By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

In the 1960s, if you lived in Osceola County, you probably would have to walk about 3,000 miles to get a plate of sushi.

Of course, if you ventured into Kissimmee’s long-time downtown restaurant fixture Mrs. Mac’s in the 1960s and asked for raw octopus, salmon, rice and sea weed, you just might have been shown the door and told the best place to get medical care in town.

Originally starting (presumably) at a Japanese restaurant in San Diego in the 1950s, and really taking hold with the invention of the California roll in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, sushi has become an American staple, right along side pizza, a bucket of chicken and the Big Mac.

Central Florida probably has dozens of sushi restaurants now, and if you don’t want the usually superior dine-in experience, you can always check out the seafood section at Publix and get a decent package of sushi to go.

But great fresh sushi is now just a short walk away from city hall (and the Osceola News-Gazette office.)

Sushi By Chef Ha is the latest restaurant to join the impressive line-up of eateries at City Centre.

Chef Ha is Michael Ha, a native of Hong Kong and he has been making sushi all of his life.

As with all good sushi chefs, Ha is an artist in the kitchen. Give him just a few minutes and he can put together a platter fit for a king, or at least a hungry ninja.

All great sushi starts with the freshest ingredients, and Ha says he uses only the freshest fish available, and his Wicked Stepsister Roll and 3 Sisters Roll, named after the adjoining restaurant and bar across the street, certainly passed the fresh taste test.

They were also an excellent blending of sushi ingredients.

The 3 Sisters Roll featured shrimp tempura, cucumber, steamed shrimp, toasted sesame seeds and the chef’s special sauce. If you are squeamish about eating raw fish, the 3 Sister’s Roll is the way to go.

If you like fresh raw fish, the Wicked Stepsister Roll has tuna, escolar and salmon as well as cucumber, wasabi sauce and toasted sesame seeds.

“The sushi bar has only been open for about two months,” Liz Millet, general manager for 3 Sisters, The Wicked Step Sister and Sushi By Chef Ha, “but business has been good and people keep saying how much they like it. People are really excited about having sushi in downtown Kissimmee.”

You don’t even have to dine in Chef Ha’s restaurant for the sushi experience (but it is always fun to watch a sushi chef at work.) You can order sushi from the 3 Sisters restaurant or the Wicked Stepsister bar. There is also outside sidewalk table service at all three locations.

“It’s a great choice for customers,” Ha said, since they have a variety of dining options.

You can even participate in the weekly trivia Tuesday event going on at Three Sisters while having sushi at the sushi bar.

Other items on the sushi menu include an assortment of rolls (maki) including the always popular California style roll, with real crab, avocado, cucumber and toasted sesame seeds; spicy tuna roll with tuna, cucumber and toasted sesame seeds; rainbow roll with real crab lumps, avocado, cucumber, ecolar, tuna, shrimp salmon and toasted sesame seeds; and dancing eel rolll with eel, crab, avocado, cucumber, toasted sesame seeds and kabayaki sauce.

There are eight pieces to each roll and rolls are priced from $7 for the spicy tuna roll to $14 for the spider roll (tempura soft shell crab, massago, avocado, cucumber and toasted sesame seeds.)

Time for a bit of sushi 101 for the uninitiated.

The menu also features nigiri sushi (nigirizushi in Japanese), which is the traditional hand-formed sushi with a piece of raw fish over rice, bound with a thin strip of nori (black seaweed which is actually a type of farm-raised algae.)

Chef Ha’s specialties in-clude unagi (freshwater eel); ebi (shrimp); hamachi (yellowtail); maguro (tuna); sake (salmon); and escolar (white tuna.)

Nigiri sushi is a two-piece serving, prices range from $5 for shrimp to $12 for yellowtail.

Sashimi is sliced fish served alone. The restaurant serves up three-piece servings of sake, hamachi, maguro or escolar. Prices range from $6-$12.

The menu also features the chef’s sushi combination platters, the sushi combination plate for $20 or the sashimi combination plate for $27.

Also on the menu is hiyashi wakeme, seasoned seaweed salad and edaname, boiled green soybeans served in the pod.

Nigiri sushi is traditionally eaten with the fingers or chopsticks. Mixing wasabi and soy sauce together in a small dish is the practice when eating sashimi.

Sushi By Chef Ha also has catering services available.

It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 – 10 p.m.