OCR Text |
Show www.dailyutahchronicle.com 5 ARTS Friday March 30, 2012 Yoshi's: Japanese food in the suburbs Levi Rogers STAFF WRITER My urban skepticism has been rewarded. I was leery of the little Japanese restaurant tucked into a strip mall with Fresh Market and other stores I would normally never frequent. What I found in Yoshi's Japanese Grill is a perfect combination of quality food and moderate prices. Bucking the trend of the typical boring chains that saturate the Salt Lake Valley, Yoshi's offers a tasty alternative. Yoshi's is, in many respects, a nontraditional Japanese restaurant. Owner Eddie Sans is not Japanese and learned to make Japanese food on the internet. "When I say I learned making Japanese food on YouTube, I'm only slightly joking," he said. You would never guess it. The menu tastes authentically Japanese and includes rice bowls, sushi, salads and soup. Everything is affordable. Most of the meals hover between $4 and $7 and include rice bowls such as "The Raging Bull" — a teriyaki plate with spicy Japanese dressing over chicken and rice, and the "Reloaded Bowl," which features shrimp tempura, avocado, rice, spicy mustard and other delicious ingredients. Sans has owned Yoshi's for more than Io years. During that time he has come to know the area restaurant scene well, and with Yoshi's he wanted to give customers a break from fast food. "[I wanted] to open a restaurant that offered a healthier option from all the hamburger places around," he said. From the bowls to the sauces, Sans and his staff make everything in-house. It's part of their commitment to healthy, good-tasting food. TODD HOOPER/The Daily Utah Chronicle Yoshi's Japanese Grill in Murray offers a diverse menu of authentic Japanese flavors with its rice bowls, salads, sushi and soups. They also have plenty of options for the less-adventurous sushi connoisseurs. Many of their sushi offerings are cooked or fried and include such classics as the "The Godzilla Roll" — with tempura shrimp, avocado and cream cheese — and even a roll made with salm- on and topped with homemade cilantro and lime sauce to add a bit of Mexican flair. They also have the traditional Japanese miso soup and experiment with others, such as their Tokyo soup, which includes brown rice, spicy sweet and sour broth, chicken breast, fire-roasted bell peppers, avocados and cream cheese. They cater to the herbivores as well. Their vegetarian menu includes a vegetable tempura rice bowl. Located at 5692 S. 90o East in Murray, Yoshi's is at a perfect loca- tion for those who live south and don't want to drive downtown for some quality food. It boasts nice seating, local art and friendly service. You can't find much better Japanese food for this price in the suburbs. 1.r ogers@chr onicle.utah.edu Dance concert Kickstarter makes DIY creative projects possible gives seniors a proper send-off Javan Rivera STAFF WRITER The first thing most people think of when they hear about a "do-ityourself" album or film project is a band slinging hand-labeled CDs from a car trunk, or struggling documentarians desperately searching for any avenue to get their work displayed. Although that's often still the case, a relatively new online service allows artists, musicians, filmmakers and creative entrepreneurs across the world to fund their own projects while simultaneously rewarding their backers. Kickstarter, an internet fundgathering service, has only been around for a few years, but in that time it has quickly become a prevalent factor in the DIY scene. What began as an obscure site designed to help fund small creative projects has blossomed into a fundraising site that touts funded projects in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But even with larger creative artists getting fan-supported projects funded, the DIY ethos is still there. Nick Neihart, a senior in English, engaged the DIY sensibility last year. In the summer of 2011 Neihart funded an album titled Songs Made of Salt. And though he said Kickstarter was certainly a nice way to gather money for the album, the support was what really made the project fulfilling. "Since I grew up in Salt Lake, and it's a small town — well pretty small — I still had to work [to get the project released], but it was pretty cool," he said. Kickstarter provided a way for Neihart to get his album funded essentially through presales. The downside to that is that artists usually end up using all the money they make just to release the proj- IMMINENT EMIR KAHRIMAN'S IMMINENT ect, Neihart said. "I didn't get as much money from my album sales," he said. "I got like a hundred bucks on my album release. I sold maybe 20 albums and then gave away the rest to my Kickstarter