Originally from Japan, Eiji Mori is a respected restaurant executive and manager who leads Sushi Roku Newport Beach in Orange County. In this role, he oversees a dining establishment that offers a select sake menu that pairs with premium meal options. Eiji Mori’s restaurant, part of Innovative Dining Group, has an affordable lunch menu featuring items such as poke bowls and chirashi with miso soup.
Also known as chirashizushi, the latter dish is comprised of pieces of sashimi with a vinegar-rice bed. Coming from the Japanese word “scatter,” the entree has modest beginnings. Traditionally, it was employed as a way of using leftover fish after the choicest pieces had been used for nigiri and sashimi platters.
Today, chirashizushi’s popularity has made it a premium dish that artistically combines items such as cooked and uncooked fish, tamagoyaki, prawn, roe, and pickled and raw vegetables. The more humble bara-chirashi version also continues in Japan as a family staple that can include virtually any ingredient.
