Sushi in St. Pete

In the last few years sushi has become a BIG DEAL in St. Pete. Every third restaurant is a sushi restaurant. That's not an exaggeration.

My history with sushi has not been a good one. I tried sushi for the first time in high school and thought it was the most repulsive thing I'd ever eaten in my life. (Keep in mind that this was before I ate "meat jello" for the first time in Russia.) When I lived in Iowa--a good seven years after my first attempt--I decided to give sushi another try. Still disgusting.

After arriving in St. Petersburg, I realized that once again I was going to have to reassess my terrible relationship with sushi. The reason why there are so many sushi restaurants here is because everybody here loves sushi. Since everybody loves sushi, that means that all of my friends here love sushi. And since all of my friends here love sushi, that means they go out to eat sushi a lot. And since they go out to eat sushi a lot, that means that I would eventually have to go along with them. I dreaded that moment.

However.

From my first bite I was hooked. I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever tasted. I was completely in shock. The day after I had my first sushi roll in St. Pete all I wanted to eat was more sushi. Thankfully, everybody here is more than happy to tag along when someone has a sushi craving.

So there you have it--after 9 years of negative feelings for sushi, we've finally been able to put the negative experiences of the past behind us.

Here are a few pics from a "mass sushi outing" from a couple weeks ago: