Tea at Trianon: Usushi of Easton

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Usushi of Easton

I have a new gig, writing for The Easton Gazette. From The Easton Gazette:

I began dinner with a hearty glass of the most delicate plum wine, which was neither too sweet nor too tart, but complimented the repast which was to follow. My daughter enjoyed one of the Japanese sodas which come in a variety of flavors. As an appetizer I had the Thai crispy squid, as delicious as I had remembered. The dish looked like onion rings but tasted like calamari, accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce. Meanwhile my daughter was served a huge bowl of the house seafood soup, really a meal in itself, containing generous chunks of lobster and shrimp.
As an entrée I had been torn between the salmon hand roll and one of the sushi specials. For the purposes of this review I chose both. The salmon was tasty, light and fresh with the crispy eel skin wrapping. As for the main course, the Fuji Roll which was one of the specials of the day; I do not recall seeing it before or having it before. I had been used to coming to Usushi for lunch when they have buy-one-get-one-half-price but the dinner specials are exceedingly reasonable considering the quality and quantity of food. The Fuji Roll had a slight crispness amid the rice and the variety of seafood. It was around this time in the course of the meal when a lady at a neighboring table began to converse with me and so I was distracted from analyzing the meal to the extent I had planned on. It was however superb, although the crab meat was tricky to eat with chopsticks. Meanwhile my daughter was having the Osaka Box Roll which was unlike anything I had ever had there. It had three kinds of tuna and was quite tasty. We sampled each other’s entrées; each dish was a new experience. (Read more.)