I settle for the grocery store stuff but then boost it with Tamari soy sauce and freeze-dried actual wasabi powder, which is milder than the fake stuff and has more of a "veggie" taste. Probably still nothing like fresh grated wasabi though...
Those moves can definitely add a little interest to supermarket sushi, Justin! Still, at the end of the day there’s no replacing properly aged fish, which is usually not on offer in supermarkets!
Have you ever had outstanding ceviche? Your sister and I had it once in a restaurant in North Jersey, and it was so marvelous, we wanted to cancel our entree order and just get more ceviche. And they had given us a generous portion. Never found its equal, even with 11 trips to Mexico. Sadly, that restaurant closed. You make me almost want to try it again, although if there was eel in it, I couldn’t eat it unless I didn’t know. I’m glad you have so many things (and people, of course) that make you happy!
I once had the most outstanding ceviche... at a sushi restaurant in Austin Texas. It was truly transcendent-- the whole meal was, but the ceviche was outstanding.
At this moment, I feel like Melanie’s comment wins this combox! Wow. One of the principles of good sushi is that you rarely find it at restaurants that offer multiple types of cuisine … but I love the idea of a Japanese/Spanish restaurant that happens to offer outstanding ceviche! I wish I could have dinner there with my mother (Marsanne) and my sister (a Spanish teacher who has lived in Mexio, has a restaurant background, and is married to a Mexican with a Spanish restaurant background) to that Austin restaurant!
Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the restaurant, nor do I know if it's still there. This was some years ago. 2017? 2015? 2008? I'm not even sure which trip to Texas it was. Just that I went there with my sister and I'm pretty sure it was after I was married with kids.
I honestly thought you were going to write: "...when I eat really good sushi, I feel God's pleasure." 😁 You wrote something original instead of taking a quote from an exceptional Christian film, and it's better that way. Perhaps, when you write your God/food/transcendence article, you could make a reference to another exceptional Christian film, Babette's Feast? (Only a suggestion.)
I'm not much of a sushi man myself, but maybe that's because the best that I have ever had would be, by your standards, simply Good Sushi. My favorite food is Asian though: lo mein. You may not be a sushi expert, but you know a whole lot more about it than I do about lo mein. I don't know the how's, the why's, or even the what's; I just know that (when done properly) I love it.
I love that line from Chariots of Fire, Christopher! It would not occur to me in connection with *eating* sushi, though I can imagine a sushi chef using that line in connection with *making* it! I have occasionally used that line in connection with things that I am good at. :-)
Lo mein can be very tasty! As regards sushi, I probably knew half of what I wrote here before writing this piece, and the rest I Googled in the process of writing it. Googling, though, is not expertise, and what comes of it is only as good as the pages one finds and decides to trust—and, of course, one’s own ability to assimilate the data and present it in one’s own words.
I love Chariots of Fire (and Babette's Feast) so much, and that quote especially. Have you ever watched Ushpizin? It is right up there for me, along with the aforementioned films.
I could read about the glories of sushi all day, especially if photographs are included!
My husband and I have realized that, other than a favorite Mexican restaurant nearby we bring the kids to for special occasions, we pretty much only go to our local sushi place for date night anymore. And we never regret it. Ours is next door to our movie theater, so sushi and a movie (or 2) is our favorite weekend date.
Transcendent, indeed! I have eaten and loved sushi for most of my life (thanks to food-adventurous parents), but the joy you bring to your experience and discussion of it vastly increases my own appreciation. I look forward eagerly to our next shared joy.
Watch for my follow-up piece in the next few weeks, Michaelangelo! As a theology teacher as well as a sushi aficionado, you are my ideal audience for this piece.
The best sushi I've ever had was at Bar Masa in Manhattan, even though it was probably simultaneously the most overpriced (happily, on that occasion, I was not paying--the best way to experience fancy food.) What are your feelings on poke bowls? I know they'd be sushi-adjacent, but they're the comfort food I order the most, and my local place normally has good raw salmon.
