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raw fish=sashimi?

I know it sounds like a funny question..I worked many years in restaurants some of them were in Japanese places..I remembered one place..Asakuma...the delivery driver who was from Japan on temp visa here in socali and worked where I was a cashier...I asked him..do you think ALL raw fish is Sashimi?..he looked at me like I was nuts and replied "you kidding me, of course its all the same!"..I replied to him..so you think all grades are the same..his reply "qualities different, but idea is the same..anyways..I just got done baking some halibut in some Lea & Perrins fish sauce and wondered "could I slice it when its raw very thin then add a few fresh squeezed lemon drops and make some sushi rice and seaweed wraps?..
 
in the US, sashimi grade fish is flash frozen a -80 degrees C to kill any parasites in the fish.

Unless you have friends with a boat and another with a knowledge of sushi preparation and you have a day out at sea, then there is no freezing involved except for the left overs which there will be plenty of.
 
in the US, sashimi grade fish is flash frozen a -80 degrees C to kill any parasites in the fish.

A bit of truth that always makes me smile. I was a sous chef at an upscale sushi restaurant outside Kansas City, and would always get a laugh at the people who would turn their nose up because "the sushi in (wherever they were from) is fresher and never frozen". We ordered our fish from the same providers on the west coast as everyone else, and had it flown in 3-4 times a week.
 
Even if you buy sashimi in Japan, the odds are good that it's been frozen. Of course, you can pick up the local catch somewhere and go with that. But much of the fish that's traded is shipped or flown in frozen from the North Atlantic or other distant spots.

Chefs will even take advantage of that. I had a delicious tuna sorbet that a friend of mine made by taking the frozen head of a tuna and using a melon ball scoop to dig out the meat that is in behind the head (otherwise kind of hard to use). He had beautiful round balls of frozen tuna that he flavored with a light soy dressing. Everything else he served at the meal had been made from the same tuna, so it was amazing way to end the meal.
 
Even if you buy sashimi in Japan, the odds are good that it's been frozen. Of course, you can pick up the local catch somewhere and go with that. But much of the fish that's traded is shipped or flown in frozen from the North Atlantic or other distant spots.

Chefs will even take advantage of that. I had a delicious tuna sorbet that a friend of mine made by taking the frozen head of a tuna and using a melon ball scoop to dig out the meat that is in behind the head (otherwise kind of hard to use). He had beautiful round balls of frozen tuna that he flavored with a light soy dressing. Everything else he served at the meal had been made from the same tuna, so it was amazing way to end the meal.

It's amazing how good the meat is from the heads of those big fish. Really, some of the best parts.
 
I wouldn't eat raw fish from just anywhere. There are a few fishmongers here that do sell sushi grade fish. Fish sometimes have parasites and worms that can grow if not handled correctly, you don't want to eat that.

If you add citrus and let it sit for a second it does "cook" the meat, ala ceviche. The acid in lemons and lime react with the protein, I forget the technical term but it changes the protein structure making it seem like it has been heated.

The Italians do raw fish very similar to sushi called crudo but that is something I am not as familiar with.
 
If you add citrus and let it sit for a second it does "cook" the meat, ala ceviche. The acid in lemons and lime react with the protein, I forget the technical term but it changes the protein structure making it seem like it has been heated.

Denaturing by acidification?
 
Unless you have friends with a boat and another with a knowledge of sushi preparation and you have a day out at sea, then there is no freezing involved except for the left overs which there will be plenty of.

Take a course in parasitology and I doubt you will be eating fish handled this way.
 
I would say that ( raw fish == sashimi ) is true in the same way that ( ground beef == hamburgers ). While technically speaking it's not exactly wrong, it does sort of miss the point.
 
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