Geeking Out: Sushi

[mirrorshard]

Noriko Takiguchi writes about what sushi is, how it is said that one should enjoy it, and why, in a seven-part (so far) series.

The history of sushi goes back as long as to B.C.400 in South East Asia, where people used uncooked rice to marinate raw fish for preservation purposes. Fish was sprinkled with salt and buried in rice. Rice’s fermentation helped fish last long, and provided a rare source of protein at that time. Only fish was served and rice was thrown away.

When this kind of preserved fish came north to Japan around 8th century, people started eating both the fish and the rice. The rice was soft and slightly sour due to the fermentation. This sourness was later replaced by just adding vinegar to cooked rice, when people in Edo era (17th century to mid 19th century) wanted to eat sushi quickly without waiting the fermentation time. But this was not yet the sushi as we know it. The vinegar rice was served not only with fish but also with some vegetables and cooked dried food. We still see developed versions of this kind in many parts of Japan.

http://bayosphere.com/node/973 is the last part, the only one from which all the others are linked.

(via http://xplane.com/xblog/index.php )

Comments

[malvino.livejournal.com]

Cor, cheers :)

I have wondered why sushi before, but not enough to actually find out. I had some vague idea that it was linked to some religious vegitarianism and fish being a bit boring normally.

[kake]

I've only just finished skimming the link; I was only replying to the comments before.

I am sceptical of the idea that salt-sprinkled fish will give out enough liquid to make dry, uncooked rice edible, but as a Harold McGee disciple I shall test it properly before I pooh-pooh it entirely.

I've heard the suggestion that the tamago is the great indicator of the quality of a restaurant before, several times, but I don't really find this to be so. For me, the quality of the rice is a much bigger thing. As the article correctly says, it should be lukewarm and not cold; that simple thing makes a huge difference.

I like the idea of making sushi with brown rice. I've tried it lots of times but haven't figured out the right way to make it work yet.

I also like the idea of freezing sushi. I saw a leaflet advertising frozen sushi at Lung Wah Chong in Oxford about eight years ago. Hurrah for food science/