarily ordering spinach in a restaurant. Waitress just about fainted 😀

        1. Deanatay

          I always hated spinach – that nasty green, slimy lump of boiled leaves that came in tin cans was all I knew growing up. Then I tried fresh spinach. It’s my favorite vegetable now.

        2. neeks

          See, my experience with spinach growing up was it reheated from a frozen store-bought brick of the stuff, topped with vinegar. And I loved it. Still do.

        3. Kryss LaBryn

          Even that stuff’s good just brought to the boil, drained, and tossed with butter.

      4. Trolldrool

        Boiled vegetables don’t go past my throat. I’ve tried swallowing them for over 25 years and I still gag them up every single time. Somehow, I’m able to gorge myself of raw vegetables without a problem, except, (of course) broccoli and spinach.

        My mom avoided the problem (to a degree) by grinding the vegetables up until they were barely a powder that left the taste and nutrients, but otherwise was just a part of the soup.

  21. Ess

    TIL that IRL! Galasso’s is called Motherbear’s Pizza, and that sometimes sushi joints look like farmhouses.

    1. Luke

      You know, having seen Galasso’s wife in action, Mother Bear is a good description.

  22. Kathleen

    You know, most of the main sassy people in the cast haven’t met each other. No more clamoring for just Mike x Carla. Now I want Carla, Mike, Becky, and Ruth to all run into each other at the same time and watch a bomb explode. and Malaya and Sarah! Oh man how have I not shipped Malaya and Sarah yet??

    1. airyu

      Everyone must be shipped.
      All at once.
      Same boat and everything.

      1. Orbit Junkie

        She can’t take much more of this, Captain!

      2. Rycan

        “We’ve got a shipment arriving, sir, and it’s a big one.”
        “Hmm. What is it?”
        “Indiana University”
        “Not ‘where is it from’, I asked what is it?”
        “I told you. It’s Indiana University.”
        “I give up.”
        “Sir, they shipped the entire university here, students and all. And we’d better start unpacking, because they’re almost out of water.”

  23. newllend(henryvolt)

    Walky has a point, next time make a burger out of Sushi if you haft to just get your shit together.

  24. Urukak

    Wait, so is there an actual place called Galasso’s Pizza (and Subs) in the vicinity of IU?

    1. Cholma

      I think in the real world, it’s called Mother Bears Pizza or something like that

    2. Solenoid

      Nope. It is, however, based off a place called Mother Bear’s Pizza (as stated a bit further up this page).

      1. Gigafreak

        The pizzas (and subs?) there are apparently amazing, so I suppose it’d be worth enduring a hypothetical Galasso’s ridiculosity.

        1. Urukak

          Implying that Galasso’s ridiculosity isn’t something worth experiencing all on its own.

  25. JessWitt

    I sympathize with Joyce’s pickiness. First time eating sushi was with friends at college, too.

  26. Cholma

    It’s McAwesome’s! Yayy! Do they have a ball pit in this universe too?

  27. GoogerGeiger

    Becky is eating with her hands….

    1. Ailorn

      It’s appropriate to eat sushi with hands especially if you are incompetent with chopsticks.

      1. Kenjia

        I heard this too, one of the last times I got sushi with a group of friends. One of them told me that, though at the time I was skeptical since he had been messing with me for most of the afternoon.

        1. airyu

          It’s okay long as they’re not dipped in soy sauce. Otherwise it’s considered kinda gross.

      2. Time Sage

        I heard Sushi was a finger food in Japan. Since then I’ve made a point to eat it with my hands.

    2. Luke

      From what I’ve heard from a few people of Japanese descent, Sushi is actually a finger food. Sometimes you’ll hear the giggles from the kitchen as they watch us silly Round-Eyes.
      Probably.

      1. Gigafreak

        Mostly they’re gossiping about what you ordered. Sometimes in Mandarin Chinese.

        I may or may not have overheard them saying a… large person at my table ought to have ordered a salad.

        1. Rycan

          Did you then join the conversation? That would be priceless.

  28. Darwin

    Becky telling all the secrets. Viva la Becky!

    1. Kamino Neko

      That’s not a secret to anyone who’s eaten with Joyce.

  29. AgentKeen

    Man, now I want to go get sushi (there’s a local place with good vegetarian sushi).

    Also, naming it McAwesome’s was McAwesome.

