Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is My Sushi Authentic?
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 859 Location: Latin America |
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This is, so far, one of the most interesting articles I've read lately.
I myself am a crazy sushi fan, but I admit I can't stand wasabi or soy sauce in my sushi. The flavors are too strong and they kill the fish's flavor, which isn't good at all when you already have a nasty problem with your sense of taste. I once found a small place in my city where they served inarizushi and dashimaki tamago (a.k.a tamagoyaki), but they closed down recently. I'm still really sad about it. |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 713 |
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Sushi's alright. I sometimes find myself getting a craving for it, but after about 5 small pieces, I'm over it and don't want any more for months. As heretical as it may seem, I always end up thinking how much better it would be if the fish was cooked. It's just not really my thing.
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Well, I don't know about the West coast but here in Central Florida there are several Sushi bars that match your description of the proper approach. Some do serve Inari and TBH I've been afraid that if I ate as much of that as I wanted I'd end up with Fox ears and a tail. My oldest son ( former culinary student ) does make Sushi at home and does rigourously follow the process with the proper rice treatment. It's something to be enjoyed and not worried over so much.
Mark Gosdin |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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You're right that it's rare, but there are certainly places in North America, including on the East Coast, with all of those. (As you note, best to look for Japanese-owned places, and in particular areas that have at least some Japanese clientele as well.) For example, Blue Ocean in Fairfax, VA has hako zushi, aka oshi zushi (箱寿司（押し寿司)) because the owner is from Osaka. (Also a lot of Hanshin Tigers stuff.) It's just in a random strip mall, but it's quite authentic, with lots of izakaya dishes. I've seen plenty of places with chirashi zushi of various types, though yeah, mostly Edo-style. Last edited by John Thacker on Mon May 15, 2017 12:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3053 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I wouldn't have thought Inari was rare. It's served at every conveyor belt place local to me that I've been to, but I'm in Washington state. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4671 |
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I kind of figured that would be the answer. I've perused a fair number of sushi menus, and at some point I got to thinking that rolls with things like cream cheese or avocado probably aren't served in Japan. It was similar how, at some point, I realized it seemed unlikely that Chinese food featured lots of fried meat.
That said, those things might not be authentic, but they can still be quite tasty. I do think one of the many good things about so many cultures coming to America is a willingness to experiment with variations on traditional foods. I'll definitely back up what Justin said about the types of restaurant having an influence on the quality of what you get. Variety is nice, but it oftentimes means that the restaurant isn't all that great at making anything in particular. I also ignore the soy sauce when it comes to sushi. Aside from the amount of sodium, and how it masks the other flavors, it also tends to work against the stickiness of the rice, which just makes a mess. |
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SaitoHajime101
 Posts: 285 |
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I agree to this. There's a place off US 19 here on the gulf side of Central Florida called Kumo. While I have no knowledge if it's as authentic as you can get here in the US, it does fit the description closer than other Sushi places I've eaten. The downside though, it doesn't just serve sushi, it's also a hibachi steakhouse place as well. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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I agree with Justin's point that places that serve several types of Japanese that would normally be separate restaurants are often a bad sign (but inevitable, in the same way as diners or Cheesecake Factory). Perhaps surprisingly, though, real teppanyaki steak places in downtown Kobe are not that different from hibachi steakhouses, outside the more theatrical showmanship aspects. (Contrary to what the English Wikipedia article says, even.) Of course it's a pretty niche type of restaurant in Japan, especially outside Kobe (since when you go to Kobe you of course have Kobe beef), and sort of considered Western food (or yōshoku, Japanese style Western food), being invented postwar as a way of cooking a traditionally Western food with Japanese tools. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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There's multiple reasons, but this is reason #1 why I hate sushi. I prefer sashimi if I must, but am not really fond of either. It blows my mind when I talk to friends and relatives that aren't aware of the vinegar in sushi rice. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2420 |
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I had authentic sushi in Japan once and the wasabi in each bite slayed me. It was like being slapped by a tsundere every time she blushed, which was a pity since the rest of it was great.
Otherwise I'd gladly eat my weight in sushi if it wasn't so expensive. Definitely agreed on the soy sauce, though; I've never used up one of the little dishes that get provided in restaurants, and the only time I soak sushi in one is when I drop it in there by accident and the sushi breaks apart into clumps and it takes forever to get it out and then the whole thing's just ruined. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5602 |
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Even then...the answer is "probably no". The odds are getting real sushi in the West very very slim, no matter how much you pay. http://news.nationalpost.com/life/food-drink/fake-fish-study-finds-nearly-half-of-sushi-served-at-restaurants-is-mislabelled TLDR; restaurants themselves might be being duped, but most of the fish is really cheap stuff instead of what they claim they're selling you. |
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NormanS
 Posts: 167 |
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In vancouver there are lots of sushi restaurants, some authentic and some arent. There are expensive ones, and relatively cheaper ones.
