Takayuki Iwai knife Best for Cutting Sashimi

All About Sashimi

image via www.sashimi.se

Sashimi, which means “sliced food” is probably one, if not, the most famed dish among Japanese cuisine. Delicately and thinly sliced, Sashimi is the best way to serve uncooked fish. Most Japanese people, in a formal meal agree that before eating other foods, sashimi should be eaten first. This is observed especially in a formal meal. But it can be considered as main course when miso soup and rice in separate bowls are presented with it. 

This would probably be a surprise but if you think fish is the only food that can be eaten uncooked as sashimi, think again. There are also other kinds of red meats that can be served as sashimi like beef, deer, and horse. There are some people who think that sashimi and sushi are the same but they are not. Sushi has sweet rice-wine vinegar rice while sashimi does not. 

How to Eat Your Sashimi

 In eating your sashimi, soy sauce can add flavor to it. Usually, restaurants have a small dish that you can use to pour some soy sauce and dip a piece of sashimi before eating. Contrary to how many people eat their sashimi by mixing wasabi (ground ginger) with soy sauce, the proper way is to dab the wasabi on top a piece of sashimi. To get that minty taste, you can eat the daikon or shiso vegetables that are normally used as garnishing to your sashimi. 

Health Benefits of Sashimi

Our body needs protein for muscle development and fish is a healthy source of it. The kind of protein we can get from sashimi is low in fat which is ideal for weight watchers. 

Sashimi is rich in essential fatty acid, omega-3. This kind of fatty acid helps maintain good cardiovascular health by lowering down cholesterol levels. Sashimi also has vitamins B6 and B12, phosphorous, magnesium, and niacin.

In Japan, they have this saying, “Kasshu hoju” (cooking is second to cutting). Sashimi is prepared with knives.

At Japanny online store, we have a wide array of authentic Japanese knives for you to choose from. For sashimi preparation, we boast of our Takayuki Iwai Aogami Steel No. 2 Fumon Series Sashimi Knife. The Fumon Series is made by Takayuki Iwai. They do all the work by hands to ensure perfect control in making their knives. They care about quality that they do not mass produce. For Takayuki Iwai knife, it is quality over numbers! Japanny is the sole distributor of these impressive knives outside Japan.

Advice for buying Japanese Knives

When it comes to art of metalworking, Japan has an old and grand tradition on it. Like Solingen in Germany, centers for knife making are found all over the country. Knife makers differ in the technology they use and the quality of their knives. 

Knives that are functional and hand-made can be considered a form of art. The basic steps in producing a knife are prepared by the knife maker himself or they call smith. The quality of his knife is assured by his reputation and name. Usually, knives with the highest quality and costly ones come from smiths who have extensive years of training and sensible practice behind them. Materials used and the name of the smiths dictate the price of the knife.

He is a traditional forge-smith and craftsman. He was born in 1948 at Takefu City of Fukui prefecture. It is a place with 700 years history of Echizen Uchi-Hamono or better known as Hammer Forged Knives. 

Takeshi Saji got his training in basic forging process and technique for 3 years at a local blacksmith teaching school. At age 18, he got engaged in knife making under the direction of his father and master, Harukichi Saji, who was a second generation. At age 30, after perfecting the skills needed to craft beautiful knives, Takeshi Saji was finally allowed to make his own. He got the certification “Traditional Craftsmen” from M.I.T.I in 1992. 

Takeshi Saji has a vast wealth of experience in knife making and after 45 years of being in the industry, with his bright ideas and designs, his traditional forged custom knives are now popular in Japan thus giving him the title one of the most well-known forge-craftsmen from Takefu City.

Takeshi Saji’s selections are gradually growing and each custom knife has distinctive style and personality. 

Takeshi Saji

Advice for buying Japanese Knives 

When you look for a Japanese knife, you will notice a huge range of prices which can be hard to understand. But as a rule of thumb, Japanese knives are not more expensive than European knives considering the same quality.  A handmade knife usually costs quite a bit taking into consideration the many hours spent in doing it by a highly-skilled hand. At japanny.com, we believe our knives are fairly priced. 

Decorative touches, like Damascus steel blades on some Japanese knives do not affect the knife’s cutting ability but demand higher price. These knives are attractive and guarantee satisfaction. At the core of all Japanese knife blades is high-carbon steel which makes the knife a cut above the rest.

What is important is you do not pay for a sub-standard knife with a high price or fall for an ad campaign of a company and buy their knife that does not cut well.

Identify the type of knife you need. For every kind, japanny.com has an array of the finest knives that are fairly priced. If you are unsure what you need, get an all-purpose knife that has three-layer blade. With this kind, you will find out and learn the qualities of Japanese knives. Later on, you might want to try other types like deba-bocho (to fillet fish), nakiro-bocho (to cut vegetables), tako-biki hocho (to slice fish) or the perfect knife for the kind of food you want to prepare.

Sakai Takayuki VG10

There are several different types of Japanese cutlery. Most often than not, you will find in a Japanese kitchen the following: deba-bocho (to fillet fish), nakiro-bocho (to cut vegetables), and tako-biki hocho (to slice sashimi).

In serving food, presentation or plating is important. This makes the food served more tempting to look at. Japanese people know this very well and that is made obvious them having different types of kitchen knives. Almost all Japanese foods have vegetables either as garnish or part of the ingredients and Japanese know how to cut their veggies beautifully.    

Here are some techniques in cutting veggies using a vegetable knife:

Sengiri (Julienne) – Peel the vegetable first (carrot for example) then cut it into 3-inches length. Cut it lengthwise thinly like wafers. Stack all wafers then cut into fine julienne.  

Katsuramuki – This is a strand of daikon that you usually find sitting under your sashimi. They are not machine made but by hands of professional cooks. The art of cutting vegetables into this very thin sheets is called katsuramuki. Here are the steps in making a katsuramuki: Cut the vegetable into 5 or 6 inches length then peel the skin and discard it. Peel the skin for the second time but this time, make it into a much thinner sheet. This is the part that you are going to use. The resulting sheet should be so thin that you could almost see through it.

Flowers and decorative shapes – To make a sakuna flower from a carrot, cut five even grooves in lengthwise. Slice and place in an arrangement.       

At japanny.com, we offer Sakai Takayuki VG10. It is a 33 layer folded Damascus steel vegetable knife. It has a double-edged blade length of 160mm and is stain-resistant.