Japanese Food

Did my time in Japan as an employee of Itochu. Raw horsemeat, grilled fish testicles, and other wonderful goodies.

My Japanese tour was enjoyed after a visit to S E Asia went sour. I finished my tour with about 16 months at the 12th ASA near Sapporo, Hokkaido. That part of Japan was very rural at the time and with a snow filled winter that reminded me of the Northeast USA. Since that was 62-63, my memories tend to be foggy, however I do recall some excellent 'hole-in-the-wall places in some of the small towns (Chitose, Tomakomai, Wakkanai). I did like the Suki-Yaki, pronounced SkeeYaki. It was a stir-fry combination of several veggies and onion and small pieces of meat(specie unknown). During the rather short summer we had a lot of street venders selling 'Hibachi Corn and YakiTori sticks', both were dirt cheap as I recall (50 yen or so). Please remember this was the era of the 360 yen to the dollar fixed-rate exchange. The sweet corn was great because the street seller would take it off the hibachi and dip it into the sauce used for the YakiTori.
We had a comissary guy who would go to the fishing docks and buy large King Crab for special party dinners on base. I did learn to enjoy crab in largechunks from these 'beer blast' feeding sessions.

ADD-
I have a hard time ordering crab-legs these days as a result of the experience we had while living on Hokkaido. The King-Crabs brought into the docks there were rather large. A leg would often measure 3 to 4 inches IN DIAMETER. The meant a large 'tube' of meat contained within that one leg. Nowadays the legs we see in U S seafood restaurants are usually less than an inch across and you get only 'samples' from each.

I love sushi and was wondering if there is such a thing as a high quality but low priced road food sort of place - kind of fast food sushi without a decline in freshness or quality. Perhaps in certain Asian neighborhoods. I live in southeastern Pennsylvania. Thanks.

I am not sure that this qualifies as roadfood but our local Krogers has Asian folks on site that constantly prepare fresh California rolled Sushi prepared with different ingredients.

They roll it fresh as you watch. I consider their price very inexpensive and it varies with ingredients but the standard is about $5.00 for six rolls. It is served with Wasabi and fresh ginger.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

TBD, rolls, hand rolls, and rice balls are more-or-less Japanese fast food. When I was growing up, my mom would pack these as snacks for us. As an adult, I still make rice balls to take with me as a quick and easy (and relatively healthy) snack.

Sushi was originally a snack for samuari and travellers. It was never meant to be a meal (as we now eat it as).

Bt, perhaps you can help me. There used to be a Japanese noodle house near the Montecello Inn in San Francisco. I really liked the food there but I can"t remember the name. I just know it was not the steakhouse.

Charlotte,NC
Corner of Sugar Creek and N Tryon
Great set of oriental groceries and restaurants.
Highly recommended.

quote:

I love sushi and was wondering if there is such a thing as a high quality but low priced road food sort of place - kind of fast food sushi without a decline in freshness or quality. Perhaps in certain Asian neighborhoods. I live in southeastern Pennsylvania. Thanks.

Didn't Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" warn against discount sushi?

If he didn't I will. Sushi is really one of those items where you get what you pay for.

I don't know about Philadelphia, but here in New York, there are a couple of AYCE sushi places. I have been to one of them numerous times, and had no health problems. As a poster stated earlier, the sushi chefs simply do not use the most expensive cuts of fish. I can't imagine there wouldn't be similar restaurants in other places.

BTW, anything Anthony Bourdain says or writes has to be taken with a large grain of salt...now that he is the head of basically a chain of restaurants (Les Halles is now in at least three cities), he is approaching Emeril in terms of reliability.

Hello all. I have never ate sushi, but here in Harrisonburg, Va. we have a few sushi bars. "Kyoto," and the "Asian Inn." So if you are driving I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley, stop in. Take care.

In my town there is a guy everyone calls Sushi Jimmy who with his wife, makes sushi for many of the upscale grocery stores here. It is fresh daily, made with high quality ingredients and is beautiful to look at as well. He'll do party trays for individuals. It is not inexpensive, but worth what he charges. His sushi is better than some I've gotten at sushi bars.