I recall it being a completely new experience, although one today that everyone accepts as common place. You walk into the sushi bar, and the sushi chefs behind the bar yell out Japanese words of welcome, and it seems like the person you’re with is a regular and knows the chefs and the menu as old friends.

The sushi scene has much evolved in North America, and today, almost everyone has heard of sushi and tried it, and millions have become sushi addicts like me. Of course there are people who can’t bring themselves to accepting the idea of eating raw fish, possibly out of fear of catching a disease from the un-cooked food. But this fear is unfounded, as millions of people consume sushi each year in North America, and the incidents of sushi-related food-poisoning are negligible.

Sushi has become wildly popular in metropolitan centers with diverse cultural interests, specially those with sizeable Asian communities, and those that are popular with Asian tourists. As such, Sushi restaurants are concentrated up and down the west coast of North America with sushi bars being easy to find on most street corners in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Vancouver. Over the past quarter century since its arrival in North America, the sushi dining experience has made a significant change in a number of key markets, which has broadened its appeal. The development of the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet has changed the way many people have come to know sushi.

Initially, the sushi dinning experience was only for the well-healed. The raw seafood ingredients that make up the basics of the sushi menu include tuna, salmon, shrimp, scallops, eel, mackerel, squid, shark-fin, abalone, and red snapper. It is imperative that the raw seafood be properly cleaned, stored and prepared, and in most markets (even on the west coast) these raw ingredients are costly when compared to other foods. Therefore, the cost of eating sushi has historically been expensive. Sushi bar eating is typically marketed in an a la carte fashion whereby the diner pays for each piece of sushi individually. Although a simple tuna roll chopped into three or four pieces might costs two or three dollars, a more extravagant serving such a piece of eel or shark-fin  sushi can easily cost $4 to $6 or more, depending on the restaurant. It is easy to spend $100 for a nice sushi dinner for two at an a la carte sushi bar, and this is well out of reach for many diners.

The sushi dining business model changed over the past decade. Some clever restaurant operators saw a new opportunity to make the sushi dining experience more of a mass-market business opportunity, instead of a dining experience only for the rich. They devised a way to mass-produce sushi, purchasing ingredients in bulk, training and employing sushi chefs in high-volume sushi kitchens, where a team of 5 to 15 skilled sushi chefs work non-stop creating sushi dishes in large capacity settings, where such restaurants can typically serve several hundred diners per night. It was this business model that devised the rotating conveyer belt, where the sushi plates are placed on the belt and cycled through the restaurant so diners can hand-pick their desired sushi right off the belt at their table side. However, the key marketing concept borne from this model was the single price, all-you-can-eat sushi buffet concept, where the diner pays a flat price for all the sushi he or she can consume during a single seating, typically capped at two hours by most sushi buffet restaurants. Most major cities in North America will have an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet restaurant, although they are predominantly situated on the west coast.

Outside of Japan, without a doubt, the city of Vancouver, Canada, has more sushi restaurants than any other city. Part of the explanation might be the fact that Vancouver has the largest Asian immigrant population in North America, and it is a very popular tourist destination for tourists from all over Asia. Many of Vancouver’s immigrants seek self-employment, and open restaurants, many of which cater to the sushi market which is ever-growing. The Vancouver suburb of Richmond has a population exceeding 100,000, and the vast majority of its residents are made up of Asian immigrants that came to Canada over the past two decades. Richmond probably has the greatest density of Asian restaurants to be found anywhere outside of Asia, with every strip mall and shopping center sporting several competing eating establishments. Of course sushi is an integral part of the Richmond restaurant business, and diners can find everything from $5 lunch stops, to $20 sushi buffet dinner mega-restaurants.

