a different kind of uni?

[Lori Lee]

Hi, long time, no post.
Just returned from Tokyo (lucky me) and dined 4 times at a "conveyor
belt" sushi place. But not the average, stale conveyor belt. You
order by computer pad, so your food is made to order and delivered to
you via conveyor, so much fun, and really fresh.
To my point, they offered 2 kinds of uni, regular and "ensui", their
quotes not mine. So I had to do a side by side taste test. Regular
uni was what I expected, distinct orange lobes, great quality. The
"ensui" uni looked completely different, like uni mush. But the
flavor! 5 times milder, creamier, less saline, no bitterness, what
uni should be.
Anyone ever experience this style of uni? Is it available in the USA?
BTW, either uni cost $2.50 per piece. That's why I went back 4 times.

Lori
Remove "No Spam" from e-mail address before replying

[Dan Logcher]

Sounds like the second type was California Uni. Its usually larger and
more mild in flavor. Not sure why it was mush, should have been just as
solid as the other.. Taste-wise, that would explain the two types.

Uni typically harvested from Maine, Japan, Chile, and California.
The latter being the more mild in flavor.

--
Dan

[watsky...@gmail.com]

I love uni. I used to buy fresh sea urchins from Maine in the Italian fish markets in NYC but then they stopped selling it. They said that the Japanese were buying all of it.

[Dan Logcher]

On 3/14/2016 1:14 PM, watsky...@gmail.com wrote:
> I love uni. I used to buy fresh sea urchins from Maine in the Italian fish markets in NYC but then they stopped selling it. They said that the Japanese were buying all of it.

Not sure that's true.. We still have uni around Boston.

--
Dan

[watsky...@gmail.com]

Dan, you've been here a long time. Do you mean uni or the whole sea urchins? Do they sell live sea urchins in the Boston fish markets like they used to do in the Italian fish markets in NYC? I love fresh uni but it is hard to find out here in the desert. There is an uni specialty restaurant in southern Cal, I forgot exactly where. I'll have to try it the next time I'm out that way.

[Dan Logcher]

I haven't been to any of the fish markets lately.. its been a long time.
I recall having live sea urchin about 5 years ago at a restaurant, but
most sushi places don't serve it that way.

Depending on the season, uni comes from Maine.. so getting live uni could be
as easy as visiting some markets in Maine. Never thought of doing that..

--
Dan

[Ken Blake]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:08:13 -0700 (PDT), watsky...@gmail.com
wrote:

>Dan, you've been here a long time. Do you mean uni or the whole sea urchins? Do they sell
>live sea urchins in the Boston fish markets like they used to do in the Italian fish markets
> in NYC? I love fresh uni but it is hard to find out here in the desert.

Where in the desert are you? Here in Tucson, most of the sushi bars
have uni all the time.

[watsky...@gmail.com]

Ken, I'm in the same place u r! I haven't found any sushi places here in T'n that I like. I like Sushi Ken up in Awataukee. It used to be in T'n. What do u like here? Have u had good uni here? Do u like Sushi on Oracle? It gets good reviews and I live nearby but I thought it was just OK, but maybe I ordered the wrong things.

[Ken Blake]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:03:20 -0700 (PDT), watsky...@gmail.com
wrote:

I don't know Sushi on Oracle. As far as I'm concerned, the best in
Tucson by far is SushiZona, on River and Craycroft. The uni there is
excellent, as is everything else.

I was there last Sunday, and that had no uni that day, but that was
unusual.

What they did have on Sunday was mirugai; they don't usually have it,
but they did this time because I called a few days in advance and
asked them to get it. It was outstanding--perhaps the best mirugai
I've ever had in the US.

And they also have recently started having real wasabi (at an extra
charge) not just the powdered imitation wasabi.

[watsky...@gmail.com]

I had a bad experience at Sushi Zona when it was new so I won't go there again. Real wasabi wow. I'm surprised to hear that it is so good now.

[Wilson]

The season for urchins here in Maine has just wrapped up. I'm a fool for not
getting them more often, but when you do, don't discard the males. I think
they taste just as good as the females, just not aesthetically appetizing.
But I think a like pasta Alfredo would be excellent with them.

Been very quiet in here, Dan & Ken. Good to see some old friends still around ;)

--
Wilson 44.69, -67.3

[watsky...@gmail.com]

When I used to get live sea urchins at the fish markets in NYC many of them were empty of roe and many of the others had very little in them. Only a few were really good and full of roe, and even those weren't as full as the ones I see people opening up on the videos. I never could figure out how to select the good ones. Could it be that they were pre sorted and the good ones had already been removed? The orange uni from them was the best though - and I bet it would be even better fresh from the ocean!

[Dan Logcher]

On 3/20/2016 2:24 PM, Wilson wrote:
> Been very quiet in here, Dan & Ken. Good to see some old friends still around ;)

Still here.. just busy as hell. I get sushi once or twice a month, certainly not
us much as before.

--
Dan

[Ken Blake]

Much the same with me.

[russel...@gmail.com]

Prepared Uni (not live) in the US can come from Maine, Canada, Alaska, California, Chile, Japan or elsewhere. Although Japanese uni can be great, I still like California uni the best. Maine uni tends to be the smallest and it varies in color quite a bit. Alaskan uni has been quite dark lately but it has good flavor. Canadian and Chilean uni is somewhere in the middle range.

Live uni from CA tends to be the best here in the US because it is easier to keep it alive to the table (less shipping involved than other Pacific uni) and it seems to produce the largest lobes. I've opened green Maine uni and found very little inside, but some of my California uni has been packed full, generally in the early autumn.

Ensui uni, if that is what you had, Lori, is supposed to be uni that has been packed in salt water to maintain the impression of freshness.

There is also a type of uni preparation called Vana, which apparently is related to the Hawaiian word for sea urchin, but the Vana preparation that I know is generally made from all of the sea urchin that doesn't qualify for individual lobe sales - in other words, all the broken and squished pieces are packed together, often frozen, and then thawed out for eating or cooking. I've been served uni with scrambled chicken eggs, risotto, etc. and I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone that mixes it with grits in the South, but if so, Vana would be a much cheaper alternative than top quality full lobes from Santa Barbara...

If you get back to Tokyo, look in on my friend Yasuda, who moved from New York City a few years ago for the challenge of competing with the best sushi chefs in the world, but don't ignore Sushi-Sho if you can get in. Sukiyabashi Jiro is of course the most famous spot because of the Jiro video/documentary but if you don't want to spend that much money, you can do very well by just going to Tsukiji at 3AM for the tour and eating at one of the local restaurants that are a few feet away. I don't recall the names right now, but you can probably Google them for current reviews.

[watsky...@gmail.com]

I wanted to go to Maruhide Uni Club in Torrance CA when I next got out that way but I just looked it up on Yelp and it has closed!