Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Eat Delicious Sushi Sonoma Count With This Guide

By Ann Clark


Hundreds of restaurants dot the local Sonoma County area, so many that it is often hard to figure out which one you would like to dine at. If you value ethnic cuisine and very fresh ingredients, then you should consider going to a sushi Sonoma Count restaurant, as this type of food requires the freshest most delicate ingredients and tastes out of this world when you put it in your mouth.

Sushi hails from Japan, which is a large island with multiple smaller islands, completely surrounded by water. With all that ocean, it makes sense that the foremost cuisine of the culture centers upon fish. The fish is usually raw, though certain kinds such as eel or shrimp are cooked before serving. Most dishes also include rice that has been flavored with a special vinegar blend to complement the rest of the ingredients.

When most people think of this dish, they most likely think of nigiri in their minds. This is a very common type that uses a small cake of rice shaped like a finger as a base. Then a tiny bit of wasabi is placed on the rice, then it is topped with a similarly shaped cut of raw fish or egg omelet. The wasabi is a spicy green paste made from ground horseradish root, but if you do not care for spice, you can omit this.

Maki, also sometimes referred to as norimaki, is more of a roll rather than a finger. The rolls are usually quite long, so they are cut into six or eight pieces, with the entire roll usually served together on a plate. The roll is formed using a sheet of seaweed, called nori. Seasoned rice is the first layer, followed by different ingredients, which may include tuna, salmon, roe, avocado, crab, eel, cucumber, egg, tofu or other items according to taste. It is sometimes topped with mayonnaise or some other sauce.

Both new eaters and seasoned lovers alike will love sashimi, another dish in this cuisine. It is the purest form of sushi, because it is just thin slices of the seafood, no more and no less. There is no rice or sauces used, so you can only taste the freshness of the flesh and see how the seafood really tastes.

If you like sashimi but want a dish that is a little more filling, try chirashi on for size. This is sashimi slices that are placed on top of a bowl of rice, rather than a small finger-shaped base like nigiri. It is often artfully placed to make a beautiful presentation.

If you see little golden brown pouches on the menu, these are most likely inari. This is a pouch made of fried tofu that is stuffed with rice. The rice is usually flavored with mirin, a sweet sake that adds lots of flavor and makes these pouches a lightly sweet treat.

Most dishes are served with a side of soy sauce, and perhaps some extra wasabi if you like heat. Gari, or pickled ginger, is also served as a palette cleanser so you taste the true flavor of each piece of sushi.




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