Sushi!!!

So, this week I had two contrasting, but both fantastic, experiences of sushi,* which have prompted me to write my first post about that wonderful culinary world. Stop reading here if you don’t like raw fish…

In the UK we have “sushi”. It’s that quirky thing when you want to go to somewhere a little bit alternative for dinner, or you need a small snack to bulk up your packed lunch and have more than small change to spare at M&S. There’s also a brightly coloured chain of restaurants that frequent large train stations and town centres, that serves pricey little plastic dishes on conveyor belts, a bit like if Wallace and Gromit served dinner. Unfortunately, Wallace and Gromit probably also made the dinner here, too. As you can guess, my attitude towards UK sushi isn’t particularly positive! Although, in defence of the UK, the price of sushi is not much higher than other cuisines and I have really enjoyed sushi there a few times. The trouble is, I reckon, that it’s not popular enough that restaurants can afford to buy large quantities of fresh fish daily, so the variety is teeny and the quality is variable.

In Japan it’s a little different. Let’s start with yesterday, when a friend took me to see a fish market, attached to which was a big shed bulging to the roof with locals. Obviously something was worth getting inside there for. After browsing the market a while, we put our 1000 yen notes (about 6 pounds)  into a little machine at the entrance and pressed a button (I still can’t read much Japanese, so had to put my faith in my guide – more on that to come in future posts!). It spat out our tickets, then we waited a while until our numbers were called. My ticket was number 302 – luckily I can now do numbers up to 4! After ten minutes taking in the sights and aromas, I got called up…

Maguro tabehodai!!! That translates as All-You-Can-Eat Tuna. The chef handed my a tray laden with various dishes, including some soup and rice, pickled garlic, pickled squid (left),  nigiri (right), and, oh yes, the big dish of tuna sashimi – in three different cuts. All prepared fresh from the fish that landed on the shores of Japan that morning. It looks like quite a lot and, indeed, it was quite rich and very filling. However, that didn’t stop me going up for seconds 🙂

Three things are worth noting here. The price: you would struggle to get half this amount, let alone all you can eat, anywhere in the UK. The smell: no smell apart from the market next door, suggesting that the fish was nice and fresh. The taste: yumyumyumyumyum! What a way to spend Saturday brunch.

Earlier in the week I was treated to another sushi restaurant. As we walked in, there was a suspicious similarity to a certain chain of restaurants that I spoke of so scathingly early in this post… But the hot water on tap and the conveyor belt was where the similarity pretty much ended. 100 yen per dish, all the fish under the sun to choose from, and the empty dishes soon stacked up. I didn’t need breakfast the next morning.

Other great sushi-related discoveries so far:

1. Conger eel, “Anago”. Melt-in-the-mouth. Absolute deliciousness!
2. Presentation might vary, but that doesn’t mean the taste is any worse!
3. Traditionally, sushi can be eaten with fingers, particularly when it’s really good.
4. It’s not just limited to fish and seafood. Vegetables, fruit and even fermented soybeans (natto – there might be a post on that sometime…) can undergo the sushi treatment.

*If I’m going to be pedantic, the Japanese actually sounds closer to “zushi”, but tomay-to tomah-to, blah blah blah.