FFS get over yourselves! Eat raw fish!

[Shimarisu]

As a nation Britain totally fails to get the concept of sushi. Everyone I speak to who is not into Japanese culture refuses to try it, saying it's disgusting and they cannot eat raw food. OK, let's for a moment look at some British delicacies that we are quite happy to scoff without ever admitting it's raw or that it might be seen as "disgusting".

Oysters - eaten raw, and still alive. Swallowed whole.

Smoked Salmon - extremely lightly smoked fish that has NO consistency at all of cooked, it looks and feels exactly like raw salmon, and tastes of it too, except for the smoked flavour.

Rollmop Herrings - A whole side of raw herring pickled in white vinegar and wrapped round a wad of shredded pickled onions with a little stick shoved in that I on many an occassion have nearly eaten by accident. Tastes wholesomely of vinegar, texture of the fish is often soft like any raw fish, and the skin is stil on it and soft too because it's not been cooked.

Stilton cheese - a cheese allowed to go mouldy. Not special mould either, just cheese mold. Tastes of mould, I can compare - I recently accidentally ate some mouldy Philadephia soft cheese that tasted EXACTLY like stilton.

Jellied eels - (raw?) eels allowed to pickle in aspic jelly, a jelly derived from the stuff that bleeds out of pork. Fucking horrible. People eat the jelly too which is like the stuff I always pull out of pork pies, ie. like what you Americans call jello but tastes of meat. Disgusting!

Rare steak - How the real British man likes to eat his beef steak, only cooked on the surface and oozing with blood and BSE.

I await the day when the deperately patrotic and charmingly racist British Isles will get over itself and consume sushi. So far I've only seen sushi restaurants in London, and it pisses me off that I can't get one of my favourite foods here at all.

- Shimarisu

[Armok]

A point worth mentioning here I feel is a coversation I had last night whiel watching Japan vs England at football.

Friend: Wow Japans got a Brazilian guy
Me: He must be Japanise he's playing for them.
Friend: He doesnt look japanise
Me: Well he must be, they don't all look the same you know.
Friend: Well you kind of espect them to all be Orientals.
Me: You wouldnt look twice at a Black or Asian England Player
Friend: yer but thats different.

Typical English View

[Deathscythealpha]

Always wanted to try Sushi, but never got the guts to. I know they sell it at the Tesco's where i live, but its 2.99 for a very small tray of the stuff. Maybe ill get some when i go home on friday.

[Armok]

They sell sushi in M&S food department for about 18 quid a go also.

[Mystil]

Heh Shim is STILL here. Wow thats nice.

[Madzozs]

I'll top that if I can. My father eats Pig's Feet. It's a disgusting looking slab of jello/meat that you drown in vinegar to get the flavor.

[Nai_Calus]

Ok, you brits are fucking nasty.

...And people won't eat sushi WHY? @_o

I mean, Jesus Fuck, I won't eat fucking ANYTHING and I'll eat Sushi. I won't touch goddamned ketchup, and I'll eat Sushi.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Dammit Shim, now you've got me wanting to go out to eat Sushi, and I'm trying to save money for a trip to LA, early next month.

There's a handy little Sushi place out here in Fresno that serves some good stuff.

They have, of course, California Rolls. Because we're in California, they also have what they call "Governor Rolls", which are basically just California Rolls with Mussels. Anyone catch the pun in this food?

Seriously though, it's good stuff. The tuna pwnz j00. Of course, there are certain things that I fear to eat there, like the chunk of Octopus tentacle on a little ball of rice. I suppose that I might like it if I were to eat it, but dangit, it bothers me that it just might stick to the roof of my mouth WITHOUT being sticky to begin with.

[Ness]

What does FFS stand for?

[Shimarisu]

The sushi in Tesco is bland and crappy. And not very fresh, so they put preservatives in the fish, which prevents it from going off over the couple of days they have it in the fridge section, but doesn't stop the fish drying out.

The sushi in the restaurants in London is bland and crappy.

I used to make my own sushi by buying best cuts of fresh fish. That was much better than the Tesco stuff, but that too, seems bland and crappy now I am enlightened.

I was spoiled hopelessly by Japan, I'm afraid. I don't know how the fuck they get so much better fish, but they do. I can't even BUY cuts of fish as nice from the Japanese supermarket in London. Chuutoro in particular is my favorite (medium fatty tuna). There's a revolving sushi place near where I always stay in Japan called Maguro Bito, which always has a queue going round the shop and outside the door. You have to wait an hour to get in, and there's other sushi places all round but they aren't a patch on it, so everybody queues. It's twice the price of most revolving sushi places but well worth it. My Japanese friend says it was voted 2nd in all Japanese revolving sushi polaces in a national poll. God only knows how awesome the no. 1 place is.