  30. Ailorn

    I want sushi! Cant cauze pregnancy… pout.

    1. Doctor_Lantern

      Sushi is on the no no list for Pregnancy? The more you know…

      1. Lyssie

        Probably because of mercury.

        1. Sailor_Arashi

          Not much mercury in rice…

        2. chisci

          plenty of mercury in seafood tho

          i’d figure it had more to do with sushi being raw anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        3. Sailor_Arashi

          Sushi isn’t seafood, nor is it raw. Sushi is specifically the rice and the special way it is prepared. Anything served wrapped in that rice is ‘sushi’, be it fish, vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, cooked, uncooked, whatever.

      2. kelticat

        Microorganisms in the noriwould also qualify as bad.

  31. John

    No hamburgers?

    This restaurant is not worthy of the McAwesome’s name.

  32. Josh

    SPAM sushi is a big thing in Hawaii. That’s kind of close to a hamburger, right?

    1. Varius

      And now I have more reasons to go to Hawai’i!

    2. Orbit Junkie

      It is big here! It’s called spam musubi, and it is delicious. I’d doubt that you’d find it in a sushi restaurant though. It’s kind of a bastard of Japanese rice balls (musubi), and the inordinate amounts of spam sent to Hawaii to feed soldiers in WWII (say what you will about spam, it’s cost effective).

      1. Rycan

        You eat half-century-old SPAM in Hawai’i?

        1. begbert2

          I’m pretty sure that time is immaterial to SPAM.

        2. Solenoid

          70 years? That’s proof positive that SPAM isn’t fit sustenance for life.

        3. Orbit Junkie

          Probably not. If they had spam lite back then, someone committed war crimes.

        4. Rycan

          War crimes? In WWII? Naah…

      2. ninja_jesus

        My gods, I’ve found at least two other Hawaii people here. So happy.

  33. DuckDuckMoose

    Yeah, Dorothy, you can reasonably expect Joyce to change some things, but you can’t really make her expand her palate.

    I always eat a ridiculous abundance of sushi when sushi and I are in the same place. Every individual piece is so deceptively light, so it’s easy to get carried away. I’m the kind of weirdo who thinks octopus is among the tastiest things available for human consumption.

    Strips like this remind me that Becky stirring shit up is not an inherently bad or unfunny thing.

    1. Time Sage

      I enjoy fried Calamari myself (Which everyone who knows how much of a picky eater I am finds bizarre). While that’s Squid, it’s pretty close.

      1. DuckDuckMoose

        Oh, calamari is so, so good. Raw squid can be kind of blah, but the fried stuff is just amazing.

        1. Time Sage

          It’s very easy to screw up though. I’ve had some awful calamari simply because it was the tiniest bit over cooked.

  34. licoricepencil

    At least try the sushi Walky…

    (Willis, did you change the spelling on avocado after posting it on the Patreon yesterday or did you catch it before?)

  35. Kenjia

    Becky’s got sharp observation skills.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      And she’s sitting across from the lovebirds, so she can see his trickery more clearly.

      1. Kenjia

        She also didn’t have to say anything, but still choose to.

  36. Joe

    California rolls are how it starts, Joyce. Once you make it past that first bite it’s a slippery slope whirlwind of tuna and salmon and rice and seaweed until you end up with something that looks like a green dragon in front of you.
    A delicious, delicious green dragon.

    1. Jess

      As long as it isn’t baddragon.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        That smiling Ethan grav is beyond perfect for that statement.

    2. Orbit Junkie

      Slippery slope straight to sashimi, amirite?

      Actually, I think if Joyce even glimpsed any sashimi she’d be out of there in a flash.

  37. Time Sage

    As someone who’s almost as picky as Joyce on a daily baisis… SUSHI IS AWSOME… though I can do without the avacado and cucumber…

    1. Disloyal Subject

      As a child, I agreed. My taste buds have changed since then, though, so I rather like avocado and cucumber on sushi now.

  38. Romanticide

    Do people still get laid daily at McAwesome?

    1. Rycan

      …what?

      1. Solenoid

        Context: The place depicted in the strip exists in reality, and Romanticide presumably used to be from that area.

        1. Gigafreak

          Nah, Romanticide is talking about the McAwesome’s that exists in the Walkyverse, in which the now-hiring sign stated that “you will be getting laid every night.”

        2. Solenoid

          Dang. You got me there.

