Sushi

The College Son is home for summer, and has discovered that the 24/7 food opportunities afforded to him at school are much more limited on the home front. While the dining halls provide a smorgasbord nearly any time of day, our home kitchen is not staffed around the clock. Furthermore, the menu does not include sushi, a food group upon which he has grown increasingly dependent. Mama don't do sushi, but she will, on occasion, accompany him on such an excursion in exchange for some conversation and tales of college life.

Chamber to host April mixer The Glendale Chamber of Commerce will hold its April mixer at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Professional Business Bank, 250 N. Orange St., Glendale. The event will feature networking, refreshments, prizes and a chance to meet the city's newest business members. Parking will be available on the street or with validation at the Orange Street garage. For more information, call (818) 240-7870. New Chinese restaurant opens Wok Talk, a new Chinese and sushi roll restaurant, has opened at 932 E. Colorado St. between Adams Street and Glendale Avenue.

Artist Vicki Thomas has been showing her watercolor works at Descanso for 13 years. This month she's adding another La Cañada Flintridge location — a sushi restaurant — to her list. When a friend of hers told Thomas about La Cañada restaurant Toku Sushi, he said that the food was exciting but the walls bland. When Thomas visited the Japanese restaurant, she discovered that her friend was right and sat down with owners Julia and Olivia Noh to see how she could remedy the situation.

Recently, I accepted an invitation to attend a media tasting dinner at Sushi Roku. Normally I dine on my own dime at local eateries because I don't want to feel obligated to comment on the experience in my column. My daughters are enthusiastic Sushi Roku patrons, so we took our houseguest, Rui Kanai, who was a waiter in his native Japan, to the Pasadena restaurant. Rui gave Sushi Roku high marks. I feel his opinion of a Japanese restaurant trumps mine, so I could safely enjoy myself with no worries.

ichibanI confess -- I am not a sushi maven. I was pregnant during much of the 1980s, the period I consider the sushi decade, and I guess I missed out. I appreciate the artistry, the uber-freshness of the ingredients, and all, but I lack the passion many folks feel for this food art form. It was one of those very kids who got me to Ichiban. The middle son is a sushi guy. His high school buddies taught him the sushi-ropes, and they frequented several local spots. (Trust-fund kids, apparently, as good sushi is not inexpensive!

With the seriousness and precision of a surgeon, master chef Takashi Abe carefully slices a Japanese snapper and pidan -- a preserved duck egg with a mahogany-colored shell. This is the start of the special salad-of-the-day creation at Bluefin, a new upscale restaurant at Crystal Cove Promenade in Newport Beach. Abe is able to turn virtually every slice of sushi he touches into an edible work of art. It's a skill that has brought the 48-year-old a string of successes in the restaurant business, including his namesake sushi bar on the Balboa Peninsula that he recently sold.

Second-grade student Serge Albaian sat gluing the cut-out picture of a sea crab to a cardboard collage he created with his classmates. "I have learned that an octopus has eight legs," said the 6-year-old. Serge and about 40 first- and second-grade students are enrolled in the Early Education and Extended Learning Program at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School. "It's a program that enriches the children with activities," said Liza Gandsey, site supervisor for the program.

Just because a 3-year-old girl has never heard of the Beastie Boys doesn't mean she can't wear the hip-hop group's logo on a pink T-shirt. Mac & Madi, a children's clothing store, opened July 18 at South Coast Plaza, store manager Koko Lerner said. In addition to some of the smallest rock 'n' roll shirts on the market, the shop also sells dresses featuring images of sushi. "We're famous for our sushi dresses," Lerner said. "Everybody comes here for the sushi dresses."

Bill Scollon I'm the first to admit I'm not passionate about sushi, but there are times I get a yen for it. And while there are several good sushi places in town, I enjoy going to a small, unpretentious restaurant tucked into a strip mall called Sushi Dake. And though it does crack me up that the restaurant is next to a tropical fish store, I can assure you there's no connection. Sitting at the sushi bar gives you a front-row seat to watch the sushi chefs artfully prepare dishes.