A delicate miso soup can begin a meal, followed by daunting offerings of sushi, such as butter-soft yellowtail and satisfying spider rolls.

Sample the creamy Philadelphia roll of salmon, cream cheese and avocado and the spider roll with its deep-fried soft-shell crab and lettuce.

Raw fish arrived cool; tendrils of the soft-shell crab were still hot and crunchy in the spider roll.

They included fresh and expert renderings of spicy tuna, smoked eel, sweet shrimp, yellowtail, fatty tuna and a spider roll (with avocado and soft-shell crab).

Unable to resist the soft-shell crabs, we asked for a spider roll.

I didn't get to face my fears on that one because the cook had only one to work with and the "spider roll" she made was consumed by the judges in the competition.

Equally appealing were the dramatic spider roll (a crispy, fried soft-shell crab at its center) and the tuna sashimi salad.

The best of the Japanese appetizers were the air-light shumai (steamed dumplings), the crunchy spider roll (deep-fried soft-shell crab) and the assortment of pristine sushi.

The fine crab in the maki called spider roll was cudgeled by the addition of dreadful mayonnaise.

It was crunchy and spicy-sweet, a little like Japanese spider roll, mixed with the thy caraway flavor of kimmel cracker.