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Japanese foods--sushi/sashimi


BON

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I love shime-saba too! Whenever we go to a 'kaiten-sushi' place (low-end sushi served on a conveyer belt) my husband always goes for the ikura, anago, toro etc- basicly the most expensive items. I always have several plates of shime-saba and other cheapies like aji, iwashi, katsuo, and ume-shiso-maki. When we're not on a budget he always keeps reminding me that I don't have to eat shime-saba, I can order ANYTHING I want. He just can't understand that I LIKE it!

I also generally prefer sashimi to sushi (maybe because sushi's a bit expensive and hard to make at home so we can't make a meal of it often, while sashimi is always just a side dish so can be enjoyed anytime). Other than katsuo, maguro is my favourite. In any form- toro or lean red meat, sliced and dipped in soy sauce or marinated in soy sauce and mirin, perfectly raw or seared on the outside, as a topping on rice or all by itself. Yum yum yum.

My eGullet foodblog: Spring in Tokyo

My regular blog: Blue Lotus

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Saba!

The only sushi/sashimi I'm not so fond of is hotetagai. Too chewy. Oh and tako. What's the point?

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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  • 2 weeks later...

:sad: Nobody likes saba.

Among the disliked sushi types are several fish with shiny skins: Saba/Mackerel (30%), Iwashi/Sardine (20%) and Aji/Horse Mackerel (20%).

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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  • 2 weeks later...

spanish saba is my favorite:

and maki, without rice

Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at all seasons: That is all there is to distinguish us from the other Animals.

-Beaumarchais

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Based on Jin's professed love of saba, you can now add me to the list. I've never thought about it until now, but its one particular selection that I frequently order, alongside hamachi and aji.

I also love salmon and toro (who doesn't?), along with uni, unagi, ikura, tobiko and scallop.

Has anyone had yellow belly and shark as sashimi or sushi? Porgy? Whitefish? Smelt? Cod? Sardines?

Going to Jewel Bako next week. I haven't been there in quite a while, so we'll see how it stacks up this time around.

Soba

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Oh, one other thing, there's a place near my apartment that recently opened, that's started doing inside out rolls such as the following:

Yellowtail and scallion inside out roll wrapped in FRESH MANGO.

um....I'm not sure what to make of it.

Also, not sure about sushi maki rolls with mayonnaise or spicy tuna rolls.

Soba

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I don't really care for the mayo based sushi, but then I really don't like mayo to begin with.

I have only had the spicy tuna roll once (at a Korean run sushi place in the US) and I quite enjoyed it.

I know most sushi/sashimi by their Japanese names, so I am not sure of all of the English fish names you mentioned, but I eat sardines (iwashi) when it is in season and is is very good, it is almost always served with a dollop of ginger to cut the fishy-ness.

I don't believe I have seen cod (tara) sushi before.

My husband and I went to a kaiten sushi restaurant this weekend (in the new Roppongi Hills complex) and though all of the sushi was great my favorites were the ama-ebi (the biggest ones I had ever eaten), hotate (scallops, unbelievably sweet, but in a good way), kani-miso (crab brains) and the foie gras (seared, placed on the rice , then topped with a slice of cherry tomato and a topping of caviar).

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Being a confirmed tuna sashimi lover (enjoy lots of others but tuna is my fave), a friend of mine who knows that took me out for some escolar sashimi while I was in Pompano Beach Fla. (Take Sushi).

I have to say, it was the best sashimi I've ever had, firm but somehow and this sounds gross but it wasn't *creamy* just an awesome flavor...the chef told us it was often called White Tuna but isn't really tuna at all, but of the mackerel (SABA!!) family. I looked it up on the web and saw some called it the Ex-lax fish...but even the critics agreed it was incredible. Does anyone else like escolar?

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Being a confirmed tuna sashimi lover (enjoy lots of others but tuna is my fave), a friend of mine who knows that took me out for some escolar sashimi while I was in Pompano Beach Fla. (Take Sushi).

