STORY

The Visual Guide to Japanese Food: Unusual Sushi and Side Dishes

You’ve had a great day traveling around Tokyo, and now you’re ready to enjoy some sushi at Sushi-Nova. You take a look at the menu and try to decide what to order, but everything looks so good! How do you choose? In this article, we’ll take you through some of Sushi-Nova’s popular options for sushi as well as side dishes. We’ll also walk you through how to order using their touch screen system so you can get right down to dinner.

Sushi-Nova’s delicious line up

Whole giant anago

Editors' Overall Rating：★★★
Price：★★★
In season： June – Aug.

True to its name, a whole anago (ah-nah-goh) or sea eel is used for this sushi, and it drapes way over the rice. Topped with a sweet sauce, the incredibly soft anago will melt in your mouth straight away.

Shrimp tempura

Editors' Overall Rating：★★☆
Price：★★★
In season： All year round

Crispy and delicious, you can never go wrong with tempura-fried shrimp. Like with its raw counterpart, you can grab and remove the tail after you put the sushi in your mouth.

Aburi otoro

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★★
Price：★★☆
In season： Oct. - Feb.

You can enjoy otoro (oh-toh-row), the fattiest cut from a tuna, raw as well as lightly grilled (aburi). Either way is delicious and the otoro maintains its melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

King’s Roast Beef

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★★☆
In season： All year round

Looking to try a completely different kind of sushi? Enjoy a hearty piece of juicy roast beef instead of fish!

Assortment of 5 types of vegetable sushi

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★★★
In season： All year round

Looking to get more veggies in your diet? Try this creative set of five sushi made with fresh, colorful vegetables.

Salmon cheese Genovese

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★★☆
In season： All year round

In this east-meets-west mash up, salmon is topped with cheese and pesto sauce. If you’re looking to try something new, this may be the sushi for you!

Inari zushi

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★☆☆
In season： All year round

Here’s a unique type of sushi that’s a great option for those of you who aren’t so into raw toppings. Inari zushi (ee-nah-ree zoo-she) is made by stuffing sushi rice into pouches of sweetened abura-age, or fried tofu skin.

Assortment of three types of hikarimono

Editors' Overall Rating： ★☆☆
Price：★★☆
In season： Shime-saba : Sept.-Jan.　Aji : May-Sept.　Iwashi : Aug. - Oct.

This set of hikarimono, or blue-backed fish, comes with shime-saba (she-meh sah-bah; marinated mackerel), aji (ah-gee; Japanese horse mackerel), and iwashi (ee-wah-she; sardine). These fish are usually fairly oily and very flavorful.

1) Shake the can of green tea powder once into your cup. You don’t need much!

2) Place the cup below the tap installed at your table and then twist the spigot for hot water. This water is extremely hot, so please be careful!

Save some room for side dishes!

Seafood chawan mushi

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★★
Price：★☆☆
In season： All year round

A popular item from kaiseki ryori is also available at Sushi-Nova! Seafood is combined with beaten egg flavored with bonito soup stock inside a cup (chawan) and then steamed (mushi) to create a soft, savory egg custard.

Crab soup

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★★
Price：★☆☆
In season： Dec. – Feb.

You wont need to wonder if there’s really any crab in the crab soup at Sushi-Nova! Considering they use high-quality ingredients, this miso-based soup is a steal at only 180 yen.

How to order

Asari clam soup

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★☆☆
In season： Feb. - April

Savor miso soup packed with the umami flavor of asari (ah-sah-ree) clams. To eat the clams, pull the meat off the shells with your chopsticks.

Dashimaki tamago

Editors' Overall Rating： ★★☆
Price：★☆☆
In season： All year round

The mildly sweet flavor of this rolled omelet made with soup stock is balanced by the grated daikon radish served on the side. An order of this is a great way to finish off your meal.

What’s the yellow stuff in the boxes?

Available in little boxes on the counter, gari (gah-ree) is thinly sliced ginger that has been pickled in sweet vinegar. It’s recommended that you eat a piece after having a fatty or strongly flavored piece of sushi to clear your palate for your next piece.

You can also dip a piece of gari in soy sauce and use it to apply the soy sauce to more delicate types of sush!

Eating at Sushi-Nova

How to make tea

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1) The touch screens at Sushi-Nova support four languages: English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. To get started, select the language you’d like.

2) Scroll through the menu and select the sushi or side you want to order. You can select several types of sushi or multiple orders of the same sushi.

3) When you’ve finished making your selection, push the Order button. You can order as many times as you’d like.

4) When the sushi you ordered arrives in front of you on the conveyor belt, take the entire dish. Keep the empty dishes in a pile on your table; the wait staff will count these to calculate your bill.

Sushi-Nova Locations

■Sushi-Nova, Aoyama Oval Building Restaurant
Address: Aoyama Oval Building 1F, 5-52-2 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-6433-5017
Hours: 11am to 11pm
Holidays: None

■Sushi-Nova, Asakusa Shin-Nakamise Restaurant
Address: 1-22-3 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-5246-4334
Hours: 11am to 11pm
Holidays: None

■Sushi-Nova, Harajuku Takeshita-dori Street Restaurant
Address: Ito Building 2F, 1-6-12 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-6455-5227
Hours: 11am to 11pm
Holidays: None

URL: http://www.sushi-nova.com/en/

Which item on the menu looked the best to you? Got a favorite that still hasn't made it onto our list? Let us know in the comments!

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THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON INFORMATION FROM 01 29,2016 Author：DiGJAPAN! Editorial Team