Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is My Sushi Authentic?
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Wondername
 Posts: 17 |
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Also, overcooked pasta with sliced chicken on top of it. Not to mention the meat-and-random-ingredients-pie which part of the world likes calling simply "pizza".  Yup, I know it's fusion, but when you were raised on a nation's authentic cuisine monstrosities like these make you want to really really cry. That being said to each their own, as long as it makes you happy.
That being said...
When I first started to eat sushi I watched/read more than a few guides on how to do it in the first place. The mixing of soy sauce and wasabi was somehow always mentioned as part of the etiquette, although it seemed fishy at the time I still followed it because hell, what does a filthy gaijin like me know. I should have freaking known it was bull. So, this leads me to two questions. 1) How did this myth gain so much support in the first place? 2) Does anyone know of a good and serious book about Japaniese table manners? Not only for sushi, but also for eating things like ramen, fish and meats with chopsticks, etc. I wouldn't mind reading more on it as once I visit Japan I don't want people to bleed their eyes out while watching me eat. Thank you for any suggestions. 
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Ah, Cody, soulless was the meatloaf they served in my grade school in the early 60's. Ketchup, and lots of it, was your only hope of salvation. We bought a "Sushi for Dummies" book when we first tried making it at home, it proved to be very good to have in prepping the rice. Since we've lived in Central Florida we have gotten a fairly well equipped kitchen with the proper tools, bowls, mats and presses all from the local Asian markets. It's fun when the owners ask how your family is doing and then show the latest fish they've gotten in. Mark Gosdin |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3879 |
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Maybe I've been lucky where I live, but the sushi that I've had here in the US isn't far too different from what I've had during my many Japan trips.
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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I'm pretty lucky, I live in Michigan but we recently got a real good Japanese restaurant in town that does some damn good sushi. My sister-in-law's brother spent a few years in Japan and has tried the food in that place, he said the sushi is on par with the stuff he had in Japan even.
granted, it does have some very American sushi options, but it's also got a great selection of nigiri, I really like their sweet shrimp and sea urchin nigiri there myself. I was hesitant to try the second one at first because I heard how bad sea urchin can be if it's not good, but it was WONDERFUL. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 590 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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I'm so grateful to live near a sushi restaurant run by a Japanese immigrant and his very chatty wife. Really delicious sushi.
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zrdb
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Sushi to me has always been ricerolls filled with fish (cooked-not raw) and an outer layer of seaweed. I was in japan many years ago when I was in the service and I always ate at local joints and had many a good cheap meal.
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harminia
 Posts: 1997 Location: australia |
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Australia has a bit of Inari around. How authentic it is is another question, but I see Inari in many sushi places (in Melbourne at least) I can't be a sushi snob because I hate fish and I eat the avocado filled sushi instead. |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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Same here. People shouldn't take the answerman's reply to mean they're eating "fake" sushi. I mean, it's a very simple dish, you can't screw it up that much. There were of course small differences in the Japanese versions, and far fewer crazy combinations like we have invented in the west... and it tasted a hell of a lot better because the fish is way more fresh than I normally get, but it's not like I thought to myself "I've been eating fake sushi my whole life!" when I first had sushi in its land of origin. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Sushi also comes across to me as a malleable food, much like pizza: Starting with the rice as a base, it can then be adapted towards whatever is popular in the area. A purist wouldn't call a California roll "sushi," for one, but I do (and so does Wikipedia), and there's no doubt as to its sheer popularity. And avocado was used in the first place as a substitute for fatty tuna, as its texture is similar and fatty tuna was not easily available year-round at the time the California roll was invented. Frankly, I find it strange to have such a rigid definition of "sushi" such that it excludes locally available ingredients or fusion variants. Perhaps there is a dividing line where it's no longer traditional or authentic, but personally, that doesn't mean it can't have its basic title or that it can't be delicious. Sushi is a type of food with sushi rice as its common ingredient, not something specific that has to be prepared in a particular way like Oysters Rockefeller or baklava. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Rigid definitions are the way of the snob - it's part and parcel of how they set themselves above and apart from the unwashed masses. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Not just that. Sorry to say, but whatever passes as "sushi" in the West shouldn't even bear the same name. It diverged so much from its origin that it should be classified as something else, much like biological families branching out into different species. It's not just about tasting good, but also the ingredients and the process to make it so. If we don't uphold to tradition, we'll eventually lose our way and end up with chimera concoctions that have no rhyme or reason other than being "diverse." |
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Kyjin
 Posts: 126 Location: Los Angeles |
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I've given up trying to find "authentic" sushi in the States. I enjoy going out occasionally with my friends to get Americanized rolls, but at this point I just consider that a different thing than the sushi I eat in Japan. They're both good in their different ways. Closest I can get to authentic is this little mom and pop place run by an old Japanese couple in Oceanside, CA. They only do lunch and it's open till they run out of food, but the fish is excellent.
While I'm in Japan, I basically only eat sushi at this hole-in-the-wall conveyor belt place in Ikebukuro. I've been going there for five years now and it's always superb. Simple nigiri at 130 yen a plate! You really can't beat that. 
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Zerreth
 Posts: 207 Location: E6 |
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This opening doesn't quite make sense to me. Has Justin actually been to any cities on the east coast? Is he claiming the West Coast (honestly to be read LA, SF or Seattle) are the only places you don't spend massive amounts of money to eat "authentic" sushi? and that he's never seen chirashi outside of the west coast? Honest question, did you even eat at any sushi restaurants outside of your comfort zone? What about the wide range of quality in sushi in Japan? It's always an ongoing joke that conveyor belt sushi, while cheap, low-quality sushi, is still begrudgingly sushi. I've eaten from buffets in the US where they slather rolls in multiple sauces to entice you to drink more beverages, all the way to great places in Ginza (including Sukiyabashi Jiro) and I too can say that while the west's love for maki and its variations leaves something to be desired, there are easily just as many restaurants that do know what they're doing with their rice even if it isn't "the best." This answerman kinda rubs me the wrong way. A lot of this doesn't sound like snobbery more than it does ignorance. What exactly do you mean by authentic? Because Jiro's sushi isn't cheap by the way, and there's no way you can claim you can find that kind of quality cheaply on the west coast, let alone anywhere in Japan. Along those lines, I still enjoy unagi-avocado maki. I know the traditional way is unagi-cucumber, but I very much enjoy the former better and that could've never happened without globalization. |
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Brutannica
Posts: 256 |
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I often see chirashi on the menu as well (I live in DC), although it doesn't seem to get ordered very much. |
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