people [backers] for their rewards and stuff. But that's the only way I would have been able to afford my album is by preselling it." Together with her co-producer Emir Kahriman, U student May Bartlett, an undeclared sophomore, secured funding for a short film titled "Imminent" in November. Her experience with Kickstarter was similar to Neihart's, particularly the fulfillment of so much support from contributors. "I think that the most important thing I learned was who in my life was willing to support my projects monetarily," Bartlett said. She said she was pleasantly surprised to discover some of the people who were willing to support her work. In the end, Bartlett said Kickstarter can be a worthwhile DIY resource for those who go into be ailyDeal! NICK NEIHART'S SONGS MADE OF SALT it knowing what they're doing. "I think if you have a solid group of people that you can spread the word through, it's effective," Bartlett said. "I think it's rare that random people will find your project on there and donate, but it's a good way to advertise your project." As Kickstarter continues to grow in popularity, the ultimate test for the fundraising giant will be whether or not smaller projects — such as Neihart's album and Bartlett's short film — will be able to sustain themselves amid the coming rush of larger, commercial successes. j.rivera@chronicle.utah.edu Grace Miller STAFF WRITER For most students, the end of the semester brings the relief and stress of final tests, projects and for some, graduation. The Department of Modem Dance recognizes its graduating class every year by holding the Modem Dance Senior Concert. The concert is an opportunity to look back at all the moments spent with friends made as they've traversed the program, said MaryMartha Jackson, a senior in modern dance. "We have spent four years together," she said. "It has been so fun to dance with each other." The concert allows all 14 graduating seniors to choreograph a piece of their choice, and includes dance in which all the graduates perform together. Even though the dance pieces are choreographed by the senior class, auditions were open to all dancers in the department. For the group number, the senior class brought in New York choreographer Kendra Portier to arrange what could be its last dance together. Senior Daniel Mont-Eton said having Portier as a guest was a great capstone opportunity "Absolutely amazing," he said. "Her process for creating is very tactile." Mont-Eton said the process of learning Portier's choreography was more of a collaboration among the dancers. "She understands we wanted it to be a senior piece," Jackson said. "She really took from our strengths." Although the seniors only had two weeks to practice and perfect Portier's piece, they have been working on their individual choreography since the beginning of the year. Jackson drew inspiration for her dance from Andrew Wyeth's well-known painting "Christina's World" while visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. "I saw it and immediately had visions of what I wanted my dance to be," she said. Building on the theme of struggle, Jackson said her dance is athletic and acrobatic. She wants viewers to see the struggle of the dancers but also notice how they help one another get through the battle. "There is a repeating theme of falling, but you also see how they help each other through," she said. Mont-Eton's piece also deals with struggle. His choreography, titled "Surface Tension," is about dreams and subconscious relationships. "It does not have the traditional happy ending," Mont-Eton said. The common theme between the two dances was not deliberate, but it shows the similarities between two dancers. They're linked by their experiences at the U. "We are all completely different, but we see how we all relate," Jackson said. The recurring themes in MontEton and Jackson's choreography — hope, journey and the attachments and detachments within relationships — reflect the ongoing familiarities students feel throughout their individual college experience. The senior concert allows the class to come together for a final time, to share what they have learned and how they have grown individually and as a group. "It's the last hurrah for the senior class," Mont-Eton said. That last hurrah brings the reality that it's time for them to move on to other pursuits. "Here we go," Jackson said. "We are stepping into the world." g.miller@chronicle.utah.edu Deals for food, entertainment and everything else for students, faculty and staff at the University of Utah. Go to www.UtahCampusDeals.com and sign up today to get $10 in Deal Bucks! Tell us where you want deals from - email ads@utah.edu |