Cooking help is as close as your TV! See Mick with Steve, Christine, and Lisa every weekend on Denver's Channel 7 News

1/11/08

Travel Blog – Japan
Chef Michelangelo (mick) Rosacci

I’m in Japan this month; visiting my fiancé, studying food, teaching classes for the US Meat Export Federation, and giving my son Joshua and nephew Dominic a lesson in culture shock.

Try to imagine, if you can, a city more intense than NYC, and vastly larger – a megalopolis running along the eastern shore of Japan that seemingly never ends and a population estimated at over 40 million people. It's the Tokyo/ Yokohama area, and the food here surpasses any city in the world!

Japan doesn’t have a lot of farmland, and with some of the richest waters on earth, seafood is understandably the most important protein – and what astounding quality!

The fishes are so abundant fresh and delicious, they’ve spawned one of Japan’s most famous food styles – sushi and sashimi. This style includes (but is not limited to) raw fish may be hard for us land-locked Coloradoan’s to understand, but with the quality of seafood available, it’s really a natural progression.

Sushi is actually a rice preparation style – with mild vinegar and simple seasonings. The rice is fanned while cooling to balance the acidity and create a specific stickiness and flavor. The rice then is then ‘rolled’ with vegetables, egg, and of course seafood – both raw, cooked and marinated in vinegar. Sashimi is super premium uncooked fishes served raw or marinated without rice.

Making sushi at home can be a lot of fun!

Here is a recipe for sushi rice, and we offer the Japanese rice, nori, wasabi, soy sauce, rice vinegar and rolling kits at Tony’s Markets. The sushi rice is very sticky, so use plenty of water on your hands and wrap your rolling board in plastic to keep things under control. We always have at least one type of Sashimi-grade fish available. See tips on rolling sushi.

If you want a master to prepare your sushi, there are many great sushi shops in the metro area doing a great job. The first thing to look for in a Sushi Restaurant is Japanese ownership and leadership behind the counter. My top suggestion is Sushi Den on Pearl street – in my opinion, the Kizaki brothers who own and operate Sushi Den (and the brand new Izakaya Den) do the
best job in town. Tell Yasu-san Konichiwa for me!

While most folks think of Japanese food, Sushi and Sashimi immediately come to mind – but there are many other styles of Japanese cooking, so don’t stop there! Keep an eye on this blog and I’ll share/ show you some over the following weeks!