A sweet pairing of sushi at Shiro's in Seattle

It's my birthday and I eat sushi if I want, eat if I wanted to eat, if I want ...

I wanted to.

It's not often I treat myself a good meal of mine. When I do, that food is probably from Asia. In a special occasion, it is likely that Asian food is sushi.

For the latest special occasions, Kisaku has been the location. It is no secret that I love this place.

But for my recent birthday, I wanted to try a new place, and Shiro was new to us. (Shiro is a bit more expensive than Kisaku, but the other part of "we" was buying my birthday dinner!) We know that one of the sushi chefs, so we sat opposite him at the counter. Omakase the only way to go for sushi, in our opinion, so let the chef decide what to serve us after first discuss our likes and dislikes. (Well, our tastes, we have no dislikes - which is useful when going omakase route.)

Sushi came after a selection of snacks, of course. My favorite is the salmon skin salad (seaweed, sesame, onion, radish, pepper and ponzu sauce) and I love the texture of the skin and how it meshed with the earthly nature ocean still around the plate. The fry GESO (fried squid legs) that offers a very different texture, while the Nanban smell was delicate and delicious.

Smelt nigiri be the first of many before us. I like the use of local fish that are sustainable, although I must admit I loved the chu-toro that followed (a weakness of mine), and the sushi chef selected dessert as well as food unagi-Ender. But I think everything in-between to pass the exam in one clock guide Monterey Bay seafood.

Highlights included a local universe, which was darker and more blunt than most, local shrimp that came with your head fried on the side (I love the sweetness of the shrimp and the freshness of the shell and head), and a Naka-hand roll made with maguro ochi. Naka-ochi scraped the flesh from the bones, in the case of tuna, which might otherwise go to waste, but is full of flavor, usually fat.

It couples, however, I found most interesting.

First, we fell in love with two pieces of salmon, a fish we love (especially as the devotees to the Pacific Northwest), but not often look for the sushi. One piece was "regular" in the rough, but the second was an extra piece acids (think salmon-or Toro) was "Aburi" style, which means quickly burned with a blowtorch. A wonderful couple of pieces of salmon.

Even better, however, was a link Geoduck and scallops. The Geoduck story had its lights crunchy texture, while juicy oysters was soft. Both were sweet Geoduck revealed more and more with each bite, the most immediately venerated.

At the start of the meal, the sushi chef had reported that the Geoduck was particularly good at night. If you are in a good restaurant, you can trust your sushi chef. We do this in Kisaku. And now we know we can do in Shiro, too