devilsknew, this romantic notion you have about the noble fisherman and “The True Spirit of Rice and Fish” has little, if anything, to do with sushi. Sushi is, by definition, made with a particular type of vinegared rice. If you’re discussing food that is not made with this specific type of rice then you’re not discussing sushi. Whatever else you are describing might very well be a delightful dining experience, but it isn’t sushi.
Applause from a non-Japanese おたく. The kind of rice you use and how you prepare it are key, and that box of Uncle Bens with the nutritive value of spit that you got at Kroger just doesn’t cut it.
Believe it or not, Aldi’s rice and many generic forms of American rice are very starchy short grained rice… I could make a very nice sushi rice with most generic simple bags of American rice. Not uncle Ben’s or Minute rice… these generic bags need several washes, and can be at least as good as Rose Rice.
The problem is that what you’re describing is not, in fact, sushi. It has another name, basically “sashimi with plain rice”. Sushi refers to the vinegared rice served with what we commonly call sushi, which may or may not include sashimi in the mix.
That’s what makes you an “idiot” - you’re trying to define sushi as something it’s not.
:dubious: The vast majority of American-sold rice not for sushi or risotto is long grain or at least medium, and not starchy. Outside of the aforementioned uses, most Americans think “sticky” rice was cooked improperly.
I think the misunderstanding is at a deeper level. devilsknew refers to the experience of the fisherman as something the sushi chef cannot match. He seems so taken with his romantic vision that he fails to see two things. First, there is an authentic fisherman culinary experience. scr4 mentioned the urchin domburi (I hope the restaurant is still there :() and that’s a great example. Unbeatable freshness, lack of pretention, but also subtlety. Very often excess. That’s if you’re a guest. I lived one year in a Japanese fishing village. There was one sushi place but it was considered unusual. Sashimi was for the tourists. The fishermen ate himono, dried fish. A surprising number of locals were not crazy about raw fish. When the fish is unloaded at the port, a lot of it goes, still living, directly into aquarium trucks and off to big cities. You couldn’t buy most of the good catch in the local markets. Eating raw fish is a relatively new trend in Japan. In the Edo period, fishermen used to feed their dogs tuna because it doesn’t cook or dry too well.
The second thing he fails to see is what sushi restaurants claim to offer. In all cases it has nothing to do with fishermen, or the sea, or fish even. Low end places, conveyer belt sushi, offers the fastest of fast foods. They offer the convenience of eating exactly what you want in exactly the amount that you want to. Mid end places offer a lively athmosphere, a sometimes chatty cook who is right in front of you. They offer, like a good bar, a personal relationship with the person feeding you.
High end places, like Jiro’s, offer craftmanship. You have to spend time in Japan to appreciate just how that concept is important here. Daily, television shows and newspapers sing the praises of the craftsman, the shokunin, the ultimate hero of Japanese culture and history. Whether it’s Jiro or the guy who makes, by hand, the most perfect throwing weights in the world, the craftsman is worshiped for his dedication to perfecting his craft. That sounds like typical orientalist bs, but turn on the tv here to 和風総本家 or World Business Satelite’s 技あり segment, or really a huge amount of other shows, and you’ll see just how ubiquitous shokunin worship is.
High end sushi joints aren’t chatty. When you spend 30,000 yen at Jiro’s, you’re not really getting a relationship with him. (Some of the Japanese reviews on line complain that the athmosphere is a tad tense.) What you are getting is a Living National Treasure (literally, and officially) striving for perfection before you and for you. That Jiro happens to mold vinegared rice and fish and not iron or bamboo is almost secondary. To paraphrase Whistler, you are not paying over 300 bucks for a 20 minute meal, you’re paying for 60 years worth of experience.
Is it worth it? I haven’t been at Jiro’s, but it seems that he may have gotten a bit too famous. You can get superb sushi made by great craftsmen for a third the money. I know one particularly solid restaurant that has a 2500 lunch that’s worth at least twice that. However, the chef is someone who used to be an assistant at the most famous place in town and he just opened his own restaurant. He hasn’t made his name for himself yet, but he sure has the chops.
I think you have a completely fictional notion of what a sushi is about, with no basis in any knowledge of Japanese culture. I suspect it’s based solely on your preconceived notion that all seafood is about freshness of the ingredients.
Sushi is not a Japanese equivalent of a clam bake or bouillabaisse. It’s not a simple humble food, and never has been. It’s not defined by the freshness of the fish. As jovan explained, it’s all about craftsmanship.
