♬Putsu putsu putsu (sound of Poware)
What is this strange noise? We are expecting sushi, but what sushi kind of sushi makes such a sound?
The sushi we are eagerly awaiting is called “Ryuzushi”. We normally expect sushi shops to be near the ocean, but you can only get Ryuzushi deep in the mountains of Niigata.
Thanks to the evolution of distribution and preservation of goods, even sushi shops in the middle of the mountains can serve fresh ōtoro sushi. But that’s not what makes this shop so appealing. Here at Ryuzushi, you can experience the kind of sushi that can only be eaten in the Snow Country -- Japanese yellow tail aged in ice, shiitake mushroom sushi that tastes just like abalone, or sushi garnished with mountains herbs instead of wasabi.
“We never use ingredients that don’t pair well with our rice,'' says Ryuzushi owner, Mr. Saito.
Good sushi is as much about the rice as it is about the fish, and Ryuzushi uses “Uonuma Koshi-Hikari” rice instead of the usual vinegar rice. This is actually quite rare, because usually sushi rice should not be sticky, so it is the opposite of what you would normally imagine.
Mr. Saito didn’t always use Uonuma Koshi-Hikari rice for his sushi. He actually stopped using it for a while, but after a lot of trial and error in pursuit of the perfect rice, he landed back on Uonuma Koshi-Hikari as the absolute best fit for his ingredients. Curious, isn’t it?
Therefore, not only can you try a unique kind of sushi, but also a unique kind of sushi rice. Why not expand your culinary palette with a visit to Ryuzushi?
Address：1838-1 Ozaki, Minami Ounuma
Phone Number：025-779-2169
Price Range：Lunch ¥2,000〜 Dinner ¥6,000〜
URL：http://www.ryu-zushi.com/access.html
How did they choose to use the Ounuma Koshihikari in the sushi?
──An interview with Mr. Satou of Ryuzushi ↓
--What is A-Class Gourmet to you?
A-Class gourmet is cuisine we want to preserve forever, so I guess for me it would be the flavor we create using local ingredients that we want to leave for future generations.
--What about this rice makes it “A-Class Gourmet?”
The rice is the foundation for sushi. The toppings are also important, but I think the rice is even more important. Half of the rice we use in our sushi is made using Ounuma Koshihikari rice. If you each Ounuma Koshihikari rice by itself it’s also delicious, but when we make our sushi, it’s not enough to just eat the rice alone. The rice itself is just too sticky. So we mix the rice with the local rice, Koshi-buki rice. I think this blend really goes well with the sushi we make.
--I’m sure you were through a lot of trial and error before deciding on your current sushi rice, but what did you originally use for your sushi rice?
My father came from an agricultural family and they used Koshihikari, so that is what we used at first. But he could hear the crunchy sound of the customers as they ate the sushi and he thought the rice must be too sticky. After that, he decided to be a bit more picky about the rice he used, and he experimented with using many different kinds of rice, but in my head I kept thinking to myself that the Ounuma Koshihikari was too sticky and we had to use something, so we avoided using the local rice and continued with our process of trial and error. But nothing seemed to be quite right. One day, a customer asked if we wanted to use his rice in the sushi. When we tried it out, it was actually perfect. After talking to him, we realized that if you used organic fertilizer it actual made the rice less sticky and more firm. Even then, it was still a bit chewy when he bit into it. So we decided to try to mix some rice together and when we mixed it with the local Koshibuki rice, it tasted the best. That’s how we came to this point.
--Soil is such a strange thing. It’s so interesting that you reached this answer by going around trying to combine different kinds of local rice.
We also let the rice rest for a year before we actually use it in the sushi. New rice is just too chewy. So we use rice that was harvested the previous year in September and start to use it around June or July of the following year. We are able to do that thanks to the fact that it is the Ounuma Koshihikari rice. Other kinds of rice will start to go bad after March of the following year, but Ounuma Koshihikari takes a bit more time to go bad, and it’s not good for there to be no stickiness at all, so it’s the best option.
