There are two types of uni that you can get from Hokkaido, ‘Ezo-Bafun-Uni’ and ‘Kita-Murasaki-Uni’, which are recognized as being especially tasty. Despite the name, ‘bafun’ which means ‘horse dung‘, but the Ezo-Bafun-Uni is rich in flavor and generally pricy. I prefer the Ezo-Bafun seen above in the photo, which is rich, dense and has a long lasting taste balanced by ocean’s sweetness.

A wonderful start, a “mise en bouche” to launch a lunch of fish that carried on for over two-hours. It is rare the a lunch can go on for so long given sushi is a fast food.

The miniature-sized squids are served at Kizushi in Tokyo with a touch of shoyu, and shoga that accentuates, combines and completes a circle of flavors. The perfect combination leaves us feeling a sense of joy.

When ordering fish, you must, “always see it, in order to taste it”, because there are few foods that require “looking” as much as sushi does, and the reasons are straight forward; essentially raw, in its purest state, and freshness and sizes matters.

But is sushi really raw? It is considered a raw food but in reality more than 85% of the nigiri is cooked rice. Rice that can be textural, wet, soggy, and the taste can range from sweet, or salty and tangy or even umami when combined with other condiments. That is why sushi pleases so many people all over the globe.

Most fish served at sushi counters all over have a neutral taste, and it is often the condiments that provide us a sensory connection to sushi, or the fattiness of a fish. The overwhelming interest by fans all over the globe who adore sushi agree on one thing, fish. But there are so many types, a variety of styles but few are true to its roots. So many condiments emphasize the fish’s personality but at the same time some provide a permutation.

The sushi served in the west is too often exaggerated by the over use of sushi’s condiments that do not belong in the traditional sense in the preparation of sushi, or have been mutated by chef’s trying to catch the attention and challenge the palates of westerners. For example, the use of chili peppers or jalapeno does not permit the fish to breath in your mouth and stuns your tongue. While not always does it stun your tongue, because some are sued to “hot” but it can initiate a sense of immediate recognition = that’s what we like!

Eating spicy foods can help you to stimulate the production of endorphins, and the stimulation occurs when the “spicy” part of the food, like a substance called capsaicin, comes into contact with taste buds on your tongue. Receptors at sites on the tongue send a signal to the brain; the signal is similar to a pain signal. The pain signal triggers the release of feel-good endorphins. This may be why eating spicy foods seems to be so “addictive.”

Also foods rich in complex carbohydrates, or starchy foods, help elevate your mood because of their effect on your brain chemicals. The nutrients found in complex carbohydrate foods help produce chemical messengers within the brain that influence behavior. One important neurotransmitter, serotonin, helps regulate mood and appetite. Foods such as breads and pasta, are rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that converts to serotonin in the brain.

Most seafood is high in protein, which can increase dopamine. In addition, Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish can also increase receptors for dopamine in the brain.

But when enjoying traditional sushi, the direct and concentrated flavors should appear much smoother, lighter and more refined. Onto your palate as you begin to enjoy the elegance and balance instead of spiciness, and the fish itself. But I thought fish is neutral….well yes and no, as that is a matter of understanding balance of taste.

It is true that in Japan, you can eat sushi that is ordinary, and still feel as if this experience was monumental. Of course each person defines his own experience by his or her own level of understanding. So what is it about sushi that lures so many avid fans into the sushi den?

Is it one common denominator? I cannot say that one single taste lures you in, but the rice is the single most important ingredient, salt (shoyu) and spice (wasabi). Rice as the single most important ingredient covers almost the entire mouth’s neurons and helps spread a layering and spectrum of taste. It lays down the pathway for the fish. Perhaps that is why you see some sushi connoisseurs flipping the fish into their mouth to have the fish make initial contact. After masticating the fish, rice, wasabi and shoyu, they smile with joy.

Sushi is mostly raw, and therefore the tastes are very pure and much more complex to balance. In fact and sadly humans are rarely interested in balanced taste, because balance is very hard to obtain, or define for most people. If we have to describe our favorite ingredients in sushi, we cannot say “balance”, we would say, savory, spicy, sweet, salty, etc. This is a kind of balance because we counter tastes, for example sweet with salty. This is the way we discover our own balance in process, and our brain has certain predisposed ideas through experience and childhood, etc and it is those very combinations that help us find what we refer to as balance.

