Urban Eats...Kushi 2nd Ave Seattle

Last Friday I went out with a group of people totaling five, we were initially going to go to an Italian restaurant on 2nd Ave but somebody was late (I swear Asian time is ridic) anyways, I wasn't really feeling the whole Italian restaurant scene so we relocated to this nice bamboo restaurant called Kushi. Now you would probably think this place is another Umi or Wasabi Bistro (which by the way it's right next door to) but no. This joint specializes in Japanese street food, their known for food on skewers grilled over charcoal. You walk in and may choose to sit outside on their bamboo deck (it's heated and insulated) or sit inside for some nice mood lighting. We decided to sit on the deck...ready for food.

As we waited for the others of the party to arrive I opened the menu to take a look. The dishes are fairly simple, you can simply get a bowl of noodles for about 7 bucks or dive into some regular old teriyaki dishes. Drinks are pretty standard, $4 domestics $5 imports. Happy hour is from like 3-6 and 11-1. I imagine they have a pretty good after hours since it's around the corner from Del Rey. Course I came to this place for street food, the variety is amazing. You can get anything from dragon balls (bacon wrapped scallops) to chicken hearts, gizzards, or liver (which aren't too bad but not much flavor). You can also get seared tuna, salmon, halibut, fish on a skewer or dive into some filet minon and any type of chicken. The skewers average about 2-7 dollars depending on what you prefer so I decided to hit each basic protein group.

We went with the dragon balls, seared tuna/salmon, chicken, gyoza, shrimp, chicken fried rice, fried squid and drinks of course. Overall it was great, I was stuffed off everything but my most favorite was probably the fried rice and the dragon balls. All the food was very high quality and very tender, I was pleasantly impressed and satisfied.

As the bill came we split up and it came to about $25/person with food and drink. We did splurge a little because we did want to taste everything but I think you could get away with spending about 15-20 if you know what you want. That's including tip, our the service, if you're wondering was excellent. Our waitress was pretty chill and I could tell she was tired but she was very attentive to what we needed...so yeah overall I give it an 8 out of 10. It was money well spent and I'd go again, I want some of them dragon balls dude.

Urban games...Street Fighter Joystick

I have just recently purchased Street Fighter IV, probably one of the greatest fighting franchises for any system. I remember as little kid trying to figure out what the hell exactly Vega was trying to do on screen. Jumping up and down like a lil bitch...anyway so I played it. Game was pretty good, graphics were excellent and it was easy to pick the game up over again. Granted it was a little bit different using PS3 controllers but it was still fun. After playing for about 4 hours with m brother in law I get to the boss which is actually some weird ass robot looking dude that possesses all the powers of everyone in the game. After about six tries I finally beat the mo-fo and reign victorious. Evidently when you beat the game with each character you get a new one to play with. A bit like Capcom vs Marvel 1 and 2, two also great games that should be in every game collection.

One thing was missing though and I could not figure it out for the longest time. I was at Game Works checking out some stuff there and it hit me. I see two guys playing Street Fighter IV on JOYSTICKS. Man was does it add another element to the game when you add joysticks. So first thing I do when I get to the office is search for some new joysticks. Holy freaking crap, $250 for one joystick. You gotta be kidding me but I really wanted one but didn't want to fork over the money. Do you have this same dilemna? Well, I have a solution for you.

Go to the link below and you'll find joysticks for a bit less, granted it's not the same Street Fighter one made by Mad Catz but they do the trick. I have a buddy that knows how to put these bad boys together. If you have any questions he'lll answer them for you. It's legit otherwise I wouldn't post it.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/tag/1084231423.html