        3. Romanticide

          I wish XD nop is just the alternate universe version of this one on the shortpacked strip. They made sweet promises at hiring and for all it seems they kept them XD

  39. tim gueguen

    Funny that the place doesn’t have something Walky would eat. No ramen or udon? No deep fried something like tonkatsu?

    1. Rosie

      Probably let Dorothy do the ordering. Chicken katsu is usually available at this kind of place and a very easy food for picky people, but they’re going to look at the menu and say what the heck is a katsu. And then let someone who likes sushi order.

      1. Time Sage

        What IS chicken Katsu?

        1. ninja_jesus

          Chicken Katsu is deep fried, breaded chicken with katsu sauce. It’s delicious.

        2. Rosie

          And for an idea of what katsu sauce is, the usual substitute recipes involve ketchup and Worcester sauce.

        3. gwalla

          “Chicken cutlet”

  40. Foxhack

    Every time someone brings up those abominations… yuck.

    Sushi does not have cream cheese.

    1. Z

      Actually, there’s philadelphia rolls, which are made with avocado, smoked salmon and cream cheese.

      1. gwalla

        That’s a dirty rumor. Next you’ll try to tell me they made a Highlander 2.

    2. Disloyal Subject

      Cream cheese is an abomination unto the blessed house of dairy products. Sushi is a paragon of seafood.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Sushi is not seafood. Sushi is rice. The filling/topping isn’t necessarily seafood. (Nor raw. Though most of the seafood types are.)

        1. MindLink

          Never seen anything but seafood, except veggie rolls, on sushi before, always wondered why, guess nobody else thought about it over here.

        2. gwalla

          I’ve had thin sliced rare steak. Little dollop of horseradish on top. Yum!

          There’s also inarizushi, where the rice is stuffed into marinated tofu skin pouches.

        3. Kryss LaBryn

          Inari is the best. I get it for dessert.

          Tastes kind of like pancakes.

  41. Derek

    I’m guessing Walky was planning on throwing those in the garbage later and that makes me dislike him because people that waste food are among my least favourite people ever.
    Seriously, if you don’t like something/makes you queasy/are allergic, it’s okay to *not* eat the food, but throwing it in garbage makes you an asshole.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      …I like Wally too much to think that of him, because I share your strong opinions on trashing food. I assumed he was gonna give it to someone who would like it, or try to talk Mike into eating it. At worst I thought he’d feed it to birds.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Walky. Screw you, autocorrect; screw you with two chainsaws and a metal-spoked rake.

  42. nothri

    Okay, seriously, I am all for being picky about what you eat. I hates me many kinds of sauces and often ask for my meals plain. But what kind of backwoods hillbilly barbarian doesn’t like a California Roll?

    1. Kamino Neko

      The sane kind. What kind of lunatic eats a non-food like cucumber?

      1. No Name

        This kind of lunatic. It’s actually quite tasty, even on it’s own. Whenever I get a salad, I look for the cucumber slices. Still don’t like spinach though; elementary school ruined it for me.

      2. nothri

        Historical fact: Attila the Hun also hated cucumbers. Probably. You know what else he did? Destroyed western civilization for like a thousand years. Probably.

        1. nothri

          Genghis Khan hated Caifornia Rolls so much they weren’t even invented in his time.

        2. nothri

          What I’m getting at here ladies and gentlemen is that science proves that people who hate California Rolls are probably going to join a barbarian horde in the near future and rampage across the world until we are all plunged into the next dark age.

          Disclaimer: Conclusion not actually validated by science. Probably.

    2. Rosie

      I love sushi. I hate California rolls. Krab is not my jam.

  43. Kitschensyngk

    To Joyce’s parents, sushi promotes Eastern religion.

  44. Arianod

    No way… Becky likes *gasp* sushi??

    1. Sailor_Arashi

      I know, right? Vinegared rice! It’s so stereotypical!!

    2. Bagge

      And she really believe Dotty should have taught Joyce to enjoy sushi by now

    3. hof1991

      Since she doesn’t know where her next meal is coming from, Becky currently appreciates almost all food.

      1. Bagge

        not to mention the kindness and gesture of inclusion – and from an atheist who kinda is a rival to Becky (at least in Becky’s mind). That’s powerful.

