Sushi, Seafood, and the Boomerang Wine Glass: Dinner at Posh Sushi Grill

We LOVE Sushi! I get it from my late, Dad. My father loved seafood. Whenever I made my gumbo I always made sure to make it with plenty of crawfish because alas, poor guy was allergic to shrimp. Fate is cruel, isn’t it? My dad used to joke about growing up in Tampico, Tamaulipas and fishing for crab by dangling his toes in the water.


I keep that tradition here in Laredo, by just LOVING sushi. Is it obvious? Have you READ this blog?!?!? We’ve been a big fan of Posh Sushi for years now. We recently noticed a new location went up at in front of Gold’s Gym. So last Friday we decided to give Posh Annex a try.  At least we THINK its called Posh Annex and we’d love to give you an address but their website doesn’t provide it. It just says, “now open for your private events, Posh Annex) SHE was nice enough to wait for me to get in a good workout on a Friday night and we dropped a little past 9:00 pm. The dining room was full but the wait was minimal. We were quickly led to one of two remaining tables. We sat in the small corner off to the right and not in the main dining room which very upscale and nicely furnished. There we placed our drink and appetizer orders of a Michelada and a glass of the house Pinot Noir along with an order for a plate of the Shrimp Quesadillas. The waiter was nice enough, but it seemed he was a newcomer to our city. He obviously moved here, like so many do, thinking he was going to “practice his English”. Whenever I get one of these guys, I instinctively just switch to Spanish when I hear them struggling with their English. I hope he didn’t mind.

Once the orders were in and our drinks arrived I noticed the glass in which the wine came was smudged and dirty. I politely asked for another. I have no way to prove this but I suspect the glass that came back was simply wiped down and brought out to me. I knew I should have taken a closer look at the glass to prevent this from happening. The high amount of lint on the glass, however, was sort of a dead giveaway. The quesadillas arrived and were delicious. They have a nice spicy chipotle cream sauce and had a nice shrimp flavor. I should emphasize the choice of term, flavor. To call what came in these quesadillas shrimp would have been generous. You’ve heard of the famous oxymoron, Jumbo Shrimp. Well, this is the exact opposite. To call this shrimp, micro shrimp would have redundant to the point of being Krill. (Krill: the common name given to the order Euphausiacea of shrimp-like marine crustaceans) I’m not kidding these things were THAT small. But the Quesadillas were very tasty.

Once the second glass of wine arrived the waiter made it a point to make sure my glass was clean. A point made obvious by the fact that the glass was still warm after being pulled from the dishwasher. (Eye roll).


Our order of sushi rolls arrived and they were, as usual, perfect. HER roll was tasty and with lots of texture.  SHE ordered a Hideki roll.  MY roll was fresh and picture perfect.  Mine was the Samurai Roll.  The atmosphere was quiet and pleasant with a constant stream of Watercolors (Sirius Channel 66 Soft Jazz) playing on the in house music system as we enjoyed our rolls. I decided to order another glass of wine. This time I really had to complain as my glass tasted of dishwater. The management made it up to us by offering us a free desert of caramel crepes.

All in all I am not ANGRY with the nice people at Posh, but this sort of thing is never the kind of experience you hope for and takes such a big bite out of one’s enjoyment of an evening out.

   Find out what other diners are saying at Urban Spoon for user ratings and Reviews.

Posh Sushi Del Mar Boulevard | 7019 W Village Blvd Ste 101 Laredo, TX 78041 | 956.753.POSH

We’d love to give you an address to their new location but their website doesn’t provide it. It just says, “now open for your private events, Posh Annex

Spicy Sesame Chicken

We have been living among boxes for the last couple of weeks.  SHE and I just moved into a new home and only now is it becoming clear that someone actually lives in our new townhome.   However, there are still no couches in the living room, there are no pictures on the walls, and certainly neither one of our knick-knacks have populated ANY type of shelving unit.


But hey, we both lead busy and responsibility filled lives and cooking sometimes doesn’t make it off of our to-do list.  Sometimes she says she’s gonna make some lunch dishes for the week and then doesn’t and my track record for making breakfast shakes is spotty.  So one evening when I got home from work I found SHE had left some chicken defrosting.  I had NO earthly idea what she intended to do with it but all I knew was that I was hungry and I was alone.

I took the chicken and set about creating something.  The kitchen was almost completely unpacked but there were a few spice type items no where to be found.  I foraged around the kitchen to see what I could find.   How a complete finger of ginger made it through from our old to our new fridge is beyond me.  I took that as a sign and was glad for a sense of direction.  A-ha!  I had found a tub of garlic cloves.  What else?  Some Sriracha paste!  Now we’re talking.

I took the now defrosted bag of HEB chicken thigh meat (Seasoned for fajitas) and threw it in our non stick wok.  I figured the pressure of having the meat already cooking would make me think fast....this is what I came up with.


Ingredients:
    •    1 Bag of HEB Chicken thigh meat Seasoned for Fajitas    •    4 Fingers of Ginger
    •    1 handful of garlic cloves (about 8)
    •    2 tablespoons Sriracha Paste (as we say here in Laredo when we order in an asian restaurant , “la salsa del gallito”) in a jar of paste form not the squeeze bottle type.
    •    1 cup chicken or vegetable broth (or make your own with some water and Knorr Suiza)
    •    ½ cup toasted sesame oil
    •    ½ cup sesame seeds


Procedure:


    1.    Over medium high heat brown chicken thighs in large skillet, nonstick pan, or wok.
    2.    In separate small nonstick pan, toast sesame seeds over low to medium heat.  Toss often as they WILL burn quickly if you’re not careful.
    3.    Place ginger, garlic, sriracha paste, and chicken broth in food processor or blender and blend on high until everything is chopped.
    4.    When chicken is properly browned but not yet cooked through pour sauce mixture into pan over chicken.
    5.    Cook until done
    6.    Right before removing from heat pour sesame oil over chicken and mix until well incorporated
    7.    Garnish with toasted sesame seeds

Notes:


•    If you’d like a little additional heat, add some Hot Sauce.  The kind that goes well on chicken wings.  I prefer Frank’s Red Hot.  About ¼ cup should do.
•    Usually, try and use low sodium boxed chicken broth.  The Knorr is usually high in salt and the HEB Chicken Thighs seasoned for Fajitas is already salted as well.
•    Adding the oil at the end preserve the nutty flavor of the sesame oil.  I try and do this whenever I am cooking with a flavorful oil.  This way you use less oil and still get all the flavor.  You can use a little less if you’d like.
•    For a more consistent gravy like sauce, Use dried powdered garlic and ginger in the same amounts.


When SHE got home, I greeted HER with a nice spicy chicken dinner.  SHE loved it.  YESSSSS!