cold dead fish

There was a time in my life when I didn't like sushi. Hard to believe, huh? Well, my parents didn't eat it, my siblings didn't eat it, and I don't even remember having friends who talked about eating it. The idea of eating raw fish just didn't appeal to me.

And then at some point, I was talked into trying it. And I discovered I didn't hate it. As time went by, I ventured out on my own. At first, I started with the more general stuff - salmon, tuna. And then I started to like the more exotic stuff. And I also started to care more about quality. Now, I'm sort of a sushi snob, but not even as much as the husband, who only started eating sushi about 8 or so years ago. He's a serious snob and won't go to a lot of places. I'm still willing to try some places. But I have discovered that if I have less than first-rate quality sushi, it's so incredibly unsatisfying. The downside is that really good sushi isn't exactly cheap, and the more I have sushi, the more I'm interested in the less ordinary stuff. But it's all so worth it.

And just to get this out of the way, sushi and sashimi aren't the same thing. Sashimi is just the (generally) raw fish/seafood/whatever - no rice. The pieces that include rice are sushi. I love sashimi, but it's even more expensive, especially since without the rice, you don't get as full as fast, so you end up ordering more. We splurge on sashimi on occasion.

I still like salmon and tuna, though I'm not generally a fan of smoked salmon, as far as sushi is concerned. But I also love yellowtail and albacore. I love toro (fatty tuna), and I've also had yellowtail toro, and oh my goodness, is that amazing. A friend turned me onto giant clam multiple years ago, so that's a favorite as well.

I also love masago (smelt eggs - the little tiny orange ones) and ikura (salmon roe), and a friend and I discovered a combination some years ago at a restaurant in Japantown in Los Angeles called tres huevos - three eggs. In one of the sushi cups, it's filled on one half with masago and the other half with ikura, with a quail egg yolk (it's too slimy for me if you include the egg white as well) in the middle. It's a little hard to describe, but I've managed to get a few sushi chefs to duplicate it for me. Yum.





Back in my early years of sushidom, I would generally order the combination, and it usually came with uni - sea urchin. I tried it once and discovered I didn't care for it, so it was something I never ate. I would always give it to the one friend who also liked sushi - my sushi buddy. As I got more into sushi, I got tired of ordering combos that came with things that I didn't like (uni or eel - I don't object to the taste of eel really, it's just my thing about snakes that makes it hard for me to eat eel) or didn't think was worth the space in my stomach (ebi - cooked shrimp). I started either ordering a la carte at a table or just sitting at the bar and ordering individual things. A few years ago, the husband and I were at a sushi place, and we had been chatting with the sushi chef (one of the reasons I like sitting at the bar - it's a much nicer experience when you get a great sushi chef who's also personable). He was suggesting different things to us and then suggested uni to me. I told him I'd had it and didn't care for the taste. He said I just hadn't had good uni. He cut off a piece and offered it to me. What the heck, I figured, and tried it. It was actually quite good. He said that the freshness of the uni really made a difference. I suppose it could also be possible that my tastes have changed and matured over the years as well, but freshness does make a major difference when it comes to sushi and sashimi. I decided to order uni at the couple of regular places I visited, all places where I trusted their fish. And I've now come to really like the flavor of uni. My sushi buddy friend was amazed the first time I told her about it, and she looked at me pretty incredulously as I ordered it and ate it!

I'm also a fan of sweet shrimp - raw shrimp. I like shrimp in general, but ebi is just boring. Sweet shrimp (again, freshness and quality are really important) is delicious. At some places, they also fry the shrimp head, which I love as well.

I've also discovered that I love raw scallops, much more so than cooked scallops. It just has a different flavor and texture when it's raw.

I was also introduced to monk fish liver some time ago and discovered I like that as well. I've seen the preparation and presentation of it differ in different restaurants, and I don't necessarily prefer it one way or the other.

One of the major things we were introduced to is Spanish mackerel. We were at our favorite restaurant with one of our favorite chefs, and he suggested the Spanish mackerel. I told him that I didn't care for mackerel. He said no one likes mackerel and that this was different. We trusted his recommendation - and boy were we glad. I find mackerel to be the epitome of "fishy-tasting" but Spanish mackerel is more of a white-fish texture (like red snapper or halibut). We only ever order it as sashimi to savor the flavor. Mmmmm.

One of the other discoveries that I had made on my own is herring roe, which the husband refers to as little yellow surfboards. It's not something I've been able to find in many places, but I did discover that Kabuki Restaurant in Pasadena added it to their menu a little while ago. It actually comes with a little bit of the fish and some of the roe, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I'm also a fan of spicy tuna hand roll (I like it with gobo - the little marinated carrots - and masago) and salmon skin hand roll.

I will also on occasion order miso soup and/or seaweed salad - I love seaweed.

On the matter of California rolls, let me tell this story:

The husband and I had taken two of my nephews to sushi. The older one, we'd taken before. The younger one, he'd never had sushi before and I didn't think he'd like it but I figured he could have other stuff there, and he ended up liking pretty much everything I ordered and had him try. I had also ordered him some regular food, to make sure he had enough to eat, and he'd chosen vegetable tempura and teriyaki chicken. We sat at the bar, and because it was busy, we would occasionally have to wait for the sushi chef, which was ok because we like watching them make other orders. As we waited, my younger nephew would have bits of the cooked food. I asked my older nephew if he wanted some as well, and he said no and just sat and waited. I finally figured out that he had learned to handle the sushi dilemma - you have to manage the room you have in your stomach. You can only eat so much, so you have to make sure that you don't waste stomach space for things you don't really, really want. He said he could get tempura and teriyaki chicken elsewhere, but not so with sushi. He was perfectly fine with just waiting patiently until we had a chance to order more sushi.

That's how I feel about California rolls. They're made up of krab (fake crab made of flour and water mostly), avocado and cucumber, wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yep, no fish or seafood at all. My question is - what's the point? It's mostly a waste of space. I have on occasion had a bite or two if someone else wanted to order it, but I never order it myself. I've only got so much room in my stomach. Why would I want to occupy any of that precious space with that? I've heard people proclaim how much they love sushi, and they talk about how they love California rolls, and that's pretty much all they eat. Ummm, yeah, well, as far as I'm concerned, that's not sushi. And yes, I've gotten yelled at for having and expressing that point of view, but hey, too bad. I figure California roll is ordered by people who 1) want to pretend that they like sushi because it's cool or hip or whatever but don't actually like raw fish (which is mostly what sushi is made of) and/or 2) want to go for the inexpensive stuff.

There are a couple different places that I go to on a regular basis, and one of these is called Tokyo Wako. It's a combination teppan steak place and sushi bar. We've never been to the teppan tables, just to the sushi bar and the side bar where you can get cooked food. They have great tempura (shrimp and vegetable) and they have awesome udon as well. There are four locations - Arcadia, Pasadena, Ontario and Long Beach. We've been to 3 of the 4 locations. They have very fresh fish, and the service is great. They don't have too many of the exotic items, but it's generally a good selection. They can be very busy, which limits your time with the sushi chef, but if they're not quite as swamped, there's more time to chat and for them to make off-menu items.

Here's their main website.

We've gone through a number of different sushi chefs that we've liked, but unfortunately, many of them have left, and we don't know where they went. There's still one chef we know from our early days, so we go to visit him occasionally since he works at a location that's not very near our house.

If anyone knows where Jimmy and Jun went, I've love to know.