Hochner Family Blog

Today I got a Tai (sea bream), about 40 cm long and Sashimi grade (fresh enough to be eaten raw). I'll make our complete dinner for three with it.  This means the appetizer, a salad, the main dish and a side dish -- everything with this one Tai (well, except for the desert). The Tai is a special fish in Japan and we use it for special occasions such as celebration, festival, ceremony, etc. Now is the beginning of the season for the Tai.

We got a Tai  bred in a farm. Before such breeding, it was a very rare fish, but now it is easy to find it in just about any supermarkets.
To start, I forgot the fact that the Tai has a lot of thick scales.  I didn't have a scale remover so I struggled with my knife. Pretty unpleasant work because when removed like this, the scales fly all over the place.
It was tough but I made it, and it was now clean.  The  fins of the Tai are very sharp and one has to pay special attention not to get hurt while cleaning the scales.

Let's work on our Tai. First, we open the belly. Once this is done, we have to cut off the head.
Place the knife behind the pectoral fin and cut the meat toward the bottom.
Turn over to the other side and do the same.
Cut the back bone and take off the head together with the intestine.
Open the thin skin with a knife, and clean off the blood under running water.

Next, let's cut the body parts into fillets.  We usually start to work on the right side of the body.  Because the fish is placed with its right side down (this means that the head is on the left and the tail on the right) this side of the body may get more damaged and therefore, it is usually the other side (the left one) that is presented at the table.
Start by cutting the surface of the skin a little bit from the anus (located around the middle of the length of the fish) toward the tail to draw (mark) a cutting line.
Then slide the knife in along that line and cut the meat deeper and deeper in several strokes all the way up to the back bone.
Cut the back of the body, from the tail toward the head.  Again, start by first drawing a cutting line, then cut slowly deeper and deeper into the meat.
One of the point to take care about is not to leave too much meat on the bone.
Once the front and the back of the body are cut all the way in to the back bone, separate the tail part and cut the middle part.
Half of the body meat is now cut.
Flip the body over, and start to cut the other side from the head toward the tail.
Cut the belly side.
Slide the knife over the back bone and remove the meat.
Here the fillets are ready.

The Tai is now ready to be cooked. I’ll post a few recipes next.

# posted by Famille Hochner @ 2:38 PM 1 comments

Today is the final day of my course at the Sushi Academy.
Everybody was a bit tensed. And, as usual, we had a briefing, the final one.

Then we started to fill the refrigerated display area with pieces of fish.  We had Maguro (tuna), Kanpachi  (young yellow tail), Sake (salmon), Sayori (halfbeak), Tai (sea bream), Hirame (flat fish).  As "Hikarimono" (shiny fish, which taste more fishy...), Saba (mackerel), Kohada (gizzard shad), Aji (jack mackerel). As shellfish, Akagai (red clam), Akagai no himo (another part of the red clam), Miru Gai, Hamaguri (clam).  And the rest, the usual items, Ika (squid), Amaebi (sweet shrimp), Ikura (salmon roe), Tobiko (flying fish roe).  The cooked fish, Anago (conger eel), Ebi (prawn), and the Dashimaki Tamago (rolled omelet).  In addition, each one of us had to prepare some ingredients for the Rolls.

We finished the preparation 30 minutes before the opening.  Imai san was tensed and started to worry about his performance....

Here, we got our first customers, Gwendoline and Patrick.
"Irashaimase!" (Welcome!) 

— this was the beginning of my life as a Sushi Master.
Talking to the customers and making sushi at the same time is quite difficult.  On top of that, you have to pay attention to other customers as well.  I got the order "Omakase" (Chef's choice) so that made my task a bit easier.  I started with Sake (salmon) and Kanpachi (young yellow tail).


Everything went quite smooth, and at the end of the day, Goto san made us ….. some nice Sushi. She is the assistant of the course and is also a Japanese restaurant owner.  She was one of the student 6 month ago and now she is helping the course.

Ikura (salmon roe), Sayori (halfbeak) and Toro (fatty tuna).




At the end of this long day, we all received our certificate from Nishie san, president of the Academy and Kawasumi sensei, our teacher and world champion of decoration sushi!
We all made it to the end!

As a present, we received a bottle of Sushi Vinegar.  As I mentioned in the beginning, vinegar, rice, and shoyu are the three most important factors to determine the taste of Sushi.  This sushi vinegar is the one used during the course and it's already mixed with sugar and salt.  We are used to this taste (once we had a different sushi rice during the course, and everybody notified the difference of the taste), and it's a pleasure to take this taste back home.

These three weeks passed really quickly, and we just went through everything once. This is just the beginning and from now on we have to practice based on what we learned.
Some of the students already go back to their country this weekend. We promised to keep in touch and to make our Sushi Dream a reality.

For myself, I am still missing a lot of practice.  I have only 5 month left before we leave Japan.  I'm interested in learning more traditional Japanese cooking.  Now I'm looking for other courses and I'll continue the report.

# posted by Famille Hochner @ 2:03 AM 2 comments

The exam is now finished and all that is left is the graduation party. The plan is for each student to invite two or three persons, and we make sushi for them, as we would for actual customers. This is the day we start our new life as sushi master and that day is tomorrow. So today is the preparation day.

We started by making a Dashimaki Tamago (Rolled Omelet).

While we continue the preparation, we got a final checkup by our teacher, Mr. Kawasumi, on the way each of us was making sushi.

We’re working hard...
And we’re also watching the other students and criticize them as well.

Today, we got a new teacher? No, actually, Kawasumi san (his name is the same as the name of our actual teacher, but this is a coincidence), is one of us, a student, but we call him The Master, because he already has his own Sushi shop in San Francisco. He showed us the famous and popular American Sushi Rolls as they are made in his shop.

He started with the Crunchy Roll. This is a roll created by Kawasumi san himself, and the most popular one in his shop. It features fried shrimp, eel, avocado and cucumber, with Tobiko (flying fish roe) spread over. Price: US$8

Then here we have the Pink Dragon Roll, which Kawasumi san calls "Barbie Roll". There is Crab meat and Avocado inside, then salmon slices are placed around with slice of lemon on top. Price: US$9

The Astroboy Roll. What's interesting with this roll is the Mango. Mango, cucumber and Hotate (scallop) inside and Tobiko (flying fish roe) around. Price : US$6.45

Spicy Tuna Roll (left) and Rock'n Roll (right) — Spicy tuna roll is Tuna with Mayonnaise and hot sauce, and Cucumber, with Tobico (flying fish roe) around. Rock'n roll is with Eel, Avocado and Cucumber inside and Sesame seeds around.

Here is our lunch, assorted rolls.

In the afternoon, we got to work with all kind of Shell fish.

Here is the first, a shell called Miru Gai
Akagai (red clam) (Patrick’s favorite)
Hamaguri (clam)
Hotate (scallop)
Awabi (abalone) — This is one of the most expensive shellfish. For example. this one costs Yen 5,000 and we can only make about 10 Sushi with it. Yes, this means that each order in a Sushi shop will cost 1,000 yen !

And finally, we started the preparation for tomorrow\s party — planning for about 60 servings,

Tomorrow is the final day.

# posted by Famille Hochner @ 2:47 PM 1 comments