# Sushi



## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

Tomorrow, my journey begins...







I have to go the the Japanese market tomorrow and pick up a hangiri (wooden rice bowl) and some crab, shrimp, salmon, avacado and cucumber and then I get to make my lunch. I will post some photos of the results. Pictured above are some chopsticks, bamboo rolling mats, my guidebooks, rice vinegar, nori (kelp sheets), short grain rice, and my ultra sharp new blade.


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## adiaphane (Jun 28, 2006)

Don't forget the saran wrap! You don't want the rice sticking to the bamboo--it will rot it and cause bacteria. (I learned the hard way.)


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## Jmoney (Jun 28, 2006)

good luck! it's fun rolling sushi! (alternatively you can religiously scrub off the bamboo after each use and dry it out).


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## Heather (Jun 28, 2006)

Skip all that and just get a nice chunk of hamachi... one of my very favourite dishes is hamachi with chile and yuzu sauce. I had it at Nobu, and when I cam home, I mentioned it to the manager of the local place and now it is on their menus. mmmm.....

looking forward to your lunch!
(I have leftover indian today.)


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## couscous74 (Jun 28, 2006)

Heather said:


> Skip all that and just get a nice chunk of hamachi... mmmm.....
> looking forward to your lunch!



Yeah, just make sashimi. It's much easier.


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## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

Well, this will be my first time rolling my own (that doesn't sound right) so I am going to be sticking to the standard roll and not the rice-on-the-outside type. I might try hand rolling a couple, and a couple of shrimp nigiri. I almost forgot, I need to get some pickled ginger.


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## Marco (Jun 28, 2006)

PHRAG said:


> rolling my own (that doesn't sound right)



It does sound right, unless you're rolling something else on the side. 

I agree with Marcus on this one though. Sashimi is so much easier.


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## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

If I wanted easy, I could have just gone out for sushi.


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## Marco (Jun 28, 2006)

Alright, John you got me there!


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## Heather (Jun 28, 2006)

So? How'd it go, Chef?
details? pictures?


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## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

I can't find a hangiri, so I am going to have to do without one, but driving around Phoenix looking for one ate up all my time, so I am going to have to try again tomorrow.


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## Heather (Jun 28, 2006)

Oh, bummer! 
When I noticed around 3pm you weren't around I thought "Hey, John's gone to make his sushi..."

What's a hangiri?


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## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

It's a wooden bowl, made from cypress wood and copper banding. After cooking the rice, you pour it into the hangiri and fan it while it cools. Then you use a wooden spoon to fold the rice while you add a sugar and rice vinegar mixture to the rice to make it sticky. The wooden bowl helps speed the cooling process, and also absorb extra moisture so the rice gets mixed evenly. It is also used to store the day's supply of sticky rice so it doesn't dry out.

I guess I could use a plastic bowl, but I will lose the benefits of the wooden bowl. And I can't use a metal bowl because of the vinegar and it's reaction with metal.


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## PHRAG (Jun 28, 2006)

Interesting bit of trivia... An apprentice sushi chef can spend years carrying supplies and washing dishes before getting the chance to work on the preperation of sushi. One of the first food preperation jobs an apprentice is allowed to do in the sushi kitchen is to fan the rice in the hangiri while it cools. 


I didn't know this much about the subject before I read about sushi history in the books I bought. Just so you didn't think I was a Cliff Claven. Cheers was such a good show.


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## Jmoney (Jun 28, 2006)

the inverted rolls take 3 times as long to make if you ask me. but if you really want efficiency in sushi, try hand rolls. all the goods in a fraction of the time. a few slices of salmon, a couple pieces of avocado...


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## Wendy (Jun 28, 2006)

Okay, i know nada about sushi. Is it all made with raw fish? Would somebody please enlighten me?  I love fish and would like to know more about sushi.


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## PHRAG (Jun 29, 2006)

Hey Wendy, 

Not all sushi is made with raw fish. California rolls have cooked crab meat avacado and cucumber in them. Shrimp tempura rolls have fried shrimp in them, and are pretty tasty. You can buy smoked salmon rolls and that, of course, is smoked. Unagi, is fully cooked, and most of the time served warm with a wonderful smoky sauce poured over it. Unagi is eel.  It is also my very favorite sushi of all. Some sushi (tamago) is made with scrambled egg and it is also very good.

