Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
I can eat sushi until it comes out my ears! Actually, I prefer sashimi to sushi, and at least one dinner a week will be sashimi in our house.
VydorScope, do you like sliced roast duck? How about scrambled eggs? Boiled shrimp? Crab legs? How about tuna salad or sliced hard boiled egg? Roast beef? Cucumber? These are ALL found in every good sushi shop! You don't have to eat raw fish to enjoy sushi. In fact, 'sushi' is the style of rice prep, not what goes on top!
Before I moved to Asia, the strangest food I ever ate was a Kiwi fruit... There was NO WAY I was going to put raw fish into my mouth. Or seaweed! Heck, even in the States the only time I'd eat fish was if I caught a trout and cooked it stream-side. I'd only eat "Mrs.Paul's Fish Fingers" completely smothered in Tartar Sauce. Even today, I do NOT like the tastes of cooked fish, and the smell almost makes me ill.
But fresh raw fish doesn't smell like fish. It doesn't taste like fish. Unless one were told what it was you were eating, you wouldn't even KNOW it was fish. Maguro (tuna) is clean-tasting and smooth, ika (squid) is even cleaner tasting and chewy. Clean and fresh... not the least bit fishy fishy fishy! Cooked shrimp... well... you know how good that tastes! While there are a few raw fish that to my nose really stink, most have no fishy fishy smell or taste to them. I pass those by and only eat the ones I love; tai (yellowtail) hamachi (sea bream) maguro, ika, ebi (shrimp) and of course, akagai (clams) and hotategai (scallops)
Stitchawl
|
I couldn't agree more. The first dish he gave me was salmon sashimi, just barely touched on one side with the torch, and a light sauce I would kill to replicate (some soy, some mirin I think, scallions. An absolutely perfect balance.) Next up, hamachi cheek. And it kept on going from there.
I think of sushi as Japanese Tapas. Each dish is a little dish, designed to tempt and please. And the fun is in mixing and trying completely different, but complementary, dishes over the course of your meal. Some are cooked, some are not. But "fishy" isn't in it. Though I admit, one of my favourite nigiri (what most people think of when they think of sushi that isn't rolls) is saba (mackerel). Good saba is clean, and tastes of the ocean it swam in.
@VydorScope: sushi fish should have no fishy smell. Truly, if you walk into a sushi restaurant and can smell fish, turn around and walk out. You're in the wrong place!