I am not sure where my very long text to this post disappeared to, so here it is again…
I promised to share my future home sushi dinners, and here are photos from last week. The biggest changes are really the EXTENSIVE menu I sought after, and a new camera which I received as a birthday gift ^_^
I like to also share little tidbits about what I learn along the way, and some have mentioned that they enjoyed reading about the science behind sushi technique, so here are some overly detailed responses to questions that I get frequently:
**What is “sushi grade” fish and how do you determine if fish is safe to serve raw?**
I think most people in this group know that there is no official “sushi grade” criteria. When we think about fish that is safe for consumption, primarily we are thinking about bacteria and parasites. Both are related to the handling of the fish and also depend on the fish’s habitat. Regarding parasites, you have to think about the life cycle of parasites. The parasite larvae usually reside within the crustaceans and other foods that fish eat, so they stay within the guts of the fish. When fish die, if the fish reaches a certain body temperature, then the larvae migrate into the meat of the fish. If this happens, then you risk eating the parasites when you consume the meat. That is why it is so vital to cleanly filet fish that you are serving raw and removing the guts quickly and in one piece/washing carefully. Therefore, if proper fish handling (from the fishermen to the fish suppliers to the groceries to the consumers) occurs, you have a very low risk of parasitic infection. Because farm raised fish also don’t eat infected crustaceans, they also typically don’t pose a risk. In summary, this all boils down to trust in the seafood supply chain. In Japan, the supply chain is well established so you can trust that the fish won’t reach the temperature at which larvae activate and migrate into the fish meat. In the US, there are more unknowns because we don’t have a history of raw consumption, and it only takes one slip-up along the supply chain to ruin the fish. The USDA freezing regulations are there to protect you from this, although I am quite sure not all sushi restaurants in the US who are aware of this information actually follow these freezing protocols. Essentially you can buy from a reputable seller or you can freeze your fish according to USDA standards. It is all a balance of risk vs benefit. Bacteria is a separate issue. Usually this is directly related to the freshness of the fish. Here, you think mostly about the exponential bacterial growth curve which is related to fish storage conditions. With proper refrigeration and care, bacterial contamination shouldn’t really be an issue. That being said, a lot of fish benefits from aging, which has to be done at low humidity to avoid bacterial colonization. The flip side of this is that you actually have a more time than you think for fish to be at room temperature at the latent phase before the exponential growth occurs. That’s why sushi fish can be (and optimally is) served near room temperature rather than refrigerator cold. But if you keep warming, cooling, and repeating the process, that’s how you’ll get sick. **Does the order to a nigiri meal matter?**
Structuring a menu is not throwing out fish names in random order. I would describe this series of nigiri as beginning with the classic edomae neta (toppings), followed by seasonal neta, and finally pure indulgent neta. A 3 part series: Classic -> Seasonal -> Indulgent. Within each category, courses tend to proceed from lighter to heavier, although some breaks are sprinkled throughout. When you make sushi for yourself, you can go ham and make 25 courses even before *bonus* pieces 😂🤫. I learned about this from reading Jiro’s book Sushi Chef: Sukiyabashi Jiro by Shinzo Satomi, and scouring over many sushi menus.
**How can I get started making sushi?**
You have to start somewhere, and you won’t know how far down the rabbit hole you will end up until you try. So maybe start with Hmart and your trusty chefs knife and see if you like it before you start ordering specialty fish and using deba and yanagi knives. If you like it, dip another toe in. A lot of people ask me what my fish looks like when it arrives. It looks like fish! It can take a lot of work to descale, filet, and salt vs vinegar cure vs age each fish. And some are really small so one fish = one sushi! It can be a lot of work (it takes me up to 12 hrs for fish prep in a day because I do most of this alone and also for several days worth of fish) so you have to enjoy it, and there are lots of resources out there. Tip: You don’t have to be taught something to learn something. Most of what I’ve learned has been from watching YouTube videos that were not intended to be instructional videos, or watching sushi chefs live at work.