        1. Gigafreak

          Joyce is willing to be nice to people she “should” otherwise dislike, because even “people you don’t like” often deserve kindness. Becky might yet come around to that way of thinking.

        2. Bagge

          Today might very well be the first time Becky meets one of the people she “shouldn’t” like.

  45. The Wizard

    I honestly dont like the taste of sushi, tried it once and said never again. I support your choice walky!

    1. Disloyal Subject

      There are many kinds, but eh, your call. So long as he tried it and doesn’t waste that little stash there…

  46. TheLurkerAbove

    Reading through everyone’s taste aversions is always interesting; I get the feeling most people are pickier than me! While there are some things I won’t make a choice to eat, I won’t say no if someone offered me as a treat.

  47. ninja_jesus

    Sushi is amazing. There are so many sushi places in Hawaii to choose from. Personally I could eat almost anything. Anago and unagi nigirizushi are a bit rubbery, but so full of flavor.

    I’m hungry now.

  48. Rycan

    Well, so far, Becky seems to have toned down. Let’s see if it stays that way.

  49. Urukak

    On the subject of picky eating, I generally have more of a problem with textures than tastes. This often leads to annoyance when a dish contains something I dislike and people tell me “you can’t even taste it.”

    1. ninja_jesus

      Oh man, I understand that. The fat from meat used to feel disgusting when I tried to eat it and I always cut it out. Now though I love it because of the natural buttery flavor it gives.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        I’m working on that, but I still gag violently whenever I get much steakfat at once. The texture of mushrooms bugs me, too, as much as I love their earthy flavor.

    2. Kamino Neko

      Same here. There’s also stuff I like purely for the texture (like water chestnuts).

      1. Kamino Neko

        Actually, apropos of this strip, nori is another example…

      2. gwalla

        Mmm, water chestnuts…

    3. chisci

      yeah, that’s a thing that happens. my bro never liked meat but whenever my mom made steak he would ask her to pour the gravy (read: that meat-flavored oil leftover on the pan) over his rice. as he got older and grew out of it he explained that he always loved the taste but he could never swallow meat itself and ended up gagging if he tried, until he started mixing it with other stuff in his mouth that had a more palatable texture for him. frankly i don’t really think it makes much sense, but he didn’t eat before and he eats now, so that’s something.

    4. Smiling Cat

      I love a good tomato flavor, but actually biting into tomato is deeply unpleasant to me.

  50. MelanieWaffle

    I really really want a spicy yellow tail roll now!

  51. WingedBeast

    Okay, both of you try the unagi don. It’s bbqed eel and, after you try that, the phrase “bbqed eel” will only make your mouth water. Seriously!

  52. Lord Geovanni

    Becky pimp us out she really not checking for anyone at all right now

  53. Lord Geovanni

    cant remember if Dotty a Vegetarian i didnt take her for evil

    1. Rycan

      I see you like poking hornets’ nests.

      1. Solenoid

        Live dangerously.

        1. Lord Geovanni

          *Austin Powers Voice* I do like to live dangerously. yea baby

    2. Robbzilla

      Now now… vegetarians aren’t evil. That spot is reserved for vegans!

      /ducks

      1. Smiling Cat

        Yeah, at least a carnivore’s meal gets a chance to run. You ever seen a stalk of celery fight for it’s life?

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          Carrot juice constitutes murder. Cole slaw’s a fascist regime. Don’t think that they don’t have feelings, just ’cause a radish can’t scream!

  54. Black Bumblebee

    Let’s see Mike working there. Heck… let’s see at least ONE college student working SOMEWHERE. College students often need jobs…

    1. Lord Geovanni

      not if your parents love you

      1. ninja_jesus

        Even if your parents love you. Especially if they can’t really afford sending you to college.

        1. Lord Geovanni

          not that i believe that they have to spend tons of money on you to show they love you but i do believe that parents who make money but are broke its cause they cant budget and if your parents loved you enough they would learn to budget

      2. chisci

        i cognitively know you’re probably trolling, but i can’t let slide that you just equated love to hundreds of dollars, millions if you count tuition. bourgeois asshole.

        1. Gigafreak

          Well, Billie does equate love with money!

          (Billie is absolutely a bourgeois asshole.)

    2. tim gueguen

      The Sarcasmo Rays Mike generates would spoil the fish instantly.

  55. OnyxIdol

    Sushi with avocado is literally my favourite Joyce you heathen.

