Got Sushi?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by JuanitaTech’s steak rant thread and BoringDad’s Rice cooker thread, i wondered how many of my fellow Dopers are addicted to the wonderful Japanese delicacies of Sushi and Sashimi, and what are your favorites?

mine are
Nigiri Sushi;
Salmon
Tuna
Octopus
Mackrel
Eel
Tobikko
actually, it’s easier to say what i don’t like, Uni

Maki;
i have yet to find a Maki roll i dislike, i think the only sushi i don’t like is Uni

we have 3 sushi resturants in central Vermont;
Sakura, a small take-out place in Middlesex and the main resturant on Church Street in downtown Burlington
Koto, on the outskirts of Burlington

Koto has a better overall ambiance, and it has the Hibachi tables as well, but the sushi is nothing special, and their chefs have a fixation with salmon and tuna, my last two “assortment” plates consisted of about 80% tuna and salmon, Koto is my “last resort” spot for a sushi fix

Sakura on Church Street doesn’t have the ambiance of Koto, BUT the sushi is better, fresher, and cheaper, i’m also becoming a regular with the chef there, and he’ll always end up slipping me an extra piece of sushi on my order, or gives me an interesting new appetizer to try, Sakura is my first choice

anyone else addicted to sushi?

2

When you say that you don’t like uni, have you ever had really fresh uni? (As in, it was alive a few minutes previously.) It makes a difference.

My favorite sushi place is Tojo’s.

3

Ooooooooo!!! Yes. My daughter and I go for sushi every other Sunday.

Ahi
Nigiri
Ebi
Sashimi
Yellowtail

Still not brave enough to try sugu… Living in the SF Bay Area, there are so many good sushi places all over the place. I’m hooked. :wink:

4

of course, by sugu I mean fugu.
My daughter is addicted to maki style sushi also, MacTech, but I really prefer the Nigiri type.

5

Unagi. The strangely American “Philly” roll (salmon, green onion and cream cheese) and the “Alaska” at Kokoro which is a philly done tempura style. Melted cream cheese and fresh raw salmon. There is no equal.

I’m a big fan of tamago, yellowtail, unagi, unagi and unagi.

It’s hard to get really fresh fish here (in Kansas) but the salmon and yellowtail are usually good bets as well as anything precooked or smoked. Shrimp is usually a bad idea.

There are three sushi restaurants in Lawrence (which is a ton for a town of less than 100,000) and Kokoro is by far the best. Cheapest, freshest and best atmosphere. They also do the hot table cooking thing… what’s that called?

I miss LA… $2.50 a plate sushi, all you can eat.

Any Corvallis, Oregon dopers know of good places to get sushi?

6

What?! No bluegill? Humph.

7

The only sushi to date I have tried and have disliked was sea urchin.
Um. wow. That was some texture.

I like all sushi, but I have to give props to the ‘beginner’ sushi: California rolls.
Simple, but oh so good!

8

I don’t like uni either, even that fresh. I tried it when I lived in Japan but I think it’s one of those love it or hate it things. I also go to Tojo’s often. Here is another favourite sushi bar. I make sushi at home alot too. MMMMM I just love it!!!

9

I think this might be a good place to share what I did last night.

I tried funa-zushi.

It’s kind of the ancestor of modern sushi and its enjoyment requires a fair dose of temerity.

How it’s made:

You start out with a smallish fish called funa that’s fished in Biwa-ko, Japan’s largest lake. You clean it salt it and let it stand for a while. Like, three months or so.

You then stuff them with vinegared rice. Fill the bottom of a barrell with a layer of rice, add a layer of funa, another layer of rice. Pack everything tightly and wait for a while. Like, a year or so.

Pics of how it’s done.

Anyway, I had previously described this preparation as Japanese lutefisk, despite never having actually tried it.

So, I did, and was pleasently surprised. Now, don’t get me wrong it’s definitely an aquired taste, but I honestly think it ranks amongst the finer things in life.

If you like strong cheeses, you’re likely to enjoy funa-zushi. The texture is creamy but with little chunks that feel a bit like uncooked rice. Somehow this reminded me of really good Manchego cheese. The taste is very salty, again in a sort of cheesy way. There is a delightful citrus note also, from the vinegar, probably. There is a fish aftertaste but I did not find it over-powering.

It’s not the kind of thing you eat in great quantities. It goes fabulously well with a good chilled sake and I would probably want to complement it with something light and crunchy, like cucumber, to offset the texture and strong flavours.

Overall, a great discovery.

10

Oh boy, I’ll second, third, and fourth unagi. I love that eel.
Also hamachi and toro, yum. I tried uni only once and didn’t care for it but I don’t think it was too fresh. Kentucky’s not too near the coast after all so you takes what you can get I guess. Same with the ebi. I’d like to try them really fresh sometime.

Upon preview:
funa-zushi, wow! Even the japanese tasting judges on Iron Chef approached that one with some trepidation.

11

I didn’t say that being fresh made uni good, just that it made a difference. :slight_smile:

The grated mountain potato that I tried was also kinda weird, and a pain to handle with chopsticks.

12

Never met a piece of sushi I didn’t like.

Unagi is so good it makes my head hurt.

13

In which case, you should try the Shogun down on Charles Street. They make a Baltimore Roll-- crab with Old Bay. :smiley:

14

Unagi! Unagi! Unagi! I love me some unagi! I got taken out to dinner a couple weeks ago to the best sushi place in town. My buddy, who was taking me out, told me he’d buy me unagi if I’d sleep with him afterwards. I ate a lot of unagi that night. :smiley:

[sub]So I’m a sushi slut. What of it?[/sub]

15

Shogun’s a nice restaurant. I’ve been there many, many, many times.

A while back they changed their name to Jpn. I think it’s been changed back to Shogun, though. Kawasaki’s nice, too, as is Tony’s (I think) in Cross Street market.

16

We have a couple good places in town where I work. I eat sushi about once/twice a week. Its an “All you can eat” deal, and I get my moneys worth! I like it all but sea urchin (its a texture thing).

One of the perks of my overpaid/underworked job is that I have an “important” title and no responsibility. Hence, I have many vendors pimping products and services to our company, and I can take a long lunch. I make them all take me to sushi! :smiley:

The best place has 3 chefs. 2 guys from Mexico and a Japanese guy. The guys from Mexico blow the other guy away! Far, far nicer, neater rolls, bigger pieces of fish and less rice.

My regular chef is the coolest. If I go when it is very crowded, he just makes me stuff and slips it to me, kinda out of turn :wink: and I never have an empty plate! I don’t even have to bother ordering because he knows what I like. He takes care of me for sure and will make all kinds of special stuff on request. He gets a mondo tip always. Dude makes something he created called a “Jalisco roll” with halibut and cilantro, avacado some other stuff. Damn tasty!

The wife and kid love it too. We do the family lunch as often as we can. They don’t charge us for the kid (yet!).

17

Yeah, I’m with you there though the place we usually go to makes the cream cheese roll with cucumber instead of onion. I don’t care for avacado so California rolls or anything similar are pretty much out for me but I like just about everything else.

Believe it or not, our favorite place to get sushi is a grocery store! The store is a Harris Teeter; the ones around here have a dedicated sushi counter staffed by guys of Asian descent. Yes, those guys do make the sushi right there.