A Queens fisherman thinks he knows the best spot in NYC for fresh sushi and sashimi, and it’s not Nobu.
It’s — don’t gag — The Hudson River.
Gilberto Diaz Jr. enjoys eating striped bass sashimi he catches himself in the murky waters, and has been doing so for years.
He began making Hudson sushi in 2014 as a lark.
“I was experimenting at first, to be honest. I know striped bass is used as sashimi; flounder and blackfish are used as sashimi. So I just started trying it and enjoyed it,” he told The Post.
Diaz, 35, who manages a Manhattan parking garage when he’s not chasing monster tautog, detailed his methodical process of preparing the peculiar dish.
First, he puts his catch out of its misery by stabbing it through its brain.
Once the fish had moved on to the next world, Diaz will filet the fish from gill to tail, following the spine. He then flips the filet, scales down, and skins it before cutting quarter-inch sushi slices.
He said the trick to cutting perfect sushi slices is to first filet horizontally and then vertically at precisely the right angle.
”It takes practice, but I’m used to it, so I’m pretty good,” he said.
He then drizzles lemon on the sushi and dips it in soy sauce.
“If Hudson sushi were served in a Japanese restaurant, they would prepare it more professionally than me, but otherwise nobody would know the difference,” he boasted.
Diaz said some of his favorite fishing spots on the Hudson include Dyckman Pier in Inwood, and Battery Park.
“I’ve caught striped bass, white perch . . . catfish, black sea bass, blackfish, eels. There’s a lot of eels in the Hudson,” he said.
He said he’s eaten sushi and ceviche from fish he caught off Jones Beach and Captree State Park in Long Island too.
Diaz has been hooked on fishing in The Big Apple since he was 3 years old, when his father, a fire safety director, would take him on party boats in Sheepshead Bay.
The angler grew up in Washington Heights, and said his father would frequently take him to fish on the Hudson — but they never ate what they caught.
“Back then, early 2000s, the waters weren’t as clean as they are now,” he said.
He began eating stripers from the Hudson about 15 years ago after seeing dolphins chasing herring and striped bass in the river and took it as a “sign from God.”
“Dolphins and whales were coming closer, so it’s a good sign the water is getting cleaner,” he thought.
He also fishes the East River, but “the current runs stronger there, it’s a little bit harder to fish from land.”
The state Health Department cleared striped bass as safe to eat on April 1, relaxing restrictions on the lower Hudson for the first time in 50 years.
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