Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is My Sushi Authentic?
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harminia
 Posts: 2009 Location: australia |
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Two words: Sushi Pizza |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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The thing is...there is no point to getting overly preservationist about cuisine. Every country's food is ever evolving and innovating with time and, with the exception of cases of deliberate preservation, would be unrecognizable from what that country's cuisine was like 100 years prior. In the case of Japanese cuisine, for instance, tempura is a good example of that: Though it is now a staple of Japanese eating, tempura was adapted from the fried seafood and vegetables the Portuguese missionaries were eating during Lent. The word tempura is even a corruption of "tempora" in al tempora quadragesimae, the Latin phrase for "time of Lent." The local Japanese people took a liking to this food, made their own version of it (with a heavier emphasis on seafood and downplayed the vegetables), and it's become so pervasive that Japanese cuisine would be very different without tempura. And this would not have been possible had there not been some inter-cultural mingling, a fusion food becoming so ingrained that the Japanese made it their own. I would definitely advocate preserving recipes, preparation methods, and ingredient availability so this knowledge is not lost, but it also should not be closed off to the outside world to be experimented with. Otherwise, the culinary arts would never evolve and would stagnate.
I know it was mentioned on the article itself, but the sushi burrito also! A food truck around here going by Jogasaki specializes in them and is one of the more well-known local ones. Every time I find them somewhere, there are always long lines. Ain't cheap, but I had one and it was very nice. 
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4414 Location: New York |
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All I know is I get my sushi from this one place on 23rd Street in Manhattan, it can get pricey, and the beer literally comes in the cans from Japan. Damn good stuff though, but I haven't eaten there since the Cubs won the pennant.
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roxybudgy
Posts: 129 Location: Western Australia |
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Interesting read. I knew sushi was defined by the rice, but didn’t know about some of the different types of sushi.
I’ve recently come back from a 4 week holiday in Thailand and Japan (spent two weeks in each country), I travelled with my mum (who is a Thai native), and although she likes the stuff they sell at “Japanese restaurants” in Australia and Thailand such as teriyaki chicken on rice and avocado sushi, she did not like the food we had in Japan, said it was too salty, with strong miso flavours. While in Japan we mainly had udon, soba, and one night we had a sukiyaki kaiseki dinner at a gorgeous ryokan. A few times my mum would see a sushi restaurant in Japan and say “Let’s eat sushi!” thinking that the place sells seaweed rolls, but she changes her mind when I remind her that just about everything on the menu has raw fish, which she dislikes. She was aghast at all the people eating raw tuna at Tsukiji fish market :p Ironically, after we left Japan, we had a 6 hour layover in Bangkok where my mum’s friend invited us out to dinner at a “Japanese restaurant”, and my mum loved the food there, she ordered a seafood tempura set meal. To be honest, I really enjoyed the food at that restaurant more than anything I ate while in Japan. Japanese food, or at least the Thai version of it, is very popular in Thailand from what I saw. There were many stores and restaurant chains selling the Thai version of Japanese food. Personally, I think taste trumps authenticity. I make my own sushi, pizza, and pasta at home to suit my tastes. It may not be authentic Japanese or Italian, but what matters is that it tastes good to me. Westernised mutations of Japanese food (or any other cuisine for that matter) exist for a reason. If you like authentic, good for you, nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think people should feel negatively for liking the non-authentic versions. |
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Time Bandit
 Posts: 203 Location: Raleigh |
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I eat sushi a LOT. I really only avoid squid and octopus (it's a texture thing) and eel (a flavor thing). My favorite has to be anything with roe...I just adore the stuff so much, and I don't care what fish it comes from. I will do supermarket sushi if I have a craving that must be placated, but I prefer watching my chef make it while I sip sake. We've got a couple nice places here, but you have to really look for them, and even then they all still serve a lot of Amercanized stuff including the mayo-based sauce. Chirashi is something I get often as well.
Interesting article. I must say I did not know about the wasabi in the soy sauce thing...I've been doing that for ever. |
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harminia
Posts: 2009 Location: australia |
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Because of this article I bought unauthentic sushi for lunch
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FLCLGainax
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I've had Japanese-style sushi on occasion. California rolls are more common where I am, though.
Last edited by FLCLGainax on Tue May 16, 2017 12:30 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2538 |
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To adapt a quote from Spock, authentic sushi is the beginning of culinary wisdom, but it is not it's end. I agree with Leafy Sea Dragon that Philly Rolls and the like, when done well, can be celebrated as creations that improve on the original and advances the culinary arts. Not a fan of Sushi Pizza or Burritos though... Liked this article, makes me wonder if Mr Sevakis can do a YT video under a pseudonym like AniBro titled "You're Sushi's Fake" 
Last edited by Hiroki not Takuya on Tue May 16, 2017 12:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4608 |
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I feel a bit left out in that I've never really eaten anything resembling legit Japanese cuisine, either authentic or Americanized. The thought of raw fish as a whole really doesn't do it for me (give me a nice broiled filet any day), and even on the "fake" side none of the combinations with rice and seaweed seem particularly appealing. I mostly missed out on the ethnic cuisine side of things while growing up, so I'm not too adventurous in that regard. There is a local relatively-nice Japanese restaurant that I've been vaguely curious about, but I don't know how many of their menu offerings are truly authentic. At the very least I wouldn't mind trying actual ramen someday.
