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Community Council | Posts: 1,669 | Thanked: 10,225 times | Joined on Nov 2014 @ Lower Rhine
#7
Originally Posted by robthebold View Post
Not a sushi guy myself, so was not familiar with the term "Omakase". Will definitely use that the next time a waiter asks me what kind of toast I'd like.
There are three types of Sushi joints.
The ones that don't know about omakase and offer mostly rolled Sushi, which has nothing to do with authentic Japanese cuisine. The staff is called rolls-robots within the scene. A management structure exists with all imaginable disadvantages like unhappy employees and cost reduced raw materials.

Then there are the restaurants led by western chefs, who have picked up some authentic knowledge but try to force it into theyr learned concepts. eg trying too hard to be stylish and innovative and have a service crew to look professional in regards to western standards. They will do everything to please the guest, having special dishes for part time allergomaniacs variing from originally planned taste or even destroy meat well done.
Even if they offer a omakase experience, it is most likely served by the service crew with some processing time for dishes to reach your table.

Both above calculate prices based on what they estimate a customer is willing to pay for the meal and adjust quality accordingly. Also the opening times are adjusted to lazy customer ”demands”, like supermarkets do.

In Sushi (Su=Sour/Vinegar + Meshi=~Rice) meaning a course supported by that typical sweet sour rice or Sashimi meaning artistically presented seafood, you have following inherent requirements that are extremely hard to achive with above mentioned foot chains attached.

The chef / guest relationship and trust plays a big roll in the experience. Often no price is given and you will have to honestly tell your limit. Btw. apprentices actually serve the often fabeled 7 to 10 years, where the necessary skills to do acceptable sushi are being picked up in the first 3-4 yeares (like in every culinary field) then followed by social training building confidence in showing your skills in front of your customer.
All that to humbly learn there is no perfection possible in the quest to form identical experiences from ever evolving raw materials.
The experience includes melty rice conveniently kept at body temperature contrasted by sea water cold fish around 4 to 6 degrees celsius. The contrast only stays for under a minute until everything adapts to surrounding temps causing the chef to urge you to eat quickly. Fresh cut fish surfaces have slight odores that vanish before any waiter could deliver. If roasted seaweed is served, it stays crispy for only very short time, sucking moisture form the rice or fish. Heck there are chefs who include mouth size of theyr guest into size of the pieces and get horrased by feminists who claim to have been served less then theyr male table neighbours.

oh, this got long and OT.
If you look for good sushi, look the chef into the eyes and have a chat.

Last edited by mosen; 2016-06-09 at 12:26. Reason: typos
 

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