Vancouver’s lower mainland (which has a population of some 2 million) is also the world’s undisputed capital for all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants. Given Vancouver’s fame for its abundance of fresh seafood due to its Pacific Ocean location, the city’s sushi restaurants have become world famous for trying to outdo each other by offering superb quality all-you-can-eat sushi, at the best prices to be found anywhere on the planet. Quality sushi in Vancouver is priced at a fraction of what one would pay in Japan, and many Japanese tourists marvel at Vancouver’s huge selection of quality sushi restaurants. Some say Vancouver’s sushi offering meets and exceeds that found in Japan, certainly in terms of price! Very few people in Japan can afford to eat sushi other than for a special occasion. However, sushi is so affordable in Vancouver that residents and tourists alike can eat it on a regular basis, without breaking the bank! In the past decade, the price of eating sushi in Vancouver has tumbled, with sushi restaurants literally on every street corner, and the fierce competition has driven the cost of a quality all-you-can-eat sushi dinner down to the $CAD 15-20 range. An all-you-can-eat sushi dinner for two, with alcoholic drinks can easily be had for less than $CAD 50, which is half what one would pay at a North American a la carte sushi bar, and probably one quarter what one would pay for a comparable meal in Japan!

In the United States, the greatest density of all-you-can-eat sushi buffets is found not in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Miami, but in Las Vegas of all places. Las Vegas is famous for taking what is famous elsewhere, and relocating it to Sin City and making it bigger and better. And sushi is no exception! Most of the major casino buffets offer sushi in one form or another on their daily menus. However, the city’s best all-you-can-eat sushi is found at the biggest casino buffets including those at Mandalay Bay, Belagio, Paris, Aladdin, Rio and the Hilton. For non-casino buffets, try Todai, which is located in the Desert Passage Mall at Aladdin. Todai offers a superb all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, which like the casino buffets, also includes all-you-can-eat Alaska King Crab legs. As a bonus, Todai also offers many Japanese sushi delicacies not offered at the casinos, but is priced at approximately $30 US, whereas the casino buffets are slightly loss costly priced in the $20-$25 range. No matter how you slice it, or no matter how you pick it up with your chop sticks, sushi is considerably more expensive in Las Vegas than what you’d pay in Vancouver!

Of course other cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, and others have their fair share of all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants too. But probably the best sushi in the United States is found in Honolulu, Hawaii. The reason being that Hawaii is but several hours flying time away from Japan, and it is wildly popular as a tourist destination for many Japanese. Hawaii also has a sizeable Japanese immigrant community and has ready access to exotic and fresh seafood, all the necessary ingredients for a thriving sushi restaurant culture!

Dollar for dollar, there is no place in the world that can compete with Vancouver, Canada, for offering diners superb all-you-can-eat sushi, at bargain prices! So much so, one Vancouver entrepreneur has opened a website completely devoted to the North American all-you-can-eat sushi scene. The www.SushiBuffets.com website provides a forum where all-you-can-eat sushi fans can rate and provide their own reviews of local sushi buffets.

Your spirit has memory too. It remembers moments of feeling fulfilled and satisfied; it remembers experiences of pleasure and play. If you are seeking more of these experiences in your life, it can help to “remind” yourself how they feel.

Many of my clients hire me to assist them in getting more out of their work. They want more satisfaction, more efficiency, more profit, more creativity, more camaraderie, and more fun. Some are in full-blown career changes, some are seeking the next job, and many want to improve things in the work they are currently doing. They ALL have one thing in common: they want to enjoy their work more.

Would you like to enjoy your work more? Having more practice with enjoyment can help you get there. Of course, you will still need to directly address what is going on at work, such as boundary issues, interpersonal dynamics, role limitations, pace, alignment with your values, and so forth.

But you also need to get more practice with pleasure and enjoyment. The single biggest mistake you can make is to put yourself on an austerity or scarcity program. If you are stressed and daunted by the challenges in front of you, you may be tempted to eliminate the pleasure, fun, and joy from your life – you may think you do not have time for them, given the pressing nature of your current challenges. But this is exactly when you need to experience that abundance and balance in your everyday life.

More pleasure in any part of your life supports you in creating more pleasure in your work life. Enjoyment in one part touches all parts. By stretching your spirit and body into full-term shape, you will know where to go! When you taste pleasure on a regular basis, you begin to navigate toward it more naturally. The more frequently and intensely you have it in your life, the more you will orient toward it when it is available, like a plant orienting toward sunlight.

When my daughter Sarah was in high school, she developed a love for sushi. She and her friends would sometimes go to their favorite sushi restaurant, located in a large renovated building with stores and restaurants on the first floor and offices above. While she sat and enjoyed sushi, she could see a particular sign that regularly caught her attention: “Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.” The CFA’s administrative offices were on 2nd floor of the building.

