When to buy sushi

[snopes]

Comment: A lot of people in New York/Boston believe that Sushi delivery is
taken on Tuesdays, so the best time to order is Tuesdays (and never Monday
night or sunday night because its leftover)

Is this true?

[Errata]

I'm curious about how that works as well. I'd heard something like that, but I remember at least once at a struggling sushi place where things were noticeably not as fresh as they should have been, and it was a Wednesday. I wonder if business was so slow for them they weren't able to sell their stock from a previous delivery. Which would be a vicious cycle since it certainly doesn't help with repeat business.

[Richard W]

"Sushi delivery"? Surely even the cheapest and most pre-packed sushi would be made much more than once a week?

You can get supermarket lunch sushi here which has a couple of days' use-by date, and isn't good sushi at all, but even that's surely made and delivered to the supermarket every day, or almost every day, along with the pre-packed sandwiches.

You wouldn't have a "sandwich delivery" once a week, and sushi is at least as time-critical as sandwiches, so why would people think this? Weird.

[Errata]

They're talking about the delivery of sashimi-grade fish to sushi restaurants, not the delivery of pre-prepared sushi.

[Mickey Blue]

I would assume most commercial sushi places would get flash-frozen fish that would stay frozen until the day of use to maximize not only freshness of safety. I certainly would hope that nobody keeps sushi-grade fish just sitting in the fridge a full week prior to use.

That said I guess I don't know, that is just what makes sense. When we make sushi at home that's what we do, the fish may have been bought earlier but we don't thaw it until its time to use.

ETA:

For what it's worth I buy sushi fairly regularly when we are out and about and I've never noticed it being fresher on any particular day.

[Errata]

Originally Posted by Mickey Blue

For what it's worth I buy sushi fairly regularly when we are out and about and I've never noticed it being fresher on any particular day.

I've definitely noticed inconsistency in quality, even at the same sushi place at the same time of day, but it's not in an obvious pattern in terms of the day of the week.

[Starla]

That's a different version than what I have heard. My BIL swears that Tuesday and Wednesday are the worst days for sushi because the places get their weekly fish shipments on Thursday in anticipation of the weekend rush of business. He refuses to go for sushi on Wednesdays.

[snopes]

I'm guessing it's probably a fallacy to assume that all Japanese restaurants everywhere in the U.S. receive their fish deliveries on the same day of the week.

[Starla]

My BIL says all restaurants everywhere receive their shipments of everything on Thursdays. You know, because Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are super busy so they need to stock up.

I think it makes perfect sense. No logistical problems there at all.

[Cervus]

My father, who has a commercial fishing license, sells his fish to local restaurants and seafood markets. When he has a fresh catch of something in demand, he calls around to tell them what he's got and asks if they'd be interested in buying any. If so, he delivers it the same afternoon or early the next morning (depending on when he gets home from fishing). It doesn't matter what day it is; if they need fish, they'll buy fish.

A native Floridian friend of mine who lived in Kentucky was always wary of eating sushi in Kentucky simply because she didn't know how fresh the fish actually was. But frozen fish can last months without going bad, and I'm sure the fish is shipped frozen and stored frozen, then thawed out on a daily basis. I can't imagine a sushi place storing its seafood any differently than any other seafood restaurant.

[Simply Madeline]

Most would be even more surprised to learn that if the sushi has not been frozen, it is illegal to serve it in the United States.

Food and Drug Administration regulations stipulate that fish to be eaten raw -- whether as sushi, sashimi, seviche, or tartare -- must be frozen first, to kill parasites. ''

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/ny...ep-freeze.html

[Thera]

Mostly when I've eaten sushi or sashimi (or variations thereof), it's been Saturday. It really depends on the restaurant; sometimes the tuna is awesome, sometimes it's stringy, and that doesn't have anything to do with whether it's been frozen or for how long (I don't think). We found a really good one recently and plan to stick to it. Literally melted in my mouth.

So I guess if it's a rule that it has to be frozen, you should pay more attention to the cut/quality of the fish they're buying, than when they're buying it. And that's trial and error.

[Ana Ng]

Heh, my computer guy- who is vaguely Asian but until recently I never knew where from- told me this, and warned me off getting sushi on a Sunday when I dropped off my laptop to him one day. I never thought to question it because he was obviously from some country where people know more about sushi than me. I still went, because it was a well regarded casual sushi place and there was some crazy cheap lunch special.

He just moved back, I found out last week, and it turns out he was from Indonesia. Anyway, I never thought of it as a possible UL, I just thought that I'd never be able to keep track of what days were the off days.

I am going to miss him so much, he was the best repair guy ever.

[ganzfeld]

Fish are never caught on a weekday. They're in schools.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

Fish are never caught on a weekday. They're in schools.

There:

[ganzfeld]

Hey, where'd you get that fish on a weekday?! Must have been playing fish hooky.

[Mickey Blue]

Originally Posted by Errata

I've definitely noticed inconsistency in quality, even at the same sushi place at the same time of day, but it's not in an obvious pattern in terms of the day of the week.

Sorry that's what I meant, not that its the same every day all day, just that I haven't noticed that its quality changes in a patter, like its best on Tuesday and worst on Monday or something.