On Fri, 21 May 2010 12:35:45 -0400, "Wayne Harrison" wrote:


On May 20, 8:55 am, rw wrote:
On 5/20/10 8:55 AM, Wayne Harrison wrote:





My favorite sushi is yellowtail amberjack (hamachi), followed closely by
toro, the fatty belly meat of bluefin tuna. My favorite cooked sal****er
fish is baked striped bass, but I haven't had it in a long, long time.
Barracuda is surprisingly good.

sorry about the deletions, richard; but my knowledge in this area is
minimal, compared to yours.

in fact, my consumption of sashimi began only about 6 mos. ago, with
standard bar tuna. i did it on a dare, having never dreamed i could eat raw
fish of any grade or kind. look how wrong you can be. i now have gone
through selections at several local japanese spots, and have discovered my
favorite, along with my favorite order: tuna tartar, which is actually a
marinade with strong wasabi, strips of ginger, and a "secret ingredient" in
wasabi soy bowls. and yellowtail is another fave.
i would bet , steve, that your experience has come from environs other
than stanley...

richard, do you have a favorite spot in the big easy?

Yep - my place, with stuff we've caught and prepped, or with stuff purchased.
with Rouse's grocery being a close second (and their sushi variety is about what
one would expect from a grocery - tuna, salmon, shrimp/"ebi" - basically, a
"bawled" shrimp on rice with a nori belt - and spicy tuna and California rolls,
etc. Nothing even slightly unusual (like, say, uni), just "standard" (US)
stuff, but fresh and a good value for such. They actually have a "sushi chef" at
each store and they make it right there and put in the cold cabinet, but it's
not really a sushi bar per se. It's sorta like "fast food," but healthier and
IMO, better. Frankly, if you were in NO and wanted to grab some sushi as a
light lunch, that's where I'd suggest, esp. if you are a "sushi novice."

But that said, and IMO, NO isn't really a "sushi" kind of town, or perhaps more
accurately, most folks I know tend to go with more traditional NO food when
there. There are sushi bars there, but I cannot recommend one as a favorite.
However, lil' ol' Ocean Springs, MS now has several decent places, which is
where we eat sushi out "locally." We also make a lot of ceviche (basically,
fish "cooked" in lime juice - it isn't "cooked" by heat)

Weirdly, the best sushi place I've been to in the US was at the Swan Resort at
Walt Disney World (Fla). It was actually run by Westin and owned by a Japanese
businessman/firm and had all sorts of Japanese stuff flown in daily, including
mini-bar stock. Another weird thing was the bar prices - a generous hand pour -
like a 2-plus oz. - of JW Blue, neat, rocks or with whatever mixer? 12.00USD. A
glass of Kendall-Jackson NV grocery-store chardoncooler (what, 15.00 a bottle or
something)? 18.00. A bottle of Bud? 8.00 or so (best as I remember the menu).
The bartender told me Japanese people would come in and order the damned Bud
like they were going to stop making it the next day and mention that the Blue
was what they drank at home (in Japan, not necessarily literally at home). It
wasn't the first time I'd seen the almost-fanatical reaction to US beer and
cigarettes by Japanese businesspeople, but this was _weird_ IMO. It's been
several years since we were there, so ??? as to current situation there. IAC,
the sushi there was fan-damned-tasitic (and IIRC, some stuff came from the US,
like the uni and much/most of the tuna).

I don't know for certain, but I've been told by chefs/owners that much of the
"standard" stuff (like tuna) in the US comes from a relatively few "top of the
supplier chain" sources regardless of how it filters down through the chain and
it is the handling once delivered to the sushi bar that makes most of the
difference. Also, be careful about paying a premium for certain fish unless you
know what you are looking at and eating as you're liable to get a much
lesser-priced substitute.

TC,
R

yfitons
wayno