Sorry I missed your comment a month ago, Hannah! There’s a place in midtown, Sushi 35 West, that’s supposed to be really good and relatively reasonably priced. Most intriguing to me: They don’t offer cooked entrees.
Poke bowls can be delicious! I’ve also had sushi bowls, and sometimes the differences can be subtle. I don’t have a strong difference of opinion between Hawaiian and Japanese bowl options. What I like about nigiri and sushi rolls is that the ratio of fish to rice is carefully controlled by the chef.
also, this Wasabi is grown in the USA, is real, and better than most imported stuff. And California grown short grain rice can be as good or better than much Japanese imported rice.
my first experience of sushi did not involve fish. 1970. I was 15. My prior experience of Japanese food had involved sukiyaki and imported Ramen packages ( before they became widespread cheap american food). My best friend had been raised near Little Tokyo in L.A., and she taught me how to wash, cook and season the rice, and cool it before stuffing into pockets of sweetened fried tofu. Inari sushi. The same local supermarket (Boys market in Venice CA)where we bought 20 pound cloth bags of short grain CalRose rice would occasionally have pizza syle boxes filled with half inarizushi and half futomaki. those were the days. My husband and I, between 1973 and 1975, would frequent a Japanes restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli square. Ginza Suehiro. Long gone, alas. It was special occasion and we inevitably ordered the kaiseki dinner. You bring back memories.
Thanks for sharing your lovely memories, Alicia! IIRC, LA’s Little Tokyo is where sushi debuted in the US, in the late 1960s. How wonderful to have been there in the early days, to be part the discovery!
The first I heard of sushi, which was in 1981 (I was 12), was from a New York writer visiting LA. I’m pretty sure the first time I actually tried it was around 1996, when I was working for that publishing company. I discovered that it wasn’t all raw and it wasn’t all fish, which was good for me at first because I had a hard time adjusting to raw fish! I’m very grateful for those team lunches and the vendor who treated us! I can’t imagine how I would have discovered sushi otherwise.
Curious; what does aging entail? I am familiar with freshly caught fish (cooked) being exquisite. I do enjoy good sushi, though I don't have the education you do.
This was very interesting to me. I really like sushi (I've had what you call the "good sushi" once, as I recall), and I very much appreciate and agree with your description of its balanced flavors and textures—but I couldn't truthfully describe *any* food or drink in the same language of "transcendence" that I would apply to great films, music, or poetry. For some of Tarkovsky's films, for example, I would have to respect (if not quite assent to!) an argument similar to Peter Kreeft's one about Bach. There's no reason I know of that great food (certainly including sushi) shouldn't be able to create that experience for some people, though I still can't quite imagine it.
On a side note, it's interesting that the "transcendent sushi" is in such a nondescript location—reminds me of how Sukiyabashi Jiro is a ten-seat sushi bar in a train station!
You remember correctly, P—it was The Good Sushi (Aki) you had at my home! Likewise Colin, who read this piece via a link on Facebook and replied, “Hey I’m in this article :)” And Peter Chattaway and Jeff Overstreet, I believe.
Sushi, Bach, and Tarkovsky are all, of course, in very different categories. A Tarkovsky film is, as it were, a completed, self-sufficient work of art. The transcendence of Bach’s music, though, must be interpreted by musicians to be fully itself and fully appreciated for what it is.
With sushi, a sushi master chef may have his favorite vinegared rice recipe and his favorite ways of doing things, but every day the fish is different, and he is always making something in some significant way new. That sense of a unique gift given only to me is part of the transcendence of the best sushi.
I settle for the grocery store stuff but then boost it with Tamari soy sauce and freeze-dried actual wasabi powder, which is milder than the fake stuff and has more of a "veggie" taste. Probably still nothing like fresh grated wasabi though...
