Join date: Feb 2005
Location: New York, USA
Posts: 1068
Sushi for me can either be done right and be amazing, or I can't eat it. I've walked out of quite a few sushi places because if it isn't fresh and isn't well done there is no way I can scarf it down (only food I can't force) but if it's done right it's one of my favorite foods.
As a general rule I always grill the cook when I get there. I ask how often they get fish, how it's kept, is it local, etc. If it's good quality, then they won't mind answering your questions. If not, then you'll be able to tell and you can pretend you left your wallet in the car.
Join date: Jan 2007
Location: Missouri, USA
Posts: 462
Only sushi I don't like is if it has a lot of mayo crap. I prefer more traditional nagiri but I'm also a shameless slut for fried softshell crab rolls. I really get pissed if the place had crappy Wasabi. I'm not happy unless the Wasabi makes snot come out of my nose and tears out of my eyes.
GhorigTheBeefy wrote:
Only sushi I don't like is if it has a lot of mayo crap. I prefer more traditional nagiri but I'm also a shameless slut for fried softshell crab rolls. I really get pissed if the place had crappy Wasabi. I'm not happy unless the Wasabi makes snot come out of my nose and tears out of my eyes.
I am the same way,first time i had it I was told it was mint sauce.
ask lots of questions though,
wheres it from,when does it come in,how long the chef has been making sushi that kind of thing
I am very picky but when I find a good place I stick to it
when you find a place you like
tip well they will never forget you.
try toro, or chutoro
I like have them make a roll with toro,rice,onion,avocado and a quail egg on top
using chopsticks for sushi is pretty much the equivalent of eating steak with a spoon and makes you a retard.
pouring out ounces of soy sauce into your dish is pretty much the equivalent of pouring a whole bottle of ketchup on your fries and makes you a retard.
dunking sushi rice into soy sauce is pretty much the equivalent of dunking your hamburger bun into the ketchup you poured on your fries and makes you a retard.
biting a piece of sushi in half is pretty much the same as taking a sip off a shooter and makes you a retard.
for every grain of rice you don't finish you will eat a worm in hell.
Join date: Jan 2007
Location: Missouri, USA
Posts: 462
Swivel:
WTF you talking about I've been eating sushi with chopsticks since I was 3. I agree with everything else.
The place I've been going to used to have a childhood birthday pic of mine on the walls before they had a flood and it was destroyed. Lots of Royals, Chiefs and a few American Gladiators have autographed pics on the wall. Old lady that works there refers to me as short blonde hair.
Fuck...I want some damn sushi now...at least a hunk of wasabi and ginger.
swivel wrote:
using chopsticks for sushi...
pouring out ounces of soy sauce...
dunking sushi rice into soy sauce...
biting a piece of sushi in half...
for every grain of rice you don't finish you will eat a worm in hell.
Sorry but I got to disagree in some of them Swivel. (background: Married to a Japanese lady and I living in Kyoto, Japan).
Here we all eat sushi either using our fingers or chopsticks and it is NOT considered bad manners, it is actually more common the later. BUT you must know the proper technique. Got to grab the piece with the chopsticks and flip it upside down so the only thing that dips in the soy sauce is the fish. Now the tricky part is flipping it up again and eating it without the fish falling and making a mess!
Sure enough you can eat it by halves and if you ever have to eat some of the salmon they serve here I bet you won't be able to get it all at once without looking like a retard.
On the other hand, you are so true and show to be well versed when you say that you shouldn't pretty much empty the soy sauce bottle in the dish. You can always spot the newbies amongst the gaijin (foreigners) by the gallons of soy sauce they pour.
And yes, paraphrasing Dubya, no grain of rice left behind. Unless you wanna burn in hell and make the Gods raise your estrogen levels to astronomical proportions, that is.
Apart from that, you guys said it all: make really sure it is fresh enough and avoid the kaiten zushi (conveyor belt) places that aren't always packed and make you wait. If there isn't enough people at the kaiten the fish keeps rolling and rolling and they spray it with water when it gets dry so it looks fresher. Not good in my book.
T-Man in Soyland wrote:
swivel wrote:
using chopsticks for sushi...
pouring out ounces of soy sauce...
dunking sushi rice into soy sauce...
biting a piece of sushi in half...
for every grain of rice you don't finish you will eat a worm in hell.
