On sushi and random paranoia

I'm not sure how to say this, but as much as I love sushi I can't bring myself to go to a restaurant and eat it by myself. I have no phobias of being by myself in public, I love myself. I don't mind going to a diner by myself, even to nicer restaurant and treating myself. I would buy a steak dinner and sit down and enjoy my own company (or the equivalent nice meal since I'm not the biggest steak fan in the world...in fact I don't really like it). But whenever I'm out roaming and decide to try a sushi place, I can only ever go as far as peering in through the door before something stops me.

I guess for me sushi is just a social meal, and inappropriate to eat by yourself.

This is completely counterintuitive since by any line of reasoning sushi seems designed to be eaten solo. It's hard to talk when you have a piece of sushi in your mouth, so if you're out with someone you don't know well you both end up trying to smile awkwardly while one or both of you finishes chewing an enormous piece of albeit delicious sushi. It makes conversations take way longer than they should, and what would normally be a polite and quick question such as "how's work going?" gets drawn out while you both wait 2-3 minutes for the other person to chew so that they can respond "not bad." It's a popular date choice, which also doesn't make sense since no one looks cute with something that large stuffed into their mouth. Besides that it's easy to eat with one hand, and so would be ideal if you're trying to read a book that doesn't want to stay open.

So, here I am, with a huge sushi craving coinciding with a decidedly antisocial mood and a good book. Maybe tonight's the night to conquer all, I don't know. I'll keep you all updated though.