Those moves can definitely add a little interest to supermarket sushi, Justin! Still, at the end of the day there’s no replacing properly aged fish, which is usually not on offer in supermarkets!
Have you ever had outstanding ceviche? Your sister and I had it once in a restaurant in North Jersey, and it was so marvelous, we wanted to cancel our entree order and just get more ceviche. And they had given us a generous portion. Never found its equal, even with 11 trips to Mexico. Sadly, that restaurant closed. You make me almost want to try it again, although if there was eel in it, I couldn’t eat it unless I didn’t know. I’m glad you have so many things (and people, of course) that make you happy!
I once had the most outstanding ceviche... at a sushi restaurant in Austin Texas. It was truly transcendent-- the whole meal was, but the ceviche was outstanding.
At this moment, I feel like Melanie’s comment wins this combox! Wow. One of the principles of good sushi is that you rarely find it at restaurants that offer multiple types of cuisine … but I love the idea of a Japanese/Spanish restaurant that happens to offer outstanding ceviche! I wish I could have dinner there with my mother (Marsanne) and my sister (a Spanish teacher who has lived in Mexio, has a restaurant background, and is married to a Mexican with a Spanish restaurant background) to that Austin restaurant!
Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the restaurant, nor do I know if it's still there. This was some years ago. 2017? 2015? 2008? I'm not even sure which trip to Texas it was. Just that I went there with my sister and I'm pretty sure it was after I was married with kids.
That would be marvelous!
I honestly thought you were going to write: "...when I eat really good sushi, I feel God's pleasure." 😁 You wrote something original instead of taking a quote from an exceptional Christian film, and it's better that way. Perhaps, when you write your God/food/transcendence article, you could make a reference to another exceptional Christian film, Babette's Feast? (Only a suggestion.)
I'm not much of a sushi man myself, but maybe that's because the best that I have ever had would be, by your standards, simply Good Sushi. My favorite food is Asian though: lo mein. You may not be a sushi expert, but you know a whole lot more about it than I do about lo mein. I don't know the how's, the why's, or even the what's; I just know that (when done properly) I love it.
I love that line from Chariots of Fire, Christopher! It would not occur to me in connection with *eating* sushi, though I can imagine a sushi chef using that line in connection with *making* it! I have occasionally used that line in connection with things that I am good at. :-)
Lo mein can be very tasty! As regards sushi, I probably knew half of what I wrote here before writing this piece, and the rest I Googled in the process of writing it. Googling, though, is not expertise, and what comes of it is only as good as the pages one finds and decides to trust—and, of course, one’s own ability to assimilate the data and present it in one’s own words.
I love Chariots of Fire (and Babette's Feast) so much, and that quote especially. Have you ever watched Ushpizin? It is right up there for me, along with the aforementioned films.
I have never heard of it. I guess I will look it up now. Thanks!
I could read about the glories of sushi all day, especially if photographs are included!
My husband and I have realized that, other than a favorite Mexican restaurant nearby we bring the kids to for special occasions, we pretty much only go to our local sushi place for date night anymore. And we never regret it. Ours is next door to our movie theater, so sushi and a movie (or 2) is our favorite weekend date.
Transcendent, indeed! I have eaten and loved sushi for most of my life (thanks to food-adventurous parents), but the joy you bring to your experience and discussion of it vastly increases my own appreciation. I look forward eagerly to our next shared joy.
Watch for my follow-up piece in the next few weeks, Michaelangelo! As a theology teacher as well as a sushi aficionado, you are my ideal audience for this piece.
The best sushi I've ever had was at Bar Masa in Manhattan, even though it was probably simultaneously the most overpriced (happily, on that occasion, I was not paying--the best way to experience fancy food.) What are your feelings on poke bowls? I know they'd be sushi-adjacent, but they're the comfort food I order the most, and my local place normally has good raw salmon.
Sorry I missed your comment a month ago, Hannah! There’s a place in midtown, Sushi 35 West, that’s supposed to be really good and relatively reasonably priced. Most intriguing to me: They don’t offer cooked entrees.
