The Opening of Sushi King

Sushi King has officially arrived in Kuching only yesterday. This means that if you had Sushi King before yesterday, it was unofficial sushi.

It had a grand opening ceremony at Boulevard yesterday. For the very first time in my life, I was invited as a food blogger. Imagine that. Well, actually both Nee & I were invited, but she couldn't make it.

I was so green that I didn't even have a namecard with me. I didn't think I would need to bring one cos I thought I was only there to eat.

I think 90% of Kuching event organisers are used to the press as in the traditional newspaper kinda press. So when I registered at the reception, the immediate question was 'Which paper are you from?' Uhh, I'm a blogger - The Malaysian Mis-Information Minister Zam's greatest enemy.

Waisay. Rots of Baroons. So grands. I feel like a Sushi King.

I was expecting them to serve me sushi on a platter right there & then, but it didn't happen.

The Royal Imperial Guards. Make me some sushi men! (whip) Hayaku!

Of course, as part of the press, I arrived as early as I could without looking desperately green. They were still putting the last touches on the baroons, if that was possible.

Oh, HELLO by the way, the PRESS sits right at the very front! But when I was ready to sit down, I realised there were others who were much earlier than I was. So I had to sit behind them. My field of vision was blocked by these four dude & dudettes.

I wanted to kick their chair. (Just kiddinglah) But as it turned out, they were also bloggers. So fren fren lah.

(L-R) Rose, Jimmy, Irene & Alysha.
They look like kids just straight out of high school. But do not let their age fool you. They are terror bloggers.

Hmm, cannot lose. Must sit in front of them. That's when I decided to move to the big seats.

While we were waiting for the arrival of the King, we were entertained by this young kelabit girl, who rocked on her sape.

There were also maidens in waiting. I couldn't remember if they did a short dance for us.

Anyway, when His Royal Sushi Highness arrived, all hell broke loose, and everyone scrambled into positions.

The maidens danced.

The Sushi King himself accompanied by his wife.

I knew that the Japanese have a tendency to bow out of politeness. And I've also seen the Japanese 90-degree bow right in front of my eyes before. But this was something else.

These guys were exchanging business cards, and they were bowing like 5-6 times.

There it is again. No less than 5 times.

What an eye opener. It made me think. Wow. The Japanese must have very strong & healthy backbones. Must be the sushi. Healthy Good Taste.

When everyone sat down, there were more dances.

Then when the dances were done, there were speeches.

Points from the speech:
1) Got 44 outlets in Malaysia (ooohhhhh clap clap)
2) Kuching sushi price same as in West Malaysia (aaaahhhh clap clap)
3) Menu also same (wohhhhhhh clap clap)
2) Will open KK branch on March 31 (Waisay! clap clap)
3) Will open Miri, Bintulu & possibly Sibu branches also (NGAI TEE! clap clap)
4) Plans for 5-6 outlets in Sarawak (Yerrrdayyy!)

And when the speeches were done, the restaurant was officially launched open.

Everyone eat smoke. Just like in discotheque only.

That was followed by the Press Conference Q&A.

That's when you hear extreme silence. I guess everyone was hungry.

So they snipped the ribbons.

I pity the neighbouring shop lah. Empty until got echo.

Read Part 2 of the story here.