For the last 19 years I have had odd business trips to California. I have been generally impressed by the quality of fish generally there but have particularly enjoyed the affordable sushi bars.
Eating sushi safely obviously depends on the freshness of the fish used. What may be good enough for frying or poaching may be unsuitable to be eaten raw. I have always fancied making my own sushi but never saw things like pickled ginger and wasabi for sale. A few weeks back - to my surprise - I found what I needed at my local Waitrose. Now the question was to get fish that was fresh enough.
I did not trust the fish counters at my local (inland) supermarket but went camping with my family to West Cornwall. I thought I had the answer by taking my boys on a 2 h fishing trip from Penzance but we came back with a single mackerel! The consolation was seeing basking sharks...
So back to the drawing board! I was not impressed by Penzance's Tesco fish counter. There was an awful lot of fish compared with the ice - indeed some fish were stacked 4 high on the ice - so down to Newlyn harbour just across from the fishing boats. I cannot remember which fish counter I went to - either Trelawney's or W. Stevensons & Sons - but they both looked great. Mackerel was three pound something per kilo and the tuna was also a great price.
Back at the campsite we enjoyed tuna and mackerel sushi; I am glad I had a fridge in my tent to keep the fish cool. The only thing that went wrong was the rice. I could not get it to stick together... but in the open air things tend to taste good anyway. The wasabi tube tended to give out large dollups so my family experienced the exploding nose sensation as an extra surprise.
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