Sorry but I got to disagree in some of them Swivel. (background: Married to a Japanese lady and I living in Kyoto, Japan).
Here we all eat sushi either using our fingers or chopsticks and it is NOT considered bad manners, it is actually more common the later. BUT you must know the proper technique. Got to grab the piece with the chopsticks and flip it upside down so the only thing that dips in the soy sauce is the fish. Now the tricky part is flipping it up again and eating it without the fish falling and making a mess!
Sure enough you can eat it by halves and if you ever have to eat some of the salmon they serve here I bet you won't be able to get it all at once without looking like a retard.
well , you said it right there: it's tricky. unless you've got mad chopstick skills like a native, you will drop your food and be forced to make other retard moves like slow-motion baby-feeding your own wide-open mouth with your free hand held underneath to catch what falls... why go through this and ruin something so skillfully prepared ? just use your fingers.
as for eating half...why go to a chef who makes his nigiri so freaking big that you look like a retard trying to eat it ? ;)
Join date: Mar 2008
Location: Alberta, CAN
Posts: 447
Do:
- Try all different kinds of the nigiri sushi (it is not a roll, instead a small slab of fish placed on a clumb of rice)
- Toro (tuna belly AKA fatty tuna) is like the tenderloin of the tuna. Tender and full of good fats and protein. it will be the most expensive piece of sushi on the menu, usually.
- Mackerel, again awesome taste.
- A good sushi chef adds a small bit of wasabi underneath the piece of fish, or none at all, according to the type of fish it is. Usually you don't need anymore.
- Fill the dish with a small amount of soy sauce. Instead of picking up the whole thing, where the rice soaks with soy sauce and overpowers the fish, pick up only the piece of fish. dip the fish in soy sauce, then put back on the rice.
- fresh fish, most of the time, will have very little scent if it is truly fresh.
- Order a miso soup and seaweed salad before your main course, these are good.
swivel wrote:
using chopsticks for sushi is pretty much the equivalent of eating steak with a spoon and makes you a retard.
pouring out ounces of soy sauce into your dish is pretty much the equivalent of pouring a whole bottle of ketchup on your fries and makes you a retard.
dunking sushi rice into soy sauce is pretty much the equivalent of dunking your hamburger bun into the ketchup you poured on your fries and makes you a retard.
biting a piece of sushi in half is pretty much the same as taking a sip off a shooter and makes you a retard.
for every grain of rice you don't finish you will eat a worm in hell.
Most actual Japanese do this stuff all the time.
I am a firm believer in etiquette when it applies to manners and good taste, but when you stick to outdated practices at the expense of your own pleasure and no one around you knows these practices and some of the practices (such as eating sushi with your fingers) just make you look gross, you actually end up on the opposite side of etiquette in pursuit of elitism, which makes you look just stupid to everyone around you, regardless of how cool you think you feel.
Even native Japanese don't know most of the crap you are talking about, as evidenced by variety show programs here which quiz people on this stuff (almost everyone fails).
Just eat your damn sushi. And make sure the last thing you eat is Ootoro.
EDIT: For the record, you are "right" about all of this stuff. But what I wrote stands.
- Try all different kinds of the nigiri sushi (it is not a roll, instead a small slab of fish placed on a clumb of rice)
- Toro (tuna belly AKA fatty tuna) is like the tenderloin of the tuna. Tender and full of good fats and protein. it will be the most expensive piece of sushi on the menu, usually.
- Mackerel, again awesome taste.
- A good sushi chef adds a small bit of wasabi underneath the piece of fish, or none at all, according to the type of fish it is. Usually you don't need anymore.
- Fill the dish with a small amount of soy sauce. Instead of picking up the whole thing, where the rice soaks with soy sauce and overpowers the fish, pick up only the piece of fish. dip the fish in soy sauce, then put back on the rice.
- fresh fish, most of the time, will have very little scent if it is truly fresh.
- Order a miso soup and seaweed salad before your main course, these are good.
Good post. Good, solid advice for any amateur to a sushi restaurant.
Another point about the rice is that it will fall apart when the shouyuu (soy sauce) touches it. Just dipping the fish in is better (and who wants a piece of sushi that tastes like liquid salt?).