So the idea of balance is something you construct on your own to determine whether or not you enjoyed the experience or not. This is quite easy to understand when you eat sushi at Globus in Zürich. The kaiten sushi is decent, yet it isn’t really what I would refer to as the best sushi experience. It is more like a filling station for people hooked on sugar and spice.

I am used to eating a more refined sushi that incorporates most or all of the listed ingredients below. The kaiten sushi is just a watered down version of authentic sushi culture. The chef’s are often non-Japanese, ingredients are mixed and distorted to enhance taste, in a similar way to Nobu. These types of sushi experiences are all interpretations, and lack the true essence fresh fish, causing adaptations, or changes subject to environment, the same way that kusaya is salted and dried:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4v420lOZ7g

What is extraordinary about sushi is the ingredients can be narrowed down to a handful. If you think about it, there are not too many cuisines that have so few ingredients and cover so much territory. These are more or less the divided number of parts. But before you look at the parts, there are a few elements that are crucial in understanding sushi and taste.

It is my theory that in the west we find chewiness an obstacle and it interferes with pleasure. But in the west, taste includes chewiness and in Japan “katai” is a description used for certain hard characteristics. This hard quality adds a dimension of taste even though it is not perceptible as taste.

This hard quality adds a dimension of taste and to the overall experience. While you masticate the fish, you have a different sensation. The mouth is all about sensations tastes and flavors so think about it next time you sit down for sushi. The countless efforts made by fishermen who work hard to purvey the finest grades of fish to be consumed raw. Shouldn’t chefs in general respect more the processes, I think so.

Culture is the very basis on which we shape our future and preserving it, is respecting it, diluting it is destroying it, unless the dilution is a contribution to the evolution of sushi as a cuisine.

The basic ingredients of sushi:

1. Rice: background to the fish’s taste
2. Vinegar: used in several fish preparations and rice preparations
3. Shoyu: is the principal umami taste
4. Salt: is sometimes substituted in place of shoyu and also used in several fish preparations
5. Tsume: reduced eel is used as a sweet base for eel
6. Wasabi: fresh grated horseradish is used to neutralize the fish’s bacteria
7. Yuzu/Lemon: citrus is used to contrast fish and add dimension
8. Ginger: grated or sliced and used with fish preparations or alone but there are several preparations, one is more sweet and is refered  to as gari which has been marinated, while shoga is the ginger itself without marinating
9. Onion: used in various preparations such as neggi-toro
10. Red Pepper: used in ponzu sometimes
11. Shiso: a leaf’s distinctive aroma and pungency and might be compared to that of mint or fennel
12. Ume: plum can be used
13. Nori: seaweed used to wrap rice and fish, or ume and shiso
14. Kombu: used in some preparations
15. Egg: tamago
16. Root vegetables marinated: campio, betara, etc
17. Mirin: used in the preparation of rice

The color of awabi is always different and the shades varying from side to side depending on the outer leading edge which in the photo has a tinge of brown orange. This is normal. I was asked a question about why sushi chef’s use the bottom edge of their knife to penetrate the fish. If you notice, the fish has a few cuts that are inflicted onto the surface and penetrate the body. I believe that this relates to “katai”, the hardness that certain shellfish impose. The cuts are made by the chef automatically to assist the chewing, it is a cut to; one, give already an interior softness as the surface is hard and two to promote easy chewing. Either way, what matters is the size of the sushi and the quality of the fish relates to the size.

For example, the larger the size of a lobster, the worse the taste, the smaller the sweeter. There is an optimization when it comes to fish and size. Size relates to age and species and often the growth ridges are a sign. On farmed the ridges are very different from wild caught abalone. The females are often more tasty, and if you look at the underside interior of the animal you can see a white area and this is the sperm (a male). The darker area beside the white area is the guts of the animal.

There are so many species of abalone: http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/06future/abspdiv.htm

Torigai, a cockle shellfish, bi-valve and seasonal, and commonly referred to in English as ‘heart clams’, or pucker or wrinkle. Torigai is a bi-valve mollusk of the family Cardiidae, having rounded or heart-shaped shells with radiating ribs. They live in sandy beds or in eel grass and feed

This cockle is superb, it is chewy, yet not crinkly or crunchy at all. It has a slight difference in texture that is at one end different from at the other. The white part is slightly more chewy, the muscle connector, and the darker side where the cockle gets triangular commonly called falcate due to the tapering, and it not attached in the shell.

