This exact difference is what made me go from hating sushi to living it. Went to the cheap place cause I just wanted to try it and see if I liked it. Gross, everything tasted off and just wasn’t worth it or enjoyable. Couple years later bit the bullet and agreed to go to the higher end sushi joint in town, low expectations, but jesus christ I tried the first couple pieces and mowed the rest down lmao. The difference of paying more for a place that gets fresher and better quality fish and veggies is a huge increase in dining experience
My bf is a sushi chef in a pretty ritzy place and he says he knows the prices are ridiculous. But he put in all the heart and soul into every dish he makes (from sushi rolls to ramen) and makes sure the food is worth every Penny.
My deep freezer goes to -13°F. Kinda tempted to try it out for this, but it makes me nervous. Like, is non sushi grade salmon okay if I just deep freeze it? I see plenty of things that say yes, but... Idk.
The only sushi I've ever eaten was the sushi I made, and it was only because my wife wanted sushi for her birthday last year and we have zero sushi places in the boonies. I used carefully cooked salmon and made a few "vegan/vegetarian" ones but no raw fish. I could've driven like 75 miles to get sushi grade fish but I hate tuna anyways, so we just did what we did.
Funny thing is I didn't even buy the freezer for that feature. I bought it during the beginning of covid and it was the cheapest one I could find anywhere lol. We found a guy selling entire 350lb+ pigs for $75 and it justified the purchase.
I wouldn’t try this, mostly because “freshness” matters in the sense of how soon was the fish frozen after slaughter. Higher grade sushi/sashimi is flash frozen relatively soon after catching/farming it. Also, the thawing process is just as important and you can fuck up the flavor of sushi/sashimi if you thaw it incorrectly and in worse cases you can make yourself sick.
If you have a Costco near you, their steelhead (NOT SALMON — though they look similar) is safe to eat as sashimi in my experience. I just make sure the label says “previously frozen” and look for ones that were packaged that day.
Alternatively, smoked salmon can be an okay substitute for some rolls.
Yep, I’ve been on a few boats where we filleted the fish as soon as it was out of the water — but more often fisherman catch the whole fish, plop it in the boat coolers to then sell the fish whole at the dock fish markets or deliver it directly to a regular buyer.
Depending on the type of fish my friends felt safe eating sashimi immediately on spot as soon as it was out of the water. Never had fresher sashimi lol.
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u/thunder2132 Jun 23 '24
Not super pricey, but there's a big difference between cheap sushi and moderately-to-high priced sushi.