| Red Snapper |
(Tai)
|
| Revenge
Roll |
Hot peppers
and chocolate Ex-lax (tm). |
|
Roe |
 Fish
eggs. Generally, flying fish, smelt, and salmon
roe are available in all sushi restaurants. "Roe"
is a generic name.
|
|
The Roes
Are: |
 |
Ikura
Salmon roe. Large, orange roe, very salty in taste. |
 |
Kazunoko
Herring roe, usually served marinated in sake, broth, and
soy sauce, sometimes served raw, kazunoko konbu. |
not
pictured |
Masago
Capelin roe, very similar to tobiko but slightly orange
in color, not as common as tobiko in North America (though
often caught here). Capelin, shishamo, is also served grilled (after
being lightly salted) whole with the roe in it as an appetizer. |
 |
Tobiko
Flying-fish roe, small, red-orange and crunchy, often
served as part of maki-sushi but also as nigiri-sushi,
commonly with quail egg yolk (uzura no tamago) on top (uncooked). |
 |
Uni
Sea
urchin Uni is the sexual organs (gonads/ovaries)
of the hermaphroditic sea urchin. |
|
| Roll
Sushi |
 (Makisushi) |
|
Saba |
Mackerel, almost always served after
being lightly salted and marinated for a few days, so
really cooked. Raw mackerel is sometimes served but it
must be extremely fresh as it goes off quickly. |
| Sake |
Rice wine.
Served both hot and cold. Some people love it, some
people hate it. |
|
Sake (Sockeye?) |
Salmon,
usually smoked.
Pronounced differently than the rice wine. |
| Salmon
|
(Sake)
|
| Salmon
Roe |
(Ikura) |
| Salmon
Skin Temaki |
Salmon skin
handroll. |
| Sashimi |
 Raw fish
fillets without the vinegared sushi rice. Sashimi is fresh, raw,
chilled, sliced, and elegantly arranged. Ideally, sashimi
is best when fresh, but most fish freeze well and are
served after thawing. Sashimi may be garnished with raw
vegetables, leaves of knot grass, parsley, lettuce,
shredded daikon radish, and sometimes seaweed or cucumber.
Sashimi is odorless and very delicate. When sliced thick
it is served with soy sauce, when sliced thin served with
ponzu, a citrus flavored sauce. Wasabi, red pepper, and
green onions may be served to mix with sauces as well.
The beauty of the sashimi is that it lacks both the fishy
smell and taste that you think would be its undoing. |
| Sawara |
Spanish
mackerel. Very different from aji, which is Japanese
Mackerel. |
|
Sayori |
 Springtime
halfbeak. |
| Scallop
|
(Hotate) |
| Sea
Urchin |
(Uni)
|
| Sea
Weed |
(Nori)
|
| Seigo |
Young sea
bass. |
| Shako |
Mantis
shrimp. |
| Shima-Aji |
Another
variety of mackerel. |
| Shime-Saba |
Marinated
mackerel. |
| Shiro-Maguro |
Albacore
tuna, white tuna, doesn't handle as well and can change
color (though doesn't change taste or quality) so not as
common as other tunas. It will probably not be on the
menu, ask for it. |
| Shiromi |
Seasonal
"white meat" fish, or in the Eastern United
States "scrod". Generally Fish with white flesh,
such as Sea Bream (Tai Sushi) or Sea Bass (Suzuki Sushi) |
| Shokunin |
Traditional master sushi chef. |
|
Shoyu |
Soy sauce. |
| Shrimp
|
 (Ebi)
|
| Smelt
Roe |
(Masago) See also
Roe. |
| Spam |
Yes SPAM, a
sushi you can get in Hawaii (maybe Japan too), an
acquired taste, perhaps. |
| Spicy
Tuna Roll |
A tuna roll
with a spicy sauce inside. |
| Surf
Clam |
(Hokkigai) |
| Sushi |
The
sweetened, pickled rice. The fish is sashimi. Wrap the
two together in portions and sell it as sushi, and the
name still refers to the rice, not the fish. Sushi is
indeed the term for the special rice but it is modified,
in Japanese, to sushi when coupled with modifiers that
describe the different styles of this most popular dish. |
| Suzuki |
Sea bass (of
one species or another, often quite different). |
| Sweet
Shrimp |
(Ama ebi) |
|
