Pacific saury.

Last night, I prepared some Pacific saury.

A neighbor had given me some very fresh saury, so I decided to eat it as sashimi. I picked the best-looking one out of the bunch to fillet. They were all in great condition, so choosing the best one was good practice for honing my fish-selection skills.

Recently, Ueda Shihan showed me an incredibly meticulous “daimyo oroshi” filleting technique. Remembering his demonstration, I tried to replicate it. I used a well-sharpened deba knife, and it really hit me how difficult it is to fillet soft-fleshed fish like saury or mackerel… a sharp knife is crucial.

The knife cut well, but my skills were a bit lacking. As always, I realized that “watching” and “doing” are very different things.

How did my fish selection go? It was a great success!!

• 2010-10-08