The God of Sushi: Michelin Spirit in Jiro Ono: Persistence, persistence and diligence.

Chunxia sushi shicai

Site seafood

Muscle, new seeds, sardines, bamboo Fish, real sole, small perch, perch, island sole, small anchovy, small cuttlefish, soft silk, bird clam, abalone, cave, shrimp and bonito.

The taste of newborn bonito and returned bonito is just like the difference between new shoots and maple leaves, cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums, so we don't make bonito sushi in autumn.

Plum blossoms in Tokyo are still blooming sporadically, and the wooden boxes used to hold ingredients in sushi restaurants are full of spring. I feel that the taste of bird clams is stronger and softer, and the long-awaited first bonito has begun to appear. Shrimp and bamboo? The season of fish, real sole and abalone is approaching. Then, when the new son and the little squid appeared, it was summer. In this season, how will Jiro Ono, the owner of the first Jiro, deal with these seasonal catches?

Newborn bright-skinned fish/muscles

The "King of Sushi" made a throat sound.

The "king of sushi" is a small muscle (referring to a small fish about ten centimeters). If I eat it in one bite, my throat will growl. This is the evidence. Everyone laughed when I said this, but there was really a sound the moment I chewed and swallowed it. Especially when the small muscles on sushi are perfectly matched with the taste of vinegar rice under sushi.

Then, "ah! Delicious on earth! This feeling will keep popping up.

Of course, other sushi in our store is also delicious. But even so, there is no sound in their throats, so it doesn't feel so real. Muscle is the cheapest fish in sushi. But if handled properly, it is the "sushi king" who will make a guttural sound.

Proper handling means adjusting the amount of salt and the degree of vinegar pickling according to the different texture of each fish, especially for new fish (referring to young fish below five centimeters). Every fish has different fat, body thickness and size. If you put them all in the same pot and marinate them in vinegar for the same time, you will never make sushi with throat sounds. Because it is a small-tailed new son, the curing time must be considered one by one according to the subtle differences in size and texture, even for a second or two, so that all new sons taste the same.

I nagged all the young people in the shop about it over and over again, because it is something that we should try our best to do anyway.

If they can't make the same taste and even fail their own tests, I'm a sushi producer. Because once these ingredients are handled by me, they will be delivered to the guests immediately, and I have no time to make any remedies at all.

Speaking of which, I remember that when I traveled to Kyushu before, I once had sushi in a sushi restaurant that I passed by. After swallowing it, I don't know if it's fishy or pickled badly, but it tastes bad anyway. Just as I was whispering to my partner, "What did we do to make such a mess?" ? ",the master probably mistakenly thought we were praising? He began to proudly explain how much salt was used and how long it would take to marinate in vinegar.

Lao shifu certainly hasn't tried it himself. Because I didn't try to taste and adjust at the same time, I made such terrible little muscles. It doesn't matter if you don't do it yourself. It doesn't matter if you ask young master to do it But the finished product must be tasted by yourself. If the taste starts to go out of shape, it must be adjusted back.

"I can't go wrong. 」

This attitude is all wet, as it is with everything. The long-term gap is the initial error, which leads to bigger and worse all the way.

The sushi chef said, "All right! 」

Then send it to the guests: "Please use it! 」

But I didn't even notice that what I served was deformed.

"I have no problem, is the guest's tongue has a problem. 」

This attitude is wrong. I often tell this to my young friends in the shop.

Something similar happened this morning. The new seeds pickled in vinegar don't look very delicious. I tasted them and it was as I expected. This new seed pickled in vinegar doesn't match vinegar rice at all, so I said to my friends, "Strengthen the salt part." But after several adjustments, it still can't pass. So I have been "trying again" and "trying again". I tried the taste many times, but there was not enough sushi to knead at noon. This kind of thing often happens.

"How does the new son taste at the beginning of this season? 」

Guests often ask this question. At this time, if the sushi restaurant owner has not tasted it, sushi will not be "absolutely delicious!" "Bingwen, isn't it rude to the guests? Because we don't pinch for nothing, we charge according to how much we have been charging.

That's why I try the taste of ingredients several times a day.

Especially for small muscles, I try it once in the morning, once at noon and once at night. Even if I pickle them for tomorrow, I will try after closing time. Because of this, I will try again and again until I am satisfied, so that I won't have the opportunity to be complained by guests about "bad food".

Speaking of pinching small muscles to satisfy customers' desires during non-dinner time, the food in our shop is really delicious. Because of this, some guests will order small muscles as a side dish with wine.

"Nice pinch!" They will blurt it out.

Sushi contains raw fish such as tuna, squid, scallop and white meat fish. No matter how you cut it or pinch it, the taste is not much different. But in our shop, the small muscles specially seasoned to match the vinegar rice are absolutely delicious.

