Yellow Tail FEVAARRR

Thanks to all those who bugged me to update my blog. No, really. I need to be constantly reminded to move my lazy butt.

Ok i'm changing formats cause I'm not to sure how to exactly go about blogging this. It's not like I have crazy exciting, edge-of-your-seat stories to tell everyday. I also doubt you wanna hear me QQing about how hard it is and how I feel like I'm failing the whole way so I'm going to just post pics of what I learned each day with some notes. Maybe a heartfelt wrap up. A song and a dance. Watever.



Not for the Feint

It's almost 11 o'clock and i'm very late for class. ( I blame LA bound traffic. I wouldn't say I have the worst commute in the world but it's certainly not a fun drive. The 60 freeway is mainly occupied by big ass 18 wheelers so they're slow and dangerous to maneuver around.)

I step in and Akio-san already has a yellow tail on the cutting board. I freeze in terror as memories fill my head, the stench of fish spiraling up my nostrils and into my lungs. I'm suddenly a child, no more than 6-7 years old, standing in a fish market in Flushing,NY.

My mother tries to coax me, convince me, drag me into the fish market where 10's and 100's of fish are swimming about in tanks. I see the butchers wearing all white with their giant cleavers ending the lives of fish with one hard chop..The smell. oh god the smell. My sensitive nose is scarred as the smell of so much nasty is concentrated on one street.

I wave my mother off. Tell her I'd rather die than go in there. She leaves me on the curb with no choice as heads into my personal hell. The memory is so vivid it feels like yesterday.

Thus began my personal crusade on hating fish. I didn't touch the stuff through life until college. I still would never choose fish over meat at a restaurant but at least i'll eat it. Ironically enough, it's all ill get to eat from now on. Not only that, i'm the guy in the white with the cleaver.

The next few images you're about to see are graphic. Please look away if you can't deal..



Cut up from the Anus

Hands on approach is not something I'm used to. The last time I cut something open was 7th grade life science and we had a sorry excuse for a bio class in 9th. I'm a nerd for crissakes, i don't do any of that manly hunting/fishing stuff so I got pretty squeamish as i saw blood spurting out and the smell of guts filling the air.



Mmm Mmm Mmm

Can you spot the fish..jaw/chin thingy? Japanese delicacy. Yeah.
Took quite a bit of work to strip the fish down and cut it into sizable portions for using and fridging. I still can't get over how disturbing it is to eat raw fish now. Before it wasn't anything special. Even novelty like. Now every time i pop sashimi in my mouth I make this face and i force myself to chew and swallow. It'll take some time before I can get over this silly mindset.



Salvaging Every Bit

If I learned anything during my training, it's that everything can be used and nothing should be wasted. We stripped this fish down to nothing and kept/used every last bit. Every. Last. Bit. Even the tail/head skin/bones.



Hando Lollu

My first attempt at making a hand roll. Messed up pretty bad but you can't tell =) See that red stuff? Meat scrapped off the bones and skin. I held this roll for a good 10 mins before finally forcing myself to scarf it down, trying not to think that I just pwnd a fish.



'Battleship Sushi'

Gunkan-sushi is the name of this style. I think its pretty obvious why. The black hull of a ship! Yeah, that's more yellow tail remains to top off this gunkan. Pretty good for my first try, i think.
This took me only 5 mins to consider before popping it in my mouth. Getting better!



Aka Miso

So for those of you not in the know, there is actually more than one type of miso (prob the typical white kind you see in most restaurants.) In fact there is like more then 30 types of miso! Today, while we were busy killing stuff, Yuki-san was in the kitchen preparing some Aka miso (red) for us. The taste was very unique, it had the usual miso taste but it had a slight kick to it. Pretty good.




Fail Nigiri

I used too much rice. Give me a break, i only learned how to make shari damas (rice balls) like a day ago! Well at least you wont go hungry after 30 mins. I packed enough rice in there to be like.. 3 bowls of it. I took it home for my family i didn't want any of it. I think I'm gonna swear off on yellow tail for a bit.

So my first real challenge as a sushi chef. This is something that will take repeated exposure until im fully used to sticking a knife in to a fish. Cutting the fish is pretty hard too. Getting them to be the right size and shape to use as ingredients is not as easy as it looks.

One thing that's bugged me to no end is the smell of fish on my hands. I've tried everything. Soap, Soap + lemon, Soap + even more lemon, Detergent, toothpaste everything short of peeling my own skin off. It takes about 2 days for the smell to go away but it doesn't matta cuz I'm handling more fish the next day. So i perpetually smell like fish. sigh

Look forward to my next installment as I present ebi! (shrimp)

JL