Next time you look across at that pink filet calling you, remember where it came from.

Check it out here:  Very good article

I have to admit  I’ve been pretty unhappy with all the asian food I’ve been eating in the Midwest.  Yeah I know, “How is the fishing boat going to drop the asians off in the Midwest?”  Well, there’s enough railroads around here that probably had something to do with their relocation.  Anyway the great Chicago sushi place I found is called Ginza Japanese Resturant.  Trust me, for weeks I’ve been peeking my head into so called “sushi” resturants and taking a look at the menu and the clientele, so far this is the only place I would stamp Japadamus.com approved.

So far I’ve tried the Agedashi Tofu, Sapporo Beer, Sakekawa maki (Salmon skin roll), Natto Maki, Hamachi, Sake(salmon), Shiro Maguro (interestingly they didn’t serve albacore for their shiro maguro, rather they gave me Escolar), Ikura, and Scallop.  Out of those, I would say the Salmon was the most interesting.  They use a VERY fatty cut that doesn’t look like the traditional striped design, it looked almost all white with several pink portions.  It was slightly more chewy but altogether pretty good.  The only fish I had a slight problem with was the Hamachi.  It seemed to a cut that was much closer to the bloodline which gave it a stronger fishy taste.  I didn’t like it.

To all my loyal fans I will promise to explore the menu further and report back.

Sushifaq is billing itself as the definitive guide to sushi and sashimi and I tend to agree.   They seem to have everything here, except of course a step to step guide to making Ankimo or an Uni primer.  One complaint about the guide is that its a little pretentious, although sushi has a lot of customs and specialized knowledge, I don’t think the cuisine is meant to be elitist. Sushi like all food should be enjoyed.

  Ever been at a Sushiboat restaurant and wondered “how long has that Maguro been riding around the restaurant?”  Well, Forbes has an excellent article about Blue C Sushi in Seattle and their use of RFID tags to track the freshness of their sushi.  These tags also help manage inventory and speed up the checkout process.  Sushi chefs are able to monitor their inventory in real-time and restock the selection accordingly.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me, anyone foresee any problems with this process?  I wonder how much it cost the restaurant to implement this expensive technology.

On Friday we made our way to Oyaji after the Giants and A’s game.  Remarkably, the place was open till midnight - and when we got there at half ’till it was still packed.

Oyaji’s kitchen menu is very comprehensive compared to other japanese restaurants.  While most places will have yakitori, for example, Oyaji offers several different types of skewered meats…chicken thigh, chicken gizzard, chicken wings, duck, beef asparagus…and more.  They even have yaki onigiri and ramen - I swear you could eat at this place for a week and never order the same time twice.  We decided on Yakitori and skewered pork, as well as an order of yaki onigiri.

The sushi selection at Oyaji is decent, but not outstanding.  They did, however, have ‘live’ scallop, pretty good looking aji, and conch shell.

We bit for the live scallop - and it was excellent.  Most of the time, when a restaurant says ‘live’ scallops, you’re getting scallops that have really been cleaned and gutted that day - an improvement over store bought stuff, but not truly live.  Oyaji’s scallops seemed as close to live as you can get.  The meat was a bit firm, and incredibly flavorful - a far cry from the mostly bland scallops that most bars serve.  The scallop innards were also grilled and presented to us in a shell.

We also had a spider roll, aji, ankimo and hamachi sashimi.  The aji was good - the sushi was interesting cut into two smaller-than-nigiri-sized pieces and seasoned with shiso.  The spider roll was simple, but adequate, and the ankimo was fine as well.  The hamachi sashimi was also basic, but the fish spoke for itself - juicy and buttery at the same time.

The chef also gave us a side dish of toro with what seemed to be a ponzu sauce.  That’s one thing about Oyaji, they are always very generous with the extras.

Overall, another great Oyaji experience.  Everytime I go there, I am impressed.

-Food:  A-  The food at Oyaji is excellent.  The live scallop was the best I’ve had in a long time - finally a live dish that actually tasted live.  Oyaji doesn’t skimp on the standard items like hamachi either - everything was fresh, well prepared and tasty.

