Net Trivia
Ultra-cute baby clothes with a sushi motif!
The City of Austin
now has a handy searchable database of restaurant inspection scores.
Welcome to Austin Sushi News, a friendly by-product of the sushi website for Austin, Texas, www.austinsushi.com. Once every month or so, we bring you the latest scoop on sushi bars and related matters in Austin, Texas. You can UNsubscribe at any time by sending email to webmaster@austinsushi.com or by going to our Google Groups mailing list home. Subscribe by going to www.austinsushi.com and filling in the mailing list box. If you have any problems, please send email to webmaster@austinsushi.com.
Special New Year's Edition
Note: no dude, you didn't missing anything -- there were no October, November, December, or January editions of Austin Sushi News
Contents
State-Of-The-Art Sushi Locator
Always trying to stay on the front lines of the technology (and sushi) revolution, we've updated our Sushi Locator using the latest technologies from Yahoo!. You can now effortlessly pan and zoom to find the closest sushi bar to your home or business. Roll over the dynamic markers to reveal a photo and location specifics. We'll be updating the map with more features soon.
Tech Note: If it runs unusually slow, or images seem to be missing, you might need to upgrade your web browser with Flash version 8 (it's free), use this link:
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer8
On a piquant, foggy afternoon, I like to brew a fine pot of Sencha green tea, and bake a small pan of mochi biscuits. Besides tasting great and providing a bit of an energy boost, mochi provides a fine compliment to a Tivo full of SpongeBob or Project:Runway episodes. Mochi is dough made from pounding rice into paste. It makes tasty light biscuits and can be used for other things as well. The Grainaissance brand of mochi is 
sold at Whole Foods, but don't be surprised if the clerk at Whole Foods has no idea what you're talking about. For some reason, no one buys mochi, hence, the Whole Foods employees never seem to know it exists. But there's always plenty of it in the poorly labeled Asian foods refrigerated section. Good Luck!
Amasake is a traditional Japanese beverage made by fermenting sweet brown rice into a thick liquid. You won't have any trouble locating this food because no one sells it in Texas. :-\
The Natural Epicurean, a local macrobiotic cooking school, is offering a series of classes on Japanese-related goodies:
Feb 28th, Advanced Techniques: Vegan Sushi
March 28th, The Versatile Bean, the Joy of Soy: Tempeh, Tofu, Miso
April 25th, Seitan (wheat gluten) Workshop
May 30th, Natto (fermented soybeans) Workshop
HEB's Central Market Cooking School has a sushi class or two almost every month, usually featuring Tim Thomas, 
Executive Chef of Origami. His totally fun "Hands On Sushi" class is where you get blasted on Sake and Wine and learn the basics of making some kick-arse sushi at the same time. Yummers!
UT Informal Classes has a one-day class on Sunday, March 5th taught by Heidi McConnell-Lopez-Cepero who has "lived and worked in Japan," according to the class description.
Mizu Sushi has opened in Lakeway, at the corner of 620 and Lohman’s Crossing just west of the village of Lakeway. Our intrepid reporter and sushi whore, Spitboy, ventured forth and brings us his ratings:
Overall: * * * 1/2
Food: * * *
Ambience: * * * *
Summary: Contemporary modern interior design, a friendly atmosphere, and tasty bar drinks couldn't distract from predominantly disappointing fish and sushi rice quality. The attractive presentation of the sushi dishes we sampled promised more than all but a couple of items could keep. As a result, the prices also struck us as a little inflated. Nonetheless Mizu represents a solid entry into the apparently under-served Lakeway market.
Phone: (512) 263-2801.