Roll out the Japanese Way

Starting from the islands of Japan to the cities here in the US, people over the years have made different variations of these raw fish rolls. Sushi has evolved from being a fast food meal into a full on dining experience. Ever since I was little I’ve loved eating seafood. Eating fish has become a natural part of my diet. But eating raw fish was a whole different world for me because I’ve always eaten it cooked. It was until a few years ago that I got the guts to try nigiri, which included raw salmon, tuna, and yellowtail. I took my first bite and surely I couldn’t wait to try other types of sushi. A classic favorite of mine would have to be the California roll. My family always have to get an order every single time we go to a Japanese restaurant. Of course, I always want to try something new and try out different sushis. What I love about every Japanese restaurant is that they each have their original signature sushis, and they are all so good!

While researching, I learned some handy vocabulary words that would be good to know when talking about sushi. Here are some words that I find helpful:

• daikon: giant white radish, usually served grated as garnish for sashimi

• futo-maki: big, oversized sashimi

• gari: pickled ginger that comes along with sushi

• goma: sesame seeds

• hashi: chopsticks, also called o-hashi

• maki-zushi: rice and seaweed rolls with fish/vegetables, maki places the nori on the outside, but rolls like California and rainbow place the rice on the outside

• neta: piece of fish placed on top of sushi rice for nigiri

• nigiri-zushi: little fingers of rice topped with wasabi and filet of raw or cooked fish or shellfish, most common form of sushi outside of Japan

• nori: sheets of dried seaweed used in maki

• oshi-zushi: sushi made from rice pressed in a box or mold

• oshibako: used for pressing sushi to make oshi-zushi

• sashimi: raw fish filets sans the sushi rice

• su: rice vinegar

• temaki-zushi: hand rolled cones of sushi rice, fish and vegetables wrapped in seaweed, very similar to maki

• wasabi: Japanese ‘horseradish’

Apparently, the Japanese culture has sushi etiquette on how they eat their meal. Here are some of the things that I’ve learned:

• It’s ok to eat nigiri with your hands and is necessary to eat it all in one bite

• Use chopsticks to eat sashimi

• Gari (ginger) is considered to be a palate cleanser and is eaten between bites or different types of sushi, also not to be eaten within the same bite as the sushi

• Don’t pick up other people’s food with the end of the chopsticks that you put in your mouth, use the other end that you hold to move the food as the polite way

• Never leave your chopsticks sticking up in your rice because it resembles incense sticks and it symbolizes a Japanese funeral and prayers to ancestors

#japanese #food