Around this time, she began to realize she was happiest as a hands-on, out-of-the-classroom learner. Her growing interest in astronomy plus regular contact with the CFA’s existence gave way to her imagining an internship for herself at the CFA (the observatory, not the offices) for her senior year. She went on to create just that, getting credit for an independent study in astronomy, and having an extraordinary experience working at the CFA observatory. All from indulging her sushi pleasure! Her saying “Yes!” to sushi opened up another “Yes!” in her life.

Following one passion often leads intuitively to another opening or opportunity. Being sensitive to those callings is key.

When you or someone you are close to is pregnant, you suddenly notice how many pregnant women there are around. When you buy a Camry, you see more Camrys around than you ever did before. When you make fun a part of your life, you find more opportunities for it than you used to think were possible. When you experience more pleasure anywhere in your life, you are more likely to manifest it in your work.

Coaching Tips:

1. Get very clear what experience you want more of in your work.

2. Identify the next steps you need to take to have more of that experience in your work.

3. Identify another arena in your life where you could have more of that same experience.

4. What are the next steps you could take to create it for yourself in this arena?

5. Take the next steps identified in steps 2 and 4.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you have the results you want.

7. Start over at step 1 with another experience you want more of.

First let’s have a brief overview of sushi for those who’ve never had it or those who have tried it but want to know more.

Sushi is the catch-all name for a wide variety of Japanese dishes.  The word sushi actually refers to rice with rice vinegar added.  Since this is a very basic and lightly flavored food, it is the many ingredients added to it that really define what dish you are eating.  The raw fish you have heard of is sashimi — which is a crucial ingredient of many types of sushi — but you can create delicious sushi with almost any ingredient that goes with rice.

In America by far the most common type of sushi is maki-sushi, or rice wrapped in seaweed.  The seaweed is called nori and forms the green skin you can see around sushi pieces.  For this reason maki-sushi are also called nori rolls.  Also popular are nigiri-sushi, small bars of rice topped with wasabi and sashimi.

It’s easy to include sushi in a healthy diet.  Think of the ingredients: rice, vegetables, and fish.  Not exactly a  heart-attack in the making; just the opposite in fact.  As long as you don’t go overboard on the rice it is extremely low in calories in addition to being low in fat.  While we chomp pork rinds and potato chips, the Japanese have sushi.  Care to guess which country has a longer average life span?

Let’s learn how to make a California roll, easily the most popular nori roll in America today.  You will need the following items, all of which should be easy to find in your supermarket’s oriental foods section or at your local Asian market:

Bamboo rolling matSushi rice (short or medium grain)Nori (squares of roasted seaweed)SaltSugarRice vinegarImitation crab meatAvocadoCucumberWasabiSoy sauce

Prepare the rice according to the directions on the package.  You will need about 3/4 cup cooked rice for each sushi roll, and most people will be full after eating 1 or 2 rolls.

In a small pan, place a tablespoon of vinegar and 1/3 tbsp of sugar and salt for each 3/4 cup of rice you are cooking.  Heat the resulting mixture briefly and stir until the sugar dissolves.  When the rice is almost done cooking, begin cutting your vegetables.  Peel a cucumber and cut it into long thin strips, about a 1/4″ around.  Same for the avocado.  If you bought powdered wasabi prepare it also (just mix in tiny amounts of water until you get a thick paste).

Once the rice is done, remove it from heat and slowly fold in the vinegar mixture.  Then lay the rice out on a sheet of waxpaper or a cutting board and allow it to cool (traditionally this is done by fanning the rice while slowly cutting and folding it with a special rice spatula).  The rice should be slightly damp from the vinegar and sticky, but not wet and mushy, adjust the amount of vinegar mixture you add as needed.  Getting the rice right is the most difficult part of making sushi, but a little practice will teach you what works.

Once the vinegared rice has cooled off, you are ready to put it all together.  Lay your bamboo rolling mat in front of you horizontally (the bamboo sticks should run left-right).  Take a sheet of nori and lay it on the rolling mat.  For best luck with the rice, keep water handy to dip your fingers in.  Spread a layer of rice on the nori, covering about 3/4 of it.  The part of the nori not covered in rice will hold the roll closed (think of the glue strip on an envelope or the gum on a cigarette paper).

