Elements of Sushi: Wasabi and Rice

In sushi, the best ingredients are key, and not just the fish. Fresh wasabi makes a world of difference, but not a lot of places offer it–and even then, sometimes only to customers having omakase meals.
You can get freshly grated wasabi at Mori, Asanebo, Urasawa, and Tama. Azami uses both the paste and fresh stuff. Yabu uses fresh with sashimi and paste with nigiri sushi. KaGaYa, an upscale shabu shabu place, grates fresh wasabi. So does Hirozen, but it’ll cost you about $15 extra.

And then there’s rice. Mori’s rice is grown specially for the restaurant in Sacramento, and polished in-house daily.

In the school of warm rice, Nozawa and Sasabune have fans, but alexfood says Hiko has better rice than either. HPLsauce likes Sasabune’s rice but says the fish isn’t as good since the move. Nozawa’s rice isn’t always consistent, says zack, but it’s usually spot-on. His nori, an equally important ingredient in rolls, is excellent.

Also good: Echigo, Sushi Tenn, Kiriko, and, of course, Urasawa.

Torafuku isn’t a sushi joint, but it specializes in rice dishes. Zuke-don (marinated tuna bowl) with sushi rice is fantastic, says alexfood.

Mori Sushi [West LA]
11500 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles
310-479-3939
“Locater”: http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?&tuid=17591409&ck=2234222027

Torafuku [West LA]
10914 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles
310-470-0014
Locater

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Which sushi joints serve fresh wasabi?
Where’s the best sushi rice?