Because when we decide the taste, we will not only pay attention to whether the seasoning of the notes and vinegar rice is coordinated, but also coat the ingredients with a layer of seasoning soy sauce with bristles, and then serve it to the guests. We even considered the taste of that layer of soy sauce. So put the small muscles in our shop and the vinegar rice in our shop together to make sushi, and then coat it with the seasoning soy sauce in our shop. When you eat it in one bite, "ah! How delicious! Guests often blurt out without thinking.

(Note) Seasoned soy sauce refers to soy sauce made by adding our unique formula including wine and other materials. This method of spreading seasoning soy sauce on sushi ingredients with bristles and serving it to guests is the practice of Edo School in the past.

In the past, whenever Tokyo sushi restaurant was warm in bloom in spring, the variety of skinless fish would change from small muscle to small bamboo? Fish. After World War II, I worked in Hamamatsu Restaurant. At the age of twenty-six, I became an old apprentice in He Zhinai of Jingqiao, which was the twenty-sixth year of Showa, and the situation remains the same.

I don't know when to start, even in summer, I have to prepare small muscles.

This is all because guests want to eat delicious small muscles all year round. And they mistakenly think that they can eat delicious small muscles in summer that is not in season. Because there is demand, there is supply, so sushi restaurants should try their best to get delicious muscles on the table all year round.

When I started as an apprentice, whenever Zhu Xiao? It's fish season, and all the small muscles along the coast of Tokyo have grown into fish (15cm or more). Is it Zhu Xiao's turn? Fish. At this time, the muscles used in Tokyo sushi restaurant may be made in Chiba, right? The origin of the tendon used in Tokyo is limited to Chiba in the north as far as possible, and I have never heard of the tendon used in Ibaraki.

Although the new seeds sold in the market are not local, they only go as far as Womei Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture, where the new seed production season is much later than now.

At that time, if it was to be transported from Kyushu to Tokyo, it would take a lot of time, and even the ice cubes could not be kept fresh. Because we have to screen new children of a certain scale in Womei and ship them to Tokyo, we can't make sushi and send it to guests until early August at the earliest.

Recently, a new son was born in mid-July, which should be from Wusaka Port (located in Shizuoka). Sometimes new children are too young to make sushi with four pieces. A young fish like this must have been thrown in the fishing port because of the trouble in handling it before. Because all the way to Tsukiji, the stomach of the young fish disappeared and could not be used.

However, now is the era when the streets are full of cars. Since about forty-five years in Showa, polystyrene foam boxes with excellent ice-keeping effect have become more and more popular. Moreover, the new son at the beginning of the production season can sell for an unimaginable high price as long as a box, so even if it is only one kilogram, it must be delivered. If you compare sardines whose prices have been rising in recent years, I don't know how many boxes of sardines you have to sell to earn the same money as a new box.

It is for this reason that new sons appear earlier and earlier.

Incidentally, the first batch of new products sold by Pingcheng on July 12, 2008 earned the most expensive price in history, asking for 60,000 yuan per kilogram. The original price of the new piece is about 600 yen, which is about the size of two tails. If it is two-handed sushi, the price is the price of one tail multiplied by four. Of course, it hasn't been calculated that it is ten times more troublesome than a small muscle of a tail.

Whenever we meet a guest who talks endlessly about the advertisement of Shinko in the store, we will casually talk about the purchase cost of Shinko in the conversation.

"This is really the first batch of this year. If calculated according to the purchase price, the second batch needs 2400 yen. It's just an ingredient in sushi. Of course, I won't tell the truth like this.

"That ... you don't pinch. If you tell the truth, you may spoil the guests' fun.

Oh, I'm not flattering. Oh, it's true. Whether it's a new baby or a small muscle, it's the same price-500 yen. Exceeding this price is probably unacceptable to guests, right? This is the most expensive way to hold small muscle sushi.

"All at a loss, why pinch? This question is often asked. Because this is the insistence of being a sushi chef. Did you make a profit or lose money? I can't take care of this at this time. Because this year's small muscles began with the new son of this day.

"Boy! How's it going? This is the new son this year! " This is the energy I use to pinch sushi.

However, when it comes to the price of a new son, it is also very expensive for seven years, and it has been around 60,000 yen per kilogram for two consecutive years. However, in the ninth year of Heisei, the price of the first batch of new sons dropped to 35,000 yen per kilogram. Then, weren't there more sushi restaurants for new sons? Even if the price drops, expensive things are still expensive, but at least you don't have to be so impulsive and lose a lot of money. This is a relief.

