No recipe required......just soy and wasabi!

Stillwater North - Sept. 05

fresh Raw Oysters shots
Uni Sashimi
Pounded raw abalone sashimi
 

Pounded raw abalone sashimi
 

Really? Is it good? How does it compare to say octopus sashimi?

John

IMO: MUCH better than tako    (gotta be freshly picked though )

Mooch:

Soy and wasabi = YUM    We sometimes add a little rice vinegar.

Funny wasabi story:  My wife (Japanese) once brought a huge plate of delicious sushi to a potluck party, with a bowl of wasabi.  Placed it on the table next to the other food, bowls of chips etc..  Came back a while later.  Found a big sign placed next to the wasabi:  "THIS IS NOT DIP!"   

First character (seen below) = "Fish"  Second character = "Delicious"
Together = "Sushi"

-Matt

Matt - cool character!!! I might have to put that on my kayak!!! Or even tatoo it on my left butt cheek 


I have another funny wasabi story....back then, I used to work at a Sushi place called kamameshi (kettled cooked rice) and I had some friends who came by for dinner....who never had sushi before....I gave them a bowl of wasabi and told them it was an appetizer guacamole dip...the rest is history 

Just to let you know Mooch & HobieSport, that kanji posted is quite old. I couldn't even read it when I first saw it. The most common writing is:

Although the older one may be a bit more poetic it's unreadable since it's the borrowed Chinese character.

Here's a whole page that explains it all: http://homepage3.nifty.com/maryy/eng/sushi_kanji.htm The page says that the old kanji posted by HS originally is still well in use today but all the years I was there I never saw it on a restaurant.

No offence HS, there's just a lot of problems w/ kanji interpretation. some of the tattoos people get... oh man! If they only understood what they had in their skin permanently.

Z

I know we agree about soy vey Mooch but  That looks like slightly firm baby poop. Looks like something you'd eat on Fear Factor.

FF

That looks like slightly firm baby poop. Looks like something you'd eat on Fear Factor.
FF

Don't be afraid FF... soy sauce and wasabi is a magic combination.

Z

   Hi Zeelander,

I showed the "Fish Delicious" Japanese characters to my Japanese GF, Mariko,  and she recognized it immediately, but she is 57 and so is familiar with older forms of the Japanese language.  Her sense of the Japanese language is considered more classical than modern.   And you're right, the characters you mentioned for "sushi" are the more common usage these days.   Mariko also worked at a Sushi restaurant in SF in the early 1980's.   I admire anyone who can learn Japanese.   I tried and gave up.  I do admire the consistent rules of the Japanese language, especially Kanji.  It's enviable compared to English.   Anyway, I think it's safe for Joel to use either character, er, wherever he likes.   

Personally I just like the term "Fish Delicious" because it kind of says it all. 

MMM...UNI!

-Matt

Z - is it easy to learn the Japanese language? I was always fascinated with the Japanese Culture. Thinking of taking a class......so some one in NCKA can finally make sense of what Naoaki says 

Z - is it easy to learn the Japanese language? I was always fascinated with the Japanese Culture. Thinking of taking a class......so some one in NCKA can finally make sense of what Naoaki says 

uuum, I wouldn't exactly say it's easy but I sure think it's easier to learn than English. The word order is a little backwards but the rules are very consistent. The hardest part of learning Japanese is the reading and writing.
Three alphabets:
Hiragana: 109 characters
Katakana: 109 characters
Kanji: roughly 2600 in modern day usage & each character can be read a minimum of 2 ways.
This explains pretty well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji

Learning some casual conversation is easy enough though. I don't have any of my textbooks anymore but I can find out what I used if you're interested.

Z

I think he's talking about the uni, not the wasabi.

Uni is wierd stuff with a 3 flavor taste progression.

1 - salty icky fishy gunk
2 - strawberry
3 - back to salty icky fishy gunk

You really have to go through the "ug, hmm king of good, ug..." reaction yourself to understand.

That looks like slightly firm baby poop. Looks like something you'd eat on Fear Factor.
FF

Don't be afraid FF... soy sauce and wasabi is a magic combination.

Z

I think he's talking about the uni, not the wasabi.

Uni is wierd stuff with a 3 flavor taste progression.

1 - salty icky fishy gunk
2 - strawberry
3 - back to salty icky fishy gunk

You really have to go through the "ug, hmm king of good, ug..." reaction yourself to understand.

  Hahaha...too funny!

My wife loves uni.  But then again, she loves natto too (or snot-o, as I like to refer to it as).  So when she says "try it, it's good!" I take it with a grain of salt.  And a shot of shōchū to kill the taste.    Or even better, one of the really good types of sake that we get when visiting her family in Saga, which I can't name because the labels are all in kanji and I'm just a bakka gaijin. 

Ditto what Z said about learning the language, too.  The basics are pretty easy, and pronunciation is a breeze when you understand a few basic rules.  Learning the kana is the hard part, as well as learning which form of speech is needed given the circumstances.  I'm a terrible failure at it...too old and set in my ways I guess.  I mean, how many ways of counting do you really need, anyways?    The best I can do is a few basic words & phrases.  I can actually understand the gist of the conversation a lot of the time, if not exactly what's being said.

What's painful is when my mother-in-law calls from Japan and I'm the only one home.  THOSE conversations are funny...her English is barely better than my Japanese.  I give her a lot of credit though, for taking English lessons at her age so that she can converse with me and her grandsons.  The conversations usually go something like:

"Hello?"

"Ah, hello.  This is Japanese grandmotha"

"Oh, hai!  Moshi-moshi!  Konbonwa!"

"Haha, yes moshi-moshi."

"How are you?  Genki desu ka?"

"Oh...I am very good. Thank you.  How are you?"

"I'm very good, thank you."

-silence-

"Ah, Yuko is home?"

"Oh no, Yuko is working tonight. She will be home in three hours."

"Ah, ah...<unintelligible Japanese>"

"Um, Yuko...working.  At hospital...byoin?" (she's a nurse)

Ah! I understand. Yuko working."

"Hai.  My nihongo is very bad...gomen nasai. Your English is getting very good though!"

"<laughter> Ah, thank you.  Ah, your Japanese is good too." (she's a good liar) 

-silence-

"Ah, please tell Yuko I telephone."

"Hai!  Yes, I will."

"Okay, thank you. Good night!"

"Okay..."

et cetera, et cetera...

Usagi, I can relate to your conversations with your mother in law.      
It reminds me of trying to converse with Marikos' (GF) brother.   My knowledge of Japanese consists of "Uni, Sushi, Wasabe, Hashi, Sake, Subaru, Aikido, Karate, Dojo, Hakama, Sensai, Hi! Arigato Onigiashimas!"   What else do you need? 

Since this thread is about food, anyone who doesn't appreciate Uni is missing out.   Uni is sexy.   Like oysters. 

I must say that I turned into an Uni snob. I REFUSE to eat uni from any sushi restaurant. After sampling the freshly picked uni from the ocean (thanks to Stuart and Freddie) I'll only eat 'em fresh off the uni shell. I also like to add a little squirt of lemon with the soy and wasabi mix 

Chucke seems to like to spread the uni over warm rice....never tried it myself but I may consider one of these days.