11 ms·
Always fascinated by salmon sushi's second class status. Salmon sushi to me is so much more flavorful than tuna. I thought maybe I just wasn't getting great tun
by jbmny 4y ago
Always fascinated by salmon sushi's second class status. Salmon sushi to me is so much more flavorful than tuna. I thought maybe I just wasn't getting great tuna at sushi restaurants in the US, but I found the results to be the same in Tokyo.
- wintermutestwin 4y agoI love salmon and tuna sashimi, but rarely eat tuna due to high mercury content.
- trevorboaconstr 4y agoAre you for real? Any maguro you get in a serious Japanese sushi place is gunna melt in your mouth. But it’s gunna be 25-30 USD per plate (2 pieces).
- nawgz 4y agoI am relatively sure anytime you get 100g of meat for 30USD it will melt in your mouth.
- aaronblohowiak 4y agoNot everyone likes the same stuff! I also generally prefer salmon to tuna though I appreciate a chu-toro from time to time. For melt in mouth, uni takes the crown (otters again demonstrating they have life figured out better than people)
- tptacek 4y agoTaking Momotaro as a sort of baseline for high-end but not Omakase-only sushi in Chicago, akami is $7 ($14), chutoro is $11 ($22) and otoro $13 ($26). The otoro will melt, but the chutoro will have the same texture as the sake and the akami will be leaner and have more texture; all 3 are maguro, and all 3 are more expensive than sake. :) I prefer sake to akami and chutoro; it is hard to beat otoro. I can see how sake is a gateway fish! But the implication seems to be that instead of eating salmon, for the real deal we should be eating bluefin. That seems dumb; both salmon and bluefin are pretty boring, they all occupy sort of the same place in Japanese cooking as sesame chicken does in American Chinese food. Everything else is better!
- skhr0680 4y agoIn Japanese: Sake: domestic fish, is never sold as sashimi Salmon: imported fish
- tptacek 4y agoInteresting; on any menu in Chicago (esp. the high-end places), sake = salmon.
- kalimanzaro 4y agoTruth is more nuanced than that. Japanese have a native word 'sake' for the native salmon that is hardly eaten nowadays. They definitely use the word sake for imported salmon too, especially if its cooked ( because thats how they usually eat the ol native salmon too) They tend to call raw salmon 'sahmon' though. I dont know if its a folk wisdom but the following article claims that when they hear the word sake they think of that old native salmon. Sort of like when you might call any old man 'Gramps' but when you hear 'Gramps' you think of your own grandfather? https://tokyoflyfishing.com/fish/chum-salmon-sake-or-shirozake/ https://tokyoflyfishing.com/fish/chum-salmon-sake-or-shiroza...
- djtango 4y agoEverything is a spectrum but I've eaten kaitenzushi in Japan that cost 1100-2500JPY per person that would have cost 5-10x that outside Japan and wouldn't have been nearly as good. I've found salmon and tuna can approach the level that might be passable in Japan but everything else (swordfish, mackerel, crab, clam etc etc) are whole leagues better in Japan than outside. I currently live in Singapore where the sushi is actually pretty good but definitely not as good as Japan.
- dzhiurgis 4y agoGood tuna cut is like at least $5 per sashimi, probably more for great ones - far more expensive than salmon where each fish has super fatty parts.
- jordanpg 4y agoYeah, this is the detail that is almost unheard of in the US. Grades of tuna. The bright red stuff that is so common is a dim shadow of what is possible with tuna. On the other hand, cheap salmon is reliably good for the same reasons the expensive toro is.
- charlieyu1 4y agoBecause salmon is way cheaper. A piece of cheap salmon sushi can be bought for like US$4 per 10 in Hong Kong
- robjan 4y agoI've always wondered if that salmon sushi in Sushi Express is actually salmon or rainbow trout
- Valmar 4y agoEven since having tried raw tuna, my personal opinion has been the reverse. For me, a nice raw tuna can be absolutely amazing. Something about the flavour and texture just pops in my mouth with delight. Tastebuds be weird, heh.
- the_only_law 4y agoI don’t know what it is, but I don’t care for it. I love plenty of other fish raw, and love tuna when cooked. Salmon I generally have no problem with raw.
- wudangmonk 4y ago
- ayngg 4y agoIn my experience salmon is fairly consistently delicious, it is difficult to have a bad tasting piece, while tuna can vary from kind of gross fishy taste to amazing, with flavor more complex than any salmon sashimi I have ever had.
- formerkrogemp 4y agoIt's too bad tuna is overfished zealously for decades. The differences in tuna weighing 100 pounds and 4 pounds probably impacts the taste
- gameswithgo 4y ago
- grapeskin 4y agoThat’s influenced by fattiness more than anything, I think. I used to think I hated tuna sashimi. Oftentimes it ranged from slightly metallic to that stereotypically overly fishy flavor, and had zero mouthfeel except for what I could describe as a watery gel. Then I tried a piece of highly marbled tuna. It was like a buttery slice of steak—a meaty flavor that filled my mouth. Every piece of similarly marbled tuna has tasted just as good. Generally, salmon sashimi has some good fatty marbling as well, so I think that also contributes to its good flavor. Cheap tuna cuts have virtually zero fat and so there’s no flavor to be had.
- cercatrova 4y agoOtoro is what you're looking for. It's the super fatty tuna.
- philliphaydon 4y agoFatty farmed salmon is really not good, nor good for you. In singapore I avoided buying salmon due to it being 100% farmed salmon. Instead I paid extra for New Zealand King salmon which is partially farmed, better tasting, healthier.
- gameswithgo 4y ago
- mesh 4y agoHave you had Fatty Tuna? OToro? It is super flavorful and luscious, much more so than the leaner cuts of Tuna. In my experience most tuna in sushi places and rolls is Akami (which is good, but not as flavorful). Might be worth trying out if you haven't. More info here: https://www.umami-insider.com/tuna-otoro-chutoro-akami/ https://www.umami-insider.com/tuna-otoro-chutoro-akami/
- solaxun 4y agoI always found it strange that I really like salmon sushi/sashimi, but don't really care for cooked salmon. For some reason cooked salmon tastes too... heavy. I realize that's probably the fat content, but for whatever reason it doesn't bother me raw.
- tigershark 4y agoI’m not sure what tuna you tried in Tokyo, but for me Otoro is noticeably better than salmon sushi.