Went to japan to try bluefin tuna, the medium fatty tuna (chu toro) was so sooo good (fatty and very smooth in the mouth) so was expecting a lot on the fatty tuna nigiri but got disappointed because it was a bit chewy and stringy? If you get what i mean. Sure it was fatty but I can’t enjoy it because of the stringiness/texture. Is that really how it tastes or i just got unlucky with a bad cut?
by whatLies_Ahead
24 Comments
That doesn’t look like how ootoro normally looks. The ones I’ve eaten have very fine grained fat. It’s so fine that the whole thing looks light pink. It also has a very luxurious, smooth texture, like wagyu.
could be a bad cut… because the fatty part is on the outside there might be bigger pieces of sinniew or just chewier fat attached to it, especially with lower quality tuna in general I guess
personally, I also like chuutoro the most, it tastes much lighter while still having lots of fat so you can eat more of it plus it’s cheaper
Bad cut. Keep trying, its worth it.
It doesn’t seem like a good cut of toro. Judging by the shape of sushi, whoever made these aren’t really that skilled. Also, some people prefer less-fatty Akami (just regular cut of tuna), including myself. I hope you give another try at a different place though. Toro can be lovely if cut and prepared right.
Is that fish or meat?
You likely got a bad cut but in general I find Ohtoro to be fairly uninteresting and mostly a money flex. There are so many wonderful, delicate white fish and complex shellfish for a fraction of the price but they don’t command the “Price=flavor” demographic who loves to talk about how much they spent on this or that.
I’m not a sushi expert, but at the end of the slices you can see the chiai. It was probably a cut off close to the tougher end of the filet. That part is full of the myoglobin settles and gives the fish a metallic taste.
As mentioned by many, this is a very poor cut of meat. Best served as aburi sushi to melt some of the fat and chewy parts.
I’ve seen better otoro at Sushiro
I dont know its me but sushi and sashimi in Japan are not that great as much as you expect in your country. Even many Taiwanese people say we have better sushi and sashimi 😉😁
Chutoro is better anyway….But seriously though, go to Kanazawa and try. Do it right or don’t do it. It’s not worth trying good sushi if it’s not from Ishikawa.
Just wanted to clarify that’s a bad chef, not a bad cut. Or, it’s badly cut, but not a bad cut. The sushi restaurants in Tsukiji and now Toyosu have always been crappy tourist traps.
Go to Sushizanmai in Shibuya, tell him what you are looking for, he gets dibs on extremely excellent cuts, having multiple shops, and sells them for normal prices
I know this is probably heresy, but I went to Japan excited to try fatty tuna and discovered I preferred lean tuna.
That doesn’t look right. Try again. There’s lots of people that won’t like Otoro vs chutoro though cuz otoro is like pure butter. But it is good and what you got just ain’t it
Certain ootoro cuts have some long connective membrane that doesn’t really break down when chewing, the better sushi restaurants will either
1) cut around it
2) remove it with a tweezer
3) make shallow cuts through the membrane so you perceive it as being less chewy
Kinda depends on the level of the sushi chef/restaurant you’re at. But personally I prefer chutoro because even extremely good ootoro doesn’t have much bite at all, it kind of disintegrates into oil, it’s tasty but like a bit of texture
They artificially fatten the tuna now after catching them and keeping them in a big net pens. It makes more of the tuna meat classified as Toro in some form but there is still good and bad areas of the fish that you want it from. This particular slice does not look like it came from the right spot, I’ve also seen slices like this cross hatched with a knife to make them less stringy
You should try another place. Otoro usually gives that ‘melt in your mouth’ texture, and it’s never chewy or super stringy, at least the ones I’ve tried.
It looks like raw wagyu
Bad cut, the one I had was a light pink and melted in my mouth with the most beautiful aroma and nutty taste I had ever experienced.
Definitely looks like a bad cut to me.
I thought that was wagyu.
Where did you eat? and is sushi chef Japanese? And did you see many Japanese customers in this restaurant? Are the a few of questions I have to ask you to determine quality of sushi
I guess I’m floored to learn that there are amateur sushi chefs making a living in Japan.