Apart from that, you guys said it all: make really sure it is fresh enough and avoid the kaiten zushi (conveyor belt) places that aren't always packed and make you wait. If there isn't enough people at the kaiten the fish keeps rolling and rolling and they spray it with water when it gets dry so it looks fresher. Not good in my book.
Kaitenzushi places generally suck (and I'm sure at this point the only 2 guys paying attention to this part of the thread are you and I), but if you find the right place and know the right times to go (usually off times like 3 o'clock when you have to end up ordering everything anyway) you can find a terrific, cheap, sushi joint.
I know for a fact that we pay FAR less than what the guys in the states are paying.
I enjoy sushi and eat it regularly. I use it mainly as a cheat meal, and I think its probably a good one. I dont venture into the strange rolls that include eel and sea urchin. I keep it simple. It also allows you to use it in personal and social events (business lunches and dinners with significant others.) It fits into a lifestyle conveniently, but it can add up.
well , you said it right there: it's tricky. unless you've got mad chopstick skills...
Good point here!
You can also use the trick of using the chopsticks and avoid the falling-prone fish accidents with a single finger of the opposite hand but I often do the dip-the-fish-only-and-put-them-together-again thing.
I guess you also have to take in account the fact that each place has its own etiquette and probably eating sushi in the USA is quite different from doing it here. So when in Rome...
And as Cortes says, people here is quite ignorant of these rules most of the time and anyway, whatever you do they will end up making funny noises in amazement at you because you are a foreigner and CAN do such things!
Now, excuse me while I'm going back to loudly slurp my ramen, I wouldn't anybody to think I'm not polite otherwise. :oD
EDIT: Oh man, you are so right Cortes. Tricky to find a good kaiten, that's why it pays to have sisters-in-law who are fine gourmets. Don't tell them what we pay though or they will beat us to dead with a Kariforunia roru while we sleep.
On the other hand it sucks what we pay for shipping at the Biotest store. Last week I made FedEx 8.000 fucking yen richer.
EDIT: Oh man, you are so right Cortes. Tricky to find a good kaiten, that's why it pays to have sisters-in-law who are fine gourmets. Don't tell them what we pay though or they will beat us to dead with a Kariforunia roru while we sleep.
On the other hand it sucks what we pay for shipping at the Biotest store. Last week I made FedEx 8.000 fucking yen richer.
Yeah. I know. And the exise tax fairy that comes to visit 2 months later with her hand out for an extra 50 bucks is no welcome sight, either.
As far as the culinary scene goes., my wife and I are quite the gourmands, ourselves, so we take the hits for the little guys, and let our friends and fellow interwebz posterz know who sucks and who rulz. Unfortunately, there are just so few people in my particular area to whom I can reach out to...
Join date: Oct 2007
Location: Texas, USA
Posts: 307
MaximusB wrote:
I enjoy sushi and eat it regularly. I use it mainly as a cheat meal, and I think its probably a good one. I dont venture into the strange rolls that include eel and sea urchin. I keep it simple. It also allows you to use it in personal and social events (business lunches and dinners with significant others.) It fits into a lifestyle conveniently, but it can add up.
I don't know anything about sushi as I've only had it once, but it was at a very good sushi restaurant in Portland, OR. I was at a medical office conference and one of our doctors took a bunch of us who were sushi novices out.
I didn't get any rolls, just got the fish on a slab, because I really wanted to get the flavor of it without anything else, and I made it a point to try all the "weird" stuff including eel (both fresh and salt water) and sea urchin. The waiter was horrified (assumed I'd hate everything) but I loved it all. The urchin had a mild, pleasant flavor and actually one of the pieces I liked the most.
It certainly was an entertaining dining experience and if it weren't so expensive I'd eat it all the time. Man, that salmon was like butter... salmony butter... drool...
Join date: Sep 2007
Location: California, USA
Posts: 339
I was going to start a thread asking his but I figure since someone mentioned it I would ask here. Why is it bad to take a single bite/small bites of sushi or any food for that matter? I have gone to japanese restuarants and when I look around you see people stuffing their face with food. I mean they pick up a roll or something they can pick up with the chop sticks and they open their mouths like snakes and just take as big of a bite aspossible. When you see cooking shows its the same they will keep and keep pushing noodles into their mouths why is that? I have always wondered.
