Sushi and Slavery

I'm excited to report that my new friend at work, Giggles, is quite the intellectual and a non-boring eater -- perfect attributes for a Friend of Monkey. We had a lovely date after work on Wednesday. You may recall that, a few weeks ago, I wrote, "I hope Giggles and I become good friends." Indeed, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

We started off with an early dinner at Zip Fusion Sushi downtown (744 E. 3rd Street). We were excited about happy hour specials, but, alas, these no longer exist. Even so, we had a nice time. I'm not *quite* to the point of taking pics of food with Giggles yet, but maybe soon.

We shared a seaweed salad ($6.95), which was freakin' awesome. I know it's just a salad, but it was really really good. We also had a sushi combo ($14.95) consisting of two pieces each of tuna, salmon, albacore, snapper, shrimp, and six pieces of spicy tuna rolls, as well as a "jazz roll" (cucumber, avocado, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, and eel sauce).

To top things off, we ordered a couple pieces of yellowtail ($4.50). I didn't think we ate that much, but we were both extremely full and satisfied with this array. All of the fish was fresh, delicate, and delicious, and, considering the quality, I'd say reasonably priced. I especially enjoyed the yellowtail. Zip Fusion is a great place to hang with pals after work.

After dinner, we headed to the Los Angeles Central Library to listen to Kevin Bales give a lecture presented through ALOUD called "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves." Despite the great potential of being a total downer, the talk was rather interesting, and I liked spending my evening doing something different from just TV or a movie. I'd almost forgotten how much I like to learn, and this was a good reminder.