THE SUSHI DIVA

My Japan Sushi Tour Begins at Takashimaya in Kyoto

Endless Choices at Takashimaya in Kyoto

A Variety of Hand Rolls in Takashimaya's Food Halls

Squid and Shiso Hand Rolls

Japanese Food Rules My World

I could live in Japan. Seriously, I mean, immerse myself in the culture, learn the lingo (far beyond food terms), go onsen-hopping nightly, live on a diet of pickles, sea urchin, sour plums and sushi, and be perfectly content for the rest of my life. At least that’s how I feel when I visit the island nation.

But for now my foray lasted less than two weeks, and I felt as though I were pumped full of methamphetamines as I tried to keep up with my flitting travel companion as we speed-walked (and flew) from Osaka to Kyoto to Tokyo; we ate as if there were soon to be a food shortage in all of Japan, felt moderately guilty for overindulging in our fair share of what seemed like torrents of seafood, then ate some more, if only because we soon grew hungry again from so much walking.

For my edification, my travel tour guide/companion made sure I experienced a broad range of Japanese cuisine, from amazing kushi katsu to Tsukemen dipping ramen, to green tea-inspired desserts and even potstickers at Tokyo’s Gyoza Stadium. But for the sake of this blog, I will be staying on the subject of sushi. Don’t worry…plenty there to be covered still.

In Japan, food overflows, from bountiful food halls in just about every department store and subway station, from tucked-away eateries and supermarkets and convenience stores. Dotonbori in Osaka is like a seafood-themed Universal Citywalk on steroids. And with our dollar currently stronger in Japan (81 cents to 100 Yen) than in years past, we felt it was high time to eat our way through the three major cities.

Kyoto is a city in which the modern and traditional coexist; despite the massive steel-and-glass Kyoto Station, beautiful temples can also be found in this town, along with the famous geisha district known as Gion.

From the food halls of Kyoto’s Takashimaya Department Store, the unusual, wonderful combination of squid and shiso in a hand roll beckoned from inside its glass-encased confines. It wasn’t your common California roll, or the average spicy tuna roll with cucumber inside; it wasn’t even a typical shrimp tempura roll that was sitting there and getting soggy from being out of the fryer for too long. This was squid with shiso…wrapped in seaweed!

In the States, squid can be a dodgy sushi item to order because it can be chewy and tough, depending on the caliber of the restaurant serving it. Yet here were these cylindrical hand rolls, not tapered at the end like a cone, nor cut into slices; this brought back memories of the way hand rolls are served in Australia. These were also cheap, and ready to eat (¥195 each, or about $1.60 each in U.S. dollars. You couldn’t find a squid and shiso hand roll for this low of a dollar amount in the States).

I tried one and not only was it fresh, without the cold “refrigerated effect,” but the squid was soft and not hard to chew at all. And there was something else here, perhaps ume (plum paste) had been applied inside the roll to make it taste just a bit tart, which blended perfectly with the shiso. And lightly dotted throughout were what appeared to be tobiko, or flying fish eggs. I wanted to stand there and ingest at least five more of them, but I knew there was more food around the corner to explore.

Of course, the assorted crab sushi box was the next thing that grabbed my attention, and I had to have it. I devoured it—the gunkan-style ones, the maki, the nigiri, feeling a tad of compunction about leaving behind some of the sushi rice so I could continue to eat more without getting too full. (I noted this crab sushi assortment tasted better than a similar crab sushi box from the food halls of Matsuya Ginza, which I had visited years before.) So many choices, so little time.

Takashimaya Department Store 52

Shincho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8001,

Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

+81 75-221-8811

Dotonbori: Flamboyant, Upbeat, Insane

Dotonbori: A Seafood Lover's Mecca

Too Many Choices, Too Little Time

Ajitsuke Kazunoko (Herring Roe) Sushi

Dotonbori: A Gastronomic Paradise in Osaka, Japan

Dotonbori is insane. It’s an over-the-top, flamboyant, neon-lit mecca of a gastronomist’s paradise, with oversize illuminated billboards and screens. A gigantic crab almost seven meters long marks the Kani Doraku Restaurant, which sells everything crab—from charcoal grilled crab to boxes of crab legs and crab sushi.

It has been called the heart of Osaka’s nightlife, and I could see why as tourists milled about in this place called Dotonbori, running between theaters and clubs, and stopping by eateries galore that offered takoyaki, gyozas, munificent plates of crab (I have never seen so much crab in my life) and weird sushi.

There, between the fatty bluefin tuna sushi and king crab sushi in the refrigerated case of a random shop, was the ajitsuke kazunoko, looking fake and strange beneath its see-through wrap. I knew I had eaten this once before—this was herring roe sushi. I had tried it once at Kabuki in Pasadena, thought it was too salty despite Kabuki’s attempt to mollify the taste by serving it with ponzu sauce, a lemon slice and shaved bonito. It wasn’t one of my favorites, for sure, but this kazunoko looked so rubbery and nubbled that it intrigued me. I was stuffed full of charcoal grilled crab, but so what? At only ¥350 (about $3), it was worth a shot.

“It’s intense,” admonished my travel companion. She also explained to me that kazunoko is generally eaten during a New Year’s celebration in Japan, as the roe symbolizes fertility, but it’s an acquired taste.

I considered myself forewarned.

After one small bite, I unceremoniously spat it out. Then I took a deep breath, applied some of the soy sauce and wasabi that came in the package with it, and attempted it again, but still did not like it. It was definitely intense. And too salty-bitter-rubbery, or something. The texture was also a lot tougher than Kabuki’s version of the herring roe sushi I had tried years ago.

Dotonbori

Chuo-ku, Osaka 542-0076

Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Traditional, Kyoto-Style Sushi with Very Vinegary Rice

The Traditional Dining Space inside IZUJU

"Deluxe Hako in Summer" (with Red Sea Bream, Sea Eel,
Omelet, Prawn, and Kinome)

Kyoto-Style Sushi at IZUJU

There is such a thing as Kyoto-style sushi, as I came to learn in a restaurant by the name of IZUJU, which has been in business for nearly 100 years in the Gion district. I learned that due to Kyoto’s landlocked location, its residents needed to find a way to keep fish edible, so only cured fish was used.

I requested the “Deluxe Hako in Summer” for ¥1,620, or IZUJU’s “box sushi”—quite literally, as the presentation proved, for it was a square-shaped serving of square sushi pieces using omelet, prawn, red sea bream and anago, otherwise known as sea eel. Each piece of omelet or meat sat on its own mini brick of sushi rice, looking lovely, edible, artistic. (I heard Kyoto is a city that celebrates the seasons, so it came as no surprise when I heard there is a winter version of this that uses different ingredients).

All it took was one bite, and I was hooked on the aromatic, smoky and salty flavors. Even the sushi rice is also delightfully more vinegary here, and there are shiitake mushrooms mixed into it. Kinome, the mint-flavored leaves of a prickly ash tree, is used as a garnish here, and I could see mine through the translucent slices of sea bream (they were sandwiched between the fish and sushi rice).

Some of the other top dishes at IZUJU include sabazushi, or pickled mackerel on sushi rice; and sasamaki, or sea bream, kinome, and sushi rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. The menu also offers assorted selections that feed two to four people, with prices ranging from ¥2,398 to ¥5,400.

IZUJU only makes Kyoto-style sushi; Tokyo-style nigiri, or the sushi we normally see in other countries, is not available here. As is its custom, IZUJU is old-fashioned, down to its very interior decoration—the small space is designed with wooden panels and paper walls.

IZUJU

292 Gionmachi Kitagawa

Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, Japan
+81 75 561 0019