Why do authentic sushi restaurants never serve salmon sushi?

Salmon sushi is very popular all over the world.

However, authentic sushi restaurants in Tokyo never serve salmon sushi.

In the first place, they never purchase salmon from a fish market.

So if you went to an authentic sushi restaurant in Tokyo, you would not be able to eat salmon sushi.

On the other hand, the conveyor belt sushi restaurants all over Japan always serve a wide variety of salmon sushi.

It shows that salmon is very popular with Japanese people.

So, why do authentic sushi restaurants never serve salmon sushi?

You are probably curious about that.

Authentic sushi chefs consider that salmon is not an ingredient for traditional, authentic sushi.

They are particular about the traditional style of sushi called, Edo-style sushi.

Edo means old Tokyo.

Salmon was not a common ingredient for people in old Tokyo.

In the first place, salmon has not inhabited Tokyo Bay.

But today, we Japanese can eat various type of fish, including salmon, thanks to the development of refrigeration and the transportation network.

Salmon sushi is, so to speak, a modern sushi.

So authentic sushi chefs have an aversion to admitting salmon as an ingredient for sushi, even though salmon is delicious.

On the other hand, why do they always serve salmon roe sushi called, Ikura?

Salmon roe is also a modern ingredient.

Japanese people of long ago did not eat salmon roe.

But today, it is accepted as a traditional ingredient for sushi.

I think that is very strange, and I want to know the reason.

Actually I asked some sushi chefs about that, but I have never received a satisfactory explanation for that.

To sum up, though salmon meat is not supposed to be a traditional ingredient, salmon roe is supposed to be a traditional ingredient.

That’s really strange.