Bryan Curtis explains the intricacies of Salmon (the fish) on Slate.com. Overall an engaging piece, but I couldn’t leave alone the quote about Sushi.
If you have never tried seafood, you would probably love salmon. (Correlative: If you have never tried sushi, you would probably love salmon sushi). Fifteen years after it exploded in the American and Japanese markets, fresh salmon still sells at a brisk clip, often trailing only shellfish and tuna.
I’ll have to disagree on salmon (sake) being the best for beginners. I would rather recommend tuna maguro, or yellowtail hamachi. The characteristics of most salmon itself when served as nigiri (the raw or cooked piece of flesh on top of lightly flavored white rice) or sashimi (plain) is such that the majority of places I’ve been to usually garnish with some light ponzu sauce (I’ve always assumed it was ponzu, please correct me if I am incorrect), grated radish, and if feeling a bit fancy, some green onions (or chives?) as well.
Tuna and yellowtail is overwhelmingly the favorite for newly indoctrinated western eaters. Such is the reason why you’ll see ahi-tuna and tuna sashimi served in many avant-garde (and not so avant-garde) non-sushi places. It is also why the most favorite “sushi” of neophytes is a “spicy tuna roll”– true sushi foodies/foodites will instantly have the appearance of utter disapproval upon hearing this. Enjoying sushi, at least properly, requires a delicate palate. It’s why ginger (gari) is served- you eat a piece to cleanse the taste of the previous piece you were served, and why the short-lived but fierce wasabi is served instead of a longer lasting spicy red sauce.
Salmon has a more “fishy” taste than that of tuna when raw, and thus is less palatable to developing tastes. Consider the difference in taste between lox on a bagel and your average tuna in a can on top of some toasted rye. Tuna isn’t called “chicken of the sea” for nothing. And while tuna can be as accessible as bread, in terms of the high-end, the fatty belly of the southern blue fin is served mostly in what is described by a Japanese maguro web site as “posh” restaurants. Toro, the name for a tuna’s belly is often served in seasons when it is available, is a much older and traditional delicacy than of the contrived post-modern elitism of salmon.
