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Sushi is a world of tantalizing, clean, fresh flavors. Pristinely beautiful, plump, and chewy white rice, glistening with freshness and flavored with a fragrant vinegar dressing, is topped or mixed with fresh vegetables, cheese, tofu, or whatever you desire.
 | Notice there's no mention of raw fish. Why? Because there's a huge misconception that sushi means raw fish, when it really means vinegared rice or items served on or in vinegared rice. This inaccurate belief probably came to be because sushi bars, where most people first experience sushi, offer gorgeous sashimi (sliced raw seafood) dishes, and sushi is frequently topped or made with raw seafood. |
When you consider that prepared sushi rice functions like bread in a sandwich, you begin to understand how versatile sushi is and how it can be a favorite food in any cook's repertoire, from vegetarians to fish, poultry, and meat lovers.
Appreciating sushi
Sushi is not only beautiful to look at and fun to make, it also has lots going for it:
- Sushi tastes good and makes you feel good. Sushi doesn't contain big hunks of any food item. It's all small bites of flavorful foods that leave you feeling satisfied, but not stuffed or heavy.
- Sushi is good for you. It consists predominately of lowfat, high-protein, and complex-carbohydrate ingredients and is rich in vitamins and minerals. Sushi is the perfect food for a health-conscious nation.
- Sushi exposes you to tastes and textures you may not have experienced before — it's an adventure! Your first taste of lively pickled daikon radish (takuan), slippery and chewy longneck clam, or the buttery richness of raw tuna will wake you up to a whole world of exciting food choices!
- Sushi is an incredibly well-designed food. Rice vinegar, wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce all have antibacterial properties, which are helpful when working with raw fish.
- Sushi is frugal. Nothing is wasted in Japanese cuisine, and sushi is proof of that attitude. When you order raw sweet shrimp (amaebi) at a sushi bar, not only do you enjoy the shrimp, but knowledgeable sushi lovers ask for the heads grilled. This sushi treat may sound weird and look strange, but it tastes terrific!
Sushi's future shines brightly. Chances are, if you can't find a sushi bar in every country in the world today, you will soon. Traditional techniques used in making popular types of sushi will still be around, but it's anybody's guess where sosaku-zushi, or creative sushi, will take us!
Enjoying each and every piece
To get the most out of your sushi experiences, relish each piece of sushi with all your senses. When savoring sushi, do the following:
- Look: See the beauty of the ingredients.
- Taste: Pay attention to the different flavors in the sushi and how they complement one another.
- Feel: Enjoy the different textures of sushi ingredients in your mouth.
- Smell: Savor the scent of the sea in fresh seafood, and the scent of the earth in vegetables.
Getting to know the different types of sushi
Few things are more dazzling than a large platter full of a variety of sushi. The rainbow of colors and textures are a feast for the eyes — and for your palate! Here's a brief look at the different types of sushi:
Chirashi-zushi (chee-rah-shee-zoo-shee), Scattered Sushi: This style is like a sushi salad — the ingredients are scattered or mixed in the sushi rice, giving you the taste of the sushi with no shaping or rolling involved. Just put prepared sushi rice in a bowl, mix in or top it with everyday or special ingredients, and you're all set. Make it in individual portions, or serve it in a big bowl so people can help themselves.
Gunkan-maki-zushi (goon-kahn-mah-kee-zoo-shee), Battleship Sushi: Sometimes you'll want to make finger sushi that's topped with very loose or finely chopped ingredients, such as salmon roe or spicy guacamole. These luscious toppings would fall off the rice if it weren't for a tiny collar of nori that's wrapped around the rice ball. In the process, the rice ball takes on the look of a tiny battleship. The rice ball used in battleship sushi is the same shape rice ball used in finger sushi, made by hand or with a mold.
Maki-zushi (mah-kee-zoo-shee), Sliced Sushi Rolls: Everybody loves making and eating sliced sushi rolls. Medium-size rolls are the easiest for beginners to tackle because they're big enough to get a comfortable grip on. Thin rolls with just one filling ingredient or thick rolls with four or five filling ingredients can require a little more practice to handle well.
Futo-maki-zushi (foo-toh-mah-kee-zoo-shee): Thick (2- to 2 1/2-inch wide) sliced rolls
Chu-maki zyshi (choo- mah-kee-zoo-shee): Medium (1-1/2 inch-wide) sliced rolls
Hoso-maki-zushi (hoh-soh-mah-kee-zoo-shee): Thin (1-inch wide) sliced rolls
Nigiri-zushi (nee-gee-ree-zoo-shee), Finger Sushi: Nigiru means "to gently squeeze," which is what you do when you pick up a bite-size portion of sushi rice and gently squeeze it into a slender oval ball, forming finger sushi (nigiri-zushi). Sushi chefs do this hundreds of times a day, quickly shaping the rice by using the palm and fingers of only one hand. Next, with lightning speed, they press the rice ball onto some delectable topping, like tuna or butterflied shrimp. Only after each finger sushi is complete do they set it down on the counter.
Temaki-zushi (teh-mah-kee-zoo-shee), Hand Rolls: These rolls look more like pointed ice cream cones made out of crisp nori and filled with sushi rice, fresh fish, vegetables, or whatever you like to eat. You hold hand rolls upright in your hand like an ice cream cone and munch away.
 | Hand rolls are made as you eat them because the moist sushi rice filling softens the crisp nori quickly. But this is no big deal because hand rolls are so easy to make. |
Ura-maki-zushi (oo-rah-mah-kee-zoo-shee), Inside-Out Rolls: This type of sushi roll exposes the sushi rice on the outside. They're perfect do-ahead sushi if you use cooked seafood, meats, or vegetables. And they're actually easier to make than other sliced sushi rolls. In those rolls, the nori is on the outside of the sticky rice, but in the inside-out rolls, the exposed sushi rice helps stick everything together when you roll it up.
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