Sushi fish and toppings: a glossary of neta, from akami to uni

The topping on a piece of nigiri is called the neta; the rice underneath is the shari. Most sushi menus outside Japan list the neta by their Japanese names, and most people order the same three or four every time because the rest of the list is a mystery. This glossary is the one we hand to restaurant clients who buy their tableware from us and ask, in the same breath, what to put on it. It covers the fish and seafood you will actually meet at a counter, what they taste like, when they are in season in Japan, and how they are usually served.

A note on sourcing: we are based in Fukuoka, and the entries below reflect what we see at the Nagahama fish market and in the restaurants we supply. Names vary by region (a yellowtail has at least four names depending on its size and where you are), so we give the most common one first.

Tuna (maguro): the three cuts

Tuna is sold by cut, not just by species. Bluefin (hon-maguro) is the prestige fish; bigeye (mebachi) and yellowfin (kihada) are the everyday ones.

• Akami: the lean, deep-red loin. Clean, slightly iron-like, firm. This is what most "tuna nigiri" is. Often served zuke, briefly marinated in soy, which was the Edo-period way of keeping it.
• Chutoro: medium-fatty belly, pink with fine marbling. The cut most sushi chefs would pick for themselves: enough fat to melt, enough flesh to taste like tuna.
• Otoro: the fattiest belly, pale and heavily marbled. It dissolves. Priced accordingly, and best eaten early in the meal before the palate is coated.

White-fleshed fish (shiromi)

Served early in an omakase because their flavour is delicate. Good counters slice them thin and sometimes add a touch of salt and citrus instead of soy.

• Tai (red sea bream): sweet, firm, faintly chewy. The celebration fish in Japan. Winter to spring.
• Hirame (flounder): very lean, almost translucent. The fin muscle, engawa, is fatty and crunchy and often the best bite on the plate. Winter.
• Suzuki (sea bass): summer fish, mild and clean.
• Kanpachi (greater amberjack) and hamachi / buri (Japanese amberjack, yellowtail): buttery, rich, with a distinct oily finish. Hamachi is the young farmed fish you see year-round; buri is the mature wild fish, at its best in winter (kan-buri). Same species, very different price.
• Fugu (pufferfish): licensed chefs only; served as paper-thin sashimi more than as nigiri.

Silver-skinned fish (hikarimono)

The category that separates regulars from tourists. These are oily fish, usually cured in salt and vinegar before serving, and they carry the strongest flavours on the menu.

• Saba (mackerel): almost always vinegared (shime-saba). Rich, tangy, unmistakable. Autumn and winter.
• Aji (horse mackerel): lighter than saba, served raw with grated ginger and spring onion rather than wasabi. Summer.
• Iwashi (sardine): soft, fatty, fragile; only good when very fresh, which is why it is rare outside Japan. Summer to autumn.
• Kohada (gizzard shad): the Edomae classic, cured in salt and vinegar and scored with a knife. Sushi chefs in Tokyo are judged on their kohada. Autumn.
• Sanma (Pacific saury): an autumn fish, served raw only in season.

Salmon and the fish Japan adopted late

• Sake / sāmon (salmon): the world's most popular sushi fish, and a newcomer. Wild Pacific salmon carries parasites, so it was never eaten raw in Japan; farmed Atlantic salmon, promoted by Norway in the 1980s and 1990s, changed that. Fatty, soft, sweet. Not a traditional Edomae neta, which is why some old-school counters do not serve it.
• Ikura (salmon roe): large orange eggs, usually cured in soy, served as gunkan (battleship) sushi wrapped in nori. Pops in the mouth. Autumn.

Shellfish and cephalopods

• Ebi (shrimp): cooked, butterflied, sweet. The nigiri most children start with.
• Amaebi (sweet shrimp): raw, small, sticky-sweet, often served with the fried head on the side. Winter.
• Botan-ebi: the large, raw, luxurious version.
• Ika (squid): white, faintly sweet, with a texture that depends on the cut. Chefs score it finely so it does not fight the teeth. Summer.
• Tako (octopus): boiled, sliced thin, chewy, mild. Sometimes brushed with a sweet soy glaze (nitsume).
• Hotate (scallop): soft, sweet, served raw or lightly seared. Winter.
• Akagai (ark shell): crunchy, briny, bright orange-red. An acquired taste and a chef's favourite. Winter to spring.
• Kani (crab): real crab is served as leg meat; "crab" in a California roll is kanikama, a fish-paste imitation. The menu should say which.

Roe and the rest

• Uni (sea urchin): the edible part is the gonad, served raw as gunkan. Creamy, sweet, briny, with a custard texture when fresh and a bitter edge when not. Hokkaido's summer uni is the benchmark; the season shifts with region and species, and our local Kyushu uni from Iki and Tsushima peaks in late spring.
• Tobiko (flying fish roe): tiny, crunchy, orange; often dyed green (wasabi) or black (squid ink) in Western restaurants.
• Masago (capelin roe): smaller and cheaper than tobiko, and frequently substituted for it.
• Unagi (freshwater eel) and anago (sea eel): both cooked. Unagi is grilled with a sweet glaze and has a firmer, richer flesh; anago is simmered, softer, and the Edomae original of the two.
• Tamago (sweet omelette): the one neta a chef makes rather than buys, which is why the old advice to judge a counter by its tamago still holds. Served last, as dessert.
• Kappa (cucumber), kanpyō (simmered gourd), umeshiso (pickled plum and shiso): the vegetable rolls that close a traditional meal.

Seasonality at a glance

What "sushi-grade" actually means

In the United States and most of Europe there is no legal definition of "sushi-grade" or "sashimi-grade". The phrase is a fishmonger's promise, not a certification. What the law does say (the FDA Food Code in the US, EU Regulation 853/2004 in Europe) is that fish intended to be eaten raw must be frozen to kill parasites: in the US, minus 20 °C for seven days or minus 35 °C for about 15 hours; in the EU, minus 20 °C for at least 24 hours or minus 35 °C for 15 hours, with exceptions such as large tuna and farmed salmon raised on parasite-free feed. So the honest questions to ask a fishmonger are: was it frozen for parasite control, and when was it caught. If they cannot answer both, it is not fish to eat raw, whatever the label says. In Japan the same idea is handled by trust and speed: the fish at Nagahama market this morning was in the water yesterday, and the counters that buy it have known their suppliers for decades.

Serving notes

Nigiri is served in pairs, fish side facing the diner, on a flat plate or a wooden geta. Hikarimono and anything glazed with nitsume should not be dipped in soy; everything else is dipped fish side down, lightly. Gari (pickled ginger) is a palate cleanser between different fish, not a topping. If you are setting a table at home, a long rectangular sushi plate, a small soy dish per person and a pair of chopsticks on a rest is all the equipment the neta needs. For the rice and the rolling, our professional guide to making sushi covers shari, nigiri and maki step by step, and the chronology of sushi explains where the Edomae repertoire above comes from.