Salmon is one of the most common fish in the sushi world. Its prominence is extremely high in all Japanese restaurants and it can’t really be called a Japanese restaurant if salmon does not exist in that restaurant at all. Know for its very fishy taste, salmon has a buttery texture and looks radically orange at all times. In my experience, salmon usually taste pretty good to people who have just started sushi. (Given that they like the complete rawness taste of sashimi) One extra fact, salmon is considered a cheap(er) sushi fish in...
Tuna is the twin brother of salmon in US at the very least. In fact, US restaurants like to “abuse” salmon and tuna in my opinion. Their creation rolls are mainly made from salmon and tuna. Regular tuna has a much milder taste, since it does not have a high level of fat like salmon does, however it’s taste is pungent and sharp in a mild way. Since tuna has a high level of iron, you can really feel the iron in the fish. Once again, tuna in the US might look bright red and that might not be the best ones that you should eat. Tuna...
Yellowtail is the English translation for “hamachi “in the Japanese restaurants. However the Japanese have tons of names for fish, and “hamachi” only means the young yellow tail. Variants of Yellowtails incluide: Hiramasa: Yellowtail amberjack Inada (very young yellowtail) Buri(old yellowtail) Yellowtail is a kind of shiromi(white meat fish) and is one of the milder tasting fish among all sashimi fish and you should probably eat it first in a sushi or sashimi meal. That is why some in hamachi handrolls an...
Mackerel(Saba) is a very fishy fish. It has a very strong aroma when you sniff it and iit has a strong smell to begin with. For me it is just right. I think some Japanese restaurant would marinate this fish with some vinear before it is served (if the fish is not freshest I think, as to get rid of some of the unpleasant stale feeling of the mackerel). Due to its pungent flavor, it sells pretty well in the US and it is seen in a lot of the restaurants(good or bad). It made a good addition to a chirashi bowl (sashimi bowl) however I don't see...
When used in sushi, octopus meat is poached slightly before being used. (You have to because octopus skin is full of bacterias and possibly parasites) Before it is cooked, octopus skin is semi-transparent and it will turn into a solid white colour after being cooked briefly. The cut of octopus meat is especially important because if you made too thick a cut, the sliced octopus will be too thick to chew on. It takes a sushi master to do the job well, because the octopus meat is so slippery and slimy that it is hard to slice it very thin. Ano...
Tamago sushi is one of the few cooked sushi entrees.
Simple but nice, it is a pice of rice with a sweet egg omelette on top. Seriously they usually taste more or less the same since it is made from egg and sugar. Nonetheless, this tamago sushi is one of the best way of using an egg and turn it into a delicacy.
Be careful, this cold egg sushi contains lots of cholesterol because it is full of egg(with soy sauce/fish broth)
Best guide I can find for making tamago batter (the sweet egg omelet)
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.
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.
The abalone in the sushi is usually sliced raw in very thin slices (I wonder if it is poached slightly) . The himo (the legs, the overcoat and the ligament) of awabi is usually served as an appetitizer and is also very tasty.
Abalone is one of the more expensive shellfish among all sashimi. Besides Japanese, Chinese people treated abalone as a premium food. Often served in expensive restaurants, abalone is served steamed in a whole shell, or it can be used as ingredients in soups because of its very fresh taste. However due to over farming of abalone by human, the supply of this delicious seafood has dropped and the price of abalone has increased a lot since then. Most of the abalone that you are eating now might have been farm-raised, and these farm-raised abalone taste a lot more inferior than the wild caught ones (who knows what food they are being fed).
Abalone is high in cholesterol and should be consumed in moderate amount only.
Sushi Birthday Cake
I have been there for about 30-40 times so far, and, the restaurant have changed hands for at least 2 times over 3 years.
The thing that I appreciate is their chirashi.
The staffs are ok, not too bad and friendly in general.
One recently surprise: the new management decided to give the whole birthday party a 20% off (book in advance) if there is anyone in the group who has their birthday on that day. And they will include a complimentary sushi cake above – something I have never seen before. The outer rim is full of crackers with spicy tuna & jalapenos paste . The inner ring has 3 kinds of seaweed rolls(tuna,salmon and tamago). And the center ring has a bunch of futomaki rolls in it. I am impressed by the restaurant for the first time. (Probably I will give them a B grade on my birthday when I receieve so much goodies).
Besides for the big surprise, pleasant surprises nomore. The cooked food is bad. Their tempura is extremely non-Japanese where they don’t even use tempura platter to fry the tempura, they use cornstarch and breadcrumbs (not panko).
Good: Chirashi is good-valued, rolls are pretty innovative, only place for Sunday sushi buffet. 20% on birthday party.
Bad: Bad cooked food in general
Conclusion: You can only go there for sushi, and still don’t expect high quality fish.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Address:715 N University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Phone:(734) 213-3044
Open Mon-Sat 10am-10pm; Sun 11:30am-9pm
