Sometimes when people translate Uni, they would say sea urchin roe, it is not really correct. It is the organs that produce the roe, the gonad. It sounds kind of gross but I think it is really tasty. (Maybe that is why the restaurant name it sea urchin but not sea urchin gonad)
I have heard that the best uni is red in colour, with orange and yellow as the 2nd tier and 3rd tier. Luckily it all taste good when it is fresh. When it is not, it taste rather disgusting like a rotten egg. Sea urchin lovers beware of your cholesterol level too, it is realy high in cholesterol and fat and you should desist after 2 or 3 pieces (probably you can’t afford it anyways, it cost 3-4 dollars for apiece)
Wonder taste and aftertaste, buttery and fatty. Also love-it-or-hate-it kind of food. Not recommended for first time sushi-eater or people who don’t like fishiness. But it is my favourite seafood so far. Use of sea urchin includes: chirashi(sashimi bowl), nigiri sushi, sashimi served with cucumber or seaweed, fried rice, steam egg with uni, many chef creation rolls etc….. Let me know if you can think of more.
Tai is a commonname containing a variety of different fishes in the Pagellus catagory. The English commonname is (red),(blackspot) sea bream. I think this is not a very prominent fish in the US since I don’t see them being advertised a lot in Japanese restaurants here.
Probably one of the reason it did not get as popular in US is because of its inflexibility in the use of the fish as a cooking ingredient. It is a shiromi (white meat fish) and is mild in taste. Since sashimi in US has to be flash frozen before consumption, the taste would just be quite undesirable to consume as a nigiri sushi or sashimi. It would not be a good ingredient to make a chef’s creation role either. The texture is quite chunky, and since it is not a fatty fish, you can’t really bring in extra flavour in a fish. The next best thing besides making it in nigiri sushi might be grilling it with a sweet sauce.
Probably you should eat this fish either very fresh or don’t bother to eat it at all. It’s hard to find a good one in sashimi grade.
This are some extra sushi which you can are good sushi restaurant in US. Counting the one you already post, this should give you alomst 100. hope you like it
aji(鯵), ama-ebi(甘海老), aka-yagara(赤矢柄;アカヤガラ), ankimo(あん肝), aoyagi(青柳), ayu(鮎),
botan-ebi(ボタンエビ), buri(鰤), engawa(縁側), ha-gatsuo(ハガツオ), hamaguri(蛤), hamo(鱧), hatahata(鰰), hikari-mono(光り物),himo(紐), hiramasa(平政), hirame(鮃), hoshigarei(星鰈), ibodai(疣鯛), inada(鰍), isaki(伊佐木), ise ebi(伊勢鰕), kaibashira(貝柱), kaiware(貝割れ), kajiki(梶木), kanpachi(間八), karei(鰈), kawahagi(皮剥),
kibinago(黍魚子), kinusaya(絹莢), kisu(鱚), kochi(鯒), kohada(小鰭), kurodai(黒鯛), kuruma-ebi(車海老), makajiki(真旗魚), mamakari(鯯),
masu(鱒), mekajiki(目旗魚), meji maguro(メジマグロ), mirugai(海松貝), mutsu(むつ), negi-toro(葱とろ), ni-ika(煮烏賊), nori-tama(海苔玉), ohyō(大鮃), okoze(虎魚), sanma(秋刀魚), sawara(鰆)
sayori(細魚), sazae(サザエ), seigo(せいご), shako(蝦蛄), shibaebi(芝蝦), shiitake(椎茸)
shima-aji(縞鰺), shime-saba(締鯖), shira-uo(白魚), shiro ebi(白海老), shiro maguro(白鮪), shiromi(白身), surimi(擂り身), suzuki(鱸), tachiro(太刀魚), tairagai(平貝), torigai(鳥貝), toro(とろ)
tamago – which you have already post. The following are the other two style of tamago sushi
tyakin(茶巾)
datamiki(伊達)
Good call! Thanks for your list and I’ll be writing soon!