The most popular Japanese dish

Hello to those that are reading! We hope you have been enjoying our food culture blog lately. We have been posting up quite frequently this week and hope those who are reading are enjoying this :)

Today's post will be about sushi, now who DOESN'T love sushi..!

Sushi is one of the most well-known dishes of Japanese cuisine. It consists of rice dressed with vinegar that is shaped into bite-sized pieces and topped with raw or cooked fish, or formed into a roll with fish, vegetables or egg and wrapped in seaweed or stuffed in a tiny tofu pouch.

Contrary to popular belief, sushi does not mean "raw fish" -- it actually refers to rice that has been prepared with vinegar, sugar and salt.

For those people who haven't tried sushi (basically have been living under a rock their whole lives), sushi is chewy and somewhat sticky to the touch! It sounds pretty gross, but let me tell you, sushi is one of the world's greatest inventions.

The filling that is inside the sushi can vary. It is usually based around raw or cooked fish like tuna, salmon, eel, sashimi, prawn, crab, chicken or beef. The vegetables that accompany the meat/fish can include avocado, cucumber, lettuce and many more! The choices are limitless.

There are many different types of sushi! These are some of the most popular ones:


Mazizushi: Rice with raw fish/chicken/beef/crab/cooked fish/prawn/crab and vegetables. The most popular type of sushi and also the most variable! It can differ in the ingredients used and also the thickness. The sushi can also be "inside-out" with the rice being on the outside and the seaweed on the inside.

Nigiri: Small rice balls with fish or shellfish on top. Can also have tuna, shrimp, eel, squid, octopus and fried egg on top.







Gunkan: Small seaweed cups filled with rice and fish eggs! It is not something that everyone may like! Therefore this is quite a daring type of sushi to try.







Temaki: Similar to Nirmaki, except are cone shaped.









Inari: Sushi rice in a tiny deep fried tofu bag.








Sushi is usually formed with the help of a woven bamboo/wooden mat. First the seaweed is placed onto the mat, then the rice and the fillings. It is then rolled into a cylindrical shape using the mat.

These sushi can be found in almost every shopping centre! Just check the food court and you can find many different sushi booths that sell different types of sushi as well as combination boxes that include all of these!

Sorry if we made you hungry after reading this, hahaha. Thank you!

- Jenny

Reference:

Sushi. 2016. Sushi. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2038html. [Accessed 7/05/16]

All photos from Google images