This is just a notice that all future content pertaining to sushi and sashimi will be posted at a recently made website and blog called Metropolitan Sushi.
I hope to share a lot of sushi eating experiences from Tokyo and other places in Japan and introduce you to not only traditional forms of sushi like nigiri, maki and chirashi, but also some regional delights like oshizushi, inarizushi and the myriad of strange fish that you may not have encountered yet!
500 JPY for a 3-kan Maguro Zanmai plate seems a little steep, but it’s very yummy.
It included:
1-kan of chuutoro
1-kan of ootoro
1-kan of bintoro
Great for your 3rd-6th pieces of sushi but as none were especially sweet enough, you might do with a finisher like anago (sauce version), unagi, or sake-mayonnaise.
Great pic found on Japan-Guide.com’s picture of the day. It’s of Chirashizushi, the sushi type that is neither molded by hand or wrapped in seaweed.
Pic of Chirashizushi
Chirashizushi is instead the sweet vinegar rice flavored with other ingredients for a slightly more potent taste and can contain veggies like renkon, and shiso and others. on top of that rice is laid cut up pieces of raw fish, salmon roe (ikura), and shreds of (scrambled) fried egg. It is very suitable as a bento (lunchbox) main course, accompanied by hot green tea or a bottle of Coke. When you’re on the run or don’t want to be bothered with sitting down in a crowded kaitenzushi place, then chirashizushi is really great.
When eating chirashizushi, you don’t need to treat it like other sushi. No need to dip the slices of fish in soy sauce/wasabi – just put your condiments directly into the chirashizushi if you want to, and shovel it into your mouth like a donburi (rice bowl) dish with a spork or chopsticks. But usually, it’s usually already prepared with no real need for extra flavoring.
What’s the difference between chirashizushi and kaisendon? A kaisendon‘s rice is not sushi rice – it’s just normal steamed rice though different types of rice can be used. Also, a kaisendon as opposed to chirashizushi has a lot of different variants involving both type and volume of ingredients placed on top of the rice. Visually speaking, a kaisendon is quite “mountainous” compared to the “bed”-like chirashizushi and even large kaisendon servings can literally topple over with pieces of maguro (tuna), sake (salmon), ikura and ika (squid) and even the more expensive uni (sea urchin).
That's one big kaisendon!
The best part about a kaisendon over a chirashizushi is the dumb but fun American habit of testing your wasabi spice threshold. Usually an acorn-sized dollop of wasabi comes with a kaisendon and often already placed somewhere in it (be sure you seek it out if you’re not into horseradish). First, I stir up the contents of the bowl to spread out the wasabi, then pour about a tablespoon of soy sauce directly on – this is not considered rude and very acceptable even in Japan. If the spiciness is not enough, I put in more wasabi. Often enough, I end up putting in too much.
Chirashizushi on the other hand doesn’t really need much more to it, as mentioned above, and is great when it’s chilled for about an hour before eating. Making it yourself is not hard at all as it doesn’t take much trial and error to figure out the right degree of vinegar/sugar to go into the freshly steamed rice – fanning the rice as your stir in the vinegar/sugar mixture is said to lead to the best results.
OK, now I’m hungry. That’s all.
Pictures are courtesy of http://www.Japan-Guide.com and http://www.katoken.gr.jp/koenkiko/
I hope many of you have seen the first step in my sushi website that I made only a few weeks ago. Hopefully it will be a great guide to not only learning about sushi in general (like ingredients, variants, history of Japanese sushi and eventual spread to the west), but also a one-stop source of information on how Japanese people eat sushi in their daily lives.
Primarily, the sources of information are based on personal experience eating in sushi and Japanese restaurants throughout Tokyo, however some textbook style information or borrowings from Wikipedia will be included.
I know it’s now much to look at now, but I’m working to make it even better than my Japanese apartment website, which for the time being is quite dead. Nonetheless, there is so much to day about the real sushi that everyone has probably heard about but never got the full story. My hope is that I can provide the best information on the best sushi to be had anywhere in the world! That’s not to say that authentic Japanese restaurants and sushi bars in the US, Canada and other western countries have bad sushi. Let’s just say I want to share with you all the addiction to sushi that is born not from trendiness, health consciousness or greed – sushi just suits me.
Sushi Alerts Everywhere
Metro Sushi Blog 