Sashimi Night for Caesar!

Many of our friends and family know our cat Caesar. He's big, he has beautiful markings and blue eyes, and he's very particular about what he likes and doesn't like. He's probably best known for his bipolar nature - going from blissfully enjoying being petted to clawing and biting you. What most people don't know about Caesar, until now, is that he's a food snob.

Caesar's diet is almost exclusively 'brown kernels' (as we call them), which he loves. Unlike many cats, he doesn't mind what brand or flavor they are, as long as they come in a brown kernel format. He's eaten everything from grocery store shelf Friskies to high end, grain-free, natural food (ever since I read Marion Nestle's Pet Food Politics). But as amicable as he is about cat food, he doesn't touch people food... usually.

I can get him to lick peanut butter off his nose, but he turns it up at a bowl of cream, and only once demeaned himself by eating tuna fish out of a can.

But the first time we made sushi at home, I cut up some scraps of sashimi-grade ahi tuna and put them in his bowl. And he went NUTS for it. I've tried sashimi-grade salmon, but he can take it or leave it, and usually lets it be. Sashimi-grade ahi, however, he can't get enough of.

Tonight we made three rolls, all featuring ahi:


Tuna, cucumber and guacamole



Tuna, furikake, sesame seeds and wasabi;

And a spicy tuna roll made from tuna, mayo and Sriracha.

All of them turned out great, and there was (by design) a little bit of ahi left over for Caesar. I cut it into small pieces, put it in a small bowl, and he devoured it. It was all gone in short order.



I also invented a cocktail to have with dinner, since we failed to pick up any Kirin or plum wine. We had some Martinelli's sparkling apple cider in the fridge, and I had a pint of that with a bit of Maker's Mark Bourbon in it - lending the cider a smokiness (and a kick). For lack of a better name, I call it the Maker's & Martinelli's. I figure it's the perfect cocktail for a dry wedding... you just have to sneak in mini-bottles of bourbon.