Sushi Overload

Last Saturday we celebrated the Holy Lime's birthday. Luckily for The allegedly-allergic-to-seafood Boyfriend, the Angry One (one of Holy Lime's housemates) convinced the Birthday Boy to not hold the celebration at a sushi-only restaurant. Instead we went to Sesame Corner.

It's a nice little place, tucked into one of the many strips of store plazas that line Middle Country Road. The decor is unobtrusive and neat and the menu is clearly laid out. The service was prompt and never wavered in politeness, despite the fact that our group was missing two members and we did not want to order without them.

Now onto the food.

My primary hallmark for Japanese restaurants is the miso soup. If you screw that up, you fail. Sesame's miso soup was wonderful. Just the right amount of seaweed and tofu. The broth was clean tasting and was just the right level of salty-savory.

Next came the salads. The house salad is nothing special. Iceberg lettuce, some carrot for garnish and a vinaigrette of some sort. If it didn't come with the meal, I wouldn't order it. Luckily, the lovely, blonde girlfriend of the Birthday Boy offered me some of the salmon salad. Now that was worth every bite. The salmon was very fresh and perfectly balanced by the subtly spicy dressing and creamy chunks of avocado. I would have liked something crunchy to counter all the smooth, silky textures but that's just a matter of preference and otherwise the salad was excellently turned out.

My meal came with shrimp shumai. For those not in the know, these are little steamed shrimp dumplings. They were good, smooth, with a slight sweetness that is attributed to fresh shrimp, but I wouldn't call them spectacular. As part of the meal, they were nice, but I wouldn't go to this restaurant just for them.

The chef's choice sashimi was lovely. It was salmon, tuna and a fish I unfortunately did not recognize. The fish was firm and fresh with a softly chewy texture.

The roll I got was white tuna. It had something crunchy in it, I believe cucumber, and came with a bit of what looked and tasted like mayo sauce on top. The flavors came together really well, with a bit of punch from the wasabi spiked soy sauce I dipped it into.

My beef negimaki wasn't as interesting unfortunately. It was well-made and tasted fine but like the shumai there was nothing really special about it. I'd have it again but I would still wish for something... else in there.

The Boyfriend got chicken teriyaki. As he is unarguably not fond of vegetables, I got to snatch them from his place while he wasn't looking. Well okay he was looking, he just didn't care. The green beans were great, a perfect tender-crispy, generously soaked in teriyaki sauce. The carrots were less exciting, too soft to retain identity in the sauce.

Finally, I ordered fried ice cream. I am always very excited by this dish. It's perfect - cold, smooth ice cream combined with crispy, warm tempura. This time, I was let down. It wasn't terrible but... The tempura was too thick and the ratio of ice cream to coating was too close, so I ended up eating tempura by itself at the end. The ice cream was also not cooked in balls but in some sort of rectangular shape and the kitchen cut it in two, which led to melted ice cream sauce pooling in the plate and the rest of it melting much quicker. It was not well executed, which was all the sadder as the tempura was perfectly made and the ice cream was delicious.

All this does come with a certain caveat - Long Island isn't the center of culinary innovation. This restaurant is nice and very reasonably priced. It definitely delivers a delicious and worthwhile meal. It's not their fault I am always on the lookout for something... extra. So overall, this was a worthwhile evening. Just don't order the ice cream.

-Vixen

Sesame Corner
1245 Middle Country Rd
Selden, NY 11784
631-736-6649