Although it has just been said that there are small muscles all year round, as we all know, the production season of small muscles is from early autumn to winter. Obviously, but delicious small muscles can be bought all year round. Why?

This is incredible. Japan is a long and narrow island country, and there may be "the season has arrived" and "the season has not arrived yet", but the spawning season of fish should be around the same time. Because the house mouse did not lay eggs in Hokkaido in August, but in Kyushu in March.

Moreover, in my mind, it is understandable that Japan's Daimitsui (Aichi Prefecture) went out half a month later than Kyushu, but when Sanhe has already gone out of Mitsui, Kyushu still can't see the trace of Mitsui.

There, the earliest place to produce small muscles is Usakan, followed by Yitian Island in the west, and then you can't catch it. After being arrested once or twice, I don't know why I became in Sanhe or Womei. Therefore, the small tail fish should not migrate all the way from Binming Lake to Aichi Prefecture. And even if it appears off the coast of Sanjiang for a period of time, the fish has grown into a tail, which can be pinched into a consistent size.

But at this time, Kyushu has no new son, which is relatively south. From the point of view of ordinary people, the situation should be just the opposite, because the water in Kyushu is warmer.

So, why is this happening? I've been wondering why.

Rack one's brains and finally come to the conclusion: "Musculus minor is a kind of fish that lays eggs twice a year. 」

If this statement is true, if bonito lays eggs twice a year, then the above situation can make sense. However, although it can explain the difference in bloodline, by analogy, the newborn son should give birth twice a year. If not, the saying of "spawning twice a year" will not hold water.

The whole story here is really confusing. Three rivers have small muscles first, and then it's Kyushu's turn. It's incredible that the middle area is almost completely fished.

Also, it is equally incredible that Kyushu's small muscles can be pinched into the same size almost all year round.

"It's already so cold, why is it so small now? 」

"Although fish lay eggs for a certain period of time, this fish was really born very late, and it was an illegitimate child born after an affair. 」

Despite this bravado, no one knows the real reason. Although you are over 70, you still have to live and learn.

Bright skin fish/sardines

Depending on the season or not, the taste will be completely different.

I haven't heard of sushi restaurants in Tokyo that let people catch live high-grade sardines as their image as advertising signs.

"That kind of dirty fish, our store is not prepared. The more advanced sushi restaurants are, the more biased they are.

Another reason why sardines are usually not prepared is that their freshness is not easy to maintain. It's just sardines, and it won't sell for a few dollars. It's not worth spending so much time.

Sardines are fish racing against time, because if they are directly pressed into a wooden box filled with ingredients, the mixed-race meat (the muscle with the most blood and oxygen in fish tissue is dark red) will be oxidized to dark purple, so the head and viscera of sardines must be cleaned quickly in the morning, carefully washed with salt water and soaked in ice cubes. If you don't do this, its freshness can't be maintained at night.

Also, if it is stored in the refrigerator, its moisture will be lost and its freshness will be reduced. So I have to put it in the refrigerator. Wasn't there a time in Tokyo when there was a big shortage of water, which led to "no ice"? During that time, we also bought a refrigerator specially for it to prevent water loss. In a word, sardines are the most troublesome and difficult fish.

In addition, its screening conditions are also very strict.

I wouldn't have brought it to my guests if it wasn't for the best sardine I could match with offshore tuna, caves (star eels) or scallops. Because it is very bad for guests to have a gap between high and low tastes during the meal.

So I chose the seasonal sardines caught by fishing boats that went out to sea in the morning and returned to Hong Kong in the evening. That is, Zhongyu (sardines grow to about15cm, called "Zhongyu Sardines") and Dayu (sardines grow to about 20cm, called "Dayu Sardines") caught ashore in Yaako (Fangzong Peninsula) or Mizaki (Miura Peninsula). Especially Dayu, we wouldn't use it if it wasn't as fat as Xiaojinguan's, so the guests who have seen the box will definitely say, "This is the first time I have seen such fat sardines in my life. 」

But what's in the wooden box is a sample. After the guests order, the sardines soaked in ice in the freezer will be taken out, and then they will start to take apart the fish and knead them into sushi.

The fat layer between the skin and meat of seasonal fat sardines is really scary. Although it is fat, it has no smell and is not disgusting. When it is freshest, slice it with a blade. White grease and bright red flesh and blood set each other off in an interesting and fascinating way. Squeeze it into sushi and coat it with seasoning soy sauce to make it more colorful.

"What do you do with the samples in the wooden cases?" Guests often ask this question.

Actually, it was made behind the kitchen. Isn't this the fun of opening a sushi restaurant? Sardines are really delicious when cooked. Once the fish is cooked, how it tastes will be known immediately. Sardines in the off-season are only salty when cooked, but if they are fat sardines in the season, they will be more delicious when cooked, which makes people wonder: "Why are they so delicious?" Compared with raw food, it tastes different.

So, every time I eat all the hot, freshly cooked sardines, I feel deeply. This is really a privilege that sushi restaurant owners can enjoy.

However, only sardines will do this, and the taste of production season and non-production season is completely different. Although there is a steady supply of goods in the market all year round, sardines will only be kneaded into sushi in the peak season. Over the years, from mid-April, Tokyo Bay began to produce delicious China feather sardines. About two and a half months still belongs to the middle feather stage. At this time, the fat of sardines is not thick enough, so the taste is refreshing and soft. When the rainy season comes, it has accumulated a lot of fat and grown into a round sardine with big feathers. Sardines taste best when they first enter the rainy season.

Of course, sardines with big feathers are rich in flavor, but which one tastes better, big feathers or medium feathers? Now I think the two are really inseparable. Big feather is not as good as big feather, and middle feather is not as wonderful as middle feather. They have attractive aroma and delicious taste at the same time.

A log lunch box decorated with sardines, 1 1 be there or be square every month. /kloc-After the beginning of 0/2, the store stopped preparing materials. At this time, because sardines have begun to hold eggs, they are thinner and only have big heads. Eating this kind of sardine is easy to be stung by tiny fishbones and has no taste.

Bright skinned fish/bamboo? fish

Don't marinate with vinegar, it's best to eat it raw.

Guanzhu, which is very popular recently? (Japan calls the bamboo pod fish that has been hit by wind and waves for a long time in the "Hou Feng Strait" at the intersection of Seto Inland Sea and Pacific Ocean "Guanzhu?" , produced in Oita? You can see it in Tsukiji, but what I want to pinch is bamboo with small tail and light taste? Fish (Chinese character "real roe" means "bamboo"? Fish ").

I think the bamboo produced in Odahara (Sagami Bay) is the best quality that Tokyo can get? Fish. But recently, it is almost impossible to find it in Tsukiji, and even if there is one, it is rare.

In fact, there are still local catches in Odahara, but the quantity is small, and it seems that they are all bought and hoarded by local restaurants and dry goods stores. Because dry goods can fetch a good price. Wild bamboo made in Japan? A fish is 400 yen. But what about the bamboo in Sagami Bay? Fish costs 800 yen a tail. Is it really a "dream bamboo"? Fish ".

Bamboo in Odahara? Fish is characterized by sweet smell and perfect distribution of oil flowers. Because the whole fish bag is fat, the color is a little white. As long as one size fits all, it can be judged immediately that it is made in Sagami Bay. This is a great fish.

And it won't be too strong. Once in the mouth, delicious food will spread in the mouth. I used to eat while pinching myself. "Delicious, delicious", I ate it thirteen times at a time, and I didn't feel bored at all.

However, sushi restaurant owners have no "dream fish" to pinch. Now I use bamboo? Fish mainly comes from Fujin (Fangzong Peninsula) in Tokyo Bay, where bamboo? Besides Odahara, the quality of fish is the best. Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay are not far apart. Do these two places produce bamboo? Fish tastes almost the same.

Bamboo? The fish season is from April to June, from this time until summer. Bamboo in Tokyo? Fish is the best time to eat, but you can't see much bamboo in the warm Kyushu area. Traces of fish, the situation is the same as the small muscle.

And I don't pickle bamboo with vinegar? Fish. What should I do if bamboo is pickled with vinegar? Fish and raw bamboo? Fish are made into sushi at the same time, and then they ask me, "Well, which is better? Without the second sentence, it must be raw bamboo? Fish sushi won. Because of this, I tried to compare the results.

Sushi shops used to use bamboo? Fish is pickled with vinegar because it is not fresh enough. Marinate the skin with salt for 30 minutes and then soak it in vinegar for 30 minutes. When you knead it into sushi, you must chew it with chopped white meat fish or shrimp. Bamboo? The meat of fish is soft and tender, and it will be pickled quickly. It only takes 30 minutes to feel sour, so it should be served with sweet fish or shrimp.

Raw bamboo? Fish is difficult to knead into sushi ingredients, because the ginger powder under the ingredients will have juice, so that fish and vinegar rice can not be closely attached, so the kneaded sushi is easy to slide down and become shapeless. If the water is removed, it will be simple. Even a novice can handle it. But in this way, the tongue will eat crude fiber and the taste will be different. A person can also make beautiful sushi with ginger powder saturated with water between fish and vinegar rice, and should be called a "sushi master".

This article is taken from The God of Sushi: Michelin Spirit of Jiro Ono: Persistence, Perseverance and Diligence.