What Makes A Great Sushi

A simple Nigirizushi may consist of just rice and fish along with a drench of soy sauce and wasabi, but the ability of a sushi chef to make the best of these limited ingredients is what separates the master from the apprentice.

Let's look at the common ingredients of a sushi and how to determine the quality of the ingredients used:


Rice

The main ingredient of sushi, vinegered rice (sushi-meshi) is prepared by steaming Japanese short-grain rice and subsequently mixed with sushi vinegar while it is still steaming hot. Sushi-meshi is best consumed within 3 hours from preparation time to ensure that the rice stays moist and fluffy like texture. A good sushi rice should be consumed while it is still warm from the hands of the chef. Cold sushi rice is an absolute no no as the starch in the rice solidify in low temperature causing the rice to harden and lose its fluffiness.

The acidity and amount of vinegar gives the sushi-meshi its signature sweet sour-sweet taste. When added to freshly steamed rice, the sourish vinegar reacts with the starch in the rice at high temperature to produce glucose and hence giving the rice its sweet flavor. Japanese short grain rice typically has higher starch content compared to other rices and hence is essential for the production of the glucose in the sushi-meshi The process of mixing the right amount of vinegar into freshly steamed rice is tedious and difficult to produce in large quantities, prompting most large restaurants and sushi chain to mix the vinegar in lower temperature and adding more sugar into their vinegar mix to artificially produce the sweet flavor of the rice.

A final aspect of sushi-meshi frequently overlooked is the stickiness of each individual rice grain and the 'build' of the sushi. This aspect is especially important in the case of Nigiri Sushi. The riceball must hold itself firm enough to not break when picked up but must be able to 'shatter' with ease once placed in the mouth, allowing customers to feel and enjoy every individual grain of rice prepared by the chef.

Fish

There's a certain curiosity alongside with skepticism on how and why can raw fish taste so good. In order to understand the science behind a good fish we will need to know what gives each fish its distinctive taste.

Fish and seafood typically derives its flavor from three sources, amino acids from the breakdown of lean protein muscles, fats from fish oil, and fish blood(which is the brown meat of the fish). Since most seafood used in sushi are not cooked, an excellent chef must be able to identify high quality fish from the market and be able to extract the best flavor. Usually a soy sauce is applied for lean and fatty fishes while light sea salt is used for pure lean meat(mostly white fishes). Brown fish meat which derives most of its flavor from the fish blood and hence has a strong fishy flavor is typically paired with other strong flavored ingredients to create a strong contrast of flavor.

The chef knife skills also has a major effect the flavor of the fish as a smoothly sliced fish will give a soothing texture. Master chefs will be able to identify the optimum size, shape and even slicing direction to make the best out of the seafood. With most flavor coming from the fish only with minimal ingredients, sushi chefs invest in a good slicing knife to ensure the seafood is consumed in its optimal condition.

When tasting sushi I frequently request at least a brown fish sushi (my favorite being Kohada) as it typically requires a highly skilled chef to be able to work with these strong flavored fish. A good sushi chef will be able to make even those who dislike strong fishy smell to be able to love brown fish.

Nori (Dried Seaweed)

A good nori is dry and crispy. Nori losses its crispy properties the moment it gets in contact with water (even water vapors in the air with breath) which is why these sheets are carefully stored in air tight containers, to be taken out only when needed. It's the same reason as well on why you should eat any sushi prepared with nori immediately to ensure you get the crispy texture


Wasabi

Authentic wasabi is expensive and difficult to store, even in Japan itself. Most 'wasabi' used today are actually horseradish which is significantly cheaper and easier to store compared to actual wasabi. The amount of wasabi used in a sushi should be enough to give its spicy flavor but not to the point of overpowering the other ingredients of the fish.

Shoyu (Soy Sauce)

Shoyu specifically for most sushi tends to be light flavored and lightly salted. Higher end sushi restaurants will usually have the chef apply the soy sauce on the fish himself. Soy sauce is lightly applied on the seafood before consuming to enhance the flavor. A rule of thumb on getting the best is the more flavor in the fish, the more shoyu will be applied (or use a stronger flavor shoyu)

Gari (Pickled Ginger)

Not exactly an ingredient in sushi. The purpose of gari is to neutralize the after taste on your tongue which is why it's consumed in between two different sushi and not with the sushi. A good gari should be able to eliminate the after taste of your previous sushi but the neutralizing effect should not be too strong that it that it affects your taste-buds for the next sushi you're about to consume.

A Great Sushi : Creating the Umami

A good sushi thus ensures that the ingredients are utilized to the very best and their combination complements each other. We have sweet and sour from the sushi-meshi, salt and oil from the seafood, bitterness and spiciness from the wasabi. Together a sushi chef ensures that these wonderful contrast and mixture of flavors produce a symphony in which called we call Umami,  a pleasant savory taste. From the texture of the rice to the slicing direction of the fish, a sushi chef spend years perfecting all these skills to ensure every single taste in the ingredients is extracted to the last bit for the pleasure of the customers.