"japanese dining" news and stories

I said I was saving the best for last, and yes, it is finally here. The end. El fin. Dessert. It's uni.

Uni is typically grouped with the "roe" family, which is an understandable mistake, since it certainly comes from the inside of the spiny sea urchin. However, the actual thing we eat, the soft, dark yellow ochre colored stuff that sits atop an ovalette of rice, enveloped with a collar of nori is not sea urchin roe. It is the sea urchin's internal organs that produce the roe. What does that mean? It means that uni is a gonad. It can be male (darker) or female (lighter).

I used to shy away from uni because of its appearance - it looks like it would feel somewhat like what I imagine a cat's tongue, and taste like the cat's tongue after it ate a can of Starkist. However, when uni is fresh and of high quality, it is sweet, luscious, and just ever so slightly firm. It should look like whole pieces, not broken and mushy.

Previous lessons at the School of Fish:
Saba - holy mackerel!
Hirame - white fish, sometimes halibut
Tai and Suzuki - snapper and sea bass
Maguro - tuna
Toro - fatty belly of tuna
Shiro Maguro - "white" tuna, aka albacore
Ahi tuna
Hamachi - amberjack, aka yellowtail
Sake - salmon
Gai - the bivalves, i.e.clams, scallops, and oysters
Ebi - shrimp
Ika and Tako - squid and octopus
Kani - crab
Masago and tobiko - Roe, roe, roe your boat
Ikura - salmon roe

We've been touring the sushi bar here at slashfood, and last I checked, I think we had just eaten some sake (that's salmon, not the drink, though we've dipped into that, too).

Saba is the Japanese term for mackerel; hikari-mono is the more general term that refers to all oily, shiny fish. In general, most people find that saba is "too fishy," but that's the characteristic that totally turns me on about it. Because it's so fishy, a lot of sushi chefs will use citrus juices, vinegars and other types of marinades to make it more palatable. I just like it straight up. (The above look like saba rolls, but they're really just saba on rice like nigiri with the addition of daikon sprouts and yuzu.)

If you're going to get all crazy and order saba, though, I recommend that you order it a little later in the meal, since the fishiness may linger on the palate, making it harder to taste any of the lighter fish.

Previous lessons at the School of Fish:
Hirame - white fish, sometimes halibut
Tai and Suzuki - snapper and seabass
Maguro - tuna
Toro - fatty belly of tuna
Shiro Maguro - "white" tuna, aka albacore
Ahi tuna
Hamachi - amberjack, aka yellowtail
Sake - salmon