There are some raw sushi items that you might want to try. Tuna is very good raw. Salmon can be eaten raw, and though I prefer the smoked kind, regular salmon is nice too. And if you feel really adventurous, you could always try an octopus tentacle or sea urchin.


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## Jmoney (Jun 29, 2006)

most of the california rolls use high-quality "crab sticks" which is in reality mostly pollock or some other type of fish. It is one of my favorites though, since it has avocado in it...

I'm with you on the eel. definitely my favorite, maybe because it takes so long to make. every time I catch an american eel the wheels are set in motion...gotta bake/broil the fish, make up the sauce, but man is it good.


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## Wendy (Jun 29, 2006)

Mmmm. Thanks! I will have to work up the nerve to try raw fish however. The smoked salmon sounds yummy.


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## Heather (Jun 29, 2006)

When I first had sushi, I started with all the really mild things, like smoked salmon (easy one because you get the consistancy of the raw fish but know it is smoked if you are a little squeamish), tuna, hamachi (sea bass), spider rolls (soft shell crab, tempura fried and in a roll with avocado and spicey mayo). We have branched out a bit but still love those things very much. The place we go makes a great Lobster Maki (Maki means it is a roll) with spicey tuna, lobster, and avocado. 

We are very good friends with the manager of our local bar, and several of the wait staff. Once, when we asked what what was particularly good, we were told they had excellent "Seal"! We were like, "huh, seal, um...I think we'll pass." So later when we were talking with the manager, we asked where they got the "seal" and he just cracked up laughing and saying "Sea EEL" not "SEAL"! OH!!! 
:rollhappy:

Thought that was pretty amusing.


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## adiaphane (Jun 29, 2006)

Hmm... my friends here actually got to eat what was called "essence of baby seal," which call me crazy, is a little gross to me since seals look too much like my kitty.

I used to love unagi, until I got a long (a little over an inch), thin bone lodges in my throat. It hurt for the entire next day and hurt even worse when I got onto the six hour flight to new york. I finally got it out at some point on the flight. I'm not kidding or exagerrating.


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## PHRAG (Jun 29, 2006)

Ha ha ha, seal. That's enough to make a PETA member cry.

The only sushi I don't like are the huge rolls with everything on them, like Dragon rolls and Rainbow rolls. There is just too much going on there flavor wise.


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## PHRAG (Jun 29, 2006)

Wow Tien, that must have been scary and annoying.

I very rarely get a piece of Unagi that has been trimmed wrong and still has a little of the prickly flesh on it. While it doesn't hurt to eat, it is unsettling. Usually that is at a sushi bar that I have no business eating at anyway. Like a grocery store version.  Sometimes you just need it.

I will probably start out avoiding Unagi for my home sushi exploits. Unless I can find a pre-cooked package of it at the Japanese grocery. 

By the way, I live not one mile from two really awesome grocery stores. One is a Japanese market, and the other is a Chinese grocery inside a mini Chinatown. One mile the other way is open desert with saguaro and mountains, and one mile another way is the airport and the ASU campus. I don't know why you all care, I just find the diversity of my surroundings surreal.


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## Jmoney (Jun 29, 2006)

yeah if they don't broil the eel fully there might be bones left in. same with any piece of fish I suppose.

speaking of PETA, it's always been a fantasy of mine to play "whack the PETA member" a la whack a mole at the carnival. what a bunch of nutjobs (and that's coming from a PAPH grower).


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## Marco (Jun 29, 2006)

I haven't had sushi in several months. Everytime there's a new post on this thread. I get semi-subliminal messages about going to get sushi and my mouth starts to water. 

My favorite has definately got to be salmon, eel and squid (not the octopus) mmmmmm


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## Heather (Jun 29, 2006)

Jmoney said:


> speaking of PETA



People Eating Tasty Animals? 
(I always found that amusing)

Actually though, I was veg. for several years in college. Still very much against fur and animal testing but I love eating meat. I also worked in 4th grade to raise money for Greenpeace to save the Harp seals. I don't recall how much I raised but it was a fair amount and got us some nice buttons and pamplets and stuff due to my campaign. I was always kind of proud of that. Hence, when offered "seal" at a restaurant, of course I had to turn that down. 

