Absurdity in Eater, yet again.

I swear, it's like every time I look at a food related publication I see another mess to get annoyed about. This is about an blurb of someone's trick for finding solid takeout sushi. That tells you plenty about what you're dealing with.

 I'll link the article, but here are the highlowlights.

"While in a different place, I can’t be certain that their go-to order isn’t priced to scam tourists or being sourced from a sketchy ghost kitchen."

First off, who orders takeout sushi? Next- if you're worried about being scammed? Too late. If you're worried about a ghost kitchen? Probably didn't plan your travel well. Unwilling to extend a measure of trust to something you're putting into your body? Well... assumption of risk is a legal mess for lots of reasons.

"But I’ve perfected my method of seeking out a great takeout sushi restaurant by looking at the one menu item I will never actually order: the California roll."

Ugh. This is followed by comparing the California Roll discrepancies to the Big Mac Index, which I also take somewhat significant issue with, but don't want to dive into without more time to get some notes in order.

Yes, if you find a California Roll on a sushi menu, I wouldn't recommend ordering it- but that's because it's not real. The original California Roll used crab and fatty tuna. The reasons its current incarnation exists are that Uramaki (the inside-out roll) was developed to hide the presence of nori that was throwing off Western palates/dining sensibilities, and so that it could help ensure more consistent availability of ingredients, since surimi and avocado have less of a 'season'. In times past, that worked quite well, but massive lateral worldwide demand for avocado in the subsequent decades has caused prices to jump, transport to be less consistent, and quality to suffer. That's why the Cali Roll is looked at as naught worth noting, and also part of why it still exists in prominence- it's too culturally familiar to fade away uncontested, and lingers like a bad smell on a hot day.

"But to the owners of the everyday, common takeout spots: What is going through your minds when charging 10 whole, crisp American dollars for a single California roll? The star ingredient of this roll is imitation crab meat, for crying out loud. It’s not exactly a shining beacon of quality and taste"

The surimi industry is surprisingly dedicated to disproving that. If somebody hasn't had the good stuff, that's a them problem, not an us problem. If they want to get better informed, they'll get better informed- so they probably won't. Yes, a nontrivial amount of the stuff isn't super great, but if a sushi joint is worth its vinegar, you'll never notice. This sort of inflammatory blather is why there's cheap stuff in the first place! If the uninformed would just stop talking, the need to placate them would disappear, and so would most all of the lower quality product!

What's happening here is the mistaken assumption that something like this should be affordable, but not "~~cheap~~". The correct response is simple and universal: Irrespective of quality, prepared food is a luxury item- behave (and be willing to spend) accordingly.

Another Sushi 101, Another Success

 

Wasn't a terribly large class, but everyone really wanted to be there and had a lot of enthusiasm- something that doesn't happen often. Did have a bit of a messy time preparing things though, since the list of allergens I was given -no dairy, no gluten, no nuts- wiped out my default snack tray plan completely. But once I figured out sufficient substitutes and made sure to buy tamari instead of more standard soy sauce, it all came together quite nicely.

Not bad, right? Comfy!

The class was designed to be geared around basics. Fewer hard and fast "recipes", more techniques and principles that help the students make their own delicious food. I find that to be more effective than just handing people things to memorize and follow by rote- such techniques have their place, but copying makes it more difficult to understand how to apply the technique elsewhere.

For a starter, I taught them the fingertip method for rice after demonstrating a suitable rinse, and recommended a couple of rice cookers.

Sushi vinegar is a lot more than just vinegar, but mine isn't complicated.
This makes a batch large enough for a family dinner or two, and it keeps in the fridge for ages:
2 cups/500ml unseasoned rice vinegar, 1/4c / 65ml mirin, 1/2 cup/100g granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp coarse salt, and a 2"x2" piece of kombu.
Throw all that in a pot, bring to a gentle simmer for 15 minutes, and let it cool naturally. 