The perfect sushi: just now in season, Karei is more fleshy than it’s cousin the Hirame, which is less weight and less chewy. Karei moves swiftly through the seas, it sits at the bottom and feeds quietly. It is rich in protein and low in fat and a wonderful fish.

I tried Mizutani twice this past month and I try a restaurant at least twice before giving my opinion. The chef is wonderful, he is swift, polite and smiles a lot – a good sign. He is quiet and does not speak too much although he sometimes has a one-off comment with regulars.

I did see him annoyed, ignoring a client who was a little drunk and showing his feathers but he maintained his composure. The client was rude enough to tell him how much he enjoys Kyubei sushi – rather ridiculous behavior.

The fish at Mizutani is a little larger than I like. His rice is a little too soft bordering mushy, and was a little too warm. Both times the rice dominated and the balance is not 100%.

I tried it Mizutani a second time to confirm my feelings and, I think he has what it takes to be a three star. The bridge is made up of many, serving, preparing and the ambiance is calm, over decorated and a little nouveau riche. I cannot say I wouldn’t go back because I liked him, he is respectful, diligent and careful how he works. His helper is immaculate.

My one but not only criticism is he and his helper sometimes throw things, i.e the fish, the sushi mat but with a certain precision. A helper must never ever throw any fish as this is a non-no! A chef can do as he pleases, it is his counter, his choice and each client has his/her own opinions.

I think if you are a foreigner – please go there and enjoy it, the value for money is excellent and the taste and overall performance is way above anywhere else outside of Japan.

http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/city-essentials/best-sushi-restaurants-tokyo-549502

I have been going to Jiro san’s sushi counter for thirty years, when he was awarded 3 stars, I was surprised. After thinking about it, I began to understand it. In comparison to most sushi counters, he is the right candidate for a three star restaurant. He is aged, his sushi is good enough, and among the piers, he ranks at the top of the sushi hierarchy, to qualify as a three star chef.

I have many stories about Jiro Sukibashi, I have been going there for thirty years. The last time I visited him, it was before he was awarded his stars. My wife and I invited a serious foodie, a librarian at the Atomic institute of Japan. She lives to eat, she is disciplined and knowledgeable. He charged JPY-160,000 for three people, and the meal was very nice but an over priced “nigiri” for what it was.

The photo above is not Jiro’s sushi, it is a small 7 seat counter sushi bar in central Tokyo.

In sushi; the size of the cut, and the marriage between the rice’s size and the fish’s size distinguishes the style and taste. This is integral. Of course, the rice quality, and taste, cooking technique and finally the quality of the fish goes without saying.

So what is about Jiro that makes him so renowned; the answer is simple; publicity, a movie and the support of Michelin’s most powerful. They needed a grandfather, a figure to launch the Michelin. He was the closest to one of the most renowned, and important French chefs. Not to mention, Michelin is French, and there is no other cuisine in general that has influenced Japan’s everyday life more than any other cuisine.

When it comes to sushi, there are certainly plenty of options, less popular sushi counters, and maybe even more expensive. But when you are charged more than 40,000/person you are being “ripped off” unless you drink too much, and ask for seconds which is impolite given that sushi is portioned.

So why did those very sushi obscure sushi counters not make the Michelin’s list? The answer is because a Japanese chef permits no foreigners without an introduction and accompaniment by the client. At one time Jiro san was very strict and didn’t permit any foreigner to just walk in. He actually could become irate and throw them out. But these days, it doesn’t matter, at least to a Michelin star owner. The day you become Michelin, is the day you no longer make all the rules. The rules are Michelin rules, if you dare to change them, a letter, or letters to Michelin can cost you a star or worse. Sushi Araki once a 3 star disappeared from the list totally.

Foreigners are still in search of filling and fulling their Michelin dreams, but to eat what, if you have no proper and legitimate reference. For many foreigners Nobu is their reference. No disrespect intended, because he has changed Japanese food the same way Parker changed French wines. But eating sushi is much more than just an exercise of filling your tank, moreover, it is an exercise of understanding, respect, tradition, culture, technique. Most of all, fulfillment and interaction between nature and man, a convergence and balance at the hand and imagination of a chef’s individual talent and that connection and dedication of his customers.

