TLA #4 - Finally! Fresh Catch Sashimi -

Kasumi Aji (Young Bluefin Trevally) Sashimi As a beginner angler, I have several short-term goals, and "catching a fish that is good for sashimi (sliced raw fish)" was one of them. When you say a fish is good for sashimi, it means that the fish is fresh, decent size and tastes good with not-too-many tiny bones and with no disturbing smell/fishiness. Oh, wait! Let me take back the remark about the size, because we Japanese are meticulous sashimi freaks and make sashimi out of tiny fish like sardines or even silver-stripe round herrings (and believe me, those small-fish sashimi are often so good that it is worth the trouble). But in general, "a fish good for sashimi" sounds much more prestigious than some bony, smelly ones. Now I can hear some angler readers going, "What?! Bluefin trevally sashimi?! Give me a break. You Japanese make sashimi out of anything, don't you?" Well, live and learn. ;) Over here, we can catch young trevallies including Giant Trevally (GT), and some people are crazy about them because they pull hard for their size and taste good. They have a good reputation as sashimi fish. Yeah, I heard that those trevallies grow really big and some of the big ones could cause ciguatera poisoning, so I can imagine how strange this idea of making sashimi out of them may look/sound to some anglers outside Japan. But the young trevallies caught here are not poisonous. Don't worry. :) Anyway, I went fishing last weekend and caught one young bluefin trevally. It was like a joke... I threw in the bait and caught this one right away. Then no more catch... :( I managed to catch just one more fish before going home and that was it. But I achieved one of my short-term goals, so it was worth going fishing that day, after all. BTW, you might have heard that only fresh fish is good for sashimi, and the fresher the better. But if asked if this is true, I would say "Well... yes and no." I've read that the "good taste" of fish is caused by inosinic acid contained in the flesh of the fish, which needs some time to increase after the fish died. So some (not all) fish taste much better as sashimi after they were filleted and left in the fridge for several hours to develop more inosinic acid. That sounds pretty convincing. So I let the fillet rest in my fridge for apx. 10 hours. But I was not too crazy about this sashimi, to tell you the truth. It tasted very good in the beginning, but for some reason, I felt "enough" when I ate about half of it. I don't know why... Maybe I was still worried (unconsciously) about the poison?? Categories: Fishing