Place a strip of avocado and a strip of cucumber on the rice, and top it with crab meat.  Now wet your fingers with cold water and dampen the part of the nori you left uncovered. Carefully roll the sushi using the mat.  If this sounds complicated, don’t worry.  It’s as simple as rolling up a sleeping bag or a beach towel, and it will be obvious to you once you actually have the ingredients in front of you.

Take the resulting roll and cut it into bite sized slices, usually 6 per roll.  If you are having trouble cutting the roll without damaging it, try dipping your knife into water between each cut.  Lay the pieces flat and they will look like little colorful discs.  Serve with wasabi and soy sauce on the side.

If you feel brave and want to try do-it-yourself sashimi, here are a few safety tips.  First of all, understand that millions of people eat raw fish every day without getting sick.  However, most of them live right next to the sea where fresh fish is abundant.  For many land-locked Americans this isn’t the case.  Fish that is prepared for shipping to a grocery store in Boise is not handled in the same way as that bound for a San Francisco sushi bar.  Look for fish that is specially labeled as sushi-grade.  Avoid freshwater fish, with the notable exception of Salmon, which spends much of its life at sea.  When buying whole fish, make sure the gills are bright red and not slimy, the eyes should be transparent and not cloudy, and there should be no fishy odor.

Take up a healthy and nutritious sushi addiction today.  It may take you a while to get the rice and the rolling right, but once you are experienced you’ll be able to whip out several nori rolls in no time.

History

So what’s the big deal about sushi? If you live in the Far East, sushi is nothing special. Their cultural staples of rice and fish make sushi a very unremarkable phenomenon. In fact, the concept of sushi dates back to a very practical purpose in 7th Century China when fish needed to be preserved for long periods of time. Previously, the fish had been packed in salt, which helped ferment the fish over a few months. But who wants to wait for months just to have a piece of salty fish?

In time, it was discovered that fish could be preserved just as well by rolling the fish in rice that had been soaked in vinegar. Not only was this tastier, but it allowed the fish to ferment in a matter of days rather than months. Once the fish was ready, the rice was usually discarded, but with drought and food shortage, people began eating the rice and the fish together for the nutrients.

Chef Yohei is credited with originating the first types of sushi in the 1800s when he served fish wrapped in rice to his friends at a dinner party. He created two styles of sushi named after two cities in Japan: Edo (present day Tokyo) and Osaka. The sushi that came from Osaka is most akin to what you’d be served at a sushi restaurant today, as they were known for blending rice with many different ingredients, especially fish, to form a decorative presentation. They also took advantage of the rich variety of seafood and fish in the area by placing a small piece of fish on a pad of seasoned rice to create nigirizushi. Today’s sushi chefs have come a long way since Yohei’s time, but they still use the same techniques and principles when constructing their rolls.

Sushi Sophistication

Even if you’ve heard about sushi and you think it sounds interesting, it can be intimidating to visit a sushi restaurant without knowing how to order. Let’s start with the menu:

You have some choices as to how you’d like your sushi to look:

-    Nigri – a small piece of fish placed on a mound of rice, often secured with a small band of nori or seaweed. Some restaurants place a bit of wasabi in between the rice and the fish for added flavor.

-    Maki – probably the most recognizable form of sushi, the ingredients are rolled inside rice and nori and cut into bite-size pieces.

-    Temaki – cone-shaped hand rolls that include a great deal of fish and other ingredients wrapped in a large piece of nori. Because they are so large, they are eaten with hands rather than chopsticks.

Once you’ve decided what form your sushi should take, it’s simply a matter of choosing ingredients. Modern sushi restaurants in the United States pride themselves on creative rolls with interesting ingredients, so it pays to be adventurous. Below are some of the most popular types of nigri that will help you translate the menu from Japanese to English:

Magura = Tuna

Tai = Red Snapper

Awabi = Abolone

Hirame = Halibut

Saba = Mackerel

Ikura = Salmon Roe

Toro = Fatty Tuna

Ika = Squid

Mirugai    = Giant Clam

Hamachi    = Yellow Tail

Ebi = Shrimp

Uni = Sea Urchin

Tako = Octopus

Sake = Smoked Salmon

Unagi = Eel

Anago = Sea Eel

Kani = Crab

Tomago = Egg

Not a fish fan? There are plenty of vegetarian rolls and other dishes. A very popular vegetarian dish is inari, which consists of a thin piece of fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice. It’s quite tasty and a great choice for anyone.

