Sashimi O-negai-shimasu!

Sashimi O-negai-shimasu!

For some culture who never eat raw items, sashimi may looked as scary as it can be. I remembered the first time I tried sashimi, the mindset that sashimi is a raw fish keep hanging in my mind and prevent me to be able to fully enjoy the flavor of the fish.

But again sashimi, with all due respect, is the food that absurdly delicious. Absurd in terms that it’s very difficult to enjoy, yet a lot of people can enjoy it.

Well, the history of consuming raw meat is of course will go back to the time before fire was invented. After fire was invented, (or likely, the ability to ignite fire) the art of cooking is coming together. But nevertheless, the art of consuming food without cooking has been a tradition all over the world. Not only in Japan of course. Fish, such as salmon, instead of cooking it, the locals (Norwegians, Alaskans…) prefer to eat it raw, smoke it, cure it, salt it, preserve it… anything but cook it. Because when you cook the salmon, it’ll lose its soft texture and its natural flavor. The best cooking style that keeps both character of salmon would perhaps searing (jap: tataki) which pan-grill the outside and giving smoky aroma and slightly firm texture but leaving the inside fresh and raw.

Now Sashimi is not always easy to enjoy. If you’re a beginner to sashimi, salmon will be a good practice. Get the sashimi with your chopstick, dab it with a little wasabi and dip with shoyu. When you put it in your mouth, don’t think that is a raw items. Instead, think of it as a tasty meat, enjoy and savor the flavor, the saltiness of shoyu and the kick of wasabi.

When you can enjoy the taste of salmon, you may graduate further to other fish, such as maguro (tuna) or hamachi (yellowtail). While hamachi have the similar property as salmon, maguro have more complex and difficult flavor to enjoy. But don’t worry. Having your maguro tataki-ed or aburi-ed (aburi- grilling with open flame) will help you enjoy the maguro.much better. Another item in the menu, such as kajiki, have a chewy textures and taste reminiscent of beef tendon.

As you’re ready to venture outside the fish family, you can start your adventure with sweet prawns (amaebi), lobster, cuttlefish (ika) or even shellfish such as scallop (hotate) and abalone (awabi). Be warned that although fish sashimi is low cholesterol and even a good source of Omega-3, these non-fish family might not. So over-consumption of these items is never recommended.

And finally, challenge death with the ultimate sashimi: Fugu! Fugu is the blowfish that contains toxins 500 times more powerful than cyanide. All fugu chefs must be certified to slice the fish and therefore jacking the price high. Now don’t be misled by an episode in The Simpson when Homer ate allegedly poisoned fugu, he was give 24 hours to live. No, siree, Fugu’s death is instant. But don’t worry, death because of mistreated fugu only occurs 70-100 a year in the whole world. And guess what? There’s this restaurant in Singapore that serves fugu for S$60 a set. And you will go away with a cheesy free t-shirt (Fugu Survivor!) for the season. Ha!

Itadakimasu!

Cons

PS: I found this article about a journalist finding her way to Fugu. Have a look here!