Have You Heard Of “Kaisendon?”
Well, I hadn’t until the terrific website SoraNews24.com revealed it to me! As you will soon see, it quickly became an obsession for me!
As their terrific Reporter Oona McGee wrote:
“If you’re curious to explore Japan’s seafood scene beyond sushi and sashimi, you may have heard of a dish called kaisendon. Literally meaning “seafood bowl“, kaisendon contains a variety of raw fish atop a bed of rice, and the best place to get it, according to overseas visitors who’ve been raving about it online, is at a restaurant chain called Tsujihan.“
Oona goes on report that the topping actually consisted of 10 different ingredients: salmon roe, tuna, minced tuna, shrimp, whelk, surf clam, squid, herring roe, cucumber, and green onion. That was quite a gathering of luxurious ingredients to have in a kaisendon that costs 1,350 yen – about $8.35.
It sounded delicious so I had to make one of my own at home – TWICE!
While the original had ten different ingredients, I chose these four: slices of salmon and tuna sashimi, plus baked eel slices and salmon roe. As you will see, that was more than enough!
First, I made some garlic rice, which I let cool before having a surprisingly difficult time turning it into a tower!
As always, I share my disasters so watch this ineptitude in real time:
Well, that was suprisingly difficult – those grains of rice did NOT want to stay upright! With that finally cleaned up, I layered all of the fish and guess what?
It was as disastrous as the rice effort! Here’s the video of the mess I made when I tried to stack the Eel! I mean, that should be easy, right? After all, it has a stickly glaze!
OK, that was embarrassing..the Eel really did NOT want to lie vertically on the rice! I finally just put it around the bottom and stacked the rest of the sashimi on top of it from there…still not easy, but I got it done – check it out:
And there it is!
Forget what a mess I made: this tasted great! I squeezed some lemon on top and every bite was delicious!
This was more than I could finish of course, so it went into the refrigerator to enjoy the next day for lunch…remember how I told you I made this dish TWICE?
First, note how my second effort actually “towered” a bit:
Well, that was Mount Everest compared to my first attempt at making the dish the day before – I will save you the pain and just cut to the punch line:
After all of my effort the first time, this “kaisendon” collapsed into nothing more than some slices fish over a bed of rice – no tower at all!
So, I ate this dish two days in a row and I have to tell you: it was delicious both times!
That wasn’t the only time I had to make a single dish twice – remember this?
This unique “potato chip egg” dish was delicious – both times I made it!
Click here to find out why!
I have been to Tokyo five times and love love love all of the food there.
Everyone who reads this blog knows that I especially love ramen – and every time I make it at home, I do this:
I love to see how high I can make the noodles rise out of the bowl, and I have shared my previous ramen adventures, like when I tried a unique new Cup Noodles flavor:
Yes, I ordered these special “Seafood Cup Noodles!” I discovered a very satisfying way to “upgrade” these noodles – see that review here!
I have focused on what you can add to make dried ramen much more satisfying at home, and I have also shared stories of all the various products in Asia, like this:
This is the Cup Noodle “Mystery Meat” and you can buy it in a box to use however you want! Here’s the story SoraNews24 shared about all of the unique recipes you can make with it!
And Cup Noodle apparently has a goal to satisfy your hunger 24 hours a day!
Yes, you can start your day this way and I’d love to!
See what’s included by clicking on my story here:
Thanks for reading, and be sure to go to SoraNews24.com to see their entire story about the “Tsujihan Sushi Bowl” – they always have terrific stories!
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Thanks so much for reading and let me know if you love ramen as much as I do! Also, I you enjoy this story please share with your friends on social media!
Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Books / Media, Eat This!, Food, Food Porn, Food Travel, Food Writing, Recipes, Travel, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
Looks great, John! I love sashimi.
I think your collapsed version is prettier than the tower! Great looking eel! We’re going to Singapore in October and I can’t wait to see what the food scene is like!
We went there on our honeymoon, stopping before and after Bali for a few days on each side…you literally can eat off the ground of a food court they are so sparkling clean – and they are filled with incredible varieties of deliciousness!
I’m so excited!
Oh those towers! Structural integrity always a challenge.
It NEVER occurred to me, but it was really a messy effort!
You handled it brilliantly!
May I sound corny and say ‘perfection on a plate’! Had never heard of the term but this surely is absolutely and utterly my kind of food 🙂 ! And the pyramidal way it ended up on the plate is understandable – you don’t want the rice to be a gluggy mess trying to stay firmly upright! Love that you included eel . . . could eat that multiple times a week . . .
Thanks for the note – we love Eel but it’s not nearly as popular here as it should be!
I’m glad you enjoyed your tower of ‘raw’ food, John. I’m sticking with cooking mine before eating it. 😊😊
Shared on Twitter. Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks Pete it was a fun experiment!