Sushi and sashimi are my kryptonite, and living in Arkansas (North West Arkansas) means a good sushi place is not all that easy to find.

Luckily I have found a couple of places that I LOVE! They really take pride in their product and service, and I am a stickler on both those fronts!

One of my top favorites is a place called Meiji Japanese Cuisine in Fayetteville, AR. This guy flys in his fish weekly so it is fresh, and even goes so far as to make fresh wasabi. He is the only one in the area making up his own wasabi, that I have come across.

I could buy an IV bag of the stuff from him and just hook it up and go...

Here are some shots of food from his place; NowThatsCookin.Com | Meiji Japanese Cuisine - Fayetteville

Be prepared to drooooool!

I have tried my hand at making sushi myself, and I have to tell you I love it! No where near perfect, but for those of you who have not tried to make it yourself, you should. I like the hands on approach.

Any of the rest of you try making your own?



Frank

On Mon, 30 May 2011 02:40:59 +0000, NowThatsCookin
> wrote:


> One of my top favorites is a place called Meiji Japanese Cuisine in
> Fayetteville, AR. This guy flys in his fish weekly so it is fresh, and


Weekly may be better than what some places get, but it's far from as
fresh as it should be.


> even goes so far as to make fresh wasabi. He is the only one in the area
> making up his own wasabi, that I have come across.


Nobody can *make* wasabi. Wasabi is a root, something like
horseradish. Perhaps you mean that he mixes green powder with water to
make "wasabi," rather than using a premixed paste. If that's what you
mean, be aware that that green powder is not real wasabi. Although
very few US places use real wasabi, an occasional place (usually in
the big cities) has it and will use it if you ask for it (almost
always at a substantial extra charge).


> I have tried my hand at making sushi myself, and I have to tell you I
> love it! No where near perfect, but for those of you who have not tried
> to make it yourself, you should. I like the hands on approach.


I know lots of people who do this, but I have no interest in doing it
myself, for basically three reasons:

1. It will be nowhere near as good as what you can get in a good sushi
bar. Making sushi well is a skill that takes a lot of training and
practice to make.

2. When I eat sushi, I want a large variety of nigiri and gunkan-maki.
I can't get that variety if I make it myself, since I can't buy
small-enough quantities of fish.

3. Many of the kinds of fish and seafood that I want on my sushi can't
be readily bought in local stores--for example, uni, ikura, tako, ika,
mirugai, torigai, unagi, shiro maguro, etc.

--
Ken Blake

On 05/30/11 2:27 PM, sometime in the recent past Ken Blake posted this:
> On Mon, 30 May 2011 02:40:59 +0000, NowThatsCookin
> > wrote:
>
>
>> One of my top favorites is a place called Meiji Japanese Cuisine in
>> Fayetteville, AR. This guy flys in his fish weekly so it is fresh, and
>
>
> Weekly may be better than what some places get, but it's far from as
> fresh as it should be.
>
>
>> even goes so far as to make fresh wasabi. He is the only one in the area
>> making up his own wasabi, that I have come across.
>
>
> Nobody can *make* wasabi. Wasabi is a root, something like
> horseradish. Perhaps you mean that he mixes green powder with water to
> make "wasabi," rather than using a premixed paste. If that's what you
> mean, be aware that that green powder is not real wasabi. Although
> very few US places use real wasabi, an occasional place (usually in
> the big cities) has it and will use it if you ask for it (almost
> always at a substantial extra charge).
I can't *make* horseradish either, but I can grow it. And even if I have a
horseradish root, it's unusable until I *make* it into ground up mass, and
for my own taste, add a bit of lemon juice.

Now, I can't *make* wasabi either, but I can procure it in root form. It
too, is unusable until I *make* it into a paste by grinding it up.
Sometimes, Ken, you take the role of teacher too seriously and tend to suck
the fun out of someone's exuberance by pointing out the technical, semantic
errors of their posts. I make my point on my own past experience.

Since this group is on life support, perhaps we could keep the pouncing to a
minimum and try not to scare off the noobies
>
>
>> I have tried my hand at making sushi myself, and I have to tell you I
>> love it! No where near perfect, but for those of you who have not tried
>> to make it yourself, you should. I like the hands on approach.
>
>
> I know lots of people who do this, but I have no interest in doing it
> myself, for basically three reasons:
>
> 1. It will be nowhere near as good as what you can get in a good sushi
> bar. Making sushi well is a skill that takes a lot of training and
> practice to make.
>
> 2. When I eat sushi, I want a large variety of nigiri and gunkan-maki.
> I can't get that variety if I make it myself, since I can't buy
> small-enough quantities of fish.
>
> 3. Many of the kinds of fish and seafood that I want on my sushi can't
> be readily bought in local stores--for example, uni, ikura, tako, ika,
> mirugai, torigai, unagi, shiro maguro, etc.
>


--
Wilson 44.69, -67.3

On Mon, 30 May 2011 02:40:59 +0000, NowThatsCookin
> wrote:

>
>Sushi and sashimi are my kryptonite, and living in Arkansas (North West
>Arkansas) means a good sushi place is not all that easy to find.
>
>Luckily I have found a couple of places that I LOVE! They really take
>pride in their product and service, and I am a stickler on both those
>fronts!
>
>One of my top favorites is a place called Meiji Japanese Cuisine in
>Fayetteville, AR. This guy flys in his fish weekly so it is fresh, and
>even goes so far as to make fresh wasabi. He is the only one in the area
>making up his own wasabi, that I have come across.
>
>I could buy an IV bag of the stuff from him and just hook it up and
>go...
>
>Here are some shots of food from his place; 'NowThatsCookin.Com | Meiji
>Japanese Cuisine - Fayetteville' (http://tinyurl.com/3cdt7mo)
>
>Be prepared to drooooool!
>
>I have tried my hand at making sushi myself, and I have to tell you I
>love it! No where near perfect, but for those of you who have not tried
>to make it yourself, you should. I like the hands on approach.
>
>Any of the rest of you try making your own?