Personally, im more of a quantity over quality person, so i love eating at the All-you-can-eat sushi restaurants, sure the quality is not the "fish melts in your mouth quality", but i love sushi so much id rather be bloated on it instead of the price equivalent of a plate or two. That said, in here conveyor belt sushi isn't popular here. There was one in the entire city a few years ago, but that one went under. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I've got a good sushi place near me that I'm a fan of, but I can't bring myself to eat raw fish (hell, I barely eat cooked fish). So I usually get a cucumber maki and an avocado maki with two pieces of inari (it's actually my favorite sushi type! And it's what I use to judge sushi places, lol), and they have their seaweed on the outside. I don't use any soy sauce (even a tiny bit is too salty for me) and I never use wasabi (having accidentally gotten some here and there, I can safely say that I hate the stuff, even if it is dyed horseradish). I'm not personally a fan of the pickled ginger either, but my mom certainly thinks of it as a necessary topping. Sometimes I'll also get the egg roll sushi.
But I do also like sweet potato tempura sushi too, that's probably not very Japanese (I would assume). And that eel sauce or whatever they put on top, I like that too! Come to think of it, that roll is rice out, so it's probably American. Also, most of the time when I get sushi, I'll drink at least 3 cups of tea. I don't add anything into the tea either (just some ice cubes, I know they prefer their tea way hotter over there, I need it just a bit cooler to avoid burning my tongue), I added tons of sugar as a kid, didn't drink tea for many years, and now, I can't imagine adding a single molecule of sugar into tea. One time, at a diner, my mom and I experimented to see how much sugar she needed vs how much was too much for me. I could taste the sugar as being "sweet, but acceptable" at half a packet of sugar, and she needed 4 packets for it to be to her taste! 1 full packet was enough that all I could taste was sugar after that. But man, I was just remembering that my one friend, bless her but she is terrible at cooking, she tried to make sushi once, but didn't understand that you need to add something to the rice. I'm not into cooking myself (though I know that 3 teaspoons are in a tablespoon, not 4, those poor chocolate chip cookies), but I know that rice vinegar is added to rice for sushi, just taking it from the stovetop won't work. My step-dad has also tried to make sushi (he's actually a very good cook), but he himself doesn't like sushi, so his results were also pretty poor, imo. One thing I'd really like to know though, where on earth can I get some of those inari tofu wraps for myself? I would eat those like candy if I had access to them. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Near my work, there is a small sushi restaurant that has a pretty decent mix of a very authentic Japanese sushi, and the more stylized Americanized rolls. They even have the sushi bowls, and also specialize in ramen, which is quite good as well. I honestly don't care if it's really authentic, as long as it's good.
I'm part Italian, so I save my food snobbery for when I see people using prepackaged sauce for lasagna, or those soulless monsters that put ketchup on meat loaf. 
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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My favorite things to get at a sushi joint are the Philly roll and the shrimp crunch roll. I know neither of these are authentic, but I don't care. I go to sushi places to enjoy food, and that's what I enjoy most. The California roll is also always a popular thing around here. I'm a freak and I don't like avocados, but a sushi place without a California roll pretty much kills interest in the non-Japanese, non-hardcore patrons. It's gotten to where half the places I visit stick avocado into about 80% of their sushi menus.
I was actually going to ask a question like this, though I also want to ask a follow-up: I've had authentic donburi (rice bowls), and I've also had what is clearly inauthentic donburi. I like them both, but I have to wonder: How did the inauthentic ones come about? I mean the greasy hole-in-the-wall grill places that seem to be everywhere in certain cities. Their spicy sauce can get very spicy, and the beef is more like chopped up steak than the strips of beef I'd see at an authentic place. These teriyaki bowls/plates/platters are commonly served with a cabbage salad and sometimes egg rolls and/or potato salad. A LOT of these places also serve hamburgers. As much as I've enjoyed eating these, and there are a lot of very good ones in Santa Ana, CA, it's always been a total mystery to me as to how they originated, as owners and chefs of these joints seem to be of every ethnicity (though leaning towards Korean). I've always been a fan of fusion cuisine, however. As Andrew Zimmern would say on Bizarre Foods, "If it tastes good, eat it!"
Same here. It's present in every conveyor belt sushi place I've visited too. It's not always there, but every place has had them at least SOME of the time.
Some Asian supermarkets sell them. You need to know where to look though, and it has to be one that has a sizable Japanese selection.
Well, ketchup on meatloaf may not be authentic, but that's what I grew up on, and that's how many restaurants I've been to serve their meatloaf. For the record, I have never been too concerned with the American influence of my family's home country's cooking. Heck, I will sometimes go seek out the Americanized versions because that's what I'm in the mood for. |
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