  56. Zan Thrax

    How is Joyce supposed to disassemble a california roll?

    1. neeks

      Spoken like someone who never had a sushi roll disassemble itself on you. All she needs to do is either unwrap the seaweed part or poke the filling out of the it, then consume the parts she doesn’t find terrible.

      1. Orbit Junkie

        My preferred strategy with ahi rolls. Poke out the ahi, leave the rest for someone who likes it.

        1. ninja_jesus

          That is blasphemy.

        2. anonymsly

          That’s why I go straight for the sashimi. If all I really want is the fish, why bother with the roll thing?

        3. Orbit Junkie

          That’s my primary strategy, but then people order ahi rolls for the table, and what else am I supposed to do?

  57. My1DigitIQ

    *Thinks back to the spam musubi I had for breakfast*
    I just can’t imagine life without nori…

    1. Orbit Junkie

      Would you really want to try?

      1. My1DigitIQ

        Just considering it makes me want to throw some in the mail to my friends who moved to the mainland US. Maybe some Li Hing Mui too..

        1. My1DigitIQ

          Haha, just noticed the other musubi posts up there. Also that comment about poking the Ahi out of sushi rolls… I consider that sacrilege.

    2. ninja_jesus

      OH MY GOD SPAM MUSUBI. You must be from Hawaii. That’s basically a local favorite.

  58. Idon'tcarenomore

    While stationed in Carolina, my husband and I had friends take us crabbing with really ripe chicken legs tied into the crab traps. Great bait. We took home a hamper full.
    Which I then chased around the kitchen when the hamper tipped over.
    Threw in salted boiling water and proceeded to stuff my self full of fresh crab. Excellent eating.
    Then I had to wait thru the egg laying season to go crabbing again.

    Not sure if its even safe to eat them now from that area..so much pollution.

    Yeah, I wouldn’t eat sushi from non certified chiefs either. Nor from a restaurant that doesn’t prepare it in front of me. The square tables with the set in grill in the center with the chef and customers sitting all around it, is the way it’s set up in Japan.

    Now I’m hungry for sushi and its 3:00 am. Cheesh.

    1. Rycan

      Hey, a fellow crabber!

  59. CarlaGriffin

    Now I want sushi.

    1. Robbzilla

      In all fairness, I almost always want sushi.

  60. begbert2

    Okay, I’ll bite. Why’s it titled “Ami”? Is there a reference to Sailor Mercury somewhere I’m missing?

    1. Daibhid C

      A quick Google suggests Restaurant Ami is the actual name of the sushi place opposite Mother Bear’s Pizza.

      1. drs

        Where in real life, “across from” means “down the street from”. Well, I guess they’re across Swain Ave, but the way they’re oriented, I’d say they’re both on the same side of 3rd Street.

  61. Majere

    As a cook picky eaters quickly became the utter bane of my existence.

  62. maxlines

    SUSHI!!!!

  63. Bagge

    Heh, Becky is using the same way to break the ice as Sarah – funny Joyce stories. Nice how – even when she postures about it – she accept Dotty’s role as Joyce new best friend.

    Walky has finally found the fast food that bests him. First the math test and now this. His whole world is shaking (no wait, that was an hour earlier).

  64. Thomas

    I’m with Walky on this one. Sushi… meh. Useless when you’re hungry, because all you get are 4 to 6 itty-bitty bundles of cooked rice with tasteless fish & nasty wasabi sauce. That’s an underwhelming amount of food for a load of cash. Seriously over-priced, seriously overrated, seriously unappealing.

    1. ninja_jesus

      WHOA. As much as I’d like to respect your opinion, I’d have to disagree with you, sir. It sounds like you’ve been to the wrong sushi bars. 😛 Yeah, the prices is a bit steep, but I’ve never had sushi that didn’t taste good. Wasabi I could also do without, but pickled ginger and shoyu (soy sauce) are absolute musts.

      Also, 4-6? Usually you can by a platter of about 10 or 12 for a decent price, probably in the $20-$25 dollar range where I’ve gone.

      1. Thomas

        I know I should retry the fish, because it was probably never meant to be tasteless. I had vegetarian sushi that was quite good. Still, steep prices, underwhelming amount of food.

        1. ninja_jesus

          Do you live in a place near the ocean, or is it landlocked? That could play a part in the “steep prices” area. The further away from land you are, the more packaged the fish need to be so they stay fresh (at least, that’s my reasoning).