Poke bowls can be delicious! I’ve also had sushi bowls, and sometimes the differences can be subtle. I don’t have a strong difference of opinion between Hawaiian and Japanese bowl options. What I like about nigiri and sushi rolls is that the ratio of fish to rice is carefully controlled by the chef.
https://www.thewasabistore.com/the-farm-1
also, this Wasabi is grown in the USA, is real, and better than most imported stuff. And California grown short grain rice can be as good or better than much Japanese imported rice.
my first experience of sushi did not involve fish. 1970. I was 15. My prior experience of Japanese food had involved sukiyaki and imported Ramen packages ( before they became widespread cheap american food). My best friend had been raised near Little Tokyo in L.A., and she taught me how to wash, cook and season the rice, and cool it before stuffing into pockets of sweetened fried tofu. Inari sushi. The same local supermarket (Boys market in Venice CA)where we bought 20 pound cloth bags of short grain CalRose rice would occasionally have pizza syle boxes filled with half inarizushi and half futomaki. those were the days. My husband and I, between 1973 and 1975, would frequent a Japanes restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli square. Ginza Suehiro. Long gone, alas. It was special occasion and we inevitably ordered the kaiseki dinner. You bring back memories.
Thanks for sharing your lovely memories, Alicia! IIRC, LA’s Little Tokyo is where sushi debuted in the US, in the late 1960s. How wonderful to have been there in the early days, to be part the discovery!
The first I heard of sushi, which was in 1981 (I was 12), was from a New York writer visiting LA. I’m pretty sure the first time I actually tried it was around 1996, when I was working for that publishing company. I discovered that it wasn’t all raw and it wasn’t all fish, which was good for me at first because I had a hard time adjusting to raw fish! I’m very grateful for those team lunches and the vendor who treated us! I can’t imagine how I would have discovered sushi otherwise.
Absolutely delectable explication and commentary concerning one of my absolutely favorite things to eat! Thank you!
Curious; what does aging entail? I am familiar with freshly caught fish (cooked) being exquisite. I do enjoy good sushi, though I don't have the education you do.
Did you read the hyperlinked article at Japanese Food Labs, Jason? :-)
https://thejapanesefoodlab.com/fish-ageing-science/
Missed that. Thanks.
Fascinating information!
You’ve inspired me to start saving for a future celebration here: https://www.rexleysushi.com/menus
The omakase is a very good sign! Please let me know how it goes!
This was very interesting to me. I really like sushi (I've had what you call the "good sushi" once, as I recall), and I very much appreciate and agree with your description of its balanced flavors and textures—but I couldn't truthfully describe *any* food or drink in the same language of "transcendence" that I would apply to great films, music, or poetry. For some of Tarkovsky's films, for example, I would have to respect (if not quite assent to!) an argument similar to Peter Kreeft's one about Bach. There's no reason I know of that great food (certainly including sushi) shouldn't be able to create that experience for some people, though I still can't quite imagine it.
On a side note, it's interesting that the "transcendent sushi" is in such a nondescript location—reminds me of how Sukiyabashi Jiro is a ten-seat sushi bar in a train station!
You remember correctly, P—it was The Good Sushi (Aki) you had at my home! Likewise Colin, who read this piece via a link on Facebook and replied, “Hey I’m in this article :)” And Peter Chattaway and Jeff Overstreet, I believe.
Sushi, Bach, and Tarkovsky are all, of course, in very different categories. A Tarkovsky film is, as it were, a completed, self-sufficient work of art. The transcendence of Bach’s music, though, must be interpreted by musicians to be fully itself and fully appreciated for what it is.
With sushi, a sushi master chef may have his favorite vinegared rice recipe and his favorite ways of doing things, but every day the fish is different, and he is always making something in some significant way new. That sense of a unique gift given only to me is part of the transcendence of the best sushi.
I do intend to write more about this!