Because of the heavy snow on Saturday, we still had some ice left on the road. I left home a bit earlier as I was concerned there could be some kind of traffic trouble. During Saturday and Sunday, a total of 713 people got injured (many of them slept and broke bones or somehow hurt themselves) and one person died because of a car accident caused by the icy road. Unlike in Hokkaido, we, Tokyo city folks, are not used to the snow at all, and people get panicked with just a little drop of snow. . . .
At school, one student caught a cold and was absent. Besides him, everybody showed up on time. This week is the last one and we have our final examination on Wednesday.
There is a written test and also some practices:
- making at least 18 sushi within 3 minutes
- making 4 Hoso Maki (thin roll), cutting them in 6, and presenting them nicely on a plate within 5 minutes
- making a Sashimi Mori 3 Ten (assorted raw fish with three different types of fish) within 5 minutes
- preparing a Sushi serving for one person (7 Sushi and 1 Hoso Maki)
My problem is about the making of at least 18 sushi within these short minutes. I have to practice more, I think.
Today we got to work on a Tai (sea bream).
This fish is used commonly for celebration. There are two reasons for this. First, in Japan, its red color symbolizes the happiness. Second, the Japanese word to wish happiness to someone is "OmedeTAI" (yes, the Japanese people are playing with words).
We started by cutting it into fillet. The back parts are used for Sashimi (raw fish) and the belly is used for Sushi. And we eat the skin as well — we roll it on a stick, put some salt around and cook it over an open fire.
The skin of the Tai is really tasty so we left it on the back part and poured water over it to make it softer. It also gives it a nice reddish color.
This is the presentation of Sashimi, with the skin and without.
We don't waste the head and bones either.
We cook the head with some Shoyu (Soja sauce), sake, sugar, and some ginger. Tai has a big head and therefore we can only eat 40% of the whole fish, so the head can’t be wasted. And we make a soup stock using the bones.
In the afternoon, we started actual service training as it would be done in a real Sushi shop setting today. We took turn and half of us became Itasan (Sushi Master), while the other half were the customers. In a Sushi shop, customers can see how the Itasan makes the sushi in front of them, so they have to make them in a nice way.
Here are a few points: As a Sushi Master, do cut the fish swiftly, do clean the work place all the time, do always pay attention to the customers and do find out what they want, but by the way, do not eat the rice left on your fingers, etc.
Ogura san was my Itasan today. He came from Switzerland to become a real Sushi Master. He was getting a lot of orders at the same time, but he was handling them very smoothly, always with a big smile! As an Itasan, you have to remember all the orders, paying attention to your clients, and when asked, make the bills, all without writing any notes — there are a few tricks for this (some people use grains of rice to count the orders, etc.)
# posted by Famille Hochner @ 12:30 PM