        2. Thomas

          I had sushi in a sushi restaurant in Copenhagen. So that’s close to the sea & they should know what they were doing. Except they forgot to give us any instructions about the wasabi sauce & what to do with it. Apparently they assumed we were seasoned sushi consumers.

        3. neeks

          So once upon a time when my family first moved out to Arizona, we had lunch at a California fusion restaurant and my brother ordered sushi. He didn’t know what the wasabi was….so he put the whole dollop in his mouth.

          Oh, the look on his face.

        4. Kryss LaBryn

          A friend of mine, her first time having sushi, she thought the wasabi was avocado, which she loves.

          Wish I’d been there to see, haha.

          My husband used to feed bits to the dogs. They’d always come back for more, the weirdos, but it was hilarious watching them flail around the room.

    2. Robbzilla

      You’ve been eating sushi at Chinese restaurants and grocery stores if that’s your experience. Sushi is very flavorful if done right. A lot of places that add on sushi even go so cheap as to skip rice vinegar in their rice. Blasphemy!

      1. gwalla

        Yeah technically it shouldn’t even be called sushi at that point (the “su” in “sushi” means “vinegar”)

    3. gwalla

      Sounds like you had supermarket sushi. That stuff’s been sitting on the shelf all day at least by the time you buy it. Since the main flavoring of most sushi is raw fish, it really really really has to be fresh for it to be good.

      1. StClair

        I call that stuff ‘psushi’.

  65. vivaldi1206

    !!!! I started reading your comic when it started and now I actually go to IU for grad school (in Jacobs) and I completely freaked out seeing Ami !!! Ah, this made my day 😀

  66. Robbzilla

    My biggest Peeve: Someone who won’t at least TRY something new. I had a guy I worked with that literally would not eat anything green. He was doing the Advocare scam, and I bluntly told him that all of those powders wouldn’t do a damn thing for his colon, and that cancer was almost a certainty for him. The upside was that he never tried selling me on that ponzi scheme… But man… I once took him to a fairly good Italian restaurant. Pretty authentic (I’m of Italian descent, I have at least half a clue) His comment? He preferred Olive Garden…. Shudder!

    1. ninja_jesus

      Ugh. My parents still talk about Olive Garden as if its a good place to go. Thank the gods there’s none in Hawaii.

      1. Gigafreak

        Ehh, maybe he just doesn’t like stuff that’s overly fancy. I know I don’t! Fanciest meal I ever enjoyed was a gourmet boar-meat burger.

        1. ninja_jesus

          Boar meat? That sounds interesting and I want to try it.

        2. gwalla

          It’s basically pork but gamier. Good stuff.

        3. MM

          But even fancy Italian’s not really that fancy.

        4. Gigafreak

          To me, “Fancy Ketchup” is too fancy.

          And fancy ketchup ain’t fancy at all.

          (Well okay it’s because I dislike the flavor of tomatoes in any form with the single exception of when it is specifically used in the sauce for pizza. And even then, I’ll take my pizza plain.)

    2. drs

      French parents: “You don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste it.” “It may take a kid a dozen tastes to like something.” Plus exposing many (vegetable?) tastes via puree first, to avoid the texture problem.

      1. Gigafreak

        I don’t think I understand why people are so eager to gain acquired tastes, though I guess if that’s the only way to get the kids to eat their veggies…

        1. neeks

          Brussel sprouts, man. Never again.

    3. MM

      Are you sure he wasn’t an alien?

    4. Marc in MN

      I always find it fascinating that some people put such a huge amount of importance on another person’s food preferences. Why should anyone care what I prefer to eat?

      The only scenario where I can ALMOST accept it would be in a relationship where your significant other insists on only eating at fast food joints like Arby’s and McDonalds.

      I briefly dated a girl a little over a year ago who seemed to be way too concerned over whether or not I would like sushi (I had not tried it at the time). Like…WAY too concerned. In the end, I tried it and while I was able to tolerate it, I can’t say that I really liked it. One of my biggest problems with sushi isn’t even the food itself. I’m a nibbler when it comes to eating food. I eat small bites and I eat slowly. One of the things I hate about sushi is that there seems to be an expectation that you should stuff the whole damn thing in your mouth at once. It comes very close to triggering a gag reflex with me.