The Spotted Shad and Fatty Tuna are particularly good, but this is the first time I’ve ever had Shiitake mushrooms in sushi. Is this something that is unique to mountain sushi places?
Really large Shiitake don’t really have the same weird taste to them. Actually, I hate Shiitake. When my colleague heard that, he brought these shiitake to me as said, “I think you might be able to eat this kind.” That’s where it all started. The texture is a bit like abalone so we cut it in the same way.
The Shiitake Sushi is only available from November to April right? What do you recommend from May to October?
In May and June, we make sushi using vegetables as an additional spice. We use parsley for the Hirame, butterbur for the sweet shrimp, and for Nishibai, a special whelk found in Niigata, we used aralia cordata.
Sushi that is made using vegetables is something that people from the Snow Country would be prone to do isn’t it?
Shiitake sushi is probably something only we can make, but I want something that is even more unique to this area. With local sushi combined with the vegetables “spice,” I should be able to do so. They actually make Wasabi in these parts as well. This is something I tried to make after a guest asked me too, but I took the wasabi stalks and pickled them in soy sauce and made them into wasabi with the fatty tuna. Also, do you know the sponge cucumber? We make sushi using the sponge cucumber, but unless you use a lot of the sponge cucumber it doesn’t get the same crisp texture.That’s something that can only be found around these parts, so customers are really excited to try it.
-How did you come to know the appeal of the vegetables in this area?
One of my customers used to run a tempura shop in Saitama. I realized it when I went to eat at the restaurant. Since the owner is over 60 years old, it makes sense that he is good at what he does. However, when the mountain vegetables came out, the smell was really subtle. That’s when I realized the vegetables we grow are really fragrant and flavorful. I started thinking of ways to use them in my cuisine after that moment.
-Fragrant and Flavorful.
They have a really strong umami. So that’s why I aim to create something that can only be found here and can’t be compared to food anywhere else. When you use ingredients from the local area, you create a flavor which can only be tasted there. It’s the same as the local seafood. In Niigata, the squid is the best. In the summer it’s the red squid, and in the fall, it’s the bigfin reef squid. In the winter, yellowtail. They use yellowtail which has been buried in the snow for two weeks to mature. Of course, depending on the fish, I import some fish from outside the prefecture.
I heard the sound of roasting hairtail, but what kind of sushi is that for?
Well it actually arose from a mistake. One time we ended up grilling it too much, and it was too crispy. But when we tried eating it, it was actually better and the flavor was completely different from before. So we started making it that way from then on. We also decided to cut the fish in half and put the pieces on top of each other instead of just putting one long piece on the sushi. That way it feels like the fish is thicker, and it doesn’t fall apart as easily.
-Looks like it posed a lot of challenges. Is there any sushi in the sushi world that is set in stone?
If you put it like that, I guess there isn’t. Even if you think something is good as is, something new comes around and you notice that flavor is actually better. We have guests that come from all over, so we need to meet their expectations. That is one reason why we choose to make sushi using local vegetables. We want to continue to grow as well.
-There have been a lot of foreign customers lately as well right?
I think there was one time when a Korean customer came, he pulled out his smart phone and it said, “let’s meet again” in Japanese. That really moved me. I think there is a flavor that can only be found here that can’t be found in Sushi restaurants in Tokyo.
That is because I have a chance to create even more delicious food using different combinations of the food here.
This is what Mr. Satou said when I asked him why he made his sushi restaurant this deep in the mountains.
“I’m the second generation. My father opened this restaurant and at the time it was located in front of Ryukokuji temple. That’s where the name Ryuzushi came from.
Ryukokuji, which isn’t located that far from here is a magnificent temple, but we also recommend going to see Takiya no Shimizu which is located just beyond there. Mr. Satou also used this spring water in his cuisine.
It’s not just “Thunder and Lightning Water,” there are many spots with fresh spring water across Snow Country. Why don’t you go and try them for yourself.