-Selection:  B+  Oyaji’s japanese kitchen menu selection is a definite ‘A’.  However, their sushi selection is only better than average.  They could do more to add sushi specials on the menu, but as it stands their existing selection takes a quality over quantity approach that works very well.

-Service:  C+  Everytime I have been to Oyaji, the service was so-so…or worse.  The young asian girls working there seem overloaded - often running around back and forth.  It’s more of a problem if you sit at a table than the bar, but even when you sit at the bar they forget things like tea or beer, which takes away from the otherwise excellent food.  The chefs on the other hand, were mostly attentive.  Usually at Oyaji that is the case - the chefs tend to be accommodating and friendly, an improvement from the often standoffish chefs at other bars.

-Ambience:  B  Nothing spectacular at all, but at the same time not tacky.  It’s not a pretentious restaurant with expensive decorations - it’s a down-home style place with traditional, natural wood styling.

-Overall:  A-  Oyaji is one of the better sushi restaurants in the bay for japanese food lovers.  The chefs are usually very good, as is the food.  The kitchen items are a real treat - you can scour the bay looking for some of the items available at Oyaji.  The sushi, while someone limited in selection, is well-kept, well prepared, and professional.

It must also be said, that Oyaji has a certain personality that you won’t find at other bars.  Usually halfway into the night, the ‘Oyaji,’ i.e. old man, escapes from the bar to mingle with customers.  Like Rocco, Oyaji will flirt and drink with the ladies, and he came out to have a cigarette with us when we were done.  He’s also generous with the drinks, often walking around with a large sake bottle in hand.  Atmosphere - not to be confused with ambience - is one of Oyaji’s most distinctive qualities, and combined with the food, it makes the restaurant a solid bet any night.

Oyaji Restaurant

3123 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 379-3604

Reuters is reporting that Japan’s controversial plan to certify sushi ‘authentic’ Japanese restaurants in the United States has been modified to be voluntary.  According to Japan’s Agriculture Ministry, restaurants will only be tested for authenticity at the request of the restaurant itself. 

I thought this is how the program was going to be implemented in the first place - I mean, the idea of undercover Japanese agents coming to the U.S. to rate each sushi restaurant seems a bit, well, pick your adjective:  obsessive?  nazish?  narcissistic?  typical japanese?

The plan calls for a panel of experts to assess the authenticity of restaurants requesting certification.  The panel will be comprised of ‘private-sector Japanese food experts and representatives of the agriculture and marine product industries.’

Restaurants will be tested on ‘food staples, such as miso soybean paste and rice, cooking techniques and seasoning.’  Restaurants that pass the test will receive an official mark of recommendation.

Reuters reports that critics of the proposal argue that Japan has itself adapted foreign foods, suggesting that it is hypocritical for Japan to police U.S. restaurants for doing essential the same thing.  There are also concerns of the idea of ‘food nationalism,’ as well as tax dollars wasted on the program.

In terms of financing, it seems like this program will be at least self sufficient.  The cost of certifying restaurants will likely be covered by application fees - any profits or losses will probably be negligible in terms of overall Japanese government revenue.

But there should be more concerns regarding the certification process itself.  Will restaurants only be certified if they use Japanese products?  This seems to be the case, particularly with ‘food staples’ such as miso.

The motivation behind this policy is questionable.  Although Japan would profit by increasing demand for Japanese food staples, the benefit here would be miniscule.  The export of foodstuffs account for only 0.3% of total Japanese exports, and agriculture, forestry and fishing exports combined account for less than 0.2% of total Japanese exports.

So, if the motivation is not financial, I believe that Japan is implementing this program primarily for pride - both for it’s cuisine and Japanese expats who run sushi restaurants in the U.S. 

While the scope of the term ‘authentic’ can be debated, it is reasonable that, in Japan’s eyes at least, the term mandates the use of core Japanese ingredients.  After all, Japan’s Agricultural Ministry is only providing it’s opinion of what is authentic or not - it just happens to have more clout since it is, in fact, a Japanese government agency.

