As Japanese food has become more popular, so has raw fish. Well, I know some people really hate eating fish (especially raw fish) however, if you have good quality raw fish, the flavor will be great. I express raw fish as ‘sashimi’. There are lots of ways to eat sashimi. This introduction of how you can eat sashimi might be a little different than what you think, but the flavor can be very great. I will introduce ways you can enjoy sashimi better.
1. Eat with wasabi soy sauce.
Well, the first way is a very simple one and the most common way to eat sashimi: with wasabi and soy sauce. However, my recommendation is to use real wasabi (and if you can, to get wasabi grated using a “shark skin grater”), then add it to soy sauce. Real wasabi flavor is quite different than “tube wasabi” you get at many sushi restaurants. I know that real wasabi is more expensive than this tube wasabi people normally eat, but it can be worth it. Very high-end sushi places use real wasabi with shark skin.
2. Eat with vinegar gochujang.
Japanese food in South Korea has developed a little bit differently than original Japanese food. One example is that people eat sashimi with vinegar gochujang, called cho-gochujang. Cho-gochujang is made by mixing normal gochujang with vinegar and some sweet ingredients (such as sugar), and sometimes adding garlic or other vegetables. This way to eat sashimi is very Korean style. If you eat too much cho-gochujang with your sashimi it may overpower the flavor of the fish. Yes! This sauce provides a strong flavor. People who are just starting to eat sashimi should try with cho-gochujang due to the good sauce flavor. If you like Korean food flavors or you like spicy flavors, I strongly recommend this way.
3. Eat with dried seaweed.
Again, Korean people have their own ways to eat raw fish. This way can be Korean style as well. Eating sashimi with dried seaweed and sauce (like salted sesame oil or wasabi) with some vegetables (like small radish or ginger) will provide a very good, complicated flavor. In South Korea there are lots professional tuna restaurants. These restaurants provide not only bluefin tuna but other tuna as well. Some low-quality tuna may not be as delicious as bluefin tuna. At that time, people eat it with the method explained above. But do not misunderstand; other types of tuna can still provide good flavor. Many Korean people normally eat tuna sashimi, not other sashimi, with dried seaweed. I do not recommend this method with white fish sashimi, because the flavor of white fish sashimi is lighter than others. However, salmon can be a great option for this way as well.
4. Eat with spicy cold noodles.
In South Korea, there are sashimi cold noodles called heonangnyun. Basically, it means to eat fish with spicy cold noodles.The fish can be sashimi, or cooked in special ways. There are two types of spicy cold noodles: bibim guksu and bibim naengmyeon. Both are spicy and cold noodles, but the sauces are a little different and the noodles are different as well. These are both good with sashimi. You may think you do not know how to make the spicy cold noodles, but you can buy bibim ramen in many Asian grocery stores and eat it with sashimi. My recommendation is to eat salmon sashimi with the ramen.
5. Eat with ssam.
Ssam is basically vegetables used for Korean BBQ . However, Korean people also eat sashimi with ssam. Normally sashimi ssam vegetables are lettuce and perilla leaves. I recommend eating sashimi with special sashimi ssamjang (normal ssamjang is fine as well) with ssam and additional vegetables like garlic. Some people like me make sashimi ssam with chogochujang. This way can be super flavorful, so please try this way.
6. Make some soy sauce rice.
Well, this way is maybe my own personal style. If you have tsuyu sauce or soy sauce with sugar or cooking alcohol, you can make this recipe easily. I normally eat this sauce with salmon sashimi. Boil a little water and the sauce with sliced onion. After the onion is soft, put the onion and sauce on normal rice. Then put your salmon sashimi on top and eat. The flavor is similar to Japanese donburi but I add salmon sashimi instead of meat.
7. Make sashimi salad or sashimi bibimbap.
In South Korea, there is sashimi salad. People can eat it with some sashimi, a lot of vegetables, and with some gochujang dressing (I will post about this method more specifically later on). Or you can make sashimi bibimbap; we call this hoedeopbap, which consists of a lot of vegetables and rice with sashimi. This is similar to normal bibimbap but the hoedeopbap sauce is chogochjang and sesame oil.
I hope the ways described above can help you to enjoy raw fish. If you do not eat raw fish that often or have never tried it before, the above ways can help you with your first experience!
Thank you for reading and please comment!