If you are keen to try an alternate to Jiro, I suggest Hasaguchi san, a one star Michelin. His wife is very elegant and he has very good fish and good skill. I used to frequent his sushi counter when he had six seats in a tiny space, and of course no star. I still wonder why he joined Michelin but everyone gets tempted when relying on Japanese salary man to survive. Life is becoming so trendy in Japan that you do whatever you need to do, in order to survive.

In the outskirts of Tokyo center, the old town of Asakusa brings back memories of my early days in the 1980′s. In Tokyo I would drink in tiny exclusive drinking establishments with Kabuki actors, watch live performers play and sing along or just sit and drink scotch and water.

Asakusa is still the center of Tokyo’s shitamachi, the “low city”, one of Tokyo’s districts, where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past survives. The old-fashioned look, touch and feel. Secret doorways take you into well-groomed Japanese itamae restaurants unique in charm and setting.

I was taken by close Japanese friends to a new wave restaurant operated by a single chef, itamae. The dinner was mixed between various fish courses, some raw and some cooked, something I am not used to.

The chef served akami after a fast marination in shoyu, working swiftly serving his clients at a 9 seat counter. The chef 43, young-looking, quiet and the non speaking type chef. He doesn’t say much at all, and enjoys a quiet atmosphere. he does explain the food, and instruct his clients on how to eat his fish as he serves a dish, i.e. this is with no shoyu, lemon only, etc.

This chu-toro Bluefin is said to be amongst the best in Tsukiji market (after Golden Week) weighing in at 240kg. The spring summer tuna flesh has a changed, a different consistency, the red is a different red color from the past months, the fat looks and tastes different, it migrates in different patterns, changing over from the winter cold waters.

Research reveals that Pacific bluefin tuna in the East China Sea has circadian cycle. Tuna stay in the mixed layers of water around the surface at night, and move to deeper water in day time. They work according to a precise biological clock, in part their flesh changes due to a warmer body temperature than surrounding water. Also, difference between body and water temperature tends to be bigger as water temperature drops. So the spring waters change, the diet fluctuates and the fish develops a different taste.

Tuna enjoy and profit from swimming in warm eddy waters, a mass of water of one temperature that breaks off from a current, spinning in a circle, and drifts intact through waters of a different temperature. Warm blooded Bluefin find eddies which can maintain their integrity for long distances. Marine Biologists know very little about eddies, but consider that they play an important role in the circulation whole Atlantic Ocean and in fish migration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeber

What is the fuss is over their taste, is it their metabolism, migration and demand in the world market, or just the fact that this fish is a substitute for the fat we miss in meat.

If not the migratory lifestyle, the high speeds and exceptional diet. The Bluefin swims with its mouth open feeding on the oceans best diet. The tuna prey on macrozooplankton and micronekton, mainly crustaceans, fish and cephalopods.

The Bluefin payoff is the amount of energy it receives per unit time, more specifically, the highest ratio of energetic gain (fitness) to cost while foraging in search of energy foods. A one metre tuna needs about 15 kilograms of live fish to put on one kilogram of fat, and about 1.5 to 2 tons of squid and mackerel are needed to produce a 100 kilogram bluefin tuna.

Tuna consumes as much as 5% of their body weight daily and must continually swim with their mouths open to force water over their gills, super charging their blood-rich muscles with oxygen. It is also said that Magnetite, a mineral found in neural pits in the tuna’s snout, may be used by the tuna to detect the earth’s magnetic field for navigation.

They are nomadic fish that have been tracked across entire oceans, tracked from California to Japan, and Pacific Bluefin tuna attains their internal heat production as high as mammals. Thus, they can maintain their cavity’s temperature when they foraging into colder environments.

Next time you sit down to enjoy sushi’s raw fish, think about it, the fish worked hard, swam across the ocean and was a global trotter finishing its way into a mouth.

Sushi is back in 2013, tonight I had a taste of Japan’s best, a repertoire of many including of red, white and pink. Many people speak about their own sushi experiences, most believe their sushi is the best, either because it is, or because they just what to believe they know best – believing isn’t knowing, but is suffices for most sushi addicts.

