Favorite Lunch Places

I'll start this blog off by saying I am not a paid endorser for any restaurant, nor do I accept payment of any kind from any restaurant.

Now that THAT is out of the way, I want to talk today about one of my favorite casual places for really good food. First, I have to tell you that I am biased toward Asian food, especially Japanese. Sushi is a passion of mine and I like to eat it as often as possible.

One of my favorite places, especially for lunch, is a Japanese restaurant called Izumi. It's in a Totem Lake strip mall and very inconspicuous. You really have to look for it. Once you enter, you are greeted in Japanese and escorted to a table, or you can eat at the sushi bar. The sushi chefs are friendly and talkative so a lot of people do eat at the sushi bar, I've noticed. I always go for a tucked away corner table so I can survey the rest of the restaurant while eating the amazing sushi. I almost always order the box lunch which is actually served in a decorative box. I love ordering this because you get a little of a lot of different things. Sushi, tempura, rice, and my absolute favorite thing...the boiled vegetables. I don't know HOW they do it, but these veggies (a small potato, carrot, a couple of different kinds of mushrooms, cooked egg, and more) are cooked to the perfect texture and have a very slight hint of sugar boiled into them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the boiled veggies is my favorite thing in the whole restaurant. Sometimes I'll order double veggies...they are that good.

Whenever I leave Izumi, or most Japanese restaurants, I don't feel full or weighed down. It's a "just right" amount of food. And most of it is very healthy (not counting the tempura).

Anyway, I just wanted to share one of my favorite places with you. Feel free to do the same in the comments or by writing to me at this address:  willj@warm1069.com.

By the way, the photo is NOT of the box lunch at Izumi. But it does give you an idea of what a Japanese box lunch looks like.

Take care and healthy eating...

Will Johnson

[photo courtesy of ShashiBellamkonda@flickr.com]