While waiting for the meal, you can prepare your chopsticks. Some restaurants may have reusable chopsticks, which don’t require any preparation, but most places will have wooden chopsticks that need to be broken apart. You may want to rub the sticks together after they have been broken to remove any splinters. When you are not using your chopsticks, lean them on the provided rest or on the soy sauce dish. Still asking for the kiddy chopsticks with the rubber band attaching them at the top? Check out the instructions at eHow.com and make yourself learn once and for all.

The sushi will arrive at the table on some sort of wooden plank or long dish. You may want to pour some soy sauce into your small dish (low-sodium is usually available upon request) to serve as a dipping sauce for the sushi. Accompanying the sushi will be two small mounds of Japanese condiments:

-    Wasabi – known as Japanese horseradish, the green pasty lump is quite spicy and made from the root of the wasabi plant. Many people mix it in with their soy sauce to add a spicy kick to their sushi when they dip. A very small amount, usually one chopstick-full provides more than enough spice for a small dish of soy sauce.

-    Ginger – this sweet, pickled condiment is used as a digestive aid or to cleanse the palate after the meal or in between rolls.

There’s no end to the types of sushi that can be created, so take your time ordering and try new things. Ask for any specials or what the sushi chef recommends and you’ll get the best of the best.

I Want to be a Sushi Chef

Sushi-making is undoubtedly an art, but crudely formed rice rolls are supposed to be relatively simple to make. Impress dinner guests with your new talent, but do a few practice rounds before you get to the real thing. It takes a while to get the knack.

The process itself is not hard, but it is difficult to explain without a visual aid. The best step-by-step instructions with pictures that I could find were at IMakeSushi.com. Their basic sushi-making directions are simple and easy to follow, which include a standard roll, inside-out roll and nigri. The site also has instructions on how to make more complicated rolls if you get really adventurous.

There may not be two words as distantly removed from each other as ‘rustic’ and ’sushi’, but my reaction was the same to my first encounters with each.  My appreciation and understanding of ‘rustic decor’ and ’sushi’ gradually evolved from aversion to amazement.  Permit me to explain…

Many years ago I was employed by the American division of a large Japanese company.  As a senior member of management, I was required to make numerous trips to Japan, and entertain Japanese visitors when they visited our facility.  Regardless of the country in which we found ourselves, sushi was the preferred carte du jour.  Price was never an object, but regardless of the cost of the meal, my early experiences with the taste and texture only served to make me drink more Sapporo.  I simply did not have a love-at-first-bite appreciation for raw fish.

Sometime after those first unimpressive gastronomic introductions, something changed and I cannot tell you why or what was the cause, but I began to find sushi palatable.  Before long I found it irresistible.  To this day, sushi is a preferred dish of mine and I will often go out of my way to discover a good sushi restaurant.  Undoubtedly you must be wondering what the fine-tuning of my taste buds has to do with rustic dйcor.

My early encounters with rustic furniture were similar to my sushi experiences.  The first few times I was exposed to rustic furniture (stick chairs, twig tables, et al) I was not overwhelmed.  My education in furniture design was what you might call “classical”, in that I had a serious appreciation for the graceful lines of a Queen Anne chair with carved scallop shells on the knees of its cabriole legs.  Thomas Chippendale’s “Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director” was a mainstay in my shop and I referred to it often for inspiration when building a fine piece of mahogany furniture.

Rustic furniture on the other hand was not refined or sophisticated and did not fill me with appreciation for the craftsman’s talent.  Much like my experiences with sushi, over time I began to develop a taste for rustic furniture’s functionality, its fascinating history and what the pieces began to say to me.  The process of bending delicate willow branches into a decorative chair that would support an adult’s weight and was cool, comfortable and resembled a woodlander’s throne is an awe-inspiring example of pure genius.  My initial lack of understanding evolved into meaningful appreciation.

