Okay, I love a rare piece of beef.  But honestly...The idea of uncooked fish just turns my stomache. 

Is it really that good? 

I’m just not ready for full-on raw yet!  Let me work up to that.  :)

Your picture is full on raw.

Heh...it looks crazy raw, but it’s really not, I swear.  It was very, very good.  Next time I’m going to try making sushi rice and slicing the tuna into strips to make those little whattyafuckcallems...nigiri or something.

I was originally put off by the concept of raw fish, but it’s really good and now I love it.  What I hate is the friggin’ seaweed.  I’ll say one good thing for seaweed: it tastes exactly like what you’d expect seaweed to taste like.  Lawn clippings soaked in brine.

Jim, Congratulations! From the picture, it looks like you did it just right. As a note, the seared ahi can be served as a steak (usually this is how it’s done at a seafood restaurant), or sliced and incorporated into other dishes (how it’s done in a sushi restaurant). In the latter case, it’s usually served cold because they sear the fish and then throw it back on ice and slice as needed. I actually prefer it this way. Something you might try is searing it, slicing it thin and then serving it lightly coated in tataki sauce. My favorite restaurant serves it this way as an appetizer (it’s pictured on the appetizer menu on their site).

dakrat - It took me years after moving to Cali to try it, and now it’s my favorite food. It’s so friggin rare (heh heh) to find something that’s both tasty and healthy. Many people are surprised that it doesn’t taste fishy - the “fishy” smell / flavor of fish is caused by it being too old (it’s going bad) and / or being cooked. It’s very mild in flavor when it’s raw, which is why it makes such a good “base” flavor for various dishes - you can spice it up in so many different ways. But as I mentioned in my post the other day, it has to be extremely fresh. Sushi goes bad faster than an obnoxiously drunk houseguest.

Joe R - Seaweed salads are usually marinated to bring out the flavor of the seaweed, but the dried seaweed used to create hand-rolls, inside-out rolls, and nigiri are almost flavorless - if you can taste them more than just slightly, there’s something wrong. If it still bothers you, you can use soy wrappers instead.

Other notes - I’ve never tried it with frozen fish… not sure it’s a good idea. If you want salmon and can’t get it fresh enough, I’d used smoked. Also, eel is another very mild and tasty meat to use ... if you can get past the fact that it’s, well, eel. There are a few things even I don’t like (sea urchins, for one thing), but there are some other cool things as well. My wife likes ikura (salmon eggs) - it’s basically like caviar at 1/50th the price (she grew up in the Baltic states where they serve caviar like rednecks serve Ritz crackers).

Another thing that’s great about Sushi is you can absolutely stuff yourself with it and not have that “heavy” full feeling - we usually eat it before we go out dancing. The rice has just enough carbs to give your stomach the foundation you need for a night of pounding vodka drinks.

I don’t know if anyone but me watches Alton Brown on Good Eats but he has a seared tuna recipe that I’ve tried before and it came out amazing. You can find it here

Also jim, for that salmon. I haven’t tried this but it looks really good and fun to make too.

Smoked Salmon
and a custom cardboard box smoker

I just stay away from rolls and wrapped nigiri.  I eat unwrapped nigiri or just sashimi.  Not a big deal...I don’t like everything on the menu at Chinese, Italian, or Mexican restaurants either.