Bargain Eats In New Haven: The Search for Sushi.

The Search:
Looking for Miya's Sushi on Howe St in New Haven.
It took a while what with the streets in the middle of downtown closed, but I eventually found a place to park, on the corner of Howe and Elm. Getting out of my car I smelled something delicious! I knew I wasn't close enough for it to be Miya's, and I was on a mission, but I took a look around for further investigation. I saw: Pizza at the Brick Oven, Rudy's, and 2 other places that evade memory. Google maps says one is alpha delta pizza. I make a mental note to come back here, and at least try a slice at brick oven.

I get directions from a local, walk down Howe St, passed a felafel house (Mouman's?) that smells like heaven on earth, and a dark garden cafe called the Kasbah (rock the kasbah?), both also worthy of a trip later.

In an unassuming simple brick building, with little sign-age, I almost walked right past it.
A waiter greets me, as I am sure I look confused, seats me at the bar, and I dive into a daunting menu. It is long and thorough, explaining many items as an excerpt from the chef's life.
I skim, and get distracted, besides, I already know what I want: The Late Night Sushi Giveaway Special.

Unsure of how it works (the menu says by reservation only, but I hear everyone ordering it), I ask. Friendly waiter assures me I can get one, two, however many I want.

The Lowdown:
Order a platter, get 5 or 6 pieces of the interesting rolls they have.
It is a random sampler of their sushi rolls.
Yes, it includes the expensive ones.
No, you can't specify particulars, except vegan. I told friendly waiter I was allergic to blue cheese, he said to not worry.
It costs $4.75 a platter.
Beer pitchers are also 1/3 off.
It runs for limited times on Friday and Saturday night.
Miya's website has the exact times, there is a link at the bottom.

As it is not a night for drinking a pitcher alone, I order a special platter and a spicy tillapia roll, and some green tea. I have done my best to write down, remember, and look up the rolls I had. I ate the samplers without soy sauce or wasabi, to fully experience. Having a bite of spicy tillapia in between each of the new and interesting rolls provided a familiar sweet and spicy cleanse, and satisfied my craving for spice - I let them soak in a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi cut with green tea. Also, all the "sampler" roll pieces were the big ones which I always wonder how I manage to get them in my mouth.

The Rating System: say the 'm' sound for 1 second per 'M', except 2 which sounds like "M-M".
M: not so good, a warning to others not to try.
MM:okay, skeptical of trying again, try at your own risk.
MMM: good. glad I tried it, likely to try again.
MMMM:very good. Definitely having again.
MMMMM:so good I must have again, and will go out of my way to do so. Very few things get this rating, Mom's apple pie sets this standard (and she won an award for it).

The Real Review:
spicy tilapia roll:
MMMM:whole tillapia, not chopped which gives fleshy-velvety texture, red spicy sauce. Sweet fish, spicy stuff, perfect rice. Great.

chinese pygmy rodeo roll:
MMMM: potatoey, dry crunch, cauliflower is not overpowering, fresh dill gives it spunk.

foo man choo roll:
MMM: only if you love asparagus. I like, not love. It would have been better with some spice, next time, I'm adding horseradish or wasabi to bump it to 4 M's.

kinoko roll:
MMMMM: The best one I had, subtle and understated. Mushroomy and creamy, excellent. Craving it with green tea right now, (I don't even like japanese mushrooms!) and best of all, not too pricey on a non-giveaway day at $9 for 6 large pieces.

mighty mother earth roll:
MMMM: Interesting combinations of texture- crunchy shrimp tempura, fleshy salmon, salty bursts from caviar, crisp asparagus and scallions, sweet smooth creamy mascarpone blends everything together beautifully.

ride the wild donkey roll:
MMMM: Fruity, creamy, soft, wheat-y, crunchy. It is confusingly delicious. The apricot makes it. I hope to get it in a sampler again, but almost $20, I will try new ones before I settle on buying it outright.

The Bottom Line: $9.01 plus tip for a unique and decent late night dinner, complete with tea satisfaction and surprises. Not for the unadventurous, or closed minded. There was something I wouldn't try on my own, something I didn't like, something I wished they had, (a crunchy spicy tuna roll), and something I loved despite thinking I would not. Next time I go there, I am getting 2 samplers without a tillapia roll safety net.
Looking forward to tribute to Native Americans' foods-roll "coming soon."

Descriptions and prices can be found at: http://www.miyassushi.com/menu.html

Mosquito Repellent Experiment Installment 2

Is garlic an effective mosquito repellent? The short answer, "hells no!"
The long answer is, of course, a bit more complicated. If you read the first installment, you might have recalled I am the lifeblood of mosquitoes. They travel across miles of country to taste my blood. So, I figure if garlic works for me, it works for everyone. But, by the tools of logic, I deduce that if it doesn't work for me, it might still work for humans that are less than magically-delicious.

The hypothesis: Garlic is a mild mosquito repellent.
The experiment:A very tasty human will eat loads of garlic, allow 5 hours for digestive processing, and venture outside for 30 minutes.
For breakfast: a garlic bagel, 3 cloves of roasted garlic, 3 garlic pickles, garlic chive cream cheese
For lunch: and toast with roasted garlic spread on it like butter, more garlic pickles, another clove for good measure.
For snack just prior to outing: a small slice of margherita pizza smeared with minced garlic.
The family notices, and appropriately mocks her. Time to go outside. With stinky skin and breath, another 30 minutes in the mosquito habitat.

The result: 11 mosquito bites. At least 7 mosquitos died during this experiment. (This is about normal. Also, I tried really hard not to kill any, to preserve the sanctity of science, but instinct takes over, and I become a crazed mosquito death machine.)
The conclusion: Garlic may be a mild deterrent. Further testing necessary.

Takin' it up a notch, a la mythbusters: Allowed for mosquitos to get back to normal, as in to stop being frenzied by my presence, for about an hour.
The variable: With no one home to mock me, I feel free to indulge and go all out, my left arm and leg get spread with minced garlic and some garlic pickle brine. I then brush off the bits, cuz they feel weird. Even my garlic bombarded nose is offended by my left side.
The control: The right side gets the same treatment with a 15% DEET spray.
We know 40% DEET is a very effective repellent. 15% should also repel, but likely in less degree. Maybe some skin will remain unbitten. I left the central areas untreated. Smelling like a zombie, trudged back to the garden, but being out of "gardening" I just read a book and killed mosquitos for 30 minutes in the garden.

The results: 6 dead mosquitos.
The garlic side:4 new bites (since it is less than half the "testing" area, this works out to the same average # of bites per square inch of skin as just eating garlic.
The DEET side: 2 new bites, and watched a reluctant hoverer go for it and try to bit my forearm. He met his death.

So, since each of these new results is only on about 40% of the area as the first 2 tests, the garlic spread side had about the same # of bites per area as just eating garlic, and more than using 40% DEET. The 15% DEET side had obviously fewer than the garlic spread side, more than just eating garlic, and more than 40% DEET.

Conclusions:DEET works better in higher concentrations, but garlic does not provide an appreciable deterrent to mosquitos.

I may be sueded to retry in the interest of science, ya know repeatability and standard deviation and all that jazz, but as I like my skin, I will have to think about it, and at very least let it heal a bit. However, if anyone wants to be a subject, I would love to hear your results.

Next time I'd like to try catnip, as rumors suggest its better than DEET, but I need to find some first.