I have to say, it was the best sashimi I've ever had, firm but somehow and this sounds gross but it wasn't *creamy* just an awesome flavor...the chef told us it was often called White Tuna but isn't really tuna at all, but of the mackerel (SABA!!) family. I looked it up on the web and saw some called it the Ex-lax fish...but even the critics agreed it was incredible. Does anyone else like escolar?

there was some discussion of escolar here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...5963&hl=escolar

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just read this article about sushi merchandise being the new craze in Omaha, Nebraska.

"The little raw fish pieces known for their artful presentation are becoming part of household decor and fashion accessories, popping up on pajamas, fancy purses and a wide range of other items in Omaha specialty stores."

Is this common in Japan?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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  • 1 month later...

do these qualify as sushi / sashimi or do they fall in a different food category altogether?

http://www.city.aomori.aomori.jp/koho/shis...anako/main.html

By the way why are some akami maguro much darker red then some others?

Among my favorites are

aji, hamachi, o-toro, akagai. botan&ama-ebi, uni, hotate, sayori, katsuo, kobashira, anago, kohada, unagi, mirugai, tai.

and throw in some kujira and basashi :laugh: (never tried them but would love to!)

what the heck it's all good!!!! :biggrin:

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do these qualify as sushi / sashimi or do they fall in a different food category altogether?

http://www.city.aomori.aomori.jp/koho/shis...anako/main.html

By the way why are some akami maguro much darker red then some others?

Among my favorites are

aji, hamachi, o-toro, akagai. botan&ama-ebi, uni, hotate, sayori, katsuo, kobashira, anago, kohada, unagi, mirugai, tai.

and throw in some kujira and basashi  :laugh: (never tried them but would love to!)

what the heck it's all good!!!!  :biggrin:

first question,

they fall into a couple categories, some like shako (also called gasaebi) and uni are regulars at the sushi bar, others like same (shark) and tsujiko (salmon roe) are seasonl/regional products that are popular in some areas at certain times. Namasu (sea cucumber) is a very popular new years dish and izakaya (Japanese pub) dish.

Some of them I have never seen or heard of before and are probably very regional as I doubt they would travel far.

As to the maguro akami, the color diferences are probably because they are coming from different kinds of tuna. For example in Japan (sorry don't know English names) there are

kuro-maguro

minami-maguro

kihada-maguro

binchou-maguro

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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one thing that will definitely be available during my summer vacation (soon!) is river-caught mackerel (saba). am going to try as sashimi and BBQ'd. for whatever reason, there's an abundance of mackerel in Nova Scotia.

there's also another river-fish called "Gaspereau" there. any anglers or cooks know what the "real" name of this fish is? ('cus i don't...) :shock:

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the ocean."

--Isak Dinesen

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I love saba. Try it as a ceviche it is great and then of course there is shime-saba.

One of my favorite ways of cooking it is with a mix of kochujang and miso in sort of a Korean style miso-ni.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Don't forget the humble tamago-zushi (the "omelette" sushi). It may be the cheapest on the menu, but it is hard to make them well. I like mine just a tad underdone, where the center of the egg is stil slight creamy/fluffy.

Other favorites include negi-toro temaki (hand roll). For me, however, the king of sushis is the o-toro from the bluefin tuna (hon-maguro, aka the true tuna)!

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Don't forget the humble tamago-zushi (the "omelette" sushi).  It may be the cheapest on the menu, but it is hard to make them well.  I like mine just a tad underdone, where the center of the egg is stil slight creamy/fluffy.

Other favorites include negi-toro temaki (hand roll).  For me, however, the king of sushis is the o-toro from the bluefin tuna (hon-maguro, aka the true tuna)!

It has taken me more then 10 years but I have finally perfected the tamago maki, the block of tamago that is sliced up to put on the nigiri. :biggrin:

negi-toro is another favorite of mine and I prepare it often at home in the form of a donburi, look for it on the Dinner thread later this week.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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I like sashimi because the rice fills me up too much when I get sushi. I love to get a sashimi appetizer and a miso soup and a couple appetizers to split with whoever I'm with. The place I go to most often serves little tasting portions of cold salad-type things, like seaweed, pickled veggies, things like that.

Dammit, now I'm getting in the mood for it. Anyone know any good sushi places in the southeast Massachusetts area? :biggrin:

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