      I guess if I date another sushi lover, maybe it can be something she does on nights out with the girlfriends…

  67. timemonkey

    I’ve always wanted to like sushi. It looks so good and I could lose so much weight by eating it but I just can’t stand it.

  68. Deanatay

    FOOLS!! GALAZZO REQUIRES NO HAMBURGERS ON HIS MENU! HE WILL CRUSH YOUR PUNY SUSHI JOINT WITH PIZZA ALONE!!

    1. Bagge

      …and Subs

      1. Deanatay

        I knew someone would do that. 🙂

        1. Bagge

          Running gags is half the fun with this forum 🙂

          In my headcanon Conny regularly adds that line in a polite voice every time Galasso bellows something about pizza.

        2. Deanatay

          I suspect it was her idea. Galazzo, being of Italian descent, believes he can conquer the planet with his magnificent pizza creations and rule it like a god-king. Connie is a bit more… down-to-earth… and has the decent business sense that keeps them solvent.

          Plus, that fine body keeps the male college students coming back.

  69. Sigurther

    I sympathize. Have scores of friends who refuse to touch any kind of sushi, sushi rolls or sashimi only because it is different. Nevermind that they’ve all had fish, rice, avocado and celery in different forms before. Won’t even try it. So sad.

  70. Zret

    Ami’s is legit. Just had it a few weeks ago and was definitely impressed!

  71. Jessie

    I don’t think I like Becky.

    I really wanted to like Becky.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Many of us readers also wanted to like Becky…

      1. Architex

        But then… Becky intensified.

        1. Deanatay

          So… much…. Becky… bleeeeghgh…*

  72. gwalla

    Wait, she thinks cucumber & avocado are gross, but she’s fine with the k-rab?

  73. Tom T.

    True story: There is ongoing litigation among the divided owners of Benihana over whether to introduce a Beni Burger. (And hip-hop dancers in chef outfits).

    1. Gigafreak

      …If they were headbangers in chef outfits, would that make them Metal Chefs?

  74. octochan

    I wonder how Dina would handle the concept of eating sushi?

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      With her mouth?

      1. tim gueguen

        Dina is of Japanese descent if I’m not mistaken, so it’s a reasonable guess that she’s had sushi at some point. The fact she had cereal at every meal in the campus cafeteria doesn’t mean she doesn’t eat other things.

      2. tim gueguen

        Dina is of Japanese descent if I’m not mistaken, so it’s a reasonable guess that she’s had sushi at some point. The fact she had cereal at every meal in the campus cafeteria doesn’t mean she doesn’t eat other things.

        1. tim gueguen

          Weird, how did I end up with two of the same reply?

          “We have made this comment before, didn’t we, didn’t we? Repeat, repeat.”
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REclufBKF7Q

  75. ZORK

    If it weren’t for the alt text, I might have missed the name of the place they went to.

    Damn you Willis, you evil genius, you!

  76. JBento

    Fight, Walky! Fight for your right to have actual food in a meal!

    And use actual cutlery! This (neither where I am nor where they are) isn’t Japan, our metal ore isn’t crap! Forks and knives for everyone, screw those sticks!

    1. Gigafreak

      Korean places have metal chopsticks though.

    2. bunivasal

      Chopsticks were invented in China and spread through Asia via cultural osmosis, NOT because of Japan’s dearth of quality iron ore.

  77. MM

    I like sushi, but I think I’m with Walky on this one: if you’re going to call your restaurant McAwesome’s, there really ought to be a burger on the menu somewhere.

    1. Deanatay

      “I’d like the Awesome Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito Salad Combo, with extra cheese. Oh, and hold the lettuce.”

  78. Black

    Ugh, seriously, what the hell is wrong with Walky?

    “What kind of restaurant doesn’t have a hamburger?!”

    Are you serious? There are LOTS of restaurants that don’t serve hamburgers, you fucking manchild. Why did his parents let him grow up to be like this? They view their daughter as a disappointment but they’re so proud of this dipshit!

    And how does he get laid, AT ALL, with this mindset? I feel like any women around him should have some kind of instinctive reaction to grab his shoulders, knee him in the balls, and then toss him down a flight of stairs.

    1. Bagge

      That escalated into fantasies about domestic violence quickly. Is there really no better way to voice displeasure with someone’s eating habits?

      1. bunivasal

        “What’s hyperbole?”