I'll bet it's way better in the US though, where people have accepted sushi and therefore there are many retaurants competing with each other to get it right. Whereas what we get here are poncey places that while they are not too overpriced, are INCREDIBLY pretentious. They make sushi that doesn't exist on ANY Japanese menu, by cutting up veg and fruit and putting it on rice with a TEENY, TINY bit of raw fish. Go Sushi are the worst for this, I looked at their top ten selling menu, and at the top was avacado and (some other ingredient) sushi. Yeah avacado is nice on sushi but it's NOT traditional and it's NOT FISH! All the rest of their top ten menu was bullshit too, California Rolls featured prominently (they had avacado in them too). California Rolls AREN'T JAPANESE! Yep they are nice and you can get them in Japan, but they don't feature on top ten menus. And the irony is if you forced any of these poncey avacado eating prats to eat chuutoro, they'd love it, but then of course there would be a problem as chuutoro isn't cheap. Going on the taxes and price hikes in this country overall, you'd probably pay £6 for 2 pieces of chuutoro.

- Shimarisu

[Mixfortune]

On 2004-06-02 08:46, Ness wrote:
What does FFS stand for?



For fuck's sake, I believe.

Well, I can't speak for the sushi in London and whatnot, since I haven't been there, but yes, the US does have quite a few sushi places, at least around here (Western Washington). Of course, there's always the veggie rolls and California Rolls, but there are the salmon, tuna, eel, octopus, etc. as well.

The local Japanese buffet restaurant runs about $20-25 per person for dinner, if I'm not mistaken, but it's well worth it.

I can't speak for the quality in comparasion to the real or authentic sushi, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it wasn't far off.

But... not liking sushi... O_o
Maybe it's a combination of the caution around trying something different, and the crappy quality you say a lot of the sushi has around those parts that keeps its popularity grounded.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Hmm... I don't think there are really that many Sushi bars around here competing with eachother. I am personally aware of two, here in town; both of which are owned by the same guy. The larger of the two restaurants includes a Teppanyaki grill, as well. I loves me some hot saki. Fortunately, the owner of these two Sushi bars was born and raised in Japan, and I rather suspect that his parents ran similar restaurants at one time. So this stuff is legit.

Interestingly, my sister is a waitress at the larger restaurant, and her fiance is a bartender at the smaller one. Albeit, not for long... At those places, the tips are divied up among the waitresses, bartenders, busboys and cooks; while the cooks get 50% of the tips, the waitresses, bartenders and busboys get the other 50% between them... Which means that the tips aren't that great, unless you're a cook.

Actually, come to think of it, there IS another Teppanyaki here in town that includes a Sushi bar, but I don't know as much about it... It's a cheaper place than Yoshino's, but I've only been there once. I'm thinking that it's altogether possible that they buy old equipment from Yoshino's whenever Yoshino's goes to upgrade their stuff. There's really an evident difference there between the expensive stuff, and the inexpensive stuff, I think.

[shifter]

welcome to the closed minded world we live in. people are always going to be warry about things that they havent tried or are new to them, its human nature. i myself fall in that catagory cause i havent tried it, nor have had a real need to try it. plain and simple, if a person hasnt tried a different type of food or knows someone who has, then they will most likely never, ever going to try it.

[Deathscythealpha]

On 2004-06-02 09:37, Shimarisu wrote:
The sushi in Tesco is bland and crappy. And not very fresh, so they put preservatives in the fish, which prevents it from going off over the couple of days they have it in the fridge section, but doesn't stop the fish drying out.


Ah well. Too bad i live in a country town, no interesting restaurants or anything anywhere. But then again im in Hull at the minute (worst city EVER!) and theres no places like that either.

[navci]

I live on the coast, I believe when I say we have the best fresh and cheapest fish in North America, I won't be exaggerating too much. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

I love fish. I believe some of the fishes are supposed to eat raw. Salmon, for example, is a bijillion times better tasting raw. I see how raw things might go into someone's mind as being scary because it might have all the baterias and what not. But that is why you drink Sake with Sashimi, and that's why you go to good places to make sure they are selling you fresh fishes rather than fishes that has been dead for a million years.

You don't have to try everything in the world, there are many odd things that people eat, but the very least is, well, not to bash it. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[DarthFomar]

On 2004-06-02 03:24, Shimarisu wrote:
Rare steak - How the real British man likes to eat his beef steak, only cooked on the surface and oozing with blood and BSE.

Permission to throw-up now?! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_barf.gif
If I ate a steak like that it would literally make me sick to my stomach. God of all the things dear and holy...."Mad Cow disease anyone?!" "Oo, why certainly!" http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_barf.gif


On 2004-06-02 03:24, Shimarisu wrote:
I await the day when the deperately patrotic and charmingly racist British Isles will get over itself and consume sushi. So far I've only seen sushi restaurants in London, and it pisses me off that I can't get one of my favourite foods here at all.

- Shimarisu




I've tried sushi....actually kind of good, just make sure to eat it with spice. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

There's sushi restaurant called "Sushin" just down the street from my house. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif


*Oh my god....this topic is making me want to play Shenmue....if only my dreamcast worked.* http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DarthFomar on 2004-06-02 20:16 ]</font>

[HUnewearl_Meira]

On 2004-06-02 13:26, navi wrote:
That's why you go to good places to make sure they are selling you fresh fishes rather than fishes that has been dead for a million years.