In the same vein, using rough-hewn logs to create beds, tables, chairs and other functional pieces may not require the same fastidiousness employed by a master cabinetmaker, but the adaptation and utilization of nature is what makes one take notice.  It is not the amount of detail or the intricacy of design that makes a piece of rustic furniture exceptional.  It is what the piece says about itself, its function and how it relates with the surroundings that creates its delightful aura.

The intrinsic majesty of a tree is one of the reasons log homes and log furniture have such a loyal following.  A traditional furniture maker may choose to saw planks from the trunk and carve elaborate designs, while a rustic craftsman will fashion a piece that appears to have grown up from the floor itself.  With rustic and log furniture, form and function are complimented by nature’s distinctive characteristics.  People want to surround themselves with such natural grandeur and rustic dйcor speaks to that desire in a way that old Thomas Chippendale probably could not understand.

Twenty years ago, I thought of raw fish as bait, and gnarled branches on the forest floor were little more than kindling.  Over the years I have learned that if something is different than I think it should be, I might need to take another bite or one more look before I decide to spit it out or savor the taste.

Traditional Roll:  2-3 oz of sushi rice flattened (leaving a 1/4-inch gap on the far side for the seam) on a 1/2 sheet of nori; fill with cucumber and roll; cut into 8 pieces

Reverse Traditional Roll (this is what I call them):  3-4 oz of sushi rice flattened on a full sheet of Nori (leaving a 1/4-inch gap on the far side for the seam; flip nori over and add desired ingredients; roll in Makisu (bamboo mat); cut into 8 pieces

Hand Roll:  1-2 oz of sushi rice placed in the middle of 1/4 sheet of nori (quarter nori into squares); to the top of the rice add your vegetables or fish and then roll like a cone.

Nagiri Sushi:  this is a ball of rice with fish on top.   1 oz sushi rice; form into an oval; on the piece of fish add a dab of wasabi and then place, wasabi side down, on top of the rice

Sashimi:  Slices of fish with out rice.  Simply slice your fish thinly and place on a small plate.  You can top with jalapenos, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, ponzu, yuzu, sriracha, spicy mayo or vegetables.

Gunkan:  1 oz of sushi rice, two fingers wide; wrap the circumference with a strip of nori; top with vegetables, uni (sea urchin), or any type of roe.

Unagi (Seat Belt):  1 oz of sushi rice, two fingers wide; place fish on top; wrap with a  thin strip of nori

Chirashi: assorted sushi placed or scattered over sushi rice in a bowl.

Next time you go get some Sushi impress all of your friends with your new found knowledge.

Enjoy

Following the simple procedures below can have you making your own Inari sushi in no time.

Inari Sushi Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

4 deep fried tofu pieces, cut into half

2 cups prepared sushi rice

3 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons Mirin or sweet Japanese cooking wine

1 and ј cup Dashi or fish stock

Salt

ј cup shredded carrots (par-boiled)

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (toasted) optional

Pickled ginger (for garnish)

Steps

1. Since the tofu is deep-fried, it is necessary to get rid of the excess oils. Do this by soaking them in boiling water. Cool for a while, and then cut them into half. This makes 8 tofu pouches in all.

2. Combine soy sauce, sugar, dashi and mirin in a small pan. Bring to a boil over slow to medium heat. Add the tofu pockets to the boiling sauce. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, over slow heat, and completely covered. After 20 minutes, turn off heat, and drain the tofu. Squeeze them dry and set aside.

3. Combine sushi rice, carrots, and the toasted sesame seeds.

4. Stuff the rice mixture into the cut tofu, carefully folding over the ends to secure it.

5. Arrange in a plate and garnish with the pickled ginger.

This recipe yields 8 servings of Inari Sushi

Some useful tips:

• Some canned tofu are seasoned and already cut into serving pouches. Therefore, you can do away with the simmering in soy-sauce and mirin mixture. However, boiling the tofu in the sauce is most ideal, as it will ensure more flavor.

