Sushi Yama introduces us to the world of authentic sushi

At the Ayia Napa Marina, the ultimate entertainment and dining destination in Cyprus, Sushi Yama recently opened its doors to serve as a source of inspiration to anyone seeking an authentic Asian gastronomic experience. Having already been established as “a sushi heaven” in the minds of Asian cuisine lovers, Sushi Yama is a place where chefs passionately and artfully create dishes that win over the taste buds and hearts of its guests.

The art of choosing your raw ingredients

The essence of every delicious sushi dish lies in its raw ingredients. Sushi Yama chefs dedicate a lot of their time to the search and selection of the finest raw ingredients, with high quality, safety and environmental consciousness serving as their compass.

The dominant factor here is freshness, since a delicious dish is the result of the combination of fresh seafood, seasonal vegetables, fine rice and carefully-selected spices. Sushi Yama chefs’ artisanship turns sushi into something more than just food: they transform it into a sensory experience. The unique mixing of ingredients and tastes evokes an elegant harmony to the palate, while the food presentation resembles a painter’s canvas.

For starters, it is impossible not to try the famed steamed Edamame beans with sea salt, sesame and yuzu juice spray, the tuna tartare with red shiso, king oyster mushroom, rice cream and dried raspberries, or the taro root tempura with avocado cream and coriander vinegar spray. If you love shrimp, opt for the shrimp tempura with honey and yuzu glaze, or the popcorn shrimp with sticky rice, rose tamari glaze, dry ginger, peanut furikake, caramelised butter and calamansi juice.

When it comes to sashimi, you can choose between salmon, tuna, hamachi or scallops. Meanwhile, the truffle ikura with salmon roe marinated in truffle soy sauce will elevate your gustatory experience. If you enjoy nigiri, you can savour it with salmon, tuna, shrimp or scallops, whereas maki rolls are available with cucumber, scallops or snow crab. There is also a considerable variety of uramaki – we suggest you try the spider roll with soft-shell crab, cucumber, avocado, lettuce and caramelised butter, or the Dragon with shrimp tempura, crab meat, eel, avocado and cucumber – as well as robata (with vegetables, fish or meat). And, of course, you can also try one of the sushi platters, with 39 or 62 pieces, to satisfy all preferences.

Ultimately, Sushi Yama is the place where sushi lovers will savour an unforgettable gastronomy experience, an enchanting union of taste and quality. With the finest raw ingredients and the chefs’ incredible skill, at Sushi Yama, sushi is elevated to a true art form, and a simple meal is transformed into a sensory feast.

Seven tips to better enjoy sushi

1. In order to be light and delicate, high quality sushi rolls contain a considerable amount of air between their rice grains. Therefore, consumption requires gentle movements. Apply minimal pressure to bring a roll to your mouth with your chopsticks, thus ensuring you maintain its shape.
2. Keeping your chopsticks parallel to the sushi tray, position each stick parallel to the sides of a piece of sushi, and avoid picking it up from its middle, as that would cause the roll to collapse.
3. Shoga (pickled ginger) is a palate cleanser. Be sure you do not eat a lot of it as it is very spicy. Small portions, enjoyed throughout your meal, are all it takes to eliminate the aftertaste of a sushi piece.
4. Avoid dipping your sushi in soy sauce excessively, as it overpowers the taste of the roll’s contents. Pour a small amount of soy sauce at the edge of your plate, then lightly touch your roll to it before eating.
5. Do not add soy sauce to sushi already infused with sweet tsume sauce.
6. Do not break your sushi into two or more pieces – a sushi piece is intended to be consumed in one bite.
7. Eat your sushi as soon as it is served.