![[Omakase] Sushi Yasuda](https://www.lonelyjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/bkb2ammrk7na1-380x220.jpg)
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I am not sure where my very long text to this post disappeared to, so here it is again…
I promised to share my future home sushi dinners, and here are photos from last week. The biggest changes are really the EXTENSIVE menu I sought after, and a new camera which I received as a birthday gift ^_^
I like to also share little tidbits about what I learn along the way, and some have mentioned that they enjoyed reading about the science behind sushi technique, so here are some overly detailed responses to questions that I get frequently:
**What is “sushi grade” fish and how do you determine if fish is safe to serve raw?**
I think most people in this group know that there is no official “sushi grade” criteria. When we think about fish that is safe for consumption, primarily we are thinking about bacteria and parasites. Both are related to the handling of the fish and also depend on the fish’s habitat. Regarding parasites, you have to think about the life cycle of parasites. The parasite larvae usually reside within the crustaceans and other foods that fish eat, so they stay within the guts of the fish. When fish die, if the fish reaches a certain body temperature, then the larvae migrate into the meat of the fish. If this happens, then you risk eating the parasites when you consume the meat. That is why it is so vital to cleanly filet fish that you are serving raw and removing the guts quickly and in one piece/washing carefully. Therefore, if proper fish handling (from the fishermen to the fish suppliers to the groceries to the consumers) occurs, you have a very low risk of parasitic infection. Because farm raised fish also don’t eat infected crustaceans, they also typically don’t pose a risk.
In summary, this all boils down to trust in the seafood supply chain. In Japan, the supply chain is well established so you can trust that the fish won’t reach the temperature at which larvae activate and migrate into the fish meat. In the US, there are more unknowns because we don’t have a history of raw consumption, and it only takes one slip-up along the supply chain to ruin the fish. The USDA freezing regulations are there to protect you from this, although I am quite sure not all sushi restaurants in the US who are aware of this information actually follow these freezing protocols. Essentially you can buy from a reputable seller or you can freeze your fish according to USDA standards. It is all a balance of risk vs benefit.
Bacteria is a separate issue. Usually this is directly related to the freshness of the fish. Here, you think mostly about the exponential bacterial growth curve which is related to fish storage conditions. With proper refrigeration and care, bacterial contamination shouldn’t really be an issue. That being said, a lot of fish benefits from aging, which has to be done at low humidity to avoid bacterial colonization. The flip side of this is that you actually have a more time than you think for fish to be at room temperature at the latent phase before the exponential growth occurs. That’s why sushi fish can be (and optimally is) served near room temperature rather than refrigerator cold. But if you keep warming, cooling, and repeating the process, that’s how you’ll get sick.
**Does the order to a nigiri meal matter?**
Structuring a menu is not throwing out fish names in random order. I would describe this series of nigiri as beginning with the classic edomae neta (toppings), followed by seasonal neta, and finally pure indulgent neta. A 3 part series: Classic -> Seasonal -> Indulgent. Within each category, courses tend to proceed from lighter to heavier, although some breaks are sprinkled throughout. When you make sushi for yourself, you can go ham and make 25 courses even before *bonus* pieces 😂🤫. I learned about this from reading Jiro’s book Sushi Chef: Sukiyabashi Jiro by Shinzo Satomi, and scouring over many sushi menus.
**How can I get started making sushi?**
You have to start somewhere, and you won’t know how far down the rabbit hole you will end up until you try. So maybe start with Hmart and your trusty chefs knife and see if you like it before you start ordering specialty fish and using deba and yanagi knives. If you like it, dip another toe in. A lot of people ask me what my fish looks like when it arrives. It looks like fish! It can take a lot of work to descale, filet, and salt vs vinegar cure vs age each fish. And some are really small so one fish = one sushi! It can be a lot of work (it takes me up to 12 hrs for fish prep in a day because I do most of this alone and also for several days worth of fish) so you have to enjoy it, and there are lots of resources out there. Tip: You don’t have to be taught something to learn something. Most of what I’ve learned has been from watching YouTube videos that were not intended to be instructional videos, or watching sushi chefs live at work.
cool