Customer Reviews

The Great Sushi and Sashimi Cookbook

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For 3+ years I have endavored to learn the finer
points of eating and making sushi, and to date my
skills have been derived from 3 books (Sushi Made
Easy, Tsuda; Quick & Easy Sushi Cook Book, Tohyama;
The Book of Japanese Cooking, Kazuko), eating at
many sushi restaurants, and trial and error by making
sushi at home weekly to monthly.

I am now convinced that there is no single source for
all the things one would like to know about eating and/or
making sushi, but the book 'The Great Sushi and Sashimi
Cookbook' comes very close.

Written by two sushi chefs trained in Japan, what impresses
me most about the book is the authors ability to cover the
topics of history, etiquette, ingredients, cuts and cutting,
techniques and types of sushi and sashimi in a minimal number
of pages, and yet achieve a depth and breadth of discussion
that I have not seen in other books. Next most impressive
is the quality of the photographs and paper upon which the
book is printed; coffee table book quality.

I would score 'Sushi Made Easy' and 'Quick & Easy Sushi
Cook Book' as 4s, but give this book a 5 for hitting all
the key points.

This is the third book I've gotten in the last few weeks in a quest to learn about cutting and presentation. This is the first book that shows me different slicing techniques, which is what I was searching for.

My husband and I are sashimi/sushi fans. But every time we go for dinner, it costs between $75-$125 depending on what we're drinking. Once or twice a month is fine, but we would get out of hand and dine out 3 times a week. That's just unacceptable, but I refuse to give up sushi...and I will not subject myself to market (even Trader Joes) sushi. So we decided to give this place online a try and buy sushi grade fish in bulk and freeze it and much to my dismay it came REALLY fresh, but not cut the way the restaurant hands it to me. I made it through my first dinner, though I mangled a few pieces and created some chunks of fish that I'd never seen served to me before.

The book, while it shows me different cutting techniques, it doesn't really elaborate on the specific types of fish. But it illustrates these techniques with a salmon and a tuna, so I could deduce from there. The presentation of the different fish gives me something to aspire to. But I do have some complaints about this book.

My major gripe about this book is that there isn't one mention of mirugai in here. I would suspect that this book would at least give a technique or two on how to prep mirugai. But it only mentions it in the glossary. Also no mention of fluke.

Also, I had a dream this book would give a good miso ginger dressing, but alas...it did not. But the Chirizu sauce is wonderful. We'd thought a dish served to us at our local sushi spot was served with a spicy ponzo sauce only to discover, it was this. I would have never known if not for this book.

I do agree with the previous reviewer that the ingredients can be hard to get. I live close to an Asian Food Market, so I'm able to get a lot there. But the fish is hard to come by, and for that I resorted to gambling with an online company but ended up being extremely pleased and have become a regular customer, which has saved us a lot of money.
I also agree that this book isn't for beginners. I think you have to have an appreciation for sushi - not just rolls - to enjoy this book.

This book is really all about the illustrations. It is a nice book to look at but it rather lacks substance in my view. I would say that if you reduced the size of the pictures a little and condensed the text, you could easily end up with a book of only 30 pages or so. The sashimi section contains quite a few entries but, while it covers a bit of basic knife technique, it is fairly perfunctory and hardly comprehensive. The sushi section does provide step by step pictures but I suspect that novices will have a hard time if they try to use this book as a guide. I would instead recommend Sushi Cookbook from the Quick and Easy series.

Takahasi's cookbook is great, tasty, and the food is to die for. If you've the means, that is. The sad thing about this cookbook is that there's alot of tasty stuff, and all the ingredients are hard to come by. Plus, if you've never made sushi before, you're in for a wild ride.
I only wish it came with a bamboo roll mat. My kitchen would be much cleaner that way.