I worked at a shushi place for a year. Made sushi day in,day out. I do know the rules. But I dont care. Taste ist justice.
The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.
- Thread starter North_Ranger
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I usually am not a fan of sushi in general, but I absolutely can grub on unagi (grilled eel)! There's a place right here in town that makes great rolls with unagi, yum!
GasBandit
Staff member
You can dip the fish end of the roll/block into the soy sauce but don't do it to the rice end. They season and flavor the rice itself and dumping it into soy sauce will completely destroy that careful flavoring, which is a slap in the face of the chef that had to spend years learning to make their custom blend.My girlfriend prefers to eat her sushi like that too. We were at a sushi place a while ago, and one of the servers very pointedly put a little pamphlet on our table with the "dos" and "don'ts" of sushi eating...."DO NOT MIX YOUR SOY SAUCE AND WASABI" was the #1, followed by "DO NOT DUNK YOUR SUSHI IN YOUR SOY SAUCE". You heathen.
To each his or her own- she still does it too - but some purists will think you're horrible, making everything taste of wasabi and soy instead of fish and rice
And yes, turning your soy sauce and wasabi into a soup and dipping your sushi into it at a restaurant is basically telling the chef that you ether think his sushi is shit or that you can't appreciate sushi at all. It's like seasoning food before you've had a bite or asking for ketchup before you order in any kind of fancy restaurant. It's literally one of the rudest things you can do at a sushi place, short of pointing your chopsticks at someone. Just don't do it if you care to come back.
I would throw in the caveat that it depends on the sushi place. If there's a chef standing behind a bar making me something to order (or just making me something based on his appraisal of my likely preferences), then I'm going to eat the sushi as it was presented to me. If it's something I picked up off the conveyor belt and I didn't see the chef put it on said belt - I'm all for dipping and dunking in wasabi-soy sauce.
Sure, and it's the kind of thing you can certainly do AT HOME with sushi. But if the chef can see you it's just a bad idea.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, with all due respect, that is entirely at odds with what I've been taught by TV and movies. And surely popular media wouldn't lie to me, would it?
You've never had a chef pull a knife on you, have you? I have. Mind you, it wasn't at a restaurant but...
Does anyone else like spicy yam rolls? There's this place (Happy Sushi) near my house that make them and omg....they are so freaking good *drools*
I'm dying, how cute is this? I just want to squish him. And I am sad that I never had this shirt for my kids when they were babies.
I love sushi. All kinds. Really love spider rolls (which are soft shell crab, fried tempura, and rolled in a roll), but when I'm not getting spider rolls, I usually just get the sashimi (raw fish, nothing else).
Occasionally, I'll buy those crazy American style rolls with lots of toppings and crispy bits. They're good too, but they're not usually what I want when I want sushi.
That soup Dave didn't like was likely miso soup. This is made with a broth called dashi, made by heating kombu (seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito fish shavings) with water and then straining. Fun fact, I lifted the method of making katsuobushi (roasting, resting, repeating until the fish is much like a block of wood) for the way Randall makes eel soup in A Touch of Magic.
I like anago and unagi. But I really love uni. It's like you're eating the ocean. But you're not--you're just eating a sea urchin's balls.
I like my steak rare, my burgers medium-well. Ground beef has like a gajillion times more surface area and mixing for bacterial contamination than the surface of a steak. Screw that noise.
I stand to pee. Unless I'm really tired. Which happens a lot these days because I'm freaking old.
Occasionally, I'll buy those crazy American style rolls with lots of toppings and crispy bits. They're good too, but they're not usually what I want when I want sushi.
That soup Dave didn't like was likely miso soup. This is made with a broth called dashi, made by heating kombu (seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito fish shavings) with water and then straining. Fun fact, I lifted the method of making katsuobushi (roasting, resting, repeating until the fish is much like a block of wood) for the way Randall makes eel soup in A Touch of Magic.
I like anago and unagi. But I really love uni. It's like you're eating the ocean. But you're not--you're just eating a sea urchin's balls.
I like my steak rare, my burgers medium-well. Ground beef has like a gajillion times more surface area and mixing for bacterial contamination than the surface of a steak. Screw that noise.
I stand to pee. Unless I'm really tired. Which happens a lot these days because I'm freaking old.
lol, I think so. I sit for that. Standing just smears stuff between your cheeks
fade
Staff member
Also I love bonito. It's good on a lot of things. I keep a shaker in my spice rack for various things including homemade onigiri.
Onigiri (the seaweed wrapped lunch rice balls anime characters are always eating) is super easy to make. Steam some sushi rice, wet and salt your hands, pack some rice in, add your filling, pack it up and wrap the nori handle around it. I like to use umeboshi (pickled plum) and bonito for filling. All pretty cheap if you live in a town with a huge Asian population like Houston.
Onigiri (the seaweed wrapped lunch rice balls anime characters are always eating) is super easy to make. Steam some sushi rice, wet and salt your hands, pack some rice in, add your filling, pack it up and wrap the nori handle around it. I like to use umeboshi (pickled plum) and bonito for filling. All pretty cheap if you live in a town with a huge Asian population like Houston.
Blue Sushi Sake Grill is a chain restaurant. Do you know if that award was for your location?
When I lived in Houston, I used to shop at the Nippan Daido on Westheimer and Wilcrest all the time. Would get sashimi grade fish, top quality nori, and fresh mochi...mmmmm!
Mochi! I love that stuff.
Nori hates my guts. Literally. Whenever I eat sushi with nori I end up catching up on reading in the bathroom. It's weird because I can use furikake on rice and I'm fine.
Nori hates my guts. Literally. Whenever I eat sushi with nori I end up catching up on reading in the bathroom. It's weird because I can use furikake on rice and I'm fine.
Small world! Back when I first started posting on halforums, I lived at Wilcrest and Briar Forest. There used to be a pretty good Thai place around there, too, but they were closed the last time I came back for a visit.
I do this. I love wasabi. Sushi is basically just an excuse for me to eat wasabi.
In hindsight it's a miracle I wasn't murdered by a sushi chef while I was in Japan.
GasBandit
Staff member
I've still got relatives that live down off Chimney Rock just south of Memorial.
GasBandit
Staff member
On a related note, holy shit Google earth started rendering individual trees now as polygons. Not very good ones, but still. It even rendered the generator outside where I work. Also I found my car in my usual spot at work on google earth. Which is kinda neat/unsettling.
Dave
Staff member
Yes. Omaha award.
So prestigious! Congrats, you aren't corn!
I'm the same with cooked fish and I keep trying it because I go to nice restaurants when I travel for work that have super fresh stuff and my coworkers all rave about it. They are all horrified when I offer them the fish after a few bites.
GasBandit
Staff member
Just so you know, my father is STILL signing his e-mails "The Khaki Kukri."
GasBandit
Staff member
We had a series of thunderstorms come through today that lowered the temperature by 10 degrees... But I think I preferred 95 degrees at 20 percent humidity to 85 degrees at 100%.