Spicy Tuna

Every once in a while you'll see "sashimi grade" tuna for sale. To be honest, there is no such thing as "sashimi grade". That was made up by the industry to try and hustle their premium grade fish. However, fresh, quality tuna even from the grocery store is fine for sushi. In fact, it's perfect for spicy tuna. The recipe is simple and takes even questionable tuna to another level. I got this recipe from my pal Tetsu at the Maruichi Market. You need Japanese mayonnaise, scallions, soy sauce and Japanese chili paste (see lame photo below).

Put about a 1/4 cup of mayonnaise in a bowl. Slice the white part of about 4 scallions as thinly as you can, and, obviously, put them in. Add about a teaspoon of the chili paste and a dash of soy sauce. Mix together and add 3/4 pound chopped tuna to the mix. You can make hand rolls with this or simply serve it donburi style on top of a bowl of seasoned rice.


My trusty rice cooker. I think I'm going to name it Shingo after my favorite member of the Japanese entertainment juggernaut SMAP. Those guys have been around for, like, 20 years and are all over the Japanese entertainment scene. They have tv shows, they do commercials for Softbank and anyone else who'll pay them. Their clunky name means, get this, "Sports Music Assemble People". You can't make this stuff up. Below, Shingo. Um, you should totally click on all of those links. Trust me, if you like quirky Japanese stuff and also suspect you have no idea what they have going on over there the SMAP stuff is for you......


I augmented my spicy tuna with some salmon that I grabbed at Maruichi. It was really, really rich and creamy and great and, well, you get the idea.


Again, I did not bother to take a photo of my dinner when it was already to go and simply tucked in. One day I'll learn.