Reminiscing My Love For Sushi

Raw uncooked fish on rice;. That is my first impression of what actual sushi was and shared by millions around the world. My first encounter with sushi happened when I was 10. I was in a mall with my parents and we pass through a conveyor belt style sushi restaurant. The idea of being able to pick any food that I like off that fascinating moving belt amuses me. I promptly begged nudged my parents that we try this amusing looking restaurant. I tried the first sushi and I totally hated it, mainly because the wasabi burn is unpleasing and I thought it was an unnecessary to the sushi. The rice was bland but  I did acquire liking to raw fish (to the horror of my mother who insist I can only eat raw meat in a sushi restaurant)

Throughout my teenage years growing up in Malaysia my only exposure to sushi is via these conveyor belt sushi chain. The rice portion was huge and compact, you can bite the rice like it was toffee. This is also the period where I practice the (now sacrilege) art of mixing wasabi in the soy sauce mixture and subsequently dipping both the rice and fish into the soy/wasabi mixture. It made sense to me back then, as sushi by itself was just horrible; bland, tasteless, and uninspiring. It boggles me why someone would ever pay a high price for what seems to be a simple dish of placing a fish on a lump of rice.

Cheap sushi commonly have bigger rice portion compared to the fish

Cheap sushi found today hardly have the qualities of a great sushi leading to the uninitiated me having a bad impression of what actual sushi is about. I heard tales of those who had dined at the sushi shops at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo and boasted about how they will never lay their tongue on 'cheap' sushi again. I was curious yet skeptical because they almost never describe what makes it so good. Surely having access to fresh fish improves the quality but how much different can it be? Those who experienced good sushi often offer the unhelpful "try it to know it" or "it's simply better" which can be seen as snobbery at some point.

The problem living outside of Japan is that you'll have limited access to sushi. Unless you're living in the big city, the only access to sushi is those mass produced conveyor belt sushi or machine made ones. To have access to decent sushi will require you to fork out a decent sum of money and if you're used to the price of supermarket and mass produced sushi, the price difference can be a turn off and discouraging for them to try it out. The choice for sushi out of Japan is either cheap mass produced utility sushi or high end sushi bar. There is little to no choices in the middle. This is mainly due to the and tedious process involved in order to produce raw fish suitable for sushi making access to such ingredients difficult and expensive.

Dining in dedicated sushi bar can be intimidating to first timers. Photo Credit : Katsura Restaurant

Fortunately for me, a Japanese supermarket company in Malaysia decided to open a specialized sushi bar, bringing in Japanese sushi chefs and flying in the fishes from Japan itself. The price offered was affordable and hence that is when I had my first taste to authentic sushi. I can still remember how the warmth of the rice is soothing in my mouth. The spiciness of the wasabi was there but wasn't overpowering. The taste of the fish and rice blended well and simply put, I wasn't tasting neither fish or rice or wasabi. I was simply tasting sushi. Since then I've begin to be more adventurous about Sushi.

Till today it still amazes me how this simple dish can taste so different. Two different chef presented with the exact same ingredients can produce two vastly different food which do not require much cooking. To me sushi is a representation of Japan and their desire for perfection and simplicity. This blog is one of the result of my love for sushi. I want to inspire people to try out and appreciate good sushi and what it represents.