chappachula, my pet, seaweed is the food of the gods. Find yourself an Asian market and scare up the kind with little flat sheets of the stuff in a foil wrapper seasoned with salt and (this is important) sesame oil. Causes potato chips to run away crying and hide themselves in shame.
My sushi story: back in college I took my clueless Chinese roommate out for sushi, which she’d never had before. I went over the basics (maki vs roll vs sushi vs sashimi, types of fish, stuff that is not fish, etc.), and she decided to ordered a sampler plate. A selection of fish bits was duly prepared and placed before her. She looks at it, frowns, and says: “It’s all raw!”
I’ve just come home from a new sushi place. I eat sushi often. There is a big difference between really good top rate sushi and good sushi. And then there is lousy sushi. Ask around and find the best sushi place in your local. Only get the best. Second rate sushi isn’t worth it.
Best sushi I’ve ever had was at a little restaurant in the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. Came from these auctions. The chef put uni in front of me, and it was fucking delicious.
Like other posters have said, if you don’t like the rolls (maki), try nigiri (cuts of sashimi on rice) or just straight sashimi. Not all sushi/sashimi is raw. It’s sometimes eaten with your hands (apparently, you’re supposed to pick it up and turn it over, dipping the fish in the wasabi/soy sauce mixture, not the bottom of the rice, but I dip my rice anyway ). As other posters have also suggested, it could be the restaurant. The best restaurant in Boston (obviously well-known for its seafood) I’d been to was very good, but on par with the sushi I get at the small market around the corner from where I live in Hicksville, Japan.
Or, also as other people have said, maybe you just don’t like it. Which is fine. I find many similarities between the taste of cooked and raw fish, but if it doesn’t do it for you then who cares? You’re not trying to impress anyone (I hope!).
This is really weird. I’m reading this thread and have the TV on in the other room–can only hear it not see the picture. Jeopardy is on and they just went through one entire category. You guessed it–it was all about SHUSHI!!!QUOTE]
I was actually sitting in the sushi bar eating a Bam Bam roll while watching that sequence.
I mentioned upthread about a friend who thought that all Japanese food was live fish. Eventually I educated her a bit more about it, and she developed a fondness for it. She never became crazy about the raw fish, but she came to love fishless sushi, tempura, and miso. Anyway, we decided to throw a party, and were planning the menu.
Some of our guests were a wee bit parochial in their culinary experiences, so we had to be careful to push the envelope of exoticness but not tip over into the positively offputting. My friend’s mother was a special case. She thought that chow mein from a can was the height of worldly sophistication.
So we ordered some sushi, but kept the raw fish to a minimum. We figured that the mom would avoid it altogether and we had plenty of mildler alternatives for her. To our surprise, she asked to try the sushi. We were atonished at the braveness she displayed, and were eager to make the experience pleasant for her. She popped one in her mouth and started chewing. She thought it was quite delicious, and as she chewed, she started asking questions about it.
One question she asked was what the green stuff on the outside was. Without really putting my thinking cap on, I just blurted out that it was seaweed.
Her face turned bright red, she stuck her tongue out, and let the food fall into a napkin. She almost puked. She didn’t eat a bite the rest of the night.
I suppose I like sushi okay, although for pure flavor if it’s between that and a KFC extra crispy wing then the Colonel gets a point for the full blown takedown. Perhaps my favorite thing about sushi is that it seems like it’s got to be incredibly healthy. I never feel guilty after eating it no matter how much we might indulge.
I agree with other people here. I am so tired of hearing:
That all sushi is RAW FISH, STILL WRIGGLING ON YOUR PLATE.
That only poseurs and snobs eat sushi because there’s no way that one could, you know, actually like that stuff.
That eating with chopsticks is somehow snooty.
I love eating with chopsticks. I also like drinking with a straw. I like crab legs. What is common here? I like food that provides interaction, I guess, and I like the fun of chopsticks. Plus I’m going to be married into a Chinese household anyway so it behooves me to use them. But really they’re just fun.
I love sushi and I rarely eat raw fish. Just don’t love it. I like the neat little packages. I did go to Minado in Queens a few years back and sampled their sushi buffet, whichwas delicious, and tried all kinds of weird things.
And as others have said, I get sushi in my grocery store now.
For the OP: It is you. But that’s OK - it’s Ok not to like the stuff. Why do you have to criticize people who do like it? You go to your Bob’s Country Fish Fry or whatever. I don’t bitch about that. Denny’s is for when I want to have a meal out for under $20 for two people. It’s not even in the same ballpark.
Last weekend I was playing a video game and I wanted a snack. I have these great things called Snapeas, they’re dried peapods, salted and seasoned. Delicious, but they leave a residue on your fingers. You can’t eat them with a fork, they shatter. You can’t eat them with a spoon, since they are too big. I didn’t want to eat them with my fingers because I didn’t want to get gunk all over the controller. Solution? Chopsticks! Perfect to pick up one at a time and eat it without making a mess.
What I don’t understand is people who shoot stuff down simply because they can’t see an immediate use for it. There are more things in this world than you know!
I really don’t get this. I’ve eaten a bit of sushi, and I have enjoyed it, but I have yet to run across a piece a food that I couldn’t tackle with a knife and fork (or a spoon, on occasion). I have always felt that chopsticks were less about function and more about experience.
But…a knife and fork takes two hands. Chopsticks only take one… How could they not have different uses? My favorite thing about chopsticks is not having to go through the rigamarole of cutting & switching hands you are supposed to do with a knife & fork.
On a serious suggestion note, my personal favorite sushi is the grilled eel, either rolled with avocado or just on the little blorp of rice. That’s good eatin’ right there.
If the rice is truly tasteless you’re going to a bad sushi place. A good one, you’ll be able to get a hint of the rice wine vinegar they’re in theory stirring in there–but only a hint, sushi’s about subtle flavors most of the time.
And hey, if it doesn’t float your boat, nothing wrong with that. I won’t say no to it, but I also won’t say no to a chicken-fried steak either.
It’s kinda weird that in my (college) town in central PA, there are three-four places to get sushi (one of which is exceptional) but not one good place to get a chicken-fried steak with gravy. Sigh.
A common misconception about sushi is that it’s raw fish. It’s not. It’s rice prepared in a certain way, that is with rice wine vinegar and (I think) a little sugar. It needs nothing else. To say that you don’t like sushi because it’s nothing but raw fish is like saying you don’t like bread because it’s nothing but peanut butter.
Having said that, chopsticks have many practical uses. When I had a broken wrist and had a cast on my arm for 8 weeks and the dead skin inside was DRIVING ME NUTS, a chopstick became my best friend.
). As other posters have also suggested, it could be the restaurant. The best restaurant in Boston (obviously well-known for its seafood) I’d been to was very good, but on par with the sushi I get at the small market around the corner from where I live in Hicksville, Japan.