Yup. That’s me smiling as I try a big piece of sashimi. If the piece would’ve been half the size it wouldn’t have been so bad, but in general I enjoyed the sushi and will eat it again in the future. With lunch yesterday I’ve completed FIVE of my 30 x 30 list and I really hope I can keep up the momentum as I head into June.
What was most funny about #21: Eat at a real sushi restaurant, was that EVERYONE wanted to do this one. Most of my friends who checked out the list at some point or another volunteered to do this one. It worked out to be my sister and I, which was perfect as this weekend is her birthday weekend and what better way to celebrate than by eating raw fish. Ha!
You’d think after years of people pestering me and suggesting that I try sushi that I would’ve done it by now, but I’ve never been one to follow the herd. If there was any one thing that made me add this to my list more than anything else it was Muriel Barbery’s Gourmet Rhapsody and the chapter in which she describes sushi/sashimi:
“It was dazzling… True sashimi is not so much bitten into as allowed to melt on the tongue. It calls for slow, supple chewing, not to bring about a change in the nature of the food but merely to allow one to savor its airy, satiny texture… sashimi is velvet dust, verging on silk, or a bit of both, and the extraordinary alchemy of its gossamer essence allows it to preserve a milky density unknown even by clouds.”
We found a restaurant not far from where I live after hearing that the one I thought was great wasn’t so good. We ended up at Ebi Sushi (the website isn’t the best) and I just let my sister order whatever she felt was right. Aside from the big piece of Salmon sashimi, we split a California Roll, two Philadelphia Rolls, a salmon roll and a tuna roll (photo below). Of all of them I think the California Roll was my favorite. The crab meat just had a bit more flavor than any of the other pieces and the Philadelphia roll was a little slimy, when you added the cream cheese to the fish! Shockingly I didn’t mind the sashimi so much, but what got me was that it was just a bit too much for a mouth full and so it slithered around a bit too much as I ate it. Aside from this, the only other downside was the cucumber in quite a few pieces. I apparently taste cucumber for hours after I eat it and I’m going to guess that’s why I don’t generally like it, but oh well.
I do wish I would’ve tried the wasabi earlier in the meal, but all I knew is that it was spicy so I stayed away until closer to the end. However, when I did try it I found that I actually really enjoyed it mixed in with the soy sauce and will most definitely do that again the next time I eat sushi! I will most definitely eat it again in the future and perhaps try some of the other sashimi options out there.
MMMMn, I’m so very jealous! I love Japanese food. Me and my boyfriend are trying to wean ourselves off them and try something different as this year we just keep doing Japanese. I love sashimi, I could eat it every day. next time try a sashimi platter to get a wider selection. Mmmnn.
I love the tempura, gyozas, this pumpkin karoke thingy, assorted maki rolls, and other little things, the seaweed salad… anything raw. Soups, noodles… they know how to eat over there in Japan. I do wonder what a real Japanese Japanese restaurant is like. Probably nothing like we find here.
Damn it you made me hungry!!!
Good luck with your 30×30 challenge. Hmm I’m er, well I might be 30 next year but I don’t know for sure. Maybe I should challenge myself to eat at 30 different sushi restaurants by the time I’m 30… yes.
I’m still not totally sold on the sashimi, but it wasn’t so bad I won’t try it, or a different one, again! The restaurant we went to had a lot of other stuff aside from sushi that I wanted to try and was decently priced so I’ll definitely go back!
(I’m also working on a 40×40 list which will hopefully include bigger and better travel as I’ll actually have 10 years and not 9 months to do it :-D)
Well done! I introduced it to my kids just recently including the ginger, wasabi and soya sauce and had to laugh at my 11 year old son determined to try the wasabi. The first few times he took such a little amount that he said it was nice, yum and ate it just with rice, until the very last mouthful when he was being brave and he came out with with a “Wawh” which made us all crack up laughing as I said, it’s ok, it’s not like chilli, it won’t stay on your tongue. So funny to see him have that first “little bit too much wasabi” sensation that we have all come to know, it’s a delicate balancing act, just the right amount or that hit that gets you!
Love sashimi and definitely must have the accessories.
That’s hilarious and I’m surprised I didn’t make the same mistake! I wasn’t as sold on the ginger. The only issue I had was that when you ate a piece of sushi it felt like all the ingredients separated so there were different pockets in my mouth, my sister thought I was strange for trying to find ways to eat it so that I got the entire experience in each part of my mouth. Ha!
I think the ginger is supposed to be like the “sorbet effect” to cleanse the palette between tastes, so I think you are onto something trying to appreciate each element for its individual contribution to the overall effect. So the ginger I think should be a stand alone thing, but Of course heathen that I am, like they say here in France “le plat anglais” to describe that peculiar habit English people have of mixing food when eating and putting lots of different things on one plate, whereas here, they eat each thing separately, no peas on mashed potato. BUT they love sushi! I am sure you will have the wasabi experience if you repeat the experience a few more times 🙂 It’s kind of fun.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that I usually like the “Americanized” sushi better–with all the healthy sauce and everything. But I’ve definitely heard that it’s hard to find a real Japanese sushi restaurant in America to being with. I’m actually flying out to Japan tomorrow! Your pictures got me so excited to try some yummy sashimi and rolls!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I’m not even sure if this qualifies as a “real sushi” restaurant, but it seemed authentic. I’m sure a restaurant in Japan would be completely different! Enjoy your trip.
That’s a great photo of you! I love it!
Thanks! It was the best of a bad bunch and I didn’t really think it through wearing a shirt three times to big and you can see my grocery list in my pocket 🙂
Glad you’ve ventured out to try sushi/sashimi. It’s one of my favourite food. I like Toro (fatty tuna) and Igura (fish roe) best. I admit, it’s an acquired taste. But once you’ve gotten used to it, you’ll begin to really love it. Note that the soya sauce (choose the light one) and the wasabi combined together as a dip is a must. And, your Muriel Barbery quote is spot on. I’ve totally forgotten about it, but now thanks to you, it all comes back. I’d enjoyed that book and had written a review on it a few years back. Congrats to your 30X30 #21 achievement! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment! I really liked the soy and wasabi mixture. It definitely added to the flavor and I’m sure I’ll try a broader variety each time I go.
For a long time, I thought that sushi would be terrible, but since the very first time I tried it, it’s been one of my favorite foods. 🙂
I’m really glad I waited until I was older. If not I probably would’ve rejected it out right after one taste and not really tasting it!
You might want to try salmon or tuna nigiri next time and work your way back to sashimi. Having the rice with it can maybe lessen the ‘I’m eating raw fish’ feeling.
I went through a year where I ate sushi about twice a week. It becomes an addiction…
I think that’s what she was trying to get, with the rice, but the menu was mostly in Japanese. Whoops.
And I can definitely see it becoming one, I was asking at work about the sushi restaurant near by yesterday 😀