I Love Sushi!

Sushi is a fad I am whole heartedly embracing and one I also propagate financially and market-wise in introducing more people to sushi. Light, delicious and nutritious, sushi is a dream come true for pescatarians (vegetarians that also eat fish) and health conscious eaters. One can even go so far as to take their pocket fish eating guides with them to their favorite sushi bar to ask where and how the day's fish were procured, adding some sustainability efforts to the eating of sushi. Most importantly though, eating and enjoying sushi is about art. Sushi is beautiful. The color, the shape of the fish, the arrangement of the rolls and nigiri and sashimi on a plate are all pieces of 'ingredients' that lend to better tasting sushi.

My beau and I love sushi. We eat it at least once a week, maybe once every other week. We are fortunate to live near a semi-ok sushi bar, JP Seafood, conveniently located within walking distance of our apartment. On special occassions we've been known to shell out more cash to go to Fugaku, which has added atmosphere and ambiance over JP Seafood. One down side to our shared love affair with sushi - it is expensive! With all this in mind, when Christmas rolled around and simultaneously I received a Boston Center for Adult Education catalog, my prayers were answered on page 3 - I LOVE SUSHI, 101, two classes for $98 each (I know, expensive, but it was more money to save money later). Jason got a Christmas gift, we both got to eat sushi, AND save money by learning to make it. It helped that I had a credit with them too from a prior class I was unable to take.

We really enjoyed the classes. They were held at Boon Ko's distribution/sushi center located at the Fish Pier #4 at Sea to You. Boon is a fish seller and sushi chef, but only for corporate, personal, or catered events since he has grown in popularity and demand. He has a sense of humor so made the class fun with his jokes and constant smiling face. The class started with about 15 people and ended with about 6. Perhaps the cold got to them, as one of Boon's work place heaters broke. But it was cold in general to better store the day's catch. Or maybe it was how he was over 45 minutes late to start the first class and left us outside kicking and banging on the door. And then dismissed class about an hour early. Over all, these were not serious deterrents to my beau and I as Boon gave us some pointers in the first five minutes he talked.

For you my dear readers, the $98 class fee is waived, and you will be inducted into the depths of sushi knowledge I have gained in a two part blog session. The sessions will be backward though, in that we will discuss cuts of fish and best practices and finding good restaurants BEFORE personal prep as I only have Session #2's notes with me now.


*aside - the sushi to the left was made by my beau, look at those rolls, perfect!*

To find out if your favorite sushi bar chef is indeed a REAL sushi chef, try asking the following questions -

1. What fish is good today? <-- KEY! 2. What are the three types of Tuna? (toro = fat, chu toro = fatter, and otoro = the fattest and they all come from the belly) 3. Try bringing a fresh caught fish and asking them to prepare it for you. A real sushi chef would. 4. Why does the nori (seaweed) have lines on it? The lines are from the drying process. Boon supplies most Boston and metro Boston area restaurants with their orders, so when another student asked the $1,000,000 where to eat question, we all leaned forward in anticipation. First, he answered graciously with a general way to tell what restaurants would have better sushi - those who's manager or boss came down to his shop THEMSELVES to pick out the fish instead of having it delivered. His main point stressed over and over again was that a good sushi chef is nothing if he does not have GREAT ingredients. Boon went on though to specify that Fugaku's manager does NOT come to get the fish, though because they order a lot and are popular, they can be picky and send fish back. Jason and I had heard of a small place in Chestnut Hill called Oishi, (or is it this Oishi in South Boston...damn it! I guess we'll have to try both) and supposedly their sushi trumped Fugaku. Boon only confirmed this when he told us Oishi's manager DOES come to get the fish. Next stop, Oishi. It is small and kind of out of the way to get to, but now we are convinced it is worth it to go.

Buying and making your own sushi is more cost efficient; it reduces the cost by almost 90%, as the fish cost makes up only %10 of a sushi tray price. Most of the cost is in the labor - making sushi is no easy, quick matter if done properly. Buying a pack of 20 veined, cooked, and tail-less shrimp is $20, about $.50 cents per shrimp! A good slab of white tuna should be about $15/lb where as the more desired and tastier Toro tuna costs $40/lb. These may sound expensive, but when you can get about 20 - 100 rolls out of each fish, do the math? The prices work out to be less than a $1 per piece! Even for nigiri sushi or sashimi, which are not Maki (rolls), but are the slabs of fish with rice (nigiri sushi) or without (sashimi). Jason and I have just recently moved on from our obsession with rolls on to nigiri sushi. Something about the texture and bite of a fresh piece of fish quenches a primal taste within me. My first experience with nigiri I did not think as much, so I've definitely evolved my sushi tastes in the last 5 years.

One last surprising piece of information was learned from a guest speaker visiting the class. His name is Walter and he teaches at BU...I think and lives in Hawaii most of the time. He focuses on the science side of food and sushi making. He told us that Sake and beer do NOT compliment sushi, they actually take away from experiencing the full flavors. He said if you see what a sushi chef is drinking, a real sushi chef drinks TEA. Tea and ginger do something to enhance the breaking up of complex proteins into amino acids, which are easier for the tongue to taste. And also - CHEW! Chew a piece of sushi as long as you can because the more you do, the more all the ingredients interact and more and varied tastes are released throughout the process. American sushi is far larger than Japanese sushi, so the Japanese style of all or nothing is not fitting for American sushi.

All right, my teaching is done for the day. Do join us again tomorrow, same time same place for Session #1 on secret tricks in the actual process of MAKING your own sushi. Stay tuned...but in the mean time, through my searches for this post I found a very helpful and informative Sushi Site. I also found this article from the NY Times which I am REALLY REALLY not sure I agree with at all and only confirms that what Walter said is true, Japan is still a MALE DOMINATED society. Otherwise, enjoy today! Get some sushi!