Lessee, the first guy (Yohei) who “invented” sushi as we know it today stuck a raw slice of fish on a hand formed rice ball with vinegar making nigiri and the origination of present day sushi. For the life of me, that seems about the most humble, non pretentious and simple food I can think of- almost primitive in its elements. Wouldn’t you agree that a piece of raw fish slapped on a rice ball is very simple? It took a few seconds to make and he could make many quickly in fastfood fashion. He even got around the traditional fermentation process and sped it up by adding vinegar to the rice.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to some good and some bad sushi places, invariably the difference was the freshness and quality of the seafood… In something as simple as sushi the freshness and quality of the fish is the number one factor.
Actually, Yohei either lightly cooked the fish, or fermented it, neither of which is your “raw fish slapped on a rice ball” fish story.
It would help if you actually, you know, looked into the history of what you’re talking about.
hello
[Quote=Umi Sushi]
Nigiri zushi - the first fast food
Yohei Hanaya, who set up a sushi stand in Edo in early 1800s, is widely credited with being the inventor of the nigiri zushi, or hand-form sushi, that we know today. He was the first chef to squeeze vinegared rice in to a ball and top it with a slice of raw fish. Although the addition of rice vinegar had reduced preparation time, sushi chefs still made traditional pressed sushi, which took some time to make. The resident of Edo were notoriously impatient, so Yohei’s newly invented Nigiri zushi, which took only a minutes to prepare, soon caught on.
World War Two further boosted the popularity of nigiri zushi. Food rationing prevented sushi shop from operating nomally. When Allied occupation authorities issued directions allowing the exchange of one cup of rice for 10 pieces of nigiri zushi, they did not include any other type of sushi.
To keep his shop open, the sushi chef was forced to make hand-made sushi.
[/Quote]
The quality of the fish isn’t necessarily a factor at all, as there are a number of types of sushi that do not contain fish.
do you like your steak raw? the True Spirit of Raw Steak, its essence is not experienced until you carve a warm slice off the carcass in the field.
do you like fresh milk? the True Spirit of Fresh Milk, its essence is not experienced until you suck from the very tits of a cow.
do you like water? the True Spirit of Water, its essence is not experienced until you stand out in the fields during a summer rain, lifting your face up to the heavens, mouth opened wide to receive the nectar of the gods.
Devilsknew, who is this “Umi Sushi” you are quoting? I don’t see a poster by that name in this thread, and the only on-line reference I found were restaurants in places like Ann Arbor, Michigan and San Diego, California.
Even today, there is nigiri that doesn’t incorporate raw fish. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Yohei occasionally used sashimi, that wasn’t the only form of sushi in his shop, nor even the dominant form.
It’s from the Mecca of sushi: Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Even today, hunters still eat the raw liver and heart of their kill in the field.
The milk one isn’t so stupid either… ever taste raw milk versus the skim and homogenized or ultra pasteurized milk you get off the shelf? Whole nother animal.
As to the spirit of water… I can only quote Rutger Hauer standing in a downpour dieing:
"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die.
I don’t see why the very zen practice of recognizing the “spirit” or “essence” of your ingredients in the art of Japanese sushi should be mocked, when that is what we are really talking about in the aesthetic and craftmanship part of what Jiro does. Every great cook no matter their ethnicity should know the spirit and essence of what they are working with…
Every reference I have found, which are several, claims that Yohei served sashimi with vinegared rice in his revolutionary nigiri and at the most he might have marinated it in soy or vinegar, not fermented it or cooked it.
Then you haven’t seen many references.
And wouldn’t you agree that the simplest thing is usually the most difficult to master and perfect? Or maybe you don’t, but that’s what the way the Japanese think about quality and perfection.
The difference between bad sushi and passable sushi may be the quality of seafood. But even there, the difference in the rice is usually more noticeable. With bad sushi, the rice is either compressed into a mush, or it falls apart.
The difference between passable and good sushi is craftsmanship.
Honestly, you haven’t said anything that indicates any understanding of Japanese culture. Everything you’ve said about sushi is based on your very western view of what good seafood is about.
I thought sashimi was originally a way of preserving fish so it wouldn’t go bad. I think the idea of being sashimi being freshly caught fish is fairly recent. Anyway, you don’t just eat any old fish raw; they have to be a certain grade. I doubt a Japanese fisherman would just catch a fish and gut it on the spot for his lunch.
Oh for crying out loud; sashimi is raw fish, sushi is vinegared rice with stuff on it. Sushi may have originally come from the practice of preserving fish in rice.
Sashimi is not just a hunk of raw fish, it is carefully separated into different pieces depending on the taste and texture of that portion of the fish, and is then cut for each serving so that the grain of the fish runs in a particular direction and the thickness of the piece is appropriate for that fish.