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FLCLGainax
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There used to be a lot of half-price sushi places in Manhattan, but I haven't seen them recently. Last edited by FLCLGainax on Tue May 16, 2017 12:57 am; edited 3 times in total |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Just wanted to mention that Kula is a chain, and I've noticed the quality varies a lot from location to location. The one in Irvine over in Orange County, for instance, seems like it's perpetually staffed by beginners, as the seaweed is peeling off of half of them and the rice is coming apart in a bunch more. It's cheaper than the other Kulas, however, at least since the last time I went there, which was years ago. It does have a lot of what looks to be authentic, or at least as authentic as what available seafood will allow, although I think most of them are run by Koreans rather than Japanese, as I see most of them in Korean districts. (My current favorite conveyor belt sushi place is Gatten, which is also a chain and mixes authentic with fusion--the Northridge branch, for instance, has blackened Cajun salmon nigiri sharing a belt with natto gunkan. And I love them both because I'm bizarre and actually like natto. My previous favorite, Sushilicious, which is thoroughly on the inauthentic end, is out of business because some patrons got food poisoning and sued over it. Sushilicious lost the case and is gone forever. It made me think about hiw risky running a sushi joint actually is in the United States, as you're constantly treading on eggshells hoping no one gets sick and takes legal action.) Is that something Spock actually said?
There are some sushi places around here where everything is perpetually half off. I never believed for a second the full price amounts actually exist. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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I'm lucky as I have some decent, and 1, place to get sushi. I live around Annapolis and we do have a Fuji and Sakura steakhouse. We also just got a Ziki. Same thing. They're ok. They're not mind blowing but they're not basic chain grocery store sushi either. The Whole Foods here actually has a pretty good sushi bar. It's just a small section in their prepared/hot foods area but it's all 100% fresh made that day. Normally within just a few hours at most as they only do so much at once and they constantly sell it. For sit down places there is a place called Nova and a place called Joss. Nova is a sushi bar/fusion restaurant so it's not "authentic" but it's still pretty good all things considered. Joss is by far the best place for sushi in Annapolis. The prices are higher and not just from the quality of the food but it's also downtown by the water so that rent is sky high. They are constantly busy though.
It's actually quite nice. You can go in, get some sushi, walk around the various shops on main street, go by the water, see some boats, and there's 2 great places for ice cream afterwards. There's also a great small little coffee place. Then there are several great places for surf and turf dinner if you really wanna spend some money lol. If it wasn't for the location (parking) I'd go to Joss more often. Well, and it's a good 20-25 min drive by the time I park and Nova is 5 min away so yea. Over the years I have found that I happen to love eel rolls. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I've been to the Blue Ocean place that Mr Thacker mentioned in Fairfax. It is indeed quite authentic and excellent. I will say though, as much as I love good authentic sushi, I'm a sucker for good food in general, and most of the variations on sushi that I've had, regardless of how authentic they are, have been quite tasty. I'm one of the least picky people you will ever meet though, and have entirely given up on pretending to have refined taste buds of any kind. Cheap sushi, pizza with pineapple, gyro's that actually come wrapped, fajitas, all of it's good to me.
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MrTerrorist
Posts: 1348 |
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The Sushi restaurant in my area are good since they serve both Authentic Japanese and Western Sushi along with some Japanese dishes and some some western fusion dishes(eg.Tori katsu with Macaroni pasta). However, due to health regulations and food safety, the fishes are steam cook(enough to not lose their color) before being used to make sushi.
Regardless on whether you're eating sushi made in Japan or not, it still good food since there are "no borders to ingredients" as former Iron Chef Japan Rokusaburo Michiba has said. |
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Scalfin
Posts: 249 |
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Maybe it's regional (Boston has always been very cosmopolitan, if hostile to its domestic neighbors), but inari are incredibly common here, even being a staple in grovery stores.
That''s because there's no one Chinese cuisine. American Chinese was largely established by people from Canton and Hong Kong, which are kind of equivalent to Louisiana in their culinary distinctiveness. One thing to note about the vinegar in sushi rice is that it's primarily a food safety thing. Unseasoned cooked rice if probably the most dangerous food on earth and goes off quickly at room temperature. All the other seasonings are there to balance the vinegar out. |
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