The Last Night of 2008

As predicted, Fosco and Oz did nothing particularly sexy or exciting for New Year's Eve. Well, unless you count a quick trip to Target (neither do we).

But seriously, while our plans were low-key, it was actually just right. We started the evening with dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants (we eat there a couple of times a month), Barracuda. Although the original location is in The Castro, Fosco and Oz much prefer the less-hip, less-crowded branch at California's Most Filipino Mall in Daly City (it's also like 5 minutes from Oz's apartment).

Barracuda is a sushi restaurant, but it's more like Sushi 2.0 than regular sushi. Sushi 2.0, in Fosco's reckoning, is sushi that uses the standard roll (Maki-zushi) as a starting point (or blank canvas) for the addition of different (not always Japanese) ingredients, sauces, cooking techniques, etc. So when you see traditional rolls buried under slices of avocado, or covered with sauce, or battered and fried, that's Sushi 2.0.

Because it was NYE, Fosco and Oz decided to eat a little more than usual. We ordered the "Lollipop Scallops" as an appetizer. Those are fried scallops on sticks, resting on a bed of mashed potatoes. That orange sauce is tobiko mayo.

We'd never tried these before, but it was NYE! Fosco liked them better than did Oz, but Fosco is much more of a scallop fan.

We opted for four different rolls. Here are two of them. On the right is a standard spicy hamachi roll. Mmmm. On the left is something called the "Geisha Roll" (as if you couldn't tell that by the parasol). I don't really remember what is in it (spicy tuna? unagi? something green?), but it has white tuna and roe on the top. Also, there is some kind of vinegar sauce.

And yes, Fosco is wearing that shirt you see in the background. What can I say? It was New Year's Eve.

Fosco enjoys even more these two rolls. On the left, we have a shrimp tempura roll topped with avocado and tuna. On the right, we have Fosco's favorite "Volcano Roll": a spicy tuna roll batter-dipped and fried, then topped with tobiko mayo and mango-jalapeno salsa. Yum!

This was an excellent mini-celebration for NYE, even though (as always), we were hungry again two hours later.

When we got back to Oz's pad, we had several hours until midnight. We killed that but good with Mario Kart (yes, there is also a Wii at Oz's place) and Rock Band! In Rock Band, Fosco and Oz finally managed to conquer "Enter Sandman" (and by "conquer," I mean "scrape through by the skin of our teeth"). We also spent some time doing tatts on our avatars. Our band name is "Fosco Lives" (sigh--unoriginal, I know). Oz plays guitar and his avatar has the word "FOSCO" tattooed on the underside of his right forearm and the word "LIVES" in the same place on his left forearm. Oh, and each word is centered along the blade of a sword tattoo! It rox! Fosco's drummer avatar (named "Dark Oates," because he's kind of a goth drummer) now has a bloody handprint tattooed on left pectoral. It is hella sexy, let me tell you.

At midnight, we broke out the bubbly (although sadly, we had to drink it in double old-fashioned glasses).

There is nothing like drinking a bottle of good champagne at midnight to make the New Year seem bright and promising. And there's nothing like a January 1 morning headache to remind you that you're too old to be drinking that much.

So happy New Year once again, my dear friends and faithful readers. I hope your NYE was just as much fun (or more!) than ours.