Eating~: Salmon Sashimi: not just food, but also a life motivation.

Last Sunday, I went to a Japanese restaurant with some of my friends to eat Japanese cuisines. It is closed to the campus but I cannot remember its name. Japanese food there is tasty, especially for us, who are tired of eating food in university cafeteria and want to make some changes. I still remember how satisfied I was when eating the salmon sashimi above the salmon sushi. The small slices of salmon sashimi taste good because of their softness and freshness. And the salmon sashimi in this Japanese restaurant is relatively thick and high-quality. So the salmon sashimi, which is one of the main ingredients of salmon sushi, most interested me and left a deep impression in my mind. Therefore, I decided to do some research about salmon sashimi after coming back from the Japanese restaurant.

I used to made salmon sushi when I was in China. Sometimes, I brought them to school and shared them with my friends during the lunch time. I was glad that all of them liked the salmon sushi I made. My cooking process of salmon sushi is quite easy. First, cook some sushi rice. During the time of rice cooking, wash the salmon, cut it into small slices and freeze them. Once the sushi rice is cooked, put them into a small bowl and then stir in sushi vinegar and a little salt. Then, wash some cucumbers and cut them into pieces. After the preparation of these basic materials, place a nori sheet on a bamboo rolling mat and spread sushi rice evenly on the nori sheet. Next, place the slices of salmon sashimi, cucumber, pickled vegetables and some meat floss in a straight line at one edge of the nori sheet. Then, roll the sushi up from the edge and slice the sushi roll into several pieces. However, the Japanese restaurant I mentioned before made other types of salmon sushi. For instance, they will put slices of salmon sashimi above the sushi rice ball, which makes it easier for consumers to taste the softness and freshness of salmon sashimi directly.

This cooking process, however, is not that standard, which is convenient and only used by people making salmon sushi at home. After doing some research about salmon sashimi, I find that salmon sashimi requires a relatively high standard of hygienic production; the steps of dealing with the raw salmon sashimi are quite complicated and challenging. In order to kill poisoning bacterial, such as Salmonella and Listeria, raw salmon sashimi must be stored frozen in refrigerator for at least 24 hours at a temperature of no more than -20 ℃. Also, before touching the salmon sashimi, we should wash our hands and equipment carefully to keep all the things clean. Moreover, we’d better eat salmon sashimi above the salmon sushi with some wasabi. Not just the special taste, but also the use of killing poisoning bacteria encourages us to eat salmon sashimi with wasabi. So these complicated steps of salmon sashimi contribute to the safe production of salmon sashimi.

People like to eat salmon sashimi not only because of the good taste of it, but also for the reason that it is full of essential nutrition, such as vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B-3, and vitamin B-6. “Sashimi fits into a well-balanced and healthy diet, providing a source of essential nutrients to nourish your body's cells and tissues.”(Louise Tremblay, 3)Since the salmon sashimi provides rich resource of nutrition, it is undeniably beneficial for our health; strengthening immune system, preventing diseases, improving blood circulation and helping the proper nerve transmission in our brains.

The most interesting and startling part I found during my research about salmon sashimi was “salmon spirit”. They all know that it is extremely hard to reach the upstream; and they will certainly die after spawning at upstream. Nonetheless, they are still determined to follow this process. “Salmon are anadromous fish, meaning that they migrate from oceans to freshwater streams to reproduce.”(Salmon, 1) As the article “Salmon” says, thousands of salmons will swim to the upstream to spawn during the period from July to August. Most of them are coming from Pacific Ocean. Because the water is reverse-flow, salmons have to keep jumping during the whole period, which will make them hurt by the rocks along the riverbed. This is also the reason why the meat of salmon is red at upstream instead of light colored at downstream; their blood vessels are broken by the rocks. After spawning, salmons will die. Thereby, it is not hard to find that salmons have to experience numerous difficulties before reaching the upstream and some may be killed during this process.

Besides salmon’s tragic fate, I see more value in their persevering spirit when facing difficulties. “Salmon spirit”, also, is one of the most crucial factors contributing to success. Our life is similar to the spawning process of salmon. We both have to go through several frustrations. But the difference is we human beings will not die when reaching the destination. Therefore, I was educated by “salmon spirit” and it encourages me to fight against difficulties in my life with persistent effort and a strong heart. Only by going through these difficulties can we realize our goals.

As I mentioned above, I learned a lot from my research about salmon sashimi, which brings some changes to my attitude towards salmon sashimi. Now I will pay more attention to the hygienic production of salmon sashimi to avoid bacterial infection. Moreover, I know about “salmon spirit” while I just knew the nutrition of salmon sashimi before. Salmon sashimi now is not just a food for me, but also a representative of “salmon spirit” and a motivation of my life.