Sushi
When you hear the word "Sushi", I think many people would imagine vinegary rice with raw fish on top.
In reality, sushi is name for type of dish and topping can be anything from egg, shrimp,fish such as tuna,broiled eel,octopus, squid, cucumber,ham, corn, tuna salad, imitation crab mixed with mayo and cucumber etc..
Common ingredients in sushi dish is vinegary rice. Depending on what kinds of sushi you would order at sushi restaurant or you make at home, how it looks and ingredients vary.
** If you were interested in making your own style of sushi, you can see sushi recipe in previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: Sushi and Soy sauce".
So, I wrote there are more than one kind of sushi. What are they, you may wonder.
** Nigiri zushi**
Nigiri zushi is sushi made by hand. For those type of sushi, vinegary rice is formed to about 3" long log, top it off with your choice of topping. Generally, it is seafood such as squid,octopus,salmon,tuna,eel etc. Popular nigiri zushi is vinegary rice formed by hand, then a little bit of wasabi paste on rice and top it off with melt in the mouth "tuna" sashimi. Usually, it comes with soy sauce on side and you can dip sushi into soy sauce and eat it.
Wasabi paste is very very hot. A little goes long way.. You may have not seen what wasabi looks like before being grated to paste. Wikipedia had picture and detail on wasabi. To read on wasabi at wikipedia,please click here .
** Temaki zushi **
Temaki zushi is "make your own sushi" kind of thing. My mother used to make temaki zushi on special occasion. Typically, we had large wooden tub specially made for making of vinegary sushi rice on center of the kitchen table. Then, my mother cut the large sheet of nori (laver) into about your hand size,and stuck them up on one plate. Then, she made a couple of toppings, plate them up separately and put the plate around the tub. Then, each family member got one piece of nori (laver), place the nori over one's palm, scoop up vinegary rice with shamoji (wooden spoon), and put rice on top of nori (laver) ,choose topping and place them over rice and roll like flower bouquet, and eat it. This type of sushi is kind of dish that sit,talk with family and eat kind of thing just like fondue dish in a sense.
** Gunkan maki **
Gunkan maki is sushi made by hand,but Nori (laver) is wrapped around the vinegary rice ball and choice of topping is on it.Generally,topping is something that are hard to keep its shape such as whole corn kennels mixed with mayonnaise, ikra (salmon roe), Uni (sea urchin).
** Maki zushi **
Maki zushi is made by spreading nori (laver) on a bamboo mat, then, vinegary sushi rice is placed. Then, your choice of topping will be placed on center, and rolled like log. Point to make nice maki zushi is to roll tightly, putting pressure on your side of the mat. My mother always started off with placing bamboo mat first but then, placed over-sized saran on top,then, placed nori,rice, topping and rolled first round tightly,and pull off edge of saran and rolled making sure saran is not rolled into.
When you roll to log, make sure the log is tight enough and, with sharp knife, cut into pieces. After each cut, wipe the knife with wet cloth for clean cut.
** Inari zushi**
Inari zushi is stuffed sushi. Stuffing is vinegary sushi rice, and formed vinegary sushi rice is stuff into Abura age. Abura age is basically deep fried tofu if you will. Tofu is cut into slice,deep fried twice and it becomes like pouch. You can read on Abura age at wikipedia here and you can see what it looks like. Typically, abura age is cooked in mixture of soy sauce,sake, sugar, and stuffed with vinegary sushi rice inside. This is my another favorite type of sushi.
On the talk of deep fried tofu, my mother used to make deep fried tofu. Not to make Abura age. She cut the firm tofu into 1" square or so and dusted with potato flour (katakuri ko), deep fry them. We ate it by dipping those into soy sauce dipping sauce: mix equal amount of soy sauce,Mirin (sweet rice wine) and a little bit of grated ginger and dilute with boiled water to your liking.
**Oshi zushi **
Oshi zushi use rectangular shaped wooden box. You will fill the bottom with vinegary sushi rice and place broiled anago (conger) or marinated mackerel on top
** Chirashi zushi **
In previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: sushi and soy sauce " , I wrote on chirashi zushi, but it is basically vinegary sushi rice is scooped on plate, and scatter whatever toppings you like over the rice. My mother's specialty sushi dish is sushi cake. You can read how she made it in previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: sushi and soy sauce ".
