Looking for super fresh Fish, Ikura (not in a jar), possibly Uni and a few accoutrements for DIY Temaki. Any recs for where to get the good stuff in Little Tokyo or parts unknown?
Nijiya Market
I’ve purchased fresh ikura in their skeins at Los Angeles Fish Co. 420 Stanford Ave. near Little Tokyo. Not always available.
If you haven’t worked with them before the fresh eggs are a bit of a pain but worth the effort. You’ll need to start at least a day in advance to cure them.
for pure convenience, Nijiya or Little Tokyo Market place. but like @TriTip says, if you want to do things on your own like break down own fish or cure own ikura, LA fish co or Pacific Fresh Fish. Though i have to say, went to both LA fish co and Pacific fresh fish recently (searching of almeja’s) and the options weren’t as good as pre-covid. maybe they are focusing more on restaurant delivers, but both had much less fish out on ice than before. They both had hunks of fresh tuna and yellowtail but not much else.
Thanks All!
One day I’ll try un-skein-ing & curing ikura and breaking down fish. This time I’m looking for the freshest prepped fish & roe. I’ve purchase ikura from Dry Dock Seafood a few times (fresh & bursty) and once in a jar from Monsieur Marcel (not fresh & bursty). Dry Dock just posted that they have fresh Japanese hamachi and real wasabi root, but they’ve been out of ikura lately and I kinda wanted one-stop shopping. It’s looking like Nijiya or LT Marketplace. Thanks!
Tempting! I’d love to explore but I’ll be with hubs and he’s more into eating it than shopping for it.
it is more an exploration…one of the local Japanese cooking class instructors, Japanese Food Story, had a class where they went to these markets in the morning, bought the fish, and went back to her cooking studio to do break it down and make sushi.
Ohhh I would love this!
I would, too!
Agreed. Selection has been disappointing at times.
“Sushi grade” often means frozen to temperatures low enough to kill parasites.
Lol I knew you’d note the use of that term.
I took that class! It was great. I keep meaning to go back to that fish market but don’t feel like getting up and out at the crack of dawn to do it properly…
That chicken!
I noticed this too. Curious to taste and find out what dry-aged seafood is.
Nice. Is this similar to the aging some itamae do with tuna at sushi-yas?
Check out the pied piper of dry aging fish Chef Josh Niland from Australia on Instagram. He was definitely inspired by Japanese sushi chefs and how they handle and age fish -as well as Fergus Henderson (the whole noise to tail thing applied to fish)
Will do!
This 2020 Robb Report article, nicely written by Andy Wang, does a nice job of introducing what Liwei Liao is trying to do…
I’ve been watching Liwei for the past few years, pretty impressive how he’s transitioned his business especially thru covid. Speaks volumes that the caliber of chefs are using the products he’s producing, great story, great guy.