When I lived in New Mexico, I was cleaning out a file cabinet where I worked and came across this bumper sticker that said "Eat more lamb, 10,000 coyotes can't be wrong!" 
Which I thought was hilarious, and I really dig lamb, so I put it on my car. People at Phish shows used to really curse me out....


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## PHRAG (Jun 30, 2006)

Here are my first two plates of sushi...






Pictured are small crab roll w/wasabi, shrimp nigiri, smoked salmon and cream cheese roll





shrimp nigiri, salmon nigiri, california roll


I had problems on my first plate getting the rolls centered. The second plate looks better, but tastes just as good as the first plate.

I guess I will keep practicing, and eating my mistakes.

:drool:


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## Heather (Jun 30, 2006)

It's beautiful! 
(or, it was...)


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## PHRAG (Jun 30, 2006)

So...full...hard...to...type.


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## PHRAG (Jun 30, 2006)

One observation: Sticky rice is very sticky. I think I have some in my hair.


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## kentuckiense (Jun 30, 2006)

One time my ladyfriend and I bought sushi. She noticed the little pile of wasabi in the corner and immediately said "Oh awesome, guacamole!" and ate a big chunk of it.

I laughed so, so much. I still think she's mad about it.


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## bench72 (Jun 30, 2006)

Funny, but.... oh I feel bad for laughing... hmm... still funny... :noangel:

those sushi and nigiri looks yummy!!! :drool: 

I'm craving sushi for breakfast... is that normal??? :sob:


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## Heather (Jun 30, 2006)

bench72 said:


> I'm craving sushi for breakfast... is that normal??? :sob:



I think so! I had Indian leftovers for breaky today. 
and now I am craving sushi, of course...


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## couscous74 (Jun 30, 2006)

Well done, John :clap:


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## Jmoney (Jun 30, 2006)

nicely done!

snapped a pic back when I started making these @#^@ inside-out rolls, gotta have that glass of sake (unfiltered in this case). later on got a "boat" for cheap, and caught an american eel...(yes I put avocado in everything).


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## adiaphane (Jul 1, 2006)

Wow, when you guys want to do something, you really do it.

Jason, I like your taste in avocados. It looks perfect: firm, yet soft, but not mushy. That's the state I love them in best.


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## Heather (Jul 1, 2006)

Sounds like Tien is another avocado freak. 
I never ever buy ripe ones, because, no matter what, they always suck. You have to let them ripen at home or else everyone's grubby paws will have bruised them and I refuse to pay for a bruised fruit. 

I am the same way with peaches (and nectarines). Consequently, I don't eat many of them.


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## Jmoney (Jul 1, 2006)

the ripest I'll ever buy them is still slightly firm, at least a day or two away from using. still, occasionally you get tricked and get a total dud. after I started using avocados, sushi just doesn't seem complete without a slice.


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## PHRAG (Jul 1, 2006)

When I lived in Albuquerque, the local flavor was to put guacamole on hamburgers. At first I wasn't interested. Then I tried one, and now I can't think of eating a hamburger without some. I go to subway alot too, and they have added avacado to their vegetable selections. So I get a big heaping spoonful of avacado on my sandwich instead of mayo. If they ever get rid of avacado at subway, I will probably start bringing my own. 

That is the curse of avacado, once you start putting it on food, you can't live without it on that food.


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## adiaphane (Jul 1, 2006)

You should try thhe Southeast Asian delicacy known as... avocado milkshake. Yum! I grew up eating avocados as a dessert, soemthing sweet, and when someone tried to give me guacamole, I stuck my tongue out. Now, I like all kinds of ways, except, I still don't care much for guacamole (too mushy!)


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## Jmoney (Jul 1, 2006)

I'm a huge fan of the papaya smoothie myself...ripe small papaya (not that large 2 pound crap), whole milk, sugar...I of course have to add some eclipse mount gay rum to that (not that bacardi crap). real good for those hot days...


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## Heather (Jul 12, 2006)

I saw this the other day and thought it looked pretty good. 
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/28/avocado-on-panna-cotta/

I love that site - slashfood. I read it a lot at work. Luckily, that sort of thing fits into my job description. Unfortunately, it makes me hungry....fortunately, I have a perfect avocado waiting at home for me with some chile, salt, and fresh lime...yum.


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## adiaphane (Jul 12, 2006)

I used to love panna cotta! But for some reason, any mention of any dessert that has gelatin in it makes me retch. I can't eat it anymore....


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