• Mirin is a kind of Japanese cooking wine, sort of a sweeter version of the usual sake. The mixture in making this wine usually consists of steamed mochigome rice, shochu (Japanese liquor), and komekoji (rice yeast). These are then fermented to make mirin. There are actually two types of mirin available in the market. Hon mirin contains 14 percent alcohol. Shin mirin has less than 1 percent alcohol, and is therefore more ideal for cooking. Shin Mirin is often bottled and has a yellow gold color. Mirin is also used to prepare seasoning for sushi rice.

• Aburage is often confused with Atsuage. While both are soybean products, and are deep fried, aburage is of the thinner variety. Atsuage is also triangular in shape, thick, and ideal for simmered soups, added in stir fries, or served with soy sauce. Aburage is often shaped into squares and rectangles. This makes the aburage perfect when stuffed with sushi rice and made into Inari Sushi.

• Dashi or fish stock is relatively easy to make. A cup of Katsuobushi or dried fish flakes can be combined with 2-3 cups of water, and then boiled over low heat. Then the fish flakes can be strained to retain the fish stock.

- When Sushi is presented in a roll of seaweed, (called nori) the name is Maki.

- When presented in a shape of a little ball, with fish (Salmon, Prawn, Tuna)  placed over the ball of rice it would be called Nigiri.

- Little balls of rice with a strip of Nori around filled with vegetables or any kind of Roe (fish eggs), like Salmon Roe will be called Gunkan.

- Sashimi is just raw fish without rice and there is a lot more, just to name a few……..

The most important tips for an excellent homemade sushi:

First you have to make sure that you have all the equipment necessary to make your sushi, like the sushi mat, cling film (BELIEVE IT OR NOT This is going to come in very handy – A little secrect that helps alot when Rolling the perfect Sushi Roll), cutting board, a sharp knife, and  a potThen make sure you have all the ingredients necessary for sushi, like: Nori (sea weed), short grain rice, Wasabi, Pickled Ginger, Soy sauce, rice vinegar or your own homemade vinegar for sushi, the ingredients primarily depend on the recipe you have chosen.

How to make the perfect sushi rice

- First you have to rinse the rice(short grain) very well, until the water is clear (about 8 to 9 times),

- Place the rice in a pot and cover with clean water. The water level should be approximately 2,5cm   above the level of the rice. Cook on a average fire, covered, until the water is boiling, this should take approximately 10 min. Then lower the flame and cook for 6 to 7 minutes more.

Finished this, by raising the flame (Hot flame is required) for 10 seconds.

Rest for 15 minutes, and most important is that the pot should not be opened as the steam plays a important role in getting the Sushi Rice to perfection.

- Put the rice in a pot or bowl – Wood or Plastic (Do not use metal or glass as the materials of these products retain heat, WHERE as we want the exact opposite to happen.)

- Pour Rice Vinegar ( or HomeMade Vinegar – to be found on my blog with loads more info regarding Chef Secrets) on the rice once again approximately 2/3 of the dressing, slowly while stirring the rice smoothly with a spatula or spoon (preferably wood). (1 cup per each kilo of rice and 1 Ѕ of rice vinegar per kilo of rice)

- Stir well so that the dressing is impregnated. Leave to rest for 10 minutes and cover with a humid and clean cloth. Stir from time to time.Once the rice has cooled down it will be ready to use.

Some Truths About Sushi

Making sushi can be done in several ways, whether rolled in nori sheets, stuffed inside tofu pouches, or even scattered over vinegared rice. All these make sushi a versatile dish that can be eaten anytime during the day. Contrary to popular notion, sushi does not refer to the raw fish or raw seafood itself. Sushi is actually the vinegared rice that is served together with the raw or cooked seafood, and then dipped in sauces before eating.

It is important to note however, that fish and other seafood used in making sushi can either be raw or cooked. Although the traditional means of serving sushi involves placing a slice of raw fish on top of a bed of vinegared rice and then tying these with a band of nori, the contemporary ways of serving this Oriental staple have embraced the use of non-traditional ingredients like cucumber, mayonnaise and wasabi sauces and even mango strips.

The Basics of Sushi Making

If you want to make sushi, consider first if you would rather eat raw seafood or not. You can always use other substitutes such as boiled crab meat, squid, shrimp, fish roe, and even sea urchin.