Tai |
Porgy or red snapper or sea bream (substitutes,
though good). Real Japanese tai is also sometimes
available. |
| Taiagai |
Razor-shell
clam. |
|
Tako |
Octopus,
cooked. |
|
Tamago |
 Egg omelet,
sweet and (hopefully) light, a good test of a new sushi
restaurant. If it's overcooked and chewy, or tastes like a fried egg
(too salty), go somewhere
else. In Japan it is the trademark of each chef. Often
potential customers in Japan will ask for a taste of the Tamago in order to judge the chef's proficiency. |
| Tataki |
Pounded,
almost raw fish. |
| Tekka-Don |
Pieces of
raw tuna over rice. |
|
Temaki-sushi |
Hand rolled
cones of sushi rice, fish and vegetables wrapped in
seaweed. Very similar to maki. |
| Tobiko |
Flying
Fish eggs, orange or red-orange in color and crunchy. Often served as
part of maki-sushi but also as nigiri-sushi,
commonly with quail egg yolk (uzura no tamago) on top (uncooked). Used on the outside of inside-out rolls
or orange rolls. |
| Torigai |
Japanese
cockle, black and white shell fish, better fresh but
usually frozen (and chewier as a result). |
|
Toro |
 Fatty Tuna
from the belly flesh of the tuna.
There are several different types of tuna you can order
in a sushi restaurant including my favorite
maguro. |
| Tsubugai |
A Japanese
shellfish. |
| Tuna
|
 (maguro) |
|
Tuna Roll |
(Tekkamaki) |
|
Turbot |
 (Hirame) |
| Ume |
Fermented plum paste. Usually served
with sliced cucumber in maki, Very sweet with a strongly tart
aftertaste. Delicious for dessert and to clean the palate.
|
| Umejiso-Maki |
Japanese ume
plum and perilla-leaf roll. |
|
Unagi |
 
Eel (Freshwater)
- grilled, and brushed with a teriyaki-like sauce, richer
than salt water eel. |
|
Uni |
Sea Urchin
or soft roe.
If you are lucky you won't like it, if not you may have just developed
an expensive habit. Uni is the sexual organs (gonads/ovaries)
of the sea urchin. Sea urchins are hermaphroditic (bi-sexual,
AC-DC like snails), so you are getting both roe and milt. The most expensive (start saving now) is red in
color, the least is yellow, luckily they taste the same to the average
palette.
Lobsters eat sea urchin as a mainstay of their diet. |
| Usuzukuri
Sashimi |
Thinly
sliced raw fish served with a soy based dipping sauce. |
 Wasabi |
  Sometimes
called Japanese Horseradish. This is the small lump of green stuff that looks
sort of like clay. Best done in small doses. Not related to
American Horseradish except by the type of spicy flavor. Wasabi is a
condiment traditionally used to garnish raw fish (sushi and sashimi) and
noodle (soba) dishes in Japan. The ground root-like rhizome pungently
flavors many foods in Japanese cuisine and its bright green color adds
color contrast, for which Japanese dishes are famous. In the last twenty
years, because of low supply of fresh Wasabi rhizomes, substitutes made
of mixtures of horseradish, mustard and food coloring have taken the
place of freshly prepared Wasabi, in America especially. Other parts of the Wasabi plant are
also used. The leaves and petioles are picked or can be powdered for use
as Wasabi flavoring in many foods.
In traditional Japanese cuisine, Wasabi is prepared by grating the fresh
rhizome against a rough surface in much the same way that horseradish (Armoracia
rusticana) is prepared. Some Japanese Sushi Chefs will only use a
sharkskin grater. The sharkskin gives grated Wasabi a smooth, soft and
aromatic finish without adding any metallic tastes.
-excerpts from
http://www.freshwasabi.com/about.html by Pacific Farms. |
| Yakitori |
 Teriyaki flavored chicken on skewers.
Usually served as an appetizer in the United States. |
| Yellowtail |
(Hamachi) |
