Tokyo Sushi

Tokyo has awesome food in every corner! Yakitori, yakiniku, yakisoba, or whatever it may be, the quality is always first class. Even convenient store food aint bad, well at least for convenient store food.

My personal favorite is Japanese sushi! It's probably one of the easiest dishes you can make. But nothing I have tried compares to how they make it in Tokyo! The combination of sticky Japanese rice cooked to perfection(rice here is awesome by the way!), fresh seafood, and grated wasabi -- YUM YUM YUM! You gotta note though that authentic sushi is just seafood, rice, wasabi, and sometimes seeweed wrap (nori). You dont get crazy maki or anything like that. Over here, its all about the fresh catch.

For sushi, you can never go wrong with Tsukiji. They bring in seafood right out of the boat to this fish market so its always fresh. Plus, for a fish market, the place is pretty clean. You dont get any funky odors, if you didnt know you wouldnt have guessed it was a wet market.

TSUKIJI WET MARKET

Fresh goods for sale

Fish wrapped and ready to go

Dining at Tsukiji - approx Y1000/lunch set

OTHER JAPANESE DISHES

SEARED SALMON SUSHI with SALMON ROE - Yummmmmmmmmmmmmy! This is one of my faves. This dish is made of seared salmon that melts in your mouth and fresh roe that pops when you eat it. Its still got the salmon skin, that is cooked till it's just crunchy enough to eat. Had this at a yakitori resto at Akihabara. But its easy to find at any yakitori house.


UNI SUSHI - I obviously dont mind the raw stuff. Not many people can handle the uni, and quite honestly, every now and then you get a bad batch that just makes you feel all feverish. This one was taken at a revoloving sushi resto at Tsukiji.


TORO SUSHI - fatty tuna sushi. This is absolutely fantastic. Much better than the regular tuna (or "maguro" in Japanese) but also more expensive. This one was at a fancy restaurant in Ginza, somewhere near the JR tracks.

RAW COW LIVER - I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to try this. Im not fond of liver at all! But... being a sushi lover, I couldnt miss the opportunity. Its dipped in sesame oil and eaten raw. Surprisingly, once you get over the texture, its quite yummy!

FUGU - puffer sushi! This is a must try for the dare devils... The fish has some toxic organs that can kill if cut the wrong way. We tried this dish at an upscale Ginza restaurant, I reckoned it would be safer. Tastewise, its nothing extravagant. This dish was raw but prepared with veggies and ponzu sauce. The texture is quite rubbery and flat, similar to squid. But the experience is quite thrilling.

MORE SASHIMI / SUSHI

Awesome selection of sashimi, including salmon, scallops, octopus, yellow tail, sardines... everything fresh! This was at a yakitori outdoor resto just a few stations west of Shibuya.

Typical Japanese sushi platter, unagi ("eel), tuna ("maguro"), ebi ("shrimp"), salmon, salmon roe.. among others