Ewww!
Never been a fan of sushi. Tried it a few times at the urging of others, but to me it’s just gross and unpleasant, each combination of various sauces and types of sushi I’ve tried.
You can’t go wrong with unagi. Broiled freshwater eel with a lovely sauce. Fully cooked for your safety.
There was a story last year I think in the local paper about a guy who had several feet of worm removed from his system. Got it from eating sushi.
I do like sushi, but not the really fancy stuff.
I’m shocked, shocked to discover that uncooked meat might contain parasites. If only we’d invented some sort of method of killing these parasites before consuming the food at some point during ancient times.
The veggie stuff is fine but generally pretty bland in my experience. Sashimi, every time I’ve tried it, has just been unpleasant. There’s nothing appealing about the taste and the texture is just offputting.
I’ll try anything more than once to try and find a variety I like, but I just can’t seem to get there with sashimi.
I enjoy sushi but it’s not very filling and is very expensive so I often wonder why I bother.
Dumb question: is there a cool, high-tech way of killing parasites in raw fish without cooking it? UV, CO2, etc.?
It’s called freezing.
There are plenty of ways to eat sushi safely and reputable restaurants know this. You’re taking a chance with food preparation regardless of whether it’s sushi or not, but you mitigate by verifying the quality of the restaurant and food preparation. But of course you all know this.
It’s mandatory over here for sushi (I love sushi, btw).
Hey, I said it was a dumb question. :) 15 hours, according to that article. Interesting.
Yes, all sushi-grade fish is subjected to a deep flash freeze, usually immediately after harvest, to kill off parasites.
I mean, realistically, I think most fish is frozen for the same reason, but sushi-grade ostensibly means that greater care was taken and the fish underwent some extra inspection. . . except, well, it’s one of those wild-west unregulated terms, so, it’s definitely a bit of a crapshoot. If you trust your fishmonger, go nuts.
FWIW, I don’t tend to eat raw ocean fish when I’m more than a few hours from the coast, especially at any place that I can actually afford :-D
But well-prepared sushi’s undergone those kinda safety protocols, been kept at proper temperatures at the restaurant, and should be eaten swiftly. Keep to reputable joints and you’ll be fine.
FWIW, I’m not super big on sashimi, either. I can appreciate it from an aesthetic perspective, sure, as a very refined and exquisitely prepared cuisine honed to its purest form, but A) I’m not gonna be able to afford the places that do it genuinely well, and B) I’m sort of a food slob, so sophistication and refinement are usually wasted on me.
Now, give me a roll stuffed with three kinds of deep fried fish, topped with spicy mayo and crunchy bits and shredded crab salad? Shit yeah, that’s what I’m all about.
Every time i see sushi i think
“…only remaining…indigenous… life form.”
You can eat steak tartar all over Europe so it’s possible to have safe* uncooked meat.
- for some value of safe to be defined.
It’s mandatory in the US as well.
However, one thing is worth noting:
While sushi is legally required to have been frozen to serve in the US, it’s very possible that it never was when you consume it.
The law says that it needs to be frozen, but it doesn’t say who needs to freeze it.
That means that anyone among the supply chain can just pass the buck, and assume that someone else in the chain froze it at some point. Indeed, with some high end sushi places, this is kind the target… Buy from a guy who didn’t freeze it, and then don’t freeze it yourself, thus ensuring that the fish was not in fact frozen, ever. But everyone can still about legal issues bus plausible deniability, saying, “i assumed that other guy was going to freeze it.”
The question then becomes, “why would they do this?”
And the answer to that is that freezing fish will alter its quality, just like freezing any other meat. Fresh, unfrozen fish will have a superior texture (at least to a refined pallet, which mine is not). So at some high end sushi places, they actually want unfrozen fish.
That being said, even without freezing, your chances of contracting a parasite from sushi is extremely low anyway. The fish that you are consuming raw are generally always going to be salt water fish, and as a general rule, any parasite that can survive in a salt water fish, won’t be able to survive in you.
You are more likely to get parasites from undercooked freshwater fish.
My FIL eats raw steak and hamburger, though usually only a bite or two. My grandmother did the same. It’s all fun and games until you get E. Coli O157:H7.
Some of y’all might never want to watch a chef prep amberjack…;)
I thought that most fish is frozen on ship right after it’s caught.
When I worked in the Pacific a lot of the guys would go outside the atoll and fish. They’d bring back tuna and jack and dolphin fish and the like. I eat sushi occasionally but I do hesitate momentarily when I remember the nasty parasites they pulled from the fish during cleaning. Like big old eyeball sized bastards. Nasty.
For those wondering what Trigger is talking about. barf
I saw another video last year about Tuna used by the Japanese . There’s a season where you’re not supposed to take certain types because the parasites are out of control, and another season where they’re OK.