Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

[Nivek]

Never tried it, and obviously there a many different types but I'm assuming they have a somewhat similar taste. I'm going to a sushi place for a friends bday, and I don't want to puke.

[55]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

I can sum it up in one word:

Spoiler

AWESOME!

[boomhauertjs]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

If you like spicy foods (like hot wings), go with a spicy sushi dish. You will like it.

[Maxattax3]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

the rice is kind of cold. the seaweed has a very delicate saltiness which is immediately overpowered by the rice. Whatever meat/fish is inside is basically just a hint of flavor. maybe taste it in aftertaste.
Sushi usually has light flavors. there are the spicy ones though.

best advice is to just grab one and take a bite. you wont throw up. besides all that stuff is in your mind. think about the crap your ancestors used to eat...

even if you dont like sushi. remember it is always better than diving face-first into an uncooked deer carcass.

[pfunk880]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

best advice is to just grab one and take a bite. you wont throw up. besides all that stuff is in your mind. think about the crap your ancestors used to eat...

even if you dont like sushi. remember it is always better than diving face-first into an uncooked deer carcass.

That's very comforting.

[Maxattax3]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

That's very comforting.

haha! Here to help.

[mgoblue]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

As someone who just started eating sushi in the past year, I'd stick to the rolls...I've tried various things and the rolls with whatever fish/seafood are usually good for me. Once my ex got "sashimi" sushi, which is basically just the slab of raw fish that you eat with some sauce. That just doesn't work for me, too chewy and i don't care for it.

I was nervous about trying sushi too, but it's really not bad. I don't think the flavors and whatnot are overpowering...I think you'll be fine.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

Matattax did a pretty good of summing up the basic flavor components. The rice is sweetened with a bit of sweetened vinegar and carries that taste, the fish is extremely delicate, and the condiments are generally meant to accentuate or enhance the flavors of the fish itself. Wasabi is something that I feel is mostly unnecessary, and I only eat it if the chef put it on the sushi himself.

The majority of sushi is either roll or Nigiri style. Rolls tend to be flavored more strongly (i.e. spicy tuna roll, california roll) while Nigiri is all about the taste of the fish itself with the rice as a subtly sweet delivery vehicle.

Nigiri:


As a recommendation for a newbie, I'd suggest trying some salmon Nigiri (normally on the menu as 'shake', the Japanese word for salmon) without anything else on it including soy sauce. Note: soy sauce (and wasabi) is something that I use sparingly with sushi because the saltiness and flavor can be totally overpowering to certian fish -- I pour a TINY bit into the tray and then dip only a small corner of the fish into it. Salmon is the absolute sweetest, most fatty and delicious fish you'll taste raw aside from top-grade tuna belly, so it's a good starting point to see if you like the flavor and texture of sushi (plus it's one of the cheapest pieces of fish, an added bonus). Tuna is also a good start, but there's something so buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious about salmon Nigiri that it's still my favorite single piece of sushi, even after eating a bunch of crazy/expensive/delicious **** over the years.

Anyway, you always want the fish side to hit your tongue when you eat sushi, as that is where all the flavor and aroma is. The rice is just a carrying vehicle for the fish. If you're a soy sauce guy, dip the Nigiri fish-side down and then eat it fish-side down (all in one bite). And don't bother with chopsticks -- the vast majority of sushi is meant to be eaten with you hands, hence the warm towel they give you to clean your hands before the meal. Only use chopsticks when there is sauce drizzled on the sushi or when eating something communal (in which case you pick it up with the back end of your sticks and eat with the small end).

Rolls:

Pictured is a Caterpillar Roll, which is normally Unagi (freshwater eel) and cucumber wrapped in avocado

These are either regular rolls (where the seaweed sheet nori is on the outside), inside-out rolls (where the rice is on the outside, like the one pictured above), or a handroll (which look like a seaweed ice cream cone with the ingredients inside it). These are generally easier to eat with chopsticks (not the handrolls, those are meant to be eaten by hand), as they often have sauce on them. But with the inside-out rolls, you have to be very ginger with them, as the rice can fall apart, especially when dipped in soy sauce (yet another reason to avoid too much soy).

