Buy Sushi and Sashimi Grade Fish and Seafood Online: Handling Tips for Raw Seafood Dishes

Sushi – it’s not just for snobs anymore. It wasn’t long ago that many folks turned their noses up at the idea of eating raw fish. These days, all the Food Network shows and other cooking shows on television have made people keenly aware of the various types of raw seafood dishes and their delights. Whether you’re planning to prepare sushi, sashimi, tartare, ceviche, carpacio or crudo – to name just a few – it’s vital to start with fresh seafood or fish. Unless you live along the coast, there’s always a chance that the fish in your grocer’s freezer is far from fresh. One way to make sure that you get fresh albacore, salmon and other seafood for your raw seafood dishes is to find a reliable, trustworthy online seafood market and order your seafood online.

Choosing Seafood for Raw Seafood Dishes

There are very few inedible fish or shellfish, but many of them don’t do well in raw seafood recipes for various reasons. The best fish and seafood for ceviche, crudo and other raw seafood dishes are the ones you’d choose for sushi or sashimi. They include:

-          Any type of tuna, including Bluefin, bigeye, bonito, yellowfin and albacore

-          Salmon, including fresh king salmon

-          Scallops, especially diver scallops

-          Abalone

-          Halibut or flounder

-          Nearly any farmed fish from the U.S., Norway, Britain, New Zealand, Canada or Japan

A Word About Raw Salmon

The biggest risk in eating fish raw is the chance that you might inadvertently swallow a passenger. Most fish are susceptible to parasites, though the risk is far lower with farmed fish than those that are caught wild. Salmon, even king salmon, is especially susceptible to parasites. It’s one of the reasons that professional sushi chefs always freeze salmon before using it: freezing will kill most parasites.

If you buy seafood online, make a point of finding one that has an excellent local reputation. They’re the online seafood market choices that are most likely to always buy from fishermen that treat their fish well from the moment they’re caught. It’s a good way to make sure you get impeccably fresh and clean fish for all your raw seafood dishes.

When your fish arrives from the online seafood market, inspect it carefully. It should pass the sniff test – fresh fish will smell like the ocean, with no hint of ammonia, and the flesh should be firm and translucent. If you’re not going to prepare it immediately, place it on a bed of ice in the coldest spot in your refrigerator, usually the bottom shelf. If you won’t be using it within 24 hours, wrap it and freeze it.