Some of the Tsukiji Market's best seafood ends up in the expert hands of Chef Yosuke Imada,
one of Tokyo's premier sushi chefs and the proprietor of Sushi Kyubey.
Chef Imada has been making "Edo" or Tokyo style sushi,
for over forty seven years
and he knows exactly what to look for when selecting quality fish and shellfish.
The sushi menu at Kyubey features some of the great denizens of the deep.
Kyubey is famous for its pristine specimens of gizzard shad,
bonito tuna, Thai snapper, rock cod and flounder.
The shellfish selections are equally as impressive, and include freshly harvested abalone,
red clam, scallops and gooey duck clams.
The freshwater eels here known as "unagi,"
are house smoked and then delicately lacquered to order with the restaurants special glaze.
The prawns at Kyubey are kept alive until the very last moments before they're served to the diner.
After a quick dunk in boiling water, the shells are removed,
and within seconds, the prawns still quivering,
are placed atop a pad of rice and are ready to be eaten.
It's important to know that sushi is not actually raw fish.
The word "sushi" actually refers to anything that's served with vinegared short grain rice.
And no matter how fresh the fish, you can't have good sushi without properly prepared rice.
Rice is as important to sushi as good bread is to a sandwich.
The correct rice for making sushi is short grained polished rice,
a variety of rice that has just the right level of starch,
allowing the rice grains to cling together to keep the finished pieces of sushi intact.
After sushi rice is cooked, it's transferred to a shallow wooden tub made of unfinished Cypress called a "hangiri."
The steaming rice is then mixed with rice wine vinegar sugar and salt.
The hangiri helps to absorb the rice's excess moisture and keeps it from cooling too quickly,
which makes the rice too firm to work with.
A wooden spatula called a "Shamoji" is used to cut, rather than mix, the vinegar mixture into the rice.
This technique prevents damaging the rice grains or overworking the starches.
After the rice is blended, it's covered with a cloth and kept warm until service.
Before assembling his sushi pieces, Chef Imada grates fresh wasabi
on a traditional sharkskin grater called "oroshiki."
This wasabi is the real deal. Not the imitation wasabi paste
that's nearly always served in sushi bars and Japanese restaurants outside of Japan.
Artificial wasabi is actually a concoction of Chinese mustard, horseradish, and green food coloring.
Real wasabi is made from a Japanese rhizome, or a root-like stem
that grows above the ground on the banks of cold mountain streams.
It's rare and expensive. But unlike the acrid, sinus-burning artificial variety,
real wasabi greets the palate with a brief spike of heat,
followed by a delicate mustard-like flavor and a cool lingering finish.
Chef Imada moves on to demonstrate hand-pressed sushi a type of sushi called nigiri sushi.
The chef's deft hand work belies the complexity of these seemingly simple motions.
With fingers that are moistened with vinegar to prevent the rice from sticking,
the chef grabs a small pad of rice,
a slice of fish is then placed in the other hand and smeared with a hint of wasabi.
The rice and the fish are pressed firmly together with two fingers,
the piece is then turned over and pressed once again.
Presto! Nigiri sushi is made.
[Traditional Japanese music playing]
Oishi sushi, translated as "pushed sushi,"
originated near the city of Osaka in the southern Kansai region of Japan.
Oishi Sushi is a type of sushi that's formed by pressing rice and fish together in wooden molds.
Jirô Komaki is the chef at Sushi Mon,
an Osaka restaurant that's been pressing out Oishi sushi for over 35 years.
Sushi Mon's signature dish is Kyodai Suzumi sushi,
molded sushi that's made with marinated young sea bream
and wrapped in thin transparent layers of kombu seaweed.
Chef Komaki begins the process by salting and marinating sea bream fillets overnight.
The next day, the fillets are butterflied with the fish's skin left covering one half of the fillet.
The fish is then placed on the bottom of the mold, so the skin side faces out for the presentation.
Seasoned rice is pressed down on top of the fish.
The cover of the mold is placed on top of the rice and firm pressure is applied to pack the fish and the rice together.
Once the sushi is unmolded, the process is repeated
and two of the finished sushi pieces are placed side by side.
A transparent gelatin like sheet of braised thinly sliced kombu seaweed
is placed on top of a bamboo leaf that's been soaked in alcohol
and then dry roasted until it takes on the texture of parchment.
The unmolded sushi is placed on top of the kombu
and another thin layer of kombu is added on top to enclose the sushi.
Besides functioning as the sushi's outside wrapping,
the bamboo leaf adds a smoky, woodsy flavor to the encased sushi.
Now that it's wrapped and labeled with a Sushi Mon seal,
this oishi sushi is ready for take-out.