Food of the Week: Masago

Ahh...Masago.  The reason why I thought the exterior of Pharrell's car was orange.

Also known as capelin or smelt roe, these beautiful orange fish eggs are one of the cheapest sushi toppers with the most aesthetics for your buck.

Before reading any further, you have to ask yourself a couple of questions.  

1.  Do I mind eating fish eggs, like millions of them, at one time?

2.  Do I like salt?

3.  Do I enjoy the feeling of crunchy balls squishing between my teeth?

If your answer was yes to any of these, or even none, then you should try MASAGO! (or cannibalism if yes to #3).

Readily available at Ranch 99 (store locator here), masago goes for around $3 a package.  It is an extremely easy sushi to make.  Occasionally, you will see the masago topped with a raw quail egg, but I guess that is for the more adventurous (adventurous in the gourmet's vocabulary=less afraid of foodborne diseases).

Anyways, I decided to just give this little recipe a try since I had dry seaweed paper, rice, rice vinegar, sugar, and masago of course. Masago is not to be confused with Tamago, which just means egg.  Tamago sushi is usually a sweetened rolled omelette, is still good if done right, but just doesn't have the exhilarating feeling of destroying a whole possible future generation of smelt.