Making nigiri sushi is very simple, and you only need seasoned or vinegared rice as the base, a slice of raw or cooked fish or any other seafood, and wasabi sauce. Sushi rice can be prepared ahead of time, and this can be done by boiling short grained rice and water in equal proportions until the rice is cooked. You can then add a tablespoon of sushi vinegar per cup of rice.

In order to make sushi of the nigiri variety, start by shaping a small mound of sushi rice through your hands. Use about two tablespoons of rice and roll them into a well-shaped oval. Flatten the top of the mound and spread wasabi paste on the surface. If you don’t fancy wasabi however, you can omit this step. Finally, you can place the thin slice of raw fish or shrimp on top, usually about 2×5 cm in size. To secure the sushi, cut a strip of nori and wrap the thin band around the rice and fish.

Maki sushi is a roll of nori, sushi and fillings which are cut into medium sizes. Temaki sushi involves shaping the nori into a cone and stuffing it with rice and fillings. Chirashi sushi is just scattered sushi, with toppings of vegetables and sashimi spread over the sushi rice. You can also make sushi without using the nori but tofu pouches instead. This is called the inari sushi.

Important Sushi Tips

When you use raw fish or seafood, remember to choose the freshest ones available. Sushi masters typically prefer to use deep saltwater fish types like salmon and tuna since they are normally free from parasites. Fresh water fish are more prone to parasites, thus placing you at risk for infection and diseases.

There are several health issues confronting the consumption of sushi on a regular basis and one of these is the alarming levels of mercury present in raw fish and other seafood. However, you can always choose to have the fish cooked or to enjoy other fillings as well. Fish is an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids and is a better alternative to most red meats. When you make sushi, always remember that you can enjoy this exotic treat in more delicious ways than one.

There are many kinds of maki, depending on the filling used. For example, there is California maki. This is salmon and mango rolled in rice and seaweed. Kappa maki is cucumber rolled in rice. And tekka maki is tuna fish rolled in rice.

Uramaki is more complex. Only an expert chef can do it to perfection. The easier ones to make are temaki. Temaki is often served in social gatherings at home.

There are several maki sushi according to thickness of the roll. Hosomaki is the most common and is made of thin rolls. By thin, it means the rolls are slender, with small strips of every ingredient inside. Hosamaki is cut to small sizes before serving.

Thicker rolls are called futomaki. These are thick because of the many ingredients inside. Thick roll can measure 1 to 1 Ѕ inches in diameter. Most futomaki are made of vegetables like radish and cucumber. Some have eggs also. Like hosamaki, futomaki is also commonly cut to small pieces before serving. However, in big festivals, it is served in whole uncut rolls.

Next, there is also the uramaki, wherein the rice is outside the roll. And temaki is a cone-shaped sushi rice roll.

When making maki, remember to freeze raw fish or seafood first below 4oF to kill any possible pathogens or parasites that may be harmful when consumed.

In making a maki sushi, one should have a sharp knife, and bamboo mat. A rice cooker is optional. It just makes it easier to cook rice. There is a special sushi knife with only one sharpened edge. It is advisable to use this when you can buy one, instead of using an ordinary kitchen knife.

Maki Sushi Recipe

Ingredients:Sashimi-grade fish or sushiNori (thin sheet of seaweed)WasabiVegetables or other fillings (e.g. asparagus, avocado, cucumber)Short-grained rice with sticky consistencyVinegar riceGari (thinly sliced ginger roots)Soy sauce

First make the sushi rice. Prepare the vinegar rice. Combine it with heated salt and sugar. Cook rice, making sure it will have a sticky consistency. It is the suitable type of rice for spreading on the nori.

Lay out the bamboo mat and place a plastic wrap on top. Lay out the nori, with the shinier side facing down. Slightly wet your hands and take a handful of rice. Spread it evenly and thinly on the nori. Leave a margin of half inch on all sides of the nori. Put the other ingredients in the middle.

Next, hold the two ends of the bamboo mat and roll it away from you. Make sure that the food tightens as you roll. Don’t roll too tightly though or the fillings will fall out.

Unfold the bamboo carefully, making sure the rolled food does not break. Place the rolled sushi in a cutting board and slice it evenly to several pieces. Serve it with soy sauce dip on the side.