In terms of cooking techniques, this seems difficult to enforce.  Would each new chef in a restaurant need to be certified, or would there need to be only one certified authentic chef in each restaurant?  My guess is the latter - some states have a similar policy regarding chefs with food handling certification - it would be more efficient to say, certify a chef based on his/her technique, and assume that that chef would manage quality amongst other chefs.

Will this plan work?  In terms of implementation, this plan seems no more difficult than other types of certification, like organic or even Atkins certification.  I do not believe there will be problems here and I think most restaurants are already accustomed to some sort of certification process already.

The more important question, it seems, is will people care?  will the ‘certified authentic’ seal from the Japanese government hold any weight with consumers?  will restaurants even want to be certified in the first place?

The answer here is more difficult to predict.  It will take a well-designed marketing campaign to make restaurant owners and consumers aware of the program.  I expect Japanese-owned restaurants to apply quickly - i mean, this plan does seem to be suspiciously designed for their benefit - but non-Japanese restaurants will likely be more hesitant, particularly if the program seems tilted towards Japanese natives.

As for consumers, this will be the only certification of authenticity for Japanese restaurants, so diners looking for an authentic Japanese meal will need to take this into account.  Since sushi is a cultural experience for some diners, this may end up to be a significant benefit for certified restaurants.  However, I wonder what happens to more trendy fusion restaurants, such as Blowfish, that blend authentic cuisine with a mix of european flavors.

The takeaway, it seems, is that the Japanese government can certify what it wants to, how it wants to.  Consumers on the other hand, are able to judge the merits of this certification in their own way.

I for one, would like to see this plan in action, if only because I’m sick of seeing Koreans cash in on japanse cuisine.  Look Koreans, it’s not my fault that your cuisine is too garlicy and spicy to appeal to a broad U.S. audience.  It’s not my fault that American’s don’t understand the concept of starting a meal with 12 little dishes of pickes (love the bean sprouts and kim chee cucumber) or ending the meal with a sliced orange.  why don’t you try building a market for korean food in say, India, instead of stealing our food, ok?  Don’t make us come over there again - we all know how that ended.

At the same time though, it’s fun to do your own research and investigation to see how authentic a sushi place is.  I guess the problem with your own research is that you’re only as accurate as you are personally authentic (I’m, well, not so much).  Plus, most haoles around here can’t tell a Japanese from a Laotian.  But it’s interesting to research on the web, scope out a place, and form your own opinion.

In any case, got to love the Japanese.  What country would ever think of such an audacious plan?  My only question is, will I get kicked out of an authentic restarurant if I put shoyu on my rice?

This is another “unfortuantley this is exactly what it sounds like” story.

The AP is reporting that astronaut Sunita Williams spilled wasabi while trying to make ‘a pretend sushi meal with a bag-packaged salmon.’  I guess this means she was trying to take salmon and put some wasabi on it, along with rice.

In any case, the wasabi spilled, which is bad news in space because everything, of course, just floats around.

Now clearly I’m all for ethnic cuisine, but this girl Sunita seems like that one roomate who always stinks up the house with her ‘authentic’ dishes.  Kind of like when I eat natto and leave the fermemted beans to dry and cake up in dishes in the sink.

Imagine being in a small space station, where air is clearly a short commodity, and this indian girl starts preparing punjabi kadhi, yougurt and curry, mutter paneer, etc.  I don’t know what those dishes are specifically, but generally I know they are stinky.

Over the past two weeks we have posted several times about the growing ‘bastardization’ of sushi in the United States.  Today, it seems like things have finally come to a head.  CBS is reporting that the Japanese government wants to step in and certify authentic sushi restaurants in the United States.

According to the article, the Japanese government wants to send inspectors to the U.S. to certify authentic Japanese sushi restaurants.  Few specifics have been worked out, but it seems like the restaurants would be certified based on their preparation of sushi.

It’s interesting to note tha