        1. xKiv

          That’s alot of hyperbole. And a half.

      2. Black

        It’s less his eating habits than it is his entire childish mindset, like he’s graduated Elementary School and went straight to College. How does Dorothy find that sexually attractive?

        1. chris73

          I admit I find it odd as well that Dorothy finds him sexually attractive as well, maybe she has well hidden self-esteem issues?

        2. Spencer

          For all his immaturity, Walky is a fiercely devoted friend who will do anything for them hell or high water, and has shown on multiple occasions how much he loves Dorothy, even if he has difficulty saying it.

          Also his caramel body.

  79. Rikonius

    Back when I used to go to sushi restaruants, I would always use the chopstick to poke the cucumber/avacoda bit out of the california roll.
    Handily, every place I went to made them so that green bit is exactly the size and shape of the chopstick.

  80. Ryan

    Domo!

  81. zathael

    Three words. Land. Locked. State.

    No thanks.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Just avoid any of the seafood sushi.

    2. drs

      Doesn’t matter. FDA requires any raw fish other than tuna to be frozen for safety anyway. Stick something in deep freeze, doesn’t matter where the state is. If sushi’s more expensive there, that’s transportation costs or market quirks, not freshness.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-from-the-deep-the-deep-freeze.html

      Which contains this gem of a quote: ”We try to recognize that sushi has been made with fresh fish in Japan for thousands of years,”
      Compare to WP on History of Sushi, where what we think of was invented in the 1800s, and 8th century “sushi” was fish preserved for months in fermenting rice.

  82. Potatamoto

    California rolls are to sushi what Taco Bell is to Mexican food. Now admittedly, I’ll eat the hell out of some Taco Bell. But I don’t say I’m eating Mexican when I do.

    1. ninja_jesus

      I never understood the rationale of the California roll. “Hey, that black stuff that’s supposed to protect your hands from the rice? Let’s put that on the insideto separate the rice from the filling!” Great fucking idea, now my hands are all sticky. >:(

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        One sushi place I went to had finger-bowls of lemon water for cleaning off the stickiness.

        One place. Out of dozens. :/ It’s a damned good idea, though, if you can stop your customers from drinking it…

  83. bunivasal

    David Ulysesses Walkerton, you try that new food, you miserable cretin.

  84. tim gueguen

    Thinking about the current poll it’s missing the obvious one: Faz and his hand. Of course such a comic strip would likely be illegal in many places, along with being boring as hell.

    1. Bill

      I voted for the “some other folks who we know have canonically done it” option hoping that Willis would go back and give us the Joe/Roz sex tape scene.  Just seeing Joe MacGyvering the camera onto Danny’s foot would almost be worth the effort of signing up.

  85. Marc in MN

    I tried sushi last summer. I can’t say that I cared for it. But hey, at least I tried it…

    I agree with Walky. Give me a burger any day.

  86. feli

    I like how the comments went from “lets discuss which character is wrong or right” to “lets talk about food”. That’s the stuff people are moved by. Food.

    I’m a very picky eater. Was really bad when I was a kid/teen. I would only eat one kind of sandwich and so on.
    But, strange thing, I LOVE sushi.

    I’m eating Sushi this friday, btw. From my favourite place here. On further note, I haven’t slept for like 37 hours now.

  87. Bill

    I love the way Joyce is holding the chopsticks in the second panel.  I’ll bet five dollars she has absolutely no clue as to how to hold them, and if she were to use them at all it would probably be as spears or skewers.

  88. Brady Kj

    I was doing some mild web-fu. Is McAwesome’s Sushi a reference to Awesome Sushi? If so, I don’t see evidence of one existing in Bloomington, but there is one in Indianapolis.

    1. Carriethedragon

      It’s a reference to Willis’ comic Shortpacked!.

      1. Brady Kj

        I know that much, Other Dorothy, but how I’m asking if “Awesome Sushi” is the real-life sushi restaurant Willis is referencing?

        1. David M Willis

          No. The name of the restaurant in real life is the title of the day’s strip.

  89. Jenny Islander

    California rolls? But they’re the picky-kid chicken tender and fries meal of the sushi world!

    1. neeks

      Yeah, I always thought of California rolls as the “ease someone into the concept of them eating sushi” roll

      1. neeks

        Though why he didn’t just get a mess of tempura shrimp is beyond me.

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