If you could find a good sushi restaurant, it maybe fun for you to place an order in Japanese. Some Japanese sushi restaurant/sushi bar have menu list with Japanese word for each topping, and even if you did not order sushi, fun to read through and learn easy Japanese word
Among sushi restaurant, there is one sushi restaurant that stands out from the crowd in Japan. The place was called "Atom boy". Their sushi style is Kaiten zushi. What is Kaiten zushi? At their restaurant, sushi chef make sushi and plate them up on appropriate color plate and put them onto conveyor belt that going around the table area. Customers pick up what they like from the belt and check is based on color of the plate. One plate color represent from one dollar plate to four dollars plate. Waitress count the number of plate stuck up on side of table and look the color of the plate and bill the customers. You can also talk to sushi chef and ask them to make sushi for you. Typically, one plate has 2 pieces of whatever sushi you choose, and conveyor belt also has fruits plate,desert plate etc.My favorite sushi topping was tempura shrimp and tuna topping, and I like broiled eel too. I think I like all kinds of sushi topping except Ikura (salmon roe) and Uni (sea urchin)..that kind of stuff. This place was go to place when we felt like eating out. I remember we visited them quite often when I was a kid. You can see what the kaiten sushi restaurant look like here .
Here are some quick Japanese lesson for sushi topping for you.
- tamago (egg)
- toro (fatty tuna)
- saba (mackerel)
- tako (octopus)
- ikura (salmon roe)
- Uni (sea urchin)
- maguro (tuna)
- ebi (prawn)
- anago (broiled eel)
Bellow is words typically used at sushi restaurant in Japan.Knowing a couple of these could help communicate with them better.
If you visit sushi restaurant in Japan, you will be asked what kinds of topping you like for your sushi. When they mean "seafood topping", they will use the word "neta". They will ask you what kinds of neta would you like. It usually means asking for topping choice and generally pointing to seafood topping.
Have you seen vinegary pink colored thinly sliced ginger pieces on side of sushi you ordered or maybe on side of eel dish called unagi donburi? The vinegary pink colored thinly sliced ginger is called "Gari" in Japanese. You can see picture of Gari (vinegary ginger slice) at wikipedia here.
Generally, sushi is served with hot Japanese tea in large ceramic cup. They call this hot green Japanese tea in big cup "agari".
When you like bill, you will say "okanjyou onegai shimasu." Okanjyou" is word for "bill/check" and "onegai shimasu" is word for "please" in English.
In reality, sushi is name for type of dish and topping can be anything from egg, shrimp,fish such as tuna,broiled eel,octopus, squid, cucumber,ham, corn, tuna salad, imitation crab mixed with mayo and cucumber etc..
Common ingredients in sushi dish is vinegary rice. Depending on what kinds of sushi you would order at sushi restaurant or you make at home, how it looks and ingredients vary.
** If you were interested in making your own style of sushi, you can see sushi recipe in previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: Sushi and Soy sauce".
So, I wrote there are more than one kind of sushi. What are they, you may wonder.
** Nigiri zushi**
Nigiri zushi is sushi made by hand. For those type of sushi, vinegary rice is formed to about 3" long log, top it off with your choice of topping. Generally, it is seafood such as squid,octopus,salmon,tuna,eel etc. Popular nigiri zushi is vinegary rice formed by hand, then a little bit of wasabi paste on rice and top it off with melt in the mouth "tuna" sashimi. Usually, it comes with soy sauce on side and you can dip sushi into soy sauce and eat it.
Wasabi paste is very very hot. A little goes long way.. You may have not seen what wasabi looks like before being grated to paste. Wikipedia had picture and detail on wasabi. To read on wasabi at wikipedia,please click here .
** Temaki zushi **
Temaki zushi is "make your own sushi" kind of thing. My mother used to make temaki zushi on special occasion. Typically, we had large wooden tub specially made for making of vinegary sushi rice on center of the kitchen table. Then, my mother cut the large sheet of nori (laver) into about your hand size,and stuck them up on one plate. Then, she made a couple of toppings, plate them up separately and put the plate around the tub. Then, each family member got one piece of nori (laver), place the nori over one's palm, scoop up vinegary rice with shamoji (wooden spoon), and put rice on top of nori (laver) ,choose topping and place them over rice and roll like flower bouquet, and eat it. This type of sushi is kind of dish that sit,talk with family and eat kind of thing just like fondue dish in a sense.
** Gunkan maki **
Gunkan maki is sushi made by hand,but Nori (laver) is wrapped around the vinegary rice ball and choice of topping is on it.Generally,topping is something that are hard to keep its shape such as whole corn kennels mixed with mayonnaise, ikra (salmon roe), Uni (sea urchin).
