The Sushi Thread

[private joker]

Sushi has been brought up a few times in the Ask El Diablo thread and other places, and of course there were suggestions that it be a thread of its own. Clearly that's the case.

Here are some initial points to discuss:

All you can eat/buffet-style vs. a la carte

The all-you-can-eat option is fairly popular among mid-tier sushi restaurants both in L.A. and Vegas, but usually not in the highest class ones for obvious reasons. AYCE is attractive if the price is right -- namely for example Todai at the Aladdin, which is a Japanese buffet for $16.95 lunch & $25 dinner.

The downside is I end up eating too much and feel fairly ill afterwards, when the rice is expanding in my stomach. I tend to eat more nigiri and fewer cut rolls in these situations.

A la carte can be less expensive and less filling, but I don't think sushi is a cuisine you eat in order to stuff yourself. This is why it's the best option, especially because it's all you have at the nicer places like Sushi Roku and Katana, etc.

Nigiri vs. cut rolls

A balanced sushi meal for me means a nice combination of nigiri sushi and cut rolls. For some reason, specific fish taste better as sashimi while others taste better in roll form. I don't know why this is. A typical order for me will be:

yellowtail sushi
albacore sushi
spicy tuna roll
california roll
salmon roll

I like my spicy tuna & california rolls to have the seaweed on the inside and rice as the outer layer, whereas I prefer the salmon rolls to be the opposite. I think this is standard, but I've seen exceptions.

Imitation crab rules

N/T

Wasabi & soy sauce

My routine here is to take a small portion of wasabi and put it in a clean dish, then pour low-sodium soy sauce over it, mixing it together with the chopsticks. I see a lot of people use too much wasabi, which usually overpowers the taste of the seafood and is generally a poor idea -- much like drowning your steak in tabasco sauce or ketchup. I also think the low-sodium presents a smoother soy sauce than the overpowering saltiness of the regular red-top version, which kills a lot of flavor, especially from milder sushi like imitation crab.

Drinks

For dinner I like alcohol, usually hot sake or Sapporo. Beer tends to go better with sushi IMO, though a very well-chosen sake, like the sampler at Katana in L.A., is quite appealing. Cold soda works well at lunch for me, even though Diet Coke + sushi isn't a very sophisticated match. For that, I choose to be unsophisticated.

I'd love to see this thread expand with far more issues than the ones I brought up.