Sashimi [Japan]

Ok so I have to apologize for this picture. I was so eager to start eating that I forgot to snap a photo of the whole dish. What you would have seen were pieces of salmon, scallop, yellowtail, tuna, and fatty tuna sashimi artfully arranged over thinly sliced turnips and other green garnishes. Now this next picture is of a Chirashi type dish:

Unfortunately, this picture suffers the same fault as the last--I started eating before I took the photo. Clockwise from the left: tuna, yellowtail, salmon, shrimp, salmon roe, and sea cucumber. I had this Chirashi at a sushi bar just outside of Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest Fish Market in the world. And just to be thorough, here are some pictures:

From the auction block...

To the forklift...

To fish head. Rolly polly fish head. And tuna steak.


Taste:

Now I'll be honest: I <3 raw food. I <3 sushi. And not that American California roll shit, or that Dragon Kamikaze Philadelphia Roll stuff either. I like hunks of meat, untouched except by the chef's knife.

That aside, it's very difficult to describe how sashimi tastes. The best of sashimi has a very, very light odor of fish. The enjoyment comes primarily from different textures. Your classic pieces of sashimi are tuna and salmon. Tuna has a slightly fishier aroma, and a much crisper texture. It's the sort of meat that crumbles into your mouth in delectable little chunks of deliciousness. Salmon on the other hand is a bit fattier, and some would say, tastier because of that fact. There's a little bit more chew in salmon--just enough to keep the flavors flowing throughout the mouth. Yellowtail is a mixture of the two: fattier than the tuna, but slightly less than the salmon.

Now shellfish I'll adress separately. Scallop and shrimp are the two shown in the pictures above. If you like any of the two cooked, eating them raw might blow your mind away. Their flavours are magnified; their textures made perfect. There's a slick quality in shellfish that's just fantastic. The shrimp especially, though it is just lightly cooked just till there's a hint of pink. Again, what makes this sashimi perfect is that slick, shellfish quality. Dang I'm drooling as I write this.

The salmon roe (orange spheres in the second photo) normally wouldn't warrant much mention. But these are fresh roe. Completely different from the American, imported and stored variety. "Normal" roe bursts in your mouth as you crack that epidermal layer, unleashing a slightly fishy aroma embedded in a salty yolky liquid. The fresh roe at Tsukiji lacked that salty taste, but instead bore a savory and sweet quality. It went pretty well with the Japanese style rice.

Reflections:

I'm all about the shellfish. It's difficult to find raw shellfish in the states, probably because it looks so unappetizing. Now that's one of the worst things about the States--people are inexorably drawn to food that is familiar. There's not much business in marketing the novel looking or novel tasting.

Anyways, the quality of Japanese sashimi really does trump that of the States. There was also something else--something that I couldn't quite put my pallate on...an aftertaste that differed. Perhaps a bit of variation in aroma. In any case, the change was welcome, and the experience, unforgettable.