I also showed them all a nice easy snack in Kinpira Gobo, introducing them to an uncommon ingredient in a way that makes it familiar, delicious, and easy to handle. Julienne burdock root and carrots, saute in a hot pan with oil for a couple minutes, add sake, mirin, and tamari/soy, then cook it till it's dry. Hard to be much simpler than that.

Mostly I skipped the history lesson this time, but there were a great many questions about sourcing ingredients- particularly seafood, naturally, but also brands of soy sauce, mirin, even vinegar. (I inadvertently made a short primer on soy sauce just the other day- quite informative, if I do say so myself)

The student dynamic varies widely from one cooking class to another even if naught else changes, so an educator's ability to adjust to their audience on the fly is one of the more important qualities to have honed. My personal approach starts with things everyone should hear, even if they've heard them before- safety, cleanliness, communication, etc. How they react to that allows time to adjust the meat of the matter.

It's funny, though. As much as I harp on about not giving recipes, the one recipe I did design specifically for the class is also the one every single person goes completely gonzo for, and that I get the most gratitude for sharing.

A pound/500g of sliced mushrooms (shiitake preferred, but most any will do), 1c/240ml water, 1/2c / 120ml soy sauce/tamari, 1/2c / 120ml mirin, 2Tbsp sugar, a hand's worth of ginger, and spice. Combine in a lidded pot and (again) gently cook till all but dry.  

I rather like them in chawan-mushi myself, but the beauty is in their flexibility. Simple and excellent alone, or as a component of vegetarian sushi, stir fry, soup, or whatever you might deign to do with them. Understanding the principles behind the construction is what allows you to get more broad-spectrum use out of even somewhat niche preparations.

Sushi 101 @ KOF- Afterthoughts

    I was offered an opportunity to do one of my personally designed classes at a cooking school called Kitchen On Fire in Berkeley- they were in need of people who can do Asia, and that's kind of my thing.

    Strangely enough, starting with them came via a charming retro cold-call. Or cold-email, as the case may be. I gave them my name, my pedigree as an instructor, and gave the name of one of their most reputable guest instructors as a reference, a delightful woman named Maria, of Maria Teresa's Kitchen. Not at all a stretch to do so either- she'd been a guest instructor at my previous cooking school many times, and we always worked quite smoothly together. Ten minutes after I sent the email, I got a phone call with an eager offer. Pleasant!

    Fast forward several months and my shadowing a class or two, to last night's sushi seminar. Fourteen people is a bit more than ideal for this particular class, which led to it feeling rather jumbled to me. I was apparently the only one that thought so, though. Everyone had naught but good things to say, even my assistant and the dishwasher!

    I did spend a fair bit of time talking at first, which is inevitable. The goal of the class was not just to get everyone to practice what I was showing, but to ensure that they understood the principles behind the techniques. Mimicry only gets a person so far, after all.

    First comes the briefest of sushi history lessons, and the slow evolution of the concept into what we know it as today. After which I hit them with the essential terminology, some interesting trivia, and then we take a break to get into some technique. Knife skills practice yielded a rustic but classic side dish, Kinpira Gobo, as well as some delicately julienned cucumber for the evening's kappa-maki. Some other vegetarian sushi options included crispy roasted sweet potatoes, green onions, and my specialty shiitake braised in shoyu and mirin with ginger.

    Next, the fish. Tuna and salmon were the easy choices, since I'd been sandbagged with an attendee possessed of a shellfish allergy. A quick lesson on butchery, brine-freezing, and a few other tidbits kept them interested while I cut the fish. Regrettably I hadn't brought my knives, trusting the in-house tools. Mistake. I have not shanked a piece of fish quite that badly in several years. I had to skin the salmon with the heel of my hand- a tricky technique I learned in New England from one of the other cooks at a restaurant I worked in during my Johnson & Wales years.

Last, demos. Chumaki, Hosomaki, Temaki, and Nigiri. And then I turned them loose to practice and eat their fill.

    While perhaps a little rough getting going, everyone was pleasant to one another, lots of useful tidbits were exchanged, lots of different ingredient combinations showed up, and everyone came away with smiles, full stomachs, and better understanding. 

Ultimately, that's worth the price of admission and then some.