[jbmny]

Always fascinated by salmon sushi's second class status. Salmon sushi to me is so much more flavorful than tuna. I thought maybe I just wasn't getting great tuna at sushi restaurants in the US, but I found the results to be the same in Tokyo.

[ayngg]

In my experience salmon is fairly consistently delicious, it is difficult to have a bad tasting piece, while tuna can vary from kind of gross fishy taste to amazing, with flavor more complex than any salmon sashimi I have ever had.

[grapeskin]

That’s influenced by fattiness more than anything, I think.

I used to think I hated tuna sashimi. Oftentimes it ranged from slightly metallic to that stereotypically overly fishy flavor, and had zero mouthfeel except for what I could describe as a watery gel.

Then I tried a piece of highly marbled tuna. It was like a buttery slice of steak—a meaty flavor that filled my mouth. Every piece of similarly marbled tuna has tasted just as good.

Generally, salmon sashimi has some good fatty marbling as well, so I think that also contributes to its good flavor. Cheap tuna cuts have virtually zero fat and so there’s no flavor to be had.

[cercatrova]

Otoro is what you're looking for. It's the super fatty tuna.

[philliphaydon]

Fatty farmed salmon is really not good, nor good for you.

In singapore I avoided buying salmon due to it being 100% farmed salmon. Instead I paid extra for New Zealand King salmon which is partially farmed, better tasting, healthier.

[robocat]

> New Zealand King salmon which is partially farmed

NZer here. I believe the salmon we export is 100% farmed.

The advantages of buying from NZ is that our quality controls are mostly reliable, and our water tends to be pretty clean, and we have reasonably good environmental controls. We mostly farm Chinook/King salmon.

As a sweeping generalisation, NZers are mostly honest, and we tend not to hustle to the point of deception. The cheapest brand of sliced translucent cold smoked Salmon is NZD10 (USD7) for 180g (0.4lb) at the supermarket. Note that NZ prices for most supermarket food is very expensive compared with the US, except sometimes are primary products can be cheaper.

[philliphaydon]

I guess you're right. Salmon isn't native to NZ and I believe we only have 1 species. However the way it's farmed in NZ vs the rest of the world is quite different as we use our fresh water rather than onland farms, and because plans to extend the freshwater farms were cancelled we are able to keep our water cleaner as we have fewer farms and no overpopulating.

Salmon is bloody expensive in Singapore.

https://songfish.com.sg/product/salmon-fillet-skin-on-fresh/

https://songfish.com.sg/product/new-zealand-king-salmon/

200g of NZ King Salmon is ~$15 (16.51 NZD)

While 400g of Norway Salmon is ~$18 (19.81 NZD)

When we were introducing my daughter to solids, the only meats she would eat was Chicken and Salmon. I only bought NZ King Salmon.

[LordAtlas]

Gosh, "watery gel" nails it. I thought there was something wrong with me because I just couldn't see the appeal of garden variety akami sashimi. And I loved most salmon. I did have otoro and chutoro at a high-end place and that was a completely different experience. But other than that, I just don't like plain jane tuna.

[jandrewrogers]

Salmon has highly variable quality. The best salmon, in my opinion, is high-latitude wild Pacific salmon e.g. the kind that often comes from Alaska. If you've ever tasted salmon side-by-side from various latitudes just along the coast of western North America, the change in quality as a function of latitude is unmistakable. New Zealand also produces respectable salmon. I've never had salmon from the Atlantic basin that compares to the best of the Pacific basin.

There are several different species of salmon, and the heuristics are dependent on the species. I eat a lot of salmon (I live in Seattle where fresh high-quality salmon is abundant) but largely restrict myself to northern Alaskan King and Sockeye. Those two species of the fish are both premium examples at opposite ends of the character spectrum.

As sashimi, a fresh salmon from a top-quality fishery is quite good. It is often difficult to find top-quality salmon at sushi joints in many parts of the world. Whether or not random salmon or random tuna is better depends on where you are, often as a function of how close you are to high quality fisheries.

[steve_adams_86]

Sockeye is a delicacy. I love it on its own, prepared just about any way.

Here’s hoping we find ways to restore their populations. It’s gotten to the point that I practically feel guilty eating them, knowing the fishery is practically imploding.

[kiliantics]

In general, we should indeed try to eat less fish -- just as we should try to eat less farmed meat -- particularly the high-up-the-food-chain species like salmon, and any seafood that is fished with destructive methods like bottom trawling. The effects on the earth's ecosystems of our industrial fishing practices are absolutely devastating.

[jbluepolarbear]

Spring Chinook, out of the Columbia, are the best tasting salmon imo. The fat taste sweet and zero fishy taste. I am biased, I used to live near the Columbia and would catch fresh chinook every open season.

[formerkrogemp]

It's too bad tuna is overfished zealously for decades. The differences in tuna weighing 100 pounds and 4 pounds probably impacts the taste

[beowulfey]

If tuna ever tastes fishy, it was probably cut too close to the bloodline.

[solaxun]

I always found it strange that I really like salmon sushi/sashimi, but don't really care for cooked salmon. For some reason cooked salmon tastes too... heavy. I realize that's probably the fat content, but for whatever reason it doesn't bother me raw.

[mesh]

Have you had Fatty Tuna? OToro? It is super flavorful and luscious, much more so than the leaner cuts of Tuna. In my experience most tuna in sushi places and rolls is Akami (which is good, but not as flavorful).

Might be worth trying out if you haven't.

More info here:

https://www.umami-insider.com/tuna-otoro-chutoro-akami/

[trevorboaconstr]

Are you for real? Any maguro you get in a serious Japanese sushi place is gunna melt in your mouth. But it’s gunna be 25-30 USD per plate (2 pieces).

[tptacek]

Taking Momotaro as a sort of baseline for high-end but not Omakase-only sushi in Chicago, akami is $7 ($14), chutoro is $11 ($22) and otoro $13 ($26). The otoro will melt, but the chutoro will have the same texture as the sake and the akami will be leaner and have more texture; all 3 are maguro, and all 3 are more expensive than sake. :)

I prefer sake to akami and chutoro; it is hard to beat otoro.

I can see how sake is a gateway fish! But the implication seems to be that instead of eating salmon, for the real deal we should be eating bluefin. That seems dumb; both salmon and bluefin are pretty boring, they all occupy sort of the same place in Japanese cooking as sesame chicken does in American Chinese food. Everything else is better!

[djtango]

Everything is a spectrum but I've eaten kaitenzushi in Japan that cost 1100-2500JPY per person that would have cost 5-10x that outside Japan and wouldn't have been nearly as good.

I've found salmon and tuna can approach the level that might be passable in Japan but everything else (swordfish, mackerel, crab, clam etc etc) are whole leagues better in Japan than outside.

I currently live in Singapore where the sushi is actually pretty good but definitely not as good as Japan.

[skhr0680]

In Japanese:

Sake: domestic fish, is never sold as sashimi

Salmon: imported fish

[tptacek]

Interesting; on any menu in Chicago (esp. the high-end places), sake = salmon.

[kalimanzaro]

Truth is more nuanced than that. Japanese have a native word 'sake' for the native salmon that is hardly eaten nowadays. They definitely use the word sake for imported salmon too, especially if its cooked ( because thats how they usually eat the ol native salmon too) They tend to call raw salmon 'sahmon' though.

I dont know if its a folk wisdom but the following article claims that when they hear the word sake they think of that old native salmon.

Sort of like when you might call any old man 'Gramps' but when you hear 'Gramps' you think of your own grandfather?

https://tokyoflyfishing.com/fish/chum-salmon-sake-or-shiroza...

[aaronblohowiak]

Not everyone likes the same stuff! I also generally prefer salmon to tuna though I appreciate a chu-toro from time to time. For melt in mouth, uni takes the crown (otters again demonstrating they have life figured out better than people)

[nawgz]

I am relatively sure anytime you get 100g of meat for 30USD it will melt in your mouth.

[wintermutestwin]

I love salmon and tuna sashimi, but rarely eat tuna due to high mercury content.

[Valmar]

Even since having tried raw tuna, my personal opinion has been the reverse.

For me, a nice raw tuna can be absolutely amazing.

Something about the flavour and texture just pops in my mouth with delight.

Tastebuds be weird, heh.

[the_only_law]

I don’t know what it is, but I don’t care for it. I love plenty of other fish raw, and love tuna when cooked. Salmon I generally have no problem with raw.

[dzhiurgis]

Good tuna cut is like at least $5 per sashimi, probably more for great ones - far more expensive than salmon where each fish has super fatty parts.

[jordanpg]

Yeah, this is the detail that is almost unheard of in the US. Grades of tuna. The bright red stuff that is so common is a dim shadow of what is possible with tuna.

On the other hand, cheap salmon is reliably good for the same reasons the expensive toro is.

[charlieyu1]

Because salmon is way cheaper. A piece of cheap salmon sushi can be bought for like US$4 per 10 in Hong Kong

[robjan]

I've always wondered if that salmon sushi in Sushi Express is actually salmon or rainbow trout

[tigershark]

I’m not sure what tuna you tried in Tokyo, but for me Otoro is noticeably better than salmon sushi.