** Maki zushi **
Maki zushi is made by spreading nori (laver) on a bamboo mat, then, vinegary sushi rice is placed. Then, your choice of topping will be placed on center, and rolled like log. Point to make nice maki zushi is to roll tightly, putting pressure on your side of the mat. My mother always started off with placing bamboo mat first but then, placed over-sized saran on top,then, placed nori,rice, topping and rolled first round tightly,and pull off edge of saran and rolled making sure saran is not rolled into.
When you roll to log, make sure the log is tight enough and, with sharp knife, cut into pieces. After each cut, wipe the knife with wet cloth for clean cut.
** Inari zushi**
Inari zushi is stuffed sushi. Stuffing is vinegary sushi rice, and formed vinegary sushi rice is stuff into Abura age. Abura age is basically deep fried tofu if you will. Tofu is cut into slice,deep fried twice and it becomes like pouch. You can read on Abura age at wikipedia here and you can see what it looks like. Typically, abura age is cooked in mixture of soy sauce,sake, sugar, and stuffed with vinegary sushi rice inside. This is my another favorite type of sushi.
On the talk of deep fried tofu, my mother used to make deep fried tofu. Not to make Abura age. She cut the firm tofu into 1" square or so and dusted with potato flour (katakuri ko), deep fry them. We ate it by dipping those into soy sauce dipping sauce: mix equal amount of soy sauce,Mirin (sweet rice wine) and a little bit of grated ginger and dilute with boiled water to your liking.
**Oshi zushi **
Oshi zushi use rectangular shaped wooden box. You will fill the bottom with vinegary sushi rice and place broiled anago (conger) or marinated mackerel on top
** Chirashi zushi **
In previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: sushi and soy sauce " , I wrote on chirashi zushi, but it is basically vinegary sushi rice is scooped on plate, and scatter whatever toppings you like over the rice. My mother's specialty sushi dish is sushi cake. You can read how she made it in previous entry titled "Japanese cooking: sushi and soy sauce ".
If you could find a good sushi restaurant, it maybe fun for you to place an order in Japanese. Some Japanese sushi restaurant/sushi bar have menu list with Japanese word for each topping, and even if you did not order sushi, fun to read through and learn easy Japanese word
Among sushi restaurant, there is one sushi restaurant that stands out from the crowd in Japan. The place was called "Atom boy". Their sushi style is Kaiten zushi. What is Kaiten zushi? At their restaurant, sushi chef make sushi and plate them up on appropriate color plate and put them onto conveyor belt that going around the table area. Customers pick up what they like from the belt and check is based on color of the plate. One plate color represent from one dollar plate to four dollars plate. Waitress count the number of plate stuck up on side of table and look the color of the plate and bill the customers. You can also talk to sushi chef and ask them to make sushi for you. Typically, one plate has 2 pieces of whatever sushi you choose, and conveyor belt also has fruits plate,desert plate etc.My favorite sushi topping was tempura shrimp and tuna topping, and I like broiled eel too. I think I like all kinds of sushi topping except Ikura (salmon roe) and Uni (sea urchin)..that kind of stuff. This place was go to place when we felt like eating out. I remember we visited them quite often when I was a kid. You can see what the kaiten sushi restaurant look like here .
Here are some quick Japanese lesson for sushi topping for you.
- tamago (egg)
- toro (fatty tuna)
- saba (mackerel)
- tako (octopus)
- ikura (salmon roe)
- Uni (sea urchin)
- maguro (tuna)
- ebi (prawn)
- anago (broiled eel)
Bellow is words typically used at sushi restaurant in Japan.Knowing a couple of these could help communicate with them better.
If you visit sushi restaurant in Japan, you will be asked what kinds of topping you like for your sushi. When they mean "seafood topping", they will use the word "neta". They will ask you what kinds of neta would you like. It usually means asking for topping choice and generally pointing to seafood topping.
Have you seen vinegary pink colored thinly sliced ginger pieces on side of sushi you ordered or maybe on side of eel dish called unagi donburi? The vinegary pink colored thinly sliced ginger is called "Gari" in Japanese. You can see picture of Gari (vinegary ginger slice) at wikipedia here.
Generally, sushi is served with hot Japanese tea in large ceramic cup. They call this hot green Japanese tea in big cup "agari".
When you like bill, you will say "okanjyou onegai shimasu." Okanjyou" is word for "bill/check" and "onegai shimasu" is word for "please" in English.
this has complete information about the different types of sushi... thanks
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