Sashimi is one of Japan’s most famous and popular dishes, although for foreign visitors to the country it can be the most challenging in terms of testing your ability to eat something unusual while keeping a polite smile on your face.
In 1880, the fascinating British explorer and writer, Isabella Lucy Bird, published her book Unbeaten tracks in Japan in which the first English description of sashimi appeared as “oblong strips of raw fish”. Bird also offered a particularly dismal view of Japanese cuisine, in general, writing: “The cuisine of the ‘well-to-do’ Japanese is far from despicable, yet there is something about their dishes so unpalatable to foreigners, that it is only after long experience that any Englishman, otherwise than ruefully, swallows Japanese food”.
The sashimi dish actually comprises of a variety of raw seafood including sliced fish, shellfish, and roe, all beautifully displayed on a bed of shredded diakon (white raddish) and decorated with the zesty herb, perilla leaf. All of this is laid on a large platter and creates an extremely eye-catching centre piece to a meal both in terms of colour, the neat display of perfectly positioned components and the range of seafood on offer, especially in larger versions of the dish.
Unlike sushi, which is made from slices of raw fish or other types of seafood laid on top of a small lump of vinegary rice, sashimi consists only of the seafood itself, and any accompanying rice is plain and served in a small bowl eaten separately to the sashimi. The difficultly when eating sashimi is to appear restrained allowing the other diners to have their fair share, while making sure you get your fill of the mouth watering variety of seafood that is laid out in front of you. Taking foreign visitors out to eat sashimi is always good, because their hesitation to eat the sashimi selection – perhaps urchin, salmon roe, shrimp and tuna – means you can probably get away with eating more!
Sashimi is available in high-end sushi restaurants, but also in izakaya (a Japanese style pub), so there is a sashimi dish to suit all budgets. However, sashimi is a very light meal, so considering the fact that it won’t leave you feeling full at the end, it is certainly not as economical as, say, sushi or Japan’s other famous dishes.
Despite Isabella Lucy Bird’s damning review of Japanese cuisine, she was correct that after a long experience of Japanese food, it is possible for non-Japanese to enjoy this fresh, healthy feast from the sea.