Shooting photos of Mr. T’s sushi on my iphone 5 is a crime, as his sushi is so perfect, the cut precise, the size small enough to be comfortable to chew, the quality and taste is as good as it gets! These types of master sushi chefs are becoming scarce as Japan merges with the west and adapts to the habits of western civilization.

There is talk about what are the best uni, and hands down the best are from Hokkaido. There are two types of uni that you can get from Hokkaido, ‘Ezo-Bafun’ and ‘Kita-Murasaki’, which are recognized as being especially tasty. Despite the name, ‘Bafun’ which means ‘horse dung‘, is very rich in flavor and generally fetches a price as much as $500/box with as few as 10 boxes of this quality reaching the Tokyo market.

I am used to seeing foreigners making “wasabi soup” with their soya sauce, and it makes no sense at all to wash your fish in a sauce bath. Why do people do it? The reason is our receptors are easily trained, we like pleasure and spice in our mouth bonds to our sensory system like glue.

In humans, the sense of taste is transmitted to the brain via three cranial nerves. When we eat spice, it stimulates the temperature fibers in the tongue, our brain gets stimulated and you get hooked.

It is difficult to explain to your tongue the perfect combination in sushi but it exists between; the seaweed, the rice and the fish.

I often use sea salt in place of soya sauce, as I find it more neutral and less imposing. To keep it simple, the fish must be fresh, pure, the seaweed sharp, crisp and the rice tasty enough to balance the three. This is the perfect sushi.

Travel the globe, eat in three star restaurants and dream of the best fish, fresh, raw and untouched. There is no staging or special lighting, it is all done by the twist of a wrist. The magic of his hands, he works with the swiftness of a ballerina, each move in sync. The fish is immaculate, it looks and tastes the same. There is no-show, no fancy tools, or any pretension, it is all about the experience and his fish.

This is something that would scare most people but not me. Last night I was offered some fresh liver of the awabi, a hard shell-fish that is commonly referred to as “awabi kimo”. It is something that you would think has a sharp taste or even very bitter but the contrary. It was incredibly tasty, smooth and was a delight.

These are the finest salmon roe (ikura) you’ll ever find, not a single imperfection on their surface, not a broken or perforated egg to be found. The color is deep red, the shapes are uniform and the taste as pure as it gets. I feel sorry for foreigners that suffer the terrible experiences of salmon roe that leaves you with the worst impression of a saltines or a fishy taste. This is perfection!

Who is Mitani and why does it take a year or two to get a reservation?

I am not sure but what I am sure is that he is skilled, he works hard and his cuisine is intricate and very balanced. The chef works diligently, he is swift when he moves in his small space behind his counter.

This is not a sushi restaurant exactly, it is more kappo, a counter styled Japanese seasonal restaurant. Kappo cuisine is “counter cuisine”, a chef cuts and cooks, he prepares multiple dishes of seasonal foods serving them to a select number of guests. The number of guests is not more than 9 at most because the counter gets too long to control for the chef.

The chef starts by serving a series of small dishes (pictured below), most are related to his principal focus, which is fish.Chef Mitani is very personable, although he doesn’t speak too much, in my case he wasn’t quite familiar with my knowledge of Japanese cuisine, so he would ask politely in Japanese, are you okay to eat this. The meal was a few hours, he served “omakse” chef’s choice and offered a choice between Champagne, red wine or Japanese sake. At first I found it odd that he was serving red wine and not white wine but it made good sense. The flavors of white would be too overwhelming for many dishes.

The chef has a very serious interest in wine and it is clear that he does a good job matching food and wine. I admit that I am skeptical about the combination of Japanese foods and French wines, although his matching worked. The wines he selected had excellent acidity and more aromas on the nose than in the glass.

The chef has the most particular finger work, he takes the liberty to pass you in-flight a piece of sushi. Suddenly he leans forward and hands you sushi, a little awkward at first, you have no other choice then to take it and eat it – a new sushi venture, a first in over 30 years.

1-22-1 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo, Japan
T: 03 5366 0132

This is one of the hand rolls will find made in sushi – it is named Ana-Q and is made with salt water eel and Japanese cucumber. You do not shoyu when eating this roll.

The mactra clam (aoyagi) has two uses for sushi. The muscles are more concentrated in taste and softer than the chewier foot of the mactra clam. They have a sweet aroma with an ocean scent, called kobashira or small poles, referred to the adductor muscles.