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A Taste of Sushi is something more an more Americans are trying every year with Sushi and Japanese restaurants florishing in every city in the US and beyond.

Sushi, that sumptuous combination of rice and raw fish, wrapped in fish skin is quickly approaching fast food status overseas, far, far away from the country that invented it. It’s sparing partner, the wasabe, the green stuff that is atrocious to the nose is a delicacy that non-Japanese people are still getting used to—but it’s only a matter of time.

Wasabe, of course, is better taken with soy sauce when eating sushi.  On a microscopic level, however, the green stuff does much more. It kills the bacteria that may be present in the raw fish, however fresh the fish may be (tuna, salmon, etc.).

Eating sushi can be quite expensive, owing to the fact that it is labor intensive to make. The first big challenge is getting really fresh fish, definitely not just the ones that sell in the typical wet market. You have to find the fish market that sells sushi-grade fish.  In some cases, they will help do the deboning for you, but for a fee, of course.

Otherwise, you will have to do the knife-processing yourself, which can take hours especially if you are dealing with a big fish.  This step also requires that you use a very sharp knife. There are many good sushi books in the bookstores which can illustrate the correct way of cutting and deboning the fish.

Get this, the trick is not in the fish, it’s in the art of cutting it. Although fresh fish is absolutely required to start with, there is only way to do it the sushi way. Experiment with doing it your way and see what happens to the fish. The fish slices will look soggy and grainy–it seems the fish has been abused.

You can’t cheat with the rice, too. It’s got to be authentic Japanese rice, preferably cooked rice-cooker-style. As a final word, never confuse sushi with its “cousin,” the sashimi.  The basic difference is the rice! Sashimi doesn’t come with rice, you have to order it separately, unless you intend to it as it is (with wasabe, of course).

Sushi types are many, but all include rice. The nigiri or hand-made sushi is the typical sushi and is ordered and served in pairs. Another type includes sushi rolls, or maki, which are made with sheets of seaweed (nori) and served as six slices. There is also pressed sushi or oshi, which is cut into small squares. And finally, there is stuffed bean curd rolls, or inarizushi.

Here are many more sushi styles. Saikuzushi, or festival sushi is an art form. Rice is tinted different colors, sectioned off and rolled. When it is sliced, complex images are created.

Chirashizushi, or scattered sushi, is rice spread in a box or bowl with nine kinds of fish and vegetables scattered on top or mixed in with the rice. Chakinzushi is sushi rice in a thin omelet wrapper shaped and tied like a lady’s drawstring purse. Sometimes a single pea or small shrimp decorates the ruffled part of the wrapper.

Makezushi is sushi rice, mixed with vegetables and seafood that has been molded into bowls or square tins and covered with strips of omelet, shrimp and vegetables. Fukusazushi is a variation of this, where the square-molded rice mixture is wrapped in a thin sheet of omelet.

This is turned over to conceal the seams and garnished with a nori ribbon and ginger.
Temarizushi are rice balls tightly wrapped in thinnly-sliced marinated fish.
Itadakimasu! (Bon Appetite!)

Nearly forgot to say the Japanese live longer and eat more fish than the rest of us … Is their a connection or do they have a secret we don’t know about? Find out what the French and the Japanese have been keeping to themselves until now The Secret To Slow Down Aging .
 

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