My brother-in-law arrived in Mobile yesterday so you know what that means – we had to celebrate my birthday one more time. I know, I know…I really need to get over this birthday thing, but I’m an only child so what can I say? At any rate, when he visited us last month, Mike inquired about Fuji San. Kevin and I have driven past it many times, but never thought much about it.

So, last night we decided to give it a try. Kevin and I ordered the red dragon (tuna, asparagus, and fried shrimp), spicy tuna tempura, smoked salmon ngiri, and the rainbow roll (tuna, avocado, salmon, and snapper – very pretty). Kelly and Mike ordered seaweed salad, the black dragon, spicy tuna roll, and the special (unfortunately, I cannot recall the name of it).

Don’t let the drive-thru sign fool you, this is some seriously good sushi. The service was on the slow side, but everyone was very courteous and appeared to be working dilligently.

We even got dessert on the house – green tea ice cream and vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was quite unusual having a gelatin-like outer layer with an ice cream center. After a little googling, I discovered this was most likely Japanese mochi ice cream. So what exactly is mochi? According to Wikipedia, mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. While I didn’t dislike it, I didn’t like it enough to eat more than two bites.

This merely whetted our appetites for a frozen treat, so we headed downtown for gelato at Serda’s. I enjoyed the biscuit tortoni gelato – rums, cream, and coconut cookies…well, that just had my name written all over it! Kevin ordered the caramel banana praline while Kelly had the European brut and Mike chose the vanilla with cookie dough. All were fabulous, but the biscuit tortoni is my new fave.

Trying a new restaurant, being introduced to new flavors, and good times with family, does it get any better? Not if you ask me. So, has anyone tried a new restaurant or food lately?