Written by: Felix K., London
This restaurant, located in North London’s Camden Town, was long recommended to me by a friend and one warm day after work I jumped on the Northern Line and went up to Mornington Crescent to meet my friend and to check out this tip. One thing I instantly liked about the place was that it is not your standard stylish, hip and trendy sushi place with minimalistic interior and posh menus but a small (and a little shabby) family run restaurant. I was also amazed by the tight door they operated: I don’t recommend going there without a reservation.
Written by: Snorre M., London
Updated August 2007: “Sad to say that Ikkyu closed on the 27th July 2007. Only found out this evening after i trekking from soho in the pouring rain. More words on this fantastic place very soon. IKKYU R.I.P. ”
Ikkyu is one of the best-kept secrets of the London sushi scene. If you’re not a fan of the Yo! Sushi-style conveyor belt restaurants, head to this little family-run restaurant frequented by Japanese expats.
We had a hard time to decide which sushi bar we should visit in Little Tokyo, and ended up at the Frying Fish. This turned out to be a guru-guru (kaiten) sushi place, with a really old looking and noisy system. From the belt you had to help yourself with wasabi and ginger, which was a great benefit for me, since I practically eat more ginger than sushi… (addicted and weird - according to my boyfriend). They were a bit cheap on the fish that actually were being served on the belt, hardly any fish came around. A lot of salads and edamame, but the fish were few and far between.
>> Continue reading ‘Frying Fish - Little Tokyo, Los Angeles’
Ike Sushi is not easy to find, and if you do find it, it is everything but inviting. It hides in this strip mall just on Hollywood Boulevard and we hardly dared to enter, but when we did, we felt almost like we were back in Japan. It is not a fancy restaurant, it feels very much family run place and they smile and laugh at you when you try to order things like tempura maki, rainbow roll and fancy sushi…
“Only Japanese sushi is served here” they reply and you kind of feel glad and a bit embarrassed at the same time.
I found this beautiful sushi website the other day! This girl, Allison, makes wonderful sushi at home and shares her recipes with the rest of us. You should go and check it out. She writes about it in detail and takes great pictures of it. I get hungry every time I go there! She is the one that says that every day is a sushi day! We so agree…
I gathered some links to some recipes that I will try myself… Mmmmmm.
Katsu-ya has a reputation. They apparently also have a following. It is so popular that you have to book in advance to get straight in. We waited for an hour. This is usually not a problem, because it just makes you that more hungry, and you can also treat yourself with watching the head sushi chefs do their wonders behind the sushi bar. We finally got our table and got ourselves ready for some good and tasty fish… But.
Most people are in general quite concerned with what they eat these days, and some people seems to be on a constant diet. So - what about our precious sushi in regards to calories? Is it healthy or not? I found this overview over calories in the different types of sushi. I don’t know if this is important to you, but it might still be useful information. Here goes.
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This is a website that keeps on popping up whenever I am looking for something about, on or regarding sushi. As the name of the website says it really is SushiFAQ, and I love the way he is really into his sushi and have tons of experience with it. It is not the easiest website to navigate on, usually I get there by searching on Google.
He says:
“I have spent years studying the nuances of Japanese dining and have learned many of the rules for eating sushi in a traditional restaurant.”
And on this website he lets all of us in on some of the secrets of sushi. I am very grateful.
He covers topics like:
- What is sushi?
- What are the different kinds of sushi?
- What is sashimi?
- What are those things other than fish I see on my plate?
- How To Use Chopsticks.
- What do all these words mean? (i.e. terminology)
…to mention a few. As I said - pretty much everything I am wondering about, this guy has something on.
There is a chain of sushi restaurants called Kabuki in California. They have restaurants in Burbank, Pasadena, Hollywood, Huntington Beach to mention a few. They say on their menu that they have the best sushi in town, so that did get our hopes up. We went there for lunch, and tried out just a few things from their quite extensive menu.
Fish
Traditional sushi is based on a variety of fish. Maguro or tuna is perhaps considered the most important sushi fish (but we are boycotting it, are we not?), being both soft having a fatty consistency and a meaty taste and look. Other traditional fish include hirame (brill), hamachi (yellowtail), and suzuki (sea bass). Oily fish such as aji (horse mackerel) and saba (mackerel) are served with the skin on. Sake (salmon, pronounced sha-ke) is not a common sushi fish in Japan, but is popular elsewhere in the world. All of the above can be found as nigiri sushi or chirashi sushi, with maguro also used in hosomaki to make tekkamaki.
>> Continue reading ‘Types of fish, shellfish, fish roe and seafood’
