Love It but I Can't Have It Anymore - Shirasu 吻仔魚

This is one of my childhood dish that my mom always made for me.

If you ever read my previous post about Hide Sushi,

You'll know that I'm having a big problem while encountering fish bones,

I do not like fish bones, even the tiny little ones that won't even hurt your throat.

I do not like fish bones. Period.

So my mom came up with an ultimate solution to make me eat fish when I was little.

Stir-Fry Shirasu 炒吻仔魚-

Ingredients?

1 package of shirasu

*that's probably around 1 cup of shirasu, or just make it one medium plate-full of shirasu

1 stalk of scallion (chopped)

3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

Sea salt

Extra virgin olive oil

How?

Drizzle some olive oil in the pan,

Toss in the choppe garlic and chopped scallion,

Cook for a little bit before the garlic burns.

Be careful,

Burned garlic will ruin the whole dish,

In this case, that means hundreds, maybe thousands of little lives.

Quickly toss in those little fish,

Sprinkle some sea salt, don't add to much at first,

You can alway sprinkle more salt later on.

Just keep stir frying it till the fish appeared to be a little bit dry,

Or till the color turned to light brown on the side.

So simple,

My childhood love (even now) is done in....5 minutes?

There's no way I can find any fish bones in this dish,

Shirasu are too tiny,

I get to devour them before the bones are fully grown,

Muahahahhaha!

Cindy's Rating: 8 (I love my mom!)

End Note~

I did some research about shirasu later on,

Some said that shirasu is just a general name,

It's not a particular fish, shirasu is actually the babies from all kinds of big fish in the ocean.

That leads to a serious problem,

If we consume too much shirasu,

There won't be any big fish left in the ocean.

I don't know if our current technology allows us to breed shirasu,

Or we can only catch them from the ocean,

But I think from now on I'll eat less of those fish, way less....

Even though I love it so much...>_<.

Just for our mother nature's sake right?

Maybe I can substitute shirasu with shredded tuna meat for this recipe.

Hide Sushi - Where You Can Enjoy Simple and Delicious Sushi

Sushi for lunch!!!!!!
I'm like a kid getting all excited here.
Jumping up and down in order to burn more calories and gain more room in my stomach,
Because~~~
Because I am so gonna stuff my belly with all sorts of fresh and delicious Japanese sushi!

Here's my treasure hunt location-

I'm notorious among my friends for my willingness of traveling for food.
Today, me and one of my poor victim friend drove from Orange County to Sawtelle just for this lunch,
Which probably took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to get there,
(You know how bad the traffic is in LA, plus it's been raining, and we Californians don't really know how to drive when the sun is hiding)

Sushi Bar Area-


Highly recommended to sit at the bar if you ever decided to have an awesome sushi meal.
You get to see the "magic" behind that little rolls you're just about to put into your mouth.
Observe the interaction between the chef and the customers,
Look at how the chef handles the knife whiling cutting down that perfect piece of sashimi,
And the best treatment is almost guaranteed at this spot.
Instead of putting your order with the waitress,
You can talk directly to the chef,
Getting that instant service,
Who knows?
Maybe the chef can also show you something special that you can't find on the menu.

Hamachi Nigiri (Yellowtail) and Tamago Nigiri (Egg)-


Hide Sushi always has the freshiest fish, it's unbeatable.
My hamachi just melted in my mouth,

And their tamago is thick and fluffy.
Uni Nigiri (Sea Urchin)-


Many people are afraid to eat sea urchin because of that fishy taste,
That problem can be solved with fresh sea urchin,
You can totally tell if your uni is fresh or not,
The truly fresh uni carries a natural sweet taste, not mentioning that wonderful aroma from the ocean.
I'm not exaggerating, you can really "feel" the ocean in your mouth.

Bin Naga Nigiri (Albacore)-


Albacore is just another kind of tuna,
There's one easy way to differenciate albacore from other kinds of tuna,
Albacore has a white colored meat,
Unlike the others, which are usually red.

The chef topped this nigiri with grated ginger and chopped scallion,
These two ingredients help to bring out the natural flavor of albacore,
Highly recommended.

Toro Nigiri (Fatty Tuna) and Sake Nigiri (Salmon)-


Toro is not as good as I expected,
It's still fresh, just not as "fat" as I thought it would be.

Salmon is always another good option for nigiri. Compare to other fish, salmon is more moist with intense flavor.

Unagi Nigiri (Fresh Water Eel)-


I'm very picky about unagi,
If I ever find a bone in it, I'll probably never order it again in that restaurant.
I know that most of the bones left in the meat (if there's any) are very tiny,
It doesn't even sting when you chew on the meat,
It's just me, I can't take it.

So did Hide do a good job about the bones?
Mm.......
I only found one.
(Again, I'm just too anal about the bone part, it's so tiny..it's not even a bone anymore..)

Ankimo Nigiri (Monkfish Liver)-


Absolutely love it.

The slightly sour and sweet ponzu sauce and the creamy texture of ankimo just made me felt like I was in heaven.

Me and my friend ordered 12 set of nigiri,
Well, of course we didn't finish all that at once.
We actually took a short break after ordering our initial 6 or 7 nigiri sets,
When I was looking at the sushi chef after the break, getting ready to put more fish in my mouth,
The chef looked surprised and said:
"You are hungry again!?!?"
Me thinking:
"I haven't even told you I had lasagna for breakfast...and boba tea right before this meal.."

End Note~
So how much this meal costs for that amazing 12 orders?
$66.
Not bad huh? I shall come back and scare the sushi chef again.

Overall Rating: 7

Hide Sushi
2040 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 477-7242