If you make nigiri or temaki-zushi you don’t even need a rolling mat, you only need that for makizushi (sushi rolls). But sushifying the rice takes a bit of time. You need to wash the rice properly (whixh you have to do anyway if you’re going to cook rice the Japanese way), cook it with the right amount of konbu (kelp) for the right amount of umami and add just enough rice vinegar/salt/sugar during cooling. Getting that decently right takes some experience, but not more than getting other home country cooking dishes right. So, a decently competent home cook should be able to make sushi surpassing grocery-bought sushi after a few tries. Particularly if you make nigiri; then you only need to shape the rice balls and cut up the toppings. I’ve been served sushi at friends’ home in Japan, all prepared by the family cook (the wife, not unsurprisingly). I learned a great trick there: Don’t assemble the nigiri in the kitchen, serve the sushi and the toppings on separate plates. Everyone assembles their own sushi with their preferred toppings and their preferred amount of wasabi between the rice and the topping.
On the other hand, the best sushi chefs - who have spent decades training for the craft - take sushi to Michelin star levels. One of the two-three best meals I’ve ever eaten in my more-than-six-decades-long life was when we went out for omakase sushi in Tokyo. And I’m a foodie and an avid hobby cook.
You don’t need a rice cooker to cook rice, nor to cook sushi rice. You only need a pot.
And you only need a mat if you’re going to make maki-zushi (sushi rolls) or uramaki (inside-out sushi rolls, with the rice on the outside and the nori between the rice and the fillings). There’s temaki, there’s nigiri, there’s chirashi and probably more which I’m not aware of.
Fun fact: That’s how we do it in Scandinavia, too. It’s almost always open sandwiches (a staple for breakfast (and for some