Um…apparently I may be guilty of spreading the very ignorance this site is dedicated to fighting. :eek:
Honest, I am absolutely certain that “sashimi” technically refers to the cut, NOT to fish in a raw state, though it is popularly used to refer to raw fish, of course. However, I cannot readily find any support for this, whereas I concede that a number of sources claim that sashimi does mean “raw fish.”
Now, the “chicken sashimi” in Chuuk years ago WAS cooked, just cut into small pieces. However…if you Google “chicken sashimi” now, guess what comes up?
I used to be one of those people who didn’t want to even try sushi. The first time I ate some, it was quite relunctantly. And I was majorly unimpressed.
Then my sister took me out to dinner once. I was still “eh” (I bought some pizza afterwards), but something happened to me. I suddenly started having cravings.
Now I’m a sushi fiend!
I hate sashimi though, and I prefer crunchy rolls with cooked ingredients. I will eat me some Publix sushi in a hot minute. And I’m totally unsophisticated about it too, replacing the wasabi with curry mustard sauce (which I now make from scratch, but I used to steal from Pollo Tropical).
The only people who get on my nerves are those who insist that there are “proper” ways to eat sushi. There are ways that increase tastiness, sure, but if I want to dribble the soy sauce on my rolls rather than dunk them in, that’s how I’m going to do it!
If you’re putting your nurse hat on, then where’s your evidence based medicine??? Oh, it’s instinctive, that’s persuasive. I’m a nurse who loves raw fish, proves nothing.
Sounds like it could have been a scene right out of Tampopo (“The first Japanese noodle Western!”), with sushi instead of ramen.
Add me to the list of those craving sushi right now. I may have to stop by this place tomorrow; the nigiri sushi takeout there is prepared fresh throughout the day by in-store chefs, and amazing value for money.
That’s about the extent of my wife’s conversion to eating sushi too, and even that represents a major milestone. The thing she liked best was a sushi roll we found (in only one restaurant so far) that’s actually lightly battered and fried like tempura. I’m sure the very concept turns sushi purists’ blood to icewater in their veins, but I had to admit it wasn’t bad.
I wasn’t especially fond of my one experience with uni (sea urchin), which looked like scrambled yellow brains and felt thoroughly revolting in my mouth, and I can do without the raw quail egg— but other than that, I’m game for pretty much anything.
This thread is making me very hungry. Bad sushi is disgusting. Good sushi is nice. Awesome sushi is an orgasm in your mouth. Stay away from supermarket sushi (unless it’s a Japanese mart).
Best achieved (IMHO) with salmon roe sushi, where one daintily picks each individual tiny glistening red egg from the small pile of roe, places it on the center of one’s tongue, and gently presses it against one’s palate. The sudden pop of intense flavor as the egg bursts is just… Oh, my, it’s…
Well, let me put it this way: sushi (the good stuff, that is) is usually expensive enough so that I typically don’t get a whole lot in one sitting…unless someone else is paying for it
If I’ve got only $5 to spend on lunch, and I’m really hungry, it usually comes down to, “Hmmmm…sushi? Or Chik-fil-A? Well, Chik-fil-A, I guess. Damn.”
Hey, it’s not the gnocchi’s fault that it seems to attract pretentious assholes. It’s such a tasty, versatile food, it can’t help it
Really, I think one can point to EVERY uppity food trend and see a familiar pattern: a food that is unusual to a certain market is largely ignored by the populace, save a few die-hard fans who think it’s the best kept culinary secret in the world. They spread the word about it, their friends start eating it, their friends’ friends start eating it, and eventually, some culinary bigwig figures out, “hey…this can be the hip new food for the up-and-comers! Imagine the POTENTIAL!” So, then, it is marketed to hip young urbanites, some of whom DO indeed come to appreciate it for what it is, but many also go on and on about it as if simply eating it - or, hell, even just ordering it - makes them look totally cool and trendy. And soon enough, some of the people who never comprehended the trend in the first place come to loathe the food just because of the annoying posers.
The mojito is currently going through such a transition. When I visited Puerto Rico a few years ago, my brother (who lives there) told us to try this drink that was really popular in local bars. I’m not a fan of rum, but my family seemed to like it. When we came back home to the States, they found that there were few bars in our area sufficiently equipped to make a mojito in the traditional way (which is sort of complex for a mixed drink), and it seemed as though only the bartenders had heard of them. Fast forward about three years, and now mojitos are EVERYWHERE: some places have weird, fruity variations on the traditional lime version, there are mojito-scented candles, mojito-flavored gum, and Bacardi is even practically selling it as a dance now. It’s tempting to blame the mojito itself for being the center of an annoyingly trendy culture wave, but I think all the mojito really wants is to go back to Puerto Rico. If I were it I’d be pretty embarrassed right now.
The first time I tried sushi, I thought it was horrible. Then when I tried it a second time for the heck of it, I realized that the first one I had was just shitty sushi.
Also, OP, there’s so many different varieties out there, many of which are nothing alike. I don’t really like fish myself, so my favorites that I usually go for are a veggie California roll, which is just rice rolled in seaweed (nori) with cucumber, avocado, and carrot in the middle. Pretty healthy, tasty, and filling. I also like tamago, which is a sort of sweet egg patty or omelette with rice and just a thin band of nori around it. And then I sometimes enjoy inari, which is rice surrounded with a fried bean curd. Pretty tasty stuff altogether.
But yes, you will occasionally find people out there who act like eating sushi is somehow avant-garde and cool and they’ll eat it with a group of like-minded people, and they’ll all engage in deep conversation while holding their chopsticks aloft in a very self-assured way. Most people just eat it because they’re hungry and it’s tasty.
Just curious, but do these people also wear pastel suits, polo shirts with the collar turned up, and sneakers with no socks? Because I have a lot of trouble imaging anyone who still thinks eating sushi is “avant-garde” who hasn’t been frozen in a block of ice for the last twenty years.