I dunno, I've heard of people eating Mammoth Meat, and Mammoths have been generally dead for quite some time, now.

[Rainbowlemon]

Shim, try your nearest M&S, as Armok said - kinda pricy, but definately worth it. (or you could be stupid/extremely rich and go to Selfridges...)

I have the same problem with the views of English folk on foreign foods. I myself am half Iranian, and my dad usually cooks these really nice Iranian dishes for special occasions, and it's so disappointing the amount of people that aren't willing to eat it because "It looks funny" or because they don't like the taste of ONE of the ingredients, regardless of the fact that there's countless of other flavours to moderate the flavours.

I for one LOVE sushi (If any of you knew me well enough, you'd know I eat pretty much everything but olives http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif), but due to its label as simply 'raw, uncooked fish', very few English people are willing to have a go. All I can say really is, their loss.

~ Antimony

[Saciel]

^_^ YAY! SUSHI! ...but not all sushi is raw fish >.> sushi barbeque =D~~

...but erm yeah, there's quite a few sushi bars around in the UK these days. This also reminds me I need to go to Yo-Sushi next time I'm in Birmingham... B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-BIRMINGHAM POW! Firecracker rice... lots of tuna dishes... sour plum! squid for chewy goodnes... ooh and free re-fills on green tea!

...dishes running from £1-£3.50 ...but believe me, sushi is quite a filling meal... plus very prettifull.

as for rare steak, I couldn't agree more, xD~~~ tis where all the flavour lies... plus nothing more fun than disturbing squeemish peeps by letting the blood trickle slightly out of the corner of your lips mwuah ha ha ha ha!!!

[Zaneatron]

I had steak today, but i cooked it a bit too much :s twas quite a crisp steak. but i blame this on my marinade, which consistes of lea & perrins (wousteshire (sp?) sauce), tobasco, honey and Jack Danials http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif its the JD that makes the steak cook really well, too well infact, i need to turn down the heat on it in future. i also put on salt and pepper and sprayed on some olive oil, which also contributes to the burningness...

i do lots of things to bring out the flavour in my steak, but it tastes awesome in the end, so im happy. this also comes from a butcher, as opposed to tescos. if i had to get some from a supermarket, i'd choose either M&S (on preference) or Waitrose...
The key to a good steak is for it to have a lot of fat on it, that is what really makes it taste good http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[ForceOfBrokenGlass]

As much as raw meat creeps me out, I can't eat sushi if I wanted to. I'm alergic to fish.http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/eviltongue.gif

[decswxaqz]

Sushi is great http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif. I think you can get a wider variety of sushi in Japan (obviously) because demand for the more 'exotic' fish is greater. In England, we only eat cod, haddock, salmon and a few other colder water fish. I think if we had slightly warmer water, we could farm those sorts of fish the Japanese had.
I don't think the quality is that much different from the real Japanese sushi. It's different, but all the stuff we get is mass produced and stored on a shelf. There are few places that make it fresh like all the Japanese places do.

We have a few Japanese restaurants in Manchester. I took a friend to one, and loved it. They did most of the traditional Japanese foods, since the cook and manager were Japanese http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif. We have a China Town too so that helps matters with a few supermarkets where we can get Chinese & Japanese foods.

I'm a bit uncertain about eating raw eggs and rice like some Japanese do. Raw eggs don't seem a good idea when we have salmenella and the like. Raw fish is fine though. I'm willing to try anything once http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif.

[DarthFomar]

On 2004-06-04 11:32, Saciel wrote:
as for rare steak, I couldn't agree more, xD~~~ tis where all the flavour lies... plus nothing more fun than disturbing squeemish peeps by letting the blood trickle slightly out of the corner of your lips mwuah ha ha ha ha!!!



OMG!!! you've got to be joking right?! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_barf.gif

I worked at Kroger in the Meat & Seafood department. I was around that stuff all the time. I knew how they cut the meat, when they cut the meat, what they cut the meat with....I knew every process that meat went through. But, I'm sure other places have different methods. Even though grocery stores are suppose to keep the meat as clean as possible, I wouldn't eat any of their steaks rare. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_no.gif

How someone could possibly even think of eating *almost* raw steak, is beyond my me....

Waiter: "What could I get for you today, miseur"
Customer: "Umm, yes, I'd like a rare steak please"
Waiter: "Ah, the Madcow Special"
Customer:"Yes, that's the one"
Waiter: "Coming right up"
Customer: "Thank you"

Man, I just don't see how someone can eat steak like that..... *feels quezy* http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

But, on the other hand....Sushi is very good. But, not always the first time you try it. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

Make sure you know a little bit about the restaurant you eat it from first. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

Now go....gorge on the tasty sushi. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DarthFomar on 2004-06-05 22:55 ]</font>