>Frank

Hey Frank, I'm also a sushi addict. I could easily eat it in it's
various forms 9 of each 10 days.

I've made my own sushi for many years. Cutting the meat correctly, so
that it is the correct size and in the best display for that type of
meat is one third of the road to perfect sushi.

Prepping the veggies for each type of presentation and making the
right consistency and flavor of rice is the next two things to master.

Lastly, the presentation of the various pieces makes the dish
something wonderful to see before even tasting anything on it.

I buy or catch my meats. Living only one mile from great surf fishing
is a real bonus to sushi lovers. I first freeze all of the fish in
minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit or lower for 10 days. Then I super-clean
all surfaces and items used in prep and wrap all my meats in four
ounces pieces. When performing the first cuts, I do so while the meat
is still partially frozen, and take the outer 16th of an inch of meat
from all six sides. This must be done while rolling the meat to a new
location, so as to not allow it to touch where it was previously
sitting. Bacteria is there. These cuts are added to a soup or fish
stew which in turn is added to the meal. This clears any bacteria that
has come in contact with the outer parts of the fish meat. Then, the
rest of the 4 ounce block is moved to a bacteria free surface until
the prep counter is cleaned again.

Then I make four pieces of sushi from each block. Each piece being
very close to one ounce, which is a very nice size for sushi.

It sounds difficult, but if you watch a chef make quality sushi,
you'll see these same steps reproduced each time. Most chefs can look
at the meat in their cases and decide if the most recent cuts were
recent enough to have prevented contamination within the time that has
elapsed. If there is any doubt, take the outer 1/16th" off in the
manner I outlined above.

The freezing eliminated parasites and the safe-handling and sanitary
conditions prevent bacterial contamination.

The FDA suggests 7 days at minus four degrees Fahrenheit, but I have a
counter top freezer that stays at minus 20 and I keep the meat at that
temp for 10 days minimum to make sure. Cold thawing the meat is also
important to it's flavor and bacteria count. I thaw mine in ice water
in a stainless steel bowl.

I make a sushi feast for myself about bi-monthly. The rest of the
time, I go out to my favorite places and have it. It's even better
when you don't have to do anything but eat it!

Thank you for the "schooling" Ken.... Nice to meet you btw....

And yes, I understand I can not "make" wasabi. I did not understand that I needed to dumb down my comment to make sure it was understood in the context in which I meant it... (look ma, I ended a sentence in a perpasition thingy bobber, maybe cause I am from arkansaw..)

Sorry to be so facetious as that is not normally how I interact with others, but I just do not have much patience for folks that have to "correct" and demean others, just to make themselves feel better or drive a point home. And that is what your response to me feels like Ken. It was not a “hey, look someone new to the forums, hi, and welcome”, instead it was a “ohhh looky here, if you are going to post in these forums, you better make sure your grammar and sentence structure are correct.

I thought I had found a nice friendly forum area to discuss my love of food.

But if my every mis-step in grammar and sentence structure is going to be pulled apart by someone with not much else to do with his time, perhaps this is not the place for me.

And yes I know weekly may be better than some, and as you pointed out is as far from fresh as it can be, but we are in North West Arkansas.. There just are not going to be any places flying it in daily or every other day. Thank you for slapping me down on that point as well.

And I know the difference between fresh wasabi, and colored horseradish.

Here is a picture of the fresh stuff I was talking about him "making".

NowThatsCookin.Com | Meiji Japanese Cuisine - Fayetteville

Ohhh, and his substantial up charge is a whopping fifty cents...

And I do understand your points in regards to making it yourself, but what I like about making it myself is the challenge and the reward. Yes I know mine is never going to be as good as what comes from a sushi restaurant and from a skilled sushi chef, but that really was not my point.

Landon, you just made me drool all over my keyboard....

And Wilson, thank you for pointing out the obvious which Ken seemed to overlook. I appreciate your words.

I will check back with these forums in a few days, and who knows, I might decide to jump into the discussion again, but Ken, you really do need to work on your interpersonal skills a tad. That kind of welcome of new users to the forums is not going to gain you very many additional users to interact with. But who knows, maybe you would like it that way, and could hand select those that do get to participate, ensuring that you get the level of intelligent interaction you deem adequate.

I thought I had found a nice friendly forum area to discuss my love of food.
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When I catch a large Hybrid Striped Bass, I filet it. Then, my mother takes tweezers and pulls out some hidden bones. We vacuum seal the meat, then freeze it. Then, thin slice it while frozen, and voila...suzuki sashimi.
My mother is Japanese and worked in a fish market.
I travel to Japan frequently for work, and probably at my Mercury limit with all the sushi/sashimi I eat.
In Japan, the maki (rolls) are still quite traditional. Very few places in Japan are getting creative with maki. I would have to say USA has better maki than Japan. But, Japan has the best Nigiri/Sashimi in the world.
They are getting creative with Nigiri.
Mayonaisse is a huge food fad in Japan. They're putting it on everything.
I'm a bit of a sushi snob. When I first saw Salmon mayonaisse aburi, I frowned upon it. Salmon Nigiri with mayonaisse, then torched.
I tried some, and found it to be absolutely delicious. I'm not a fan of mayo, but when they torch it, it changes the taste, and the mixture of salmon, rice, and cooked mayo...makes a wonderful taste combination.