Sushi Korean style

The video starts level-headed and steadily goes downhill.

Alcohol.

When the man is shopping for fish it is helpful to know:

10,000 won = $8.65
50,000 won = $43.25
50,000,000 won = $55,550.00
32,000 won = $35.55

He says, "When the abalone is infused with the aroma from the alcohol it results in more delicious abalone."

That’s true with everything. And I mean everything.

*squeaky ventriloquist voice* Even cereal?

No! Not cereal. That would be insane.

*squeaky ventriloquist voice* You did say everything.

Everything within reason. Proteins. Fat is a fantastic carrier of flavor but alcohol actually permeates and it adds its own flavor, and although not that great tasting by itself, it does contribute significant flavor to proteins. And that goes for all alcohols from beer to vermouth (wine fortified with botanicals). So if a dish calls for a tablespoon of sake, any alcohol substitution will work even gin or vodka.

Wine and butter. There's just something amazing about that combination.

Soju: [Wikipedia] The liquor licensing laws in the states of California and New York specifically exempt the sale of soju from regulation relating to the sale of other distilled spirits, allowing businesses with a beer/wine license to sell it without requiring the more expensive license required for other distilled spirits. The only stipulation is that the soju must be clearly labeled as such and contain less than 25% alcohol.

This has led to the appearance in the United States of many soju-based equivalents of traditional Western mixed drinks normally based on vodka or similar spirits, such as the soju martini and the soju cosmopolitan. Another consequence is that the manufacturers of similar distilled spirits from other parts of Asia, such as Japanese shōchū, have begun to re-label their products as soju for sale in those regions.

Jinro's American division has partnered with Korean pop star PSY to promote Soju in the U.S., and in 2013 partnered with the Los Angeles Dodgers to sell Soju at its games.

"Heavy drinkers like to get drunk but sake is too weak for them so they don't really like it."

[Sake can kick your butt solidly. These drunks must be freaks. Maybe he means flavor. Even there, I find Sake incredibly strong flavored. So yeah, these guys are freaks. And that's why his business plan is doomed for being devised by a drunk. Drinking friends and business do not mix.]

He mentioned kombujime. Two days ago I couldn't find anything online about this. Now I find loads of stuff. (Jeeze, off by one little vowel and the whole search is ruined) Kombu is kelp, the kind that led to the discovery of MSG and new word used by chefs globally: umami, meaning savory taste, now considered one of the five taste sensations with, sweet, sour, bitter and salt. 

What a racket. The guy made a fortune. (Kikunae Ikeda) And got the world speaking differently about taste. 

Kombujime is method of preservation involving wrapping seafood or vegetable in kombu. I tried this. Apparently didn't do it the right way and used up quite a lot of expensive top grade kombu. (Which I'm drinking right now with bonito as tea. It's actually a soup base, dashi.) 

The stuff this guy makes looks so freaking good.

And now I must now tell you a story to warm your heart.

Dad liked to take off and explore to break the pattern of drudgery. 

(There was never any drudgery.)

But he was loath to do anything alone. He is a true family man. He loved taking off in his car but doing that without at least one of his kids with him was inconceivable. I had a lot of one-on-one time with dad this way. He'd talk to me as an adult and the whole time I'd be sitting there thinking, "why is he telling me this? I'm a kid! I don't know jack about adult things. This is all beyond my boyish concerns. Goddamnit quit making me grow up." 

I was ten. 

This time he had Barry and me with him. One summer night he took us to a hole-in-the-wall sushi joint some distance off base where people went to drink massive amounts of alcohol and get smashed, the whole area was smashed. Much like the Korean business depicted in the first video. No larger than our own dining room. Extremely intimate. 

They had a 10 gallon aquarium with shrimp in it. 

Our sort of thing. Barry and I had eleven aquariums bubbling away in our shared bedroom. I used to make little underwater scenes for them. Very childish. 

Barry and I were both resolute about never eating raw fish. That's just too weird. Participating with native culture is one thing, but that's just ... no. No way. 

We saw a picture of a boy diving for fish and coming up with a fish in his mouth. That's what we thought sushi is.

Now Dad is telling us those bugs in the aquarium are shrimp.

They are not!

I averred flatly.

I knew that for certain. These things have antennas and ten legs like some kind of weird centipede. And little beady black eyes. These are ugly little water bugs, not the lovely shrimp that we eat. 

I hated arguing basic logical things with my dad.

"I know what shrimp are. We have breaded shrimp all the time. And these things don't match."

See, that's the thing with people who drink alcohol. They're always fucking with us boys. 

Get a few drinks in them and first thing they do is mess with our minds. 

Barry agreed. 

Dad said, "Yes, those are shrimp. The things you've been eating are their tails. With their shells picked off. Try some.

"NO!

What is it about "no" that's not getting through? I don't want any sea bugs." 

"Come on. Be a sport. It's cooked. You'll like it. I'm telling you it's cooked. Just like regular shrimp. Except this is a lot better."

At length and ridiculously persistent discussion he convinced us to eat the cooked shrimp as sushi. At least it was cooked.

But he didn't say that they were cooked by waving them over a pot of boiling water and scaring them to death. They're  hardly cooked at all. Just barely cooked. In water that is not even boiling. Just hot enough and just long enough to denature and that's it. 

But it sure was good.

He got us. Roped us in.

We're scarfing this shrimp like crazy. 

"Here, try some tuna. It's the same thing except different. It's really really really super good. You'll love it"

"NO!"

Here again. I know what tuna looks like. It's gray and solid, not red and soft.

"Come on. Try it. Since you like the shrimp then you'll like this too."

Okay.

We both assumed it was cooked. But he faked us out. Again. 

We ate raw fish by being faked out. By slipping cooked shrimp first. And we liked it. 

We had all kind of stuff that wasn't challenging like cucumber rolls and marinated mushroom rolls.

That's how my dad got us to love sushi.  

When we departed the tiny restaurant and came out onto the street there were drunks falling around all over the place yelling and making scenes calling attention to themselves in extreme un-Japanese impolite behavior. 

It was an unhealthy scene for two young American boys to be seeing. Dad hustled us off. 

That little drudgery averting side trip gave Barry the idea of eating sliced cucumber with soy sauce. 

And our housekeeper taught us to make rice the Japanese way before they had home rice steamers. 

And coat it with sugar mixed with vinegar that was boiled together. 

We learned to wrap things with nori using a cute little bamboo mat.  Things that weren't raw fish. 

My dad was clever and very persistent in insisting really insisting we try new things. All of us, not just Barry and me.

And I'm glad that he did. He really did expand our range of exposure. 

Because now all of my nephews and nieces and their children are extremely fussy picky eaters. They don't mind junk food but they're reticent to try anything beyond their pedestrian cafeteria preferences. And that makes them so much less interesting people. 

To their credit though they do break out and try something different and a little bit challenging like chiles. 

But I wonder why my brothers and sisters are not insistent and persistent like our dad was with us. 

They all have different ways of parenting.