Rolls are normally the easiest for a non-sushi person to get into, which is why most newbies go into a sushi bar and order a California Roll without hesitation -- it's just crab, cucumber, and cream cheese.. nothing raw, nothing Japanese, nothing adventurous at all. I personally avoid those like the plague, and go for more extravagant rolls like the Caterpillar Roll, Spider Roll (da bess... softshell crab FTW), and Rainbow Roll, which are more complex and actually have Japanese ingredients and (normally) raw fish.

As a side note, I had the absolute best meal of my life at Sushi Sasa in Denver last Friday for my birthday. It was the $60 Omakase (which roughly translates to "cook for me" in Japanese) tasting menu, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. The best progression, the highest-quality ingredients.. just un****witable. I had the best piece of red meat I've ever eaten in that meal as well, which was a piece of exquisitely-marbled Kobe beef that was barely seared and then had the seared bits cut off so it was essentially raw and served Nigiri-style.. just ridiculous.

[Maxattax3]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

was a piece of exquisitely-marbled Kobe beef that was barely seared and then had the seared bits cut off so it was essentially raw and served Nigiri-style.. just ridiculous.

omg. *Homer Simpson drool*

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

Mgoblue, if your sushi is chewy and it's not squid or octopus, you gotta find a new sushi bar...seriously, almost no fish should be chewy in its raw state.

Sashimi is the purest and most Japanese way to experience sushi -- just the fish itself (maybe with a light sauce, usually not), sometimes served with a bowl of sushi rice. I would eat sashimi every day if I could, I always feel like a world-beater when I get out of a good sushi meal... so pure and light.

Also, my best advice is to just eat it. Like someone else said, the majority of sushi you'll see in the US isn't too exotic where you'll eat it and want to throw up because of a strong flavor that you don't like... it's too subtle for that kind of reaction. Unless you're totally weirded out by the texture of cold, raw fish, I can't see anyone not liking sushi becasue the flavors are so amazing and delicate. And even if you don't like the Nigiri or sashimi preparations, there are enough rolls out there that are absolutely delicious, many of which don't even contain raw fish.

If you are grossed out by raw fish, here's a list of things that are a good idea to try:

Caterpillar Roll -- Unagi is delicious, hot, smoky, and also happens to be eel... don't let that phase you. The buttery avocado and the sauce they put on the Unagi will win you over.

Spider Roll -- tempura softshell crab, normally with asparagus and avocado

Any tempura roll -- these normally have tempura-fried lobster, crab, fish, etc. -- very tasty and the texture contrast is the best part.

Veggie Rolls -- some places do these great, and others just wrap up cucumber in rice and call it a day.. good option if you're not feeling fish though, and they're always very cheap.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

omg. *Homer Simpson drool*

Haha, you have no idea man... I've been thinking about the various components of that meal several times daily for the past 4 days. I'm SO READY for my tax return so I can go there by myself at lunch sometime, plop down at the bar in front of Chef Wayne, and blow $80 on the 7-course menu. Best meal of my life, without hesitation. And it goes up to $100 per person (I had the $60) -- I don't even want to think about the awesomeness of the full shebang... holy god, I'll probably just die right there with a creepy Jack Nicholson Joker smile that will befuddle the coroner.

[slickdtc]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

I love sushi and I had sashimi once. I think it gets a bad rap just because it's raw. But it tastes pretty similar to regular fish. It's kind of like smoked salmon if you've ever had that.

I doubt you'll throw up. It doesn't taste bad and it's not like ram testicles or something crazy that you see on Fear Factor.

I'm big into spicy stuff so I like to put a decent amount of wasabi on, though wasabi is probably the spiciest thing in the whole world.

When I got the sashimi (which was in a nice restaurant, I usually eat sushi at like chinese buffets which aren't as high quality) it came with some green seaweed looking stuff and some soy sauce (and I think a little wasabi). It was the first time I had just the fish without the extra stuff and it went good with soy sauce.

Anyway, I think sushi and sashimi is awesome. But my advice is to stick with salmon, tuna, crab, or lobster stuff. I know they have like eel, octupus, and squid types but that's getting a little too delicate for me.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

If you were given Unagi and didn't know it was eel, nearly everyone would like it... absolutely delicious, especially when it's fresh from the broiler. Most people have eaten calamari at some point or another, so squid shouldn't be too scary these days. Most of the "weird" stuff is exclusive to traditional Japanese sushi places or in Japan itself -- the craziest stuff you normally find in US sushi bars are various roes (meaning eggs, normally from the Flying Fish, salmon, or Sea Urchin roe), eel (which as I said tastes incredible and not like you would expect an eel to taste), and octopus. You have to look pretty hard for something that would qualify as "disgusting" to the American palette for the most part... the Chinese are more adept at using the crazy parts of animals.

Sashimi gets a bad wrap because it's the most simple, bare preparation of anything ever, basically. There are few food cultures as minimalistic as the Japanese, and sashimi is the epitome of that minimalist mindset. And yeah, if you don't like raw fish, ANY sashimi will not sit well with you, because there's no rice, rolls, or sauces to really distract from the taste and texture of the fish itself. It's definitely the most "advanced" type of sushi for a diner, even though it's the most basic for the chef.

Wasabi (the stuff that you get in the US anyway) is basically just horseradish with green food dye. REAL wasabi is grated off the root itself and provides a slight spiciness but is mostly just floral and subtle (i.e. the total opposite of the lime green wasabi that most places have). Real wasabi is very expensive/rare and you normally have to ask for it and pay extra to even get a look at it, as 99% of places will only put out the crappy green horseradish stuff.

My view on wasabi is that it's totally unnecessary for 95% of sushi, and if it were necessary, it would've been put on by the chef. It's such a strong, overpowering flavor that it's basically "bull in a china chop" among the subtle flavors of sushi and serves to wreck the whole point of sushi, which is the taste and quality of the fish itself. If you drown stuff in wasabi and soy, you may as well buy the cheapest cuts of fish you can find, because it's essentially ruining the good fish's flavor -- I'd smack someone that I saw rubbing wasabi all over a piece of Toro on general principle.

And wasabi isn't even close to the spiciest thing in the world... it's just as spicy as eating raw horseradish, since that's all it is. Any pepper worth its salt is spicier than that.. wasabi's overwhelming taste is just due to the feeling it gives you in your nose, which is from the horseradish.

[ezekiel55]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

When I was younger my father and I would go deep sea fishing in Mexico on his boat. We would mostly go after Red snapper, Dorado, and Yellowfin Tuna.

When we would catch the yellowfin, (some people may find this a bit disgusting or cruel) we would kill the fish and filet it on the boat fresh out of the ocean. We would then cut sashimi style cuts from the from the filet of the tuna.

As a youngster, this was a frightening scene for me and my father had to persuade me to eat it (almost savagely) like that...I can say without a doubt, after overcoming my fear, this was one of my first culinary epiphanies of my life.

The fish was succulent and tasted of the sea, all while practically melting in your mouth. I look back on those days with great appreciation for the bounty of the sea.

Had I not experienced that, knowing what I do now, I would never forgive myself for passing that opportunity up...Sushi is a wonderful experience, just remember to research the place you are going and make sure you never go to a discount/all you can eat joint, because all they're doing there is trying to pawn off fish that could go spoiled soon.

I tend to go to my guy on Thursday's or Friday's, because that is usually when he gets his shipments in...I like to sit at the sushi bar and ask my guy (we're buddies) what's fresh and he's honest with me...especially when I'm craving Uni or Toro, if it's not top quality he wont serve it to me.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Can someone describe the taste of sushi?

Oh, and for you newbies -- if you go into a sushi bar and it reeks of fish, just leave. When you put something up to your mouth to eat it, it should smell faintly of the ocean, maybe salty, but not like fish (there are some stronger-smelling fish that are like that naturally, but for the most part, fish shouldn't smell like anything). Fishy smells means old fish, so find a better place for your first sushi experience if you notice that.

For people worried about mercury and stuff like that, it's probably best to avoid tuna for the most part, as they are very big old fish that collect a lot of that stuff throughout their lifetime. The best tuna (Big Eye, Yellowfin, etc.) are worse in this regard than smaller, more common varieties like albacore. So don't take your pregnant wife out for tuna sashimi... salmon and other fish tend to be more pure than tuna as a general rule.

When we would catch the yellowfin, (some people may find this a bit disgusting or cruel) we would kill the fish and filet it on the boat fresh out of the ocean. We would then cut sashimi style cuts from the from the filet of the tuna.

I envy you... I want to make a trip to Alaska at some point so that I can catch a salmon, yank its skin off, and just devour that mofo Grizzly-style. My life would be complete.