I was on the table22 subscription list for The Joint for a while… in the end I decided I was too much of a philistine to appreciate what he was doing there. The fish was always excellent, but I couldn’t detect anything transformative about the dry aging process within the time frame he was working with.
If you dry age farm raised fish you get more intensified farm raised pellet feed flavor.
Personally, I think the value lies in his process. Taking premium products and elevating to a level that’s not achievable through most distribution sectors. What he does in the first few hours of receiving product that most places don’t and can’t with proper handling and technique creates a product not seen before in the seafood landscape. The by-product is increased shelf life and performance in raw and cooked applications, not to mention potential long term cost savings for restaurants overall. His passion and commitment to sourcing is unlike most others I’ve seen in the seafood world.
For the average home cook Joe, I think the proposition piece is in the cooking aspect as it really helps to execute the crispy skin option and “locks in” the buttery nature of a lot of the species. Those are techniques of course that most restaurants chefs are capable of performing consistently at a high level but makes them almost fool proof for a home cook. Not to mention, what you receive from his retail counter is hands down the best this city has to offer. That all comes from the intentional release of the secondary impurities a fresh fish will hold onto in transit to its destinations once it is killed. Which seeing it first hand is an almost shocking amount of what they are capable of releasing. I wish him the best in his endeavor and I believe this could be transformative for a lot of companies should they choose to incorporate or adopt this method or products into their portfolio. What people or companies will consistently pay for it, remains to be seen because there’s a bit of an art to it but I applaud him for seeing it out.
100% I was trying to think how to put it and now I don’t have to. Getting a good quality fish to stay good for a longer period of time is good at home or out at a restaurant i would think. The texture of the fish meat is nicer as well imo.
I think this article is a good perspective to consider as well, written by a chef who used to work at a 3-star michelin restaurant in Tokyo.
Pretty bold to take on Edomae sushi.
Here’s the thing, I disagree with none of this. I’m in no position to disagree; I fundamentally can’t detect a meaningful difference (and I’m absolutely prepared to accept that is a “me problem”). I’m happy to pay a premium for excellent ingredients, and I’m open to the possibility that his process extends the shelf life of the fish… but I don’t generally buy fish I don’t intend to cook right away.
I’m happy to see him find success with his dry aging venture… I was just hoping for something transformative, and that wasn’t what I got.
Do you detect a difference in texture? That’s the biggest difference in my opinion.
I’m not going to claim that I did a double blind analysis. I subscribed on table22 for (I think) 5 months.
Again, the fish was excellent, no complaints! It just wasn’t special. It was fish. I like fish. But I can get good quality fish closer to home, and I couldn’t tell the difference. So I stopped the subscription.
It was a worthy experiment, but I’m clearly unable to sense a difference between fresh and aged fish.
Not a problem. I don’t feel taken advantage of. I enjoyed everything they sent me. I’ll just buy my own fish closer to home!
This to me is the biggest difference. That and oil levels.
Not to revisit a long dead conversation but found myself at Citizens Public Market in Culver City today, and just for laughs tried Uoichiba again and had the Dry Aged menu. It wasn’t great. Leaned bland, textures stiff, nothing hit my palate as premium, or even above average.
Gave up and rounded out my meal at Bang Bang noodles, which was actually far BETTER than I remembered.
Backing away quietly now.
I respect you keeping an open mind and giving them multiple tries. Maybe it’s not your thing! Nothing wrong with that, taste it subjective.
this the right thread for The Joint / Uoichiba commentary ?
Uoichiba opened in Little Tokyo / Arts District today (right by the metro stop).
I was really excited when I heard about the opening. There’s just some mystique about dry-aged fish, and I wasn’t about to make the trip out to the OG Joint anytime soon…
I am not sure what I was expecting, but I couldn’t really tell the difference flavorwise for the dry aged fish vs. non. The biggest difference was the texture. The dry-aged fish flesh doesn’t really have as much resistance as normal fish does. But I am a total sushi rube. The texture difference was biggest on the whitefish. Rice did not taste super seasoned. i ate too much soy sauce over the course of the meal.
Favorite was honestly probably the lox bagel hand roll. I might come back and pick up some lox schmear. The version on the handroll at least was generous on the lox; it was more lox with some schmear vs other lox schmears that are schmears with some lox. Will probably come back for the free mori mori box this weekend (BOGO).
Stiff competition opening on this corner. On the one hand, the space is large and nice to have coffee/pastries in the morning too, right by the metro. On the other hand, in this neighborhood the question for me is really “Is it worth spending $$ on this fish vs. just picking up a 7$ tray of chirashi fish trimmings from little tokyo marketplace, or scavenging the 30% off rolls after 7:30pm at marukai”? At the price point for a larger set, I feel like I’d rather spend the $$ at Hide or Sushi Gen or OOtoro. But I think this beats out yunomi handroll for sure. (I’m not up to spending $$$ on sushi yet 
)
Ok, I finally read the titular article. 
If uochiba is indeed quite upsold trim, I think in the future i will be sticking to my $7 trim trays from down the street, but I’m happy to check out the fish counter here. I was wondering about the fatty tuna being
Nice low-waste business model though.
Someone with more knowledge than me could provide a better perspective, but what they call “trim” in that article is probably different than a conventional fishmonger. If you just look at the fish in your pictures you can see it’s not off cuts like you’d see with the bloodline, membranes along the belly, etc. What they are likely talking about is parts of the prime filet of the fish that get cut off to square up cuts of fish for sashimi or nigiri. The fatty tuna in the negitoro being chopped up is also pretty common in sushi restaurants to use up valuable parts of the fatty tuna that may have too much sinew or be end cuts, or are meat scraped off the ribs of the tuna after the filets are cut off.
I agree with you on the rice not being very seasoned, at least at the culver city version, but I think the texture of the crisp nori from a freshly made hand roll beats any of the supermarket comparisons you gave.