by The Great Foodini
For those about to eat, I salute you. – Foodini
Rock N Roll Sushi is a regional franchise that has experienced a good deal of growth and success throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana.
A family started with an idea to make sushi fun with quality ingredients, a fun rock and roll themed atmosphere and jams piped in stereo throughout the place.
On my particular visit, I was treated to some of my favorite 90s grunge alternative tracks while I sat and thought about my misspent youth, loves lost and good times jamming with my pals down by the Tennessee River.
I washed down my Nirvana and Soundgarden groove with the opening act of headbanger shrimp, which is an appetizer of crispy shrimp, drizzled with spicy, sweet and creamy “headbanger sauce”. I also stole some of my lunch buddy’s rockin’ lobster, which is a tempura lobster tail drizzled with headbanger sauce. Both were delicious.
Moving onto the headliners, aka, the rolls. I scanned the list of items like the Motley Crue Roll, Guns and Roses Roll, Johnny Cash roll. I think you are starting to get the gist of the theme here.
I settled on the ZZ Top Roll, green day and the Fleetwood Mac Roll (Titanic).
The ZZ Top is a tempura lobster tail topped with crunchy crab, spicy mayo and eel sauce with a panko crust. The Green Day roll was a little more my style with spicy tuna, crabmeat, smoked salmon and avocado. The whole roll is wrapped in a cucumber peep and topped with ponzu, sriracha and sesame seeds.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, traditional ponzu sauce is a very citrusy, sweet and tangy that I think can go on just about anything. It is typically used in Japanese cuisine as a marinade or an addition to soy sauce. It is made with rice wine, rice vinegar, bonito fish flakes, and seaweed. After the liquid is cooled and strained, it is infused with a Japanese citrus fruit called yuzu.
The Fleetwood Mac seemed like it took more skill to put together, so I found it the most rockin of the trio. It was a shrimp tempura and cucumber roll topped with slivers of boiled shrimp, crabmeat avocado, spicy mayo, eel sauce and panko crumbs.
This place is definitely worth a visit or three or four due to the fun variations on their rolls. One thing I particularly liked about this shop was the lack of the cream cheese laden rolls. Everything is so fresh and crisp tasting. When I am craving sushi in Gulfport, I think Rock N Roll Sushi will be my go to jam session.
