52 San Diego Reader April 21, 2016
RESTAURANT
Sundays, we wound up at Ahi. It was bigger than I expected, and moderately busy. There was also some to-be-expected Maneki Neko “beckoning cat” decor, but I did not anticipate the large flat sculpture on the ceiling in the shape of a giant goldfish cracker. Here’s my beef with this
part icular 50% deal — it makes you do math. For example, a two-piece order of escolar nigiri sushi lists at $7.50, yet the menu reminds you the price is 50% off. Those nigiri actually cost $3.75. And they cost that much whether you order them day or night, any day of the week. This sushi is only 50% off an imaginary price. That said, the nine-piece
nigiri combo lists at $19.99 — which means in reality it costs $9.99 and half a cent. That’s a buck-eleven per piece of fish, and if the fish turned out to be better than decent that’s an excellent deal. Even if one of the pieces turned out to just have
a piece of avocado strapped to it, or that sweetened omelet tomago, I’d be cool. It wound up including the
usual suspects: yellowtail, salmon, ahi tuna, and alba- core, plus cooked eel and some red snapper. I would have loved to see a little of that escolar. But no. Instead, the last piece was a piece of krab. Not crab. Krab. I enjoyed the fish. I also
ordered two long-cut pieces of very enjoyable hamachi belly that actually wasn’t half price at $4.25. But a fake crab stick served on a pressed ball of rice isn’t something any- body should be expected to eat. I understand its place in a California roll, where the vague resemblance to crab is abetted by other ingredients. On its own, krab is a gross reminder you’re missing out on the real thing. It’s still a great deal at eight
pieces and a waste of good rice, so I’ll probably go back for the $10 combo when I hanker for Sunday sushi. But next time I’m going to send that krap back. by Ian Anderson
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Young white wine LJ Crafted Wines, 5621 La Jolla Boulevard, La Jolla. You can’t help but like the way the sun streams into a southwest exposure during the afternoon in Bird Rock. This time of year, it slides in obliquely, without the driving force of summer, but still car- rying enough ochre warmth to shine up a $10 glass of LJ Crafted Wines’ Napa Valley vino joven. That is to say that she’s a young wine, grapes harvested last year, yet to bear the isolation of bottling. It wasn’t so long ago that
similar quantities of sunlight fell on some grapes up north, where it found itself captured, stored for the time being until some of it could be reclaimed by yeasts as the little fungi munched the grapes’ sugars. But the yeasts only borrowed the energy, leaving behind alcohol (plenty energetic itself) and the volatile organic compounds that give LJCW’s’ Albariño a distinctive whiff of white peach (the tasting notes say “nectarine,” but I beg to differ), and a less
assertive splash of that same fruit juice on the palate. Of course, LJCW has other
wines, a complete sampling of which is available for just $10. When all is said and done, it probably amounts to a glass and a half of wine collectively poured. Physics tells us that it
takes a ray of sunshine only eight minutes to cross the gap dividing Earth from the nearest star. By comparison, the time that same energy spends trapped inside a bottle of wine, stored there until its eventual release as human effort, is an eternity. Think of that as the after- noon sunlight slips through the window and the whole of the cosmos ever-so-briefly reflects in the cool glide of young, white wine. by Charlie Morgenstern
Google Express delivers a dud In my pursuit of lazy eating, I’ve been digging into every internet delivery service that comes along. So, when a coupon for Google Express
$10 off your total bill!
Buy 1 entrée get 2nd entrée of equal or lesser value for half price with purchase of 2 drinks. Not valid with other offers or on holidays. 1 coupon per table. Expires 5-23-16.
“Taco Tuesdays” Back by overwhelming demand,
roasted pork tenderloin $15 minimum. Not valid with any other offer. Must show or mention ad.
DAILYSPECIALS Mon: $8 Flatbreads
Tue: $3 Specialty Tacos Wed: $10 Burger & Bud Thur: $3 Specialty Tacos,
$8 Flatbreads, $5 Draft Beers
HAPPY HOUR Monday - Friday 2 pm - 6 pm 9 pm - Close
BRUNCH
Saturday and Sunday 9 am - 2 pm
passed my way, I snapped it up — $30 for $50 to spend on Whole Foods delivery. Google plus Whole Foods?
Dreamy. I envisioned easy ordering of fresh food and instant gratification. I would add dinner — prepared food from the Whole Foods food court. Not like I was expect- ing anything from the salad bar, but they offer fresh-made meals ranging from Chinese food to wraps, and even sushi. It would all show up at my door in 60–90 minutes, because Express. Turns out, in this instance
Express means your order will be delivered within two or three business days, any- time between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. The world’s most forward-
thinking internet company — the same people who brought us both satel l ite and street views on Google Maps — has given us a home- delivery option with worse timing than a cable repair man’s service schedule. In a year when Amazon Prime brought Barbarella same- day delivery. Speaking of Amazon, the
Google Express interface reminded me a lot of its home page — circa 1999. Express seems stubbornly unaware of improvements made to web design over the past 15 years. I slogged through the clumsy interface for ten min- utes before I realized my next issue: this wasn’t anywhere close to the breadth of prod- ucts at Whole Foods. Not just a lack of prepared
meals. There wasn’t any- thing fresh. I guess the 2–3
day delivery estimate rules out perishables. All of them. What’s left is a truncated selection of canned goods, toiletries, pantry items, and assorted snacks. I started filling my cart
with boring staples: olive oil, soy sauce, coconut milk. I ordered just about 50 dol- lars to optimize my coupon and went to checkout. It gave the option to choose backup items in case there were out- of-stock items. Considerate, I guess, but how many out- of-stock items could there be? Nevertheless, I spent another five minutes select- ing a backup salad dressing, a different milk substitute. Fat lot of good. The next
day I got a notice that three items had been switched to backups, and two items had been dropped from my order altogether because even the backups were out of stock. I tried to cancel but was told it was too late, my order had already shipped. Four days later it arrived. To be fair, customer ser-
vice recredited my coupon so I could try again. They even sent a couple of $15 coupons — the minimum order for free delivery — so I could try other retailers that also sell through Google. I used these to get some toi- let paper and a leaky jug of laundry detergent. In a word: disappointing.
Though I ultimately saved a little money, I’d have saved myself a lot of grief if I’d just made a 40-minute trip to the store.
by Ian Anderson
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