[WEB ARTICLE] Kimata Syoya (JO1) - Elle Gourmet (6 April 2023) (Part 4)

[dreamweavernyx]

Part 4!

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[Photo 39]

Chef: This is the ark shell (akagai).

Kimata: Bon appetit! The texture is amazing.

Ohira: This one’s delicious, too. It’s hard for me to put (my thoughts) into words because so much of this is new for me! Speaking of which, I notice that the rice isn’t white.

Kimata: Ah, yes. Tokyo’s edomae-style sushi uses red sushi vinegar in the rice, so it looks brownish. I feel like I end up doing this explanation every time, to the members. (laughs)

Chef: In the old days, we didn’t have anything besides red vinegar. Well, we call it vinegar, but back then it was fermented from sake lees, you know. Alright, next up we have the trout (masu).

[Photo 40]

Kimata: I like trout. You see it pretty often in oshizushi,* don’t you. It resembles salmon, but… Shosei, you like salmon, don’t you.

[ T/N: Oshizushi is a style of sushi where the rice and fish are pressed together in a mould (usually box-shaped) and then unmoulded, rather than being individually shaped by hand. ]

Chef: It looks salmon-like, but it’s a little different. They both belong to the Salmonidae family*, but trout is more soft in texture, and has no fishy smell.

[ T/N: Chef here referred to the “trout family”, but scientifically both trout and salmon are part of the “salmon family” (i.e. Salmonidae) so he probably misspoke. It seems fairly common in Japan to know of the scientific family of various plants, fish and animals, and reference is sometimes made to them e.g. in order to identify similarities or differences between them. ]

Kimata: Speaking of, (Kinjo) Sukai and I went fishing for seabass the other day, you know. We caught a ton of them, and I couldn’t finish eating them so I heated them up in the microwave and flaked them, and fed them to our cat.

Ohira: Is that so. I didn’t know that. I thought I knew pretty much everything about you. (laughs)

[Photo 41]

Ohira: Mmmmmmmmmmmm, it’s delicious.

Kimata: You look like you’re about to cry. (laughs) Your moco (Magazine note: A Sanrio character produced by JO1) is showing.

Ohira: Somehow, since I’ve overcome my dislike of wasabi, I’d love to come here again with the other members. But with Syoya over there (points at the food preparation area) instead (laughs).

Kimata: I’ll eat and make sushi at the same time! But you can’t make sushi without undergoing a ton of training, though.

Chef: Rather than your skill in making sushi, what you might find more tough is stocking up on fish, deepening your knowledge of fish, and getting hold of good-quality ingredients.

Kimata: Yes, ascertaining the quality of ingredients is very important. For the sake of opening the doors to Kimata Sushi one day…

Ohira: Huh, was that the end goal for this column? I didn’t know that. (laughs)

[Photo 42]

Even if there was nothing left in this world but shrimp, he would still love shrimp

Chef: Next up is a nigiri of both tiger shrimp and white shrimp.

Kimata: It’s here, the shrimp! There’s two types in a single piece of sushi?

Chef: Yes, there is a well-chilled piece of white shrimp sandwiched between the tiger shrimp and the rice. It’s been prepared with this deliberate temperature difference.

Kimata: This is something shrimp lovers can’t miss out on. It’s a shrimp within a shrimp!

Chef: In order to ensure that none of the flavour is lost from the tiger shrimp, we vacuum-seal it before steaming it. Please enjoy.

Kimata: What a technique! Amazing. Bon appetit~!

Ohira: Woah~ It’s delicious. It’s got a good texture, or rather, a good bounce to it, and the shrimp is sweet, too.

Kimata: I want to keep chewing this forever.

Ohira: Same!

Kimata: The more you chew it the more the flavour develops… And the centre of it is just sweetness. Like, it melts. Ah~ In the end, shrimp is the best ♡

Ohira: I’ve never had shrimp like this.

Kimata: Even if everything but shrimp disappeared from this world, I’d still be able to love shrimp.

Ohira: Eh~?!

Kimata: I’d love it, still.

Ohira: Ah, I apologise. I didn’t mean “eh~” in that way. I said that because I was truly moved by the sushi.

[Photo 43]

The sea urchin arrives!

Kimata: It’s here, Shosei! Sea urchin!

Shosei: Ah, sea urchin!!!

Chef: Please try it.

Kimata: You don’t hate sea urchin, right. Though it’s not like you’ve not had it before. It’s a generous portion.

Chef: There are two types of sea urchin, bafun-uni and murasaki-uni, on top.*

[ T/N: Bafun-uni is one of the most common types of sea urchin - the individual pieces of sea urchin are smaller, and the flavour is more intense / less creamy. Murasaki-uni (lit. purple sea urchin) is larger than bafun-uni, and has a sweeter, creamier flavour. ]

Kimata: The shape of each individual piece of sea urchin is so well-defined! You rarely see the contours of sea urchin so clearly like this, but this isn’t starting to dissolve away in the slightest!

Ohira: The plate is really cute, too~

Chef: It’s a plate with this year’s zodiac.

Kimata: Ah, it’s a rabbit! My member emoji is that of a rabbit… Mm, yum! Even though the curves of the sea urchin were so clearly defined earlier, the moment I bit down on it it melted away.

Ohira: Right?

[Photo 44]

Kimata: It’s like a drink.

Ohira: Ah, so sea urchin can taste this good.

Kimata: Sea urchin tastes real good!!!

Ohira: Why do you sound mad? (laughs) I’ve experienced so many firsts today~ It’s delicious~

Kimata: After wasabi, you’ve also conquered sea urchin.

Ohira: This restaurant is amazing. Why couldn’t I have come here before!

[Photo 45]

Eating the nigiri sushi with their hands!

Chef: This is a spear squid (yari-ika) with eggs. It’s a limited-period sushi ingredient that only tastes good within these two months. Would you like to try eating it with your hands?

Ohira: Awesome, we can use our hands! I kept thinking that today I wanted to try using my hands to eat sushi like a connoisseur, but I couldn’t find a good timing to say it…

Kimata: Is that so! You should have just told me! Bon appetit!

Ohira: Delicious. I’ve never had a nigiri sushi this refined before.

[Photo 46]

Chef: Now we’ll have three pieces of tuna in a row. First, cured tuna (akami).

Ohira: I’ll eat it with my hands.

Kimata: Well, then, let’s sushi cheers! Woah, it smells like yuzu.

Chef: We specially added more vinegar to the rice specifically for the tuna, and there’s a piece of yuzu peel sandwiched inside.

Ohira: The first flavour that hits the tongue is the yuzu. After that I can taste the tuna and the wasabi… It’s really delicious.

Kimata: The wasabi’s been thoroughly incorporated in his review!

Chef: Next up is the chutoro.

Kimata: Can I go back to using chopsticks? I like eating sushi with my hands, but recently I’ve gone the full 360 degrees and have preferred to use chopsticks again. Isn’t it fun, to eat food with chopsticks?

Ohira: What’s with that. (laughs)