You’d think that having moved to Japan I would now be on a steady diet of fish - and you might be right seeing as I love fish, I love rice and I love wasabi. Which are all pretty important factors when it comes to sushi. But the thing is even though I love it, even though I only ever had access to the European version of sushi which is far inferior to its Japanese counterpart, I haven’t actually been on a complete binge yet. And I’ve been here two months.

Instead I’ve found a predilection for ramen, rice dishes and various other Japanese culinary delicacies such as gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and yakitori (bbq chicken skewers). But all is well again as I’ve started to eat sushi properly and regularly. Having found a couple of really decent (and in the case of one downright amazing) places which do a good sushi at a reasonable price. After all this is Japan - a country primarily known for its massive consumption of fish. If you go to the supermarket it’s Europe turned upside down - the fish is great and cheap as chips (see the joke there?) but the meat is quite expensive and frankly quite crap by European standards.

So having feasted a few times in recent weeks I’ve come to some interesting conclusions about sushi, which I never really made when I enjoyed that food in Europe.

Firstly it’s important to realise there are two major types of raw fish food in Japan - sushi and sashimi. Sushi is raw fish on top of rice, while sashimi is raw fish served on its own, with no rice. Sashimi is therefore much finer I’ve found - as you’re really just enjoying the fish for its own sake. While sushi is much more filling - for obvious reasons. In Europe, both sushi and sashimi are served with wasabi (Japanese mustard) on the side. Something which you’ll never see in Japan. Because in Japan the wasabi is put underneath the fish (or shellfish) to help stick it to the rice bundle. But when you have sashimi the wasabi is served on the side - and will generally be mixed with the soya sauce for dipping (if you’ve never done it I can only recommend you get on it asap - mixing wasabi and soya sauce is the way forward, trust me).

Secondly, and quite obviously, the variety of sushi available in Japan is pretty impressive - from the downright gross such as natto (fermented, spicy soy beans - apparently really healthy but truly disgusting to the uninitiated pallet) and sea urchin sushi to the downright amazing such as fatty tuna (lightly grilled on top) and tuna flesh and spring onion roll (which is something that must have been invented by the gods it’s so nice). And I haven’t even hit up the really posh and expensive sushi joints yet! And of course sushi is available everywhere…

The last thing I’ve noticed in my so far short sushi adventures is how easy it is to have eyes bigger than your stomach when the quality of the sushi is so high in most places - you’d think a plate of 14 or so pieces would leave you happy. Oh no! Or maybe I’m just a fat bastard… but seriously it’s soooo easy to just munch on the buggers until you can’t move it’s unreal. From the sushi bars with moving belts where plates average 140 yen a pop (that’s about 50p a plate a today’s rate) to the more upmarket spots where you can have a nice platter of 14 or so pieces for about 4 pounds!

Having now started to get into sushi properly again I’ve got a few things I need to do asap - the main one being the Tokyo Fish Market, which is renowned for two things. The first one is the fact that it’s an amazing experience, and something everyone who lives in Tokyo should do once, and the second is that once you’ve spent a few hours going ‘wtf’ at the happenings of the market you can then go and enjoy what I’ve been told by many people is the finest sushi breakfast money can buy - made from the freshest fish bought off the market. I really can’t wait for it!

I’ve gotta admit if you’re a food lover, Japan is definitely a country you want to visit or possibly stay away from depending on how much self control you possess. In my case I definitely fit the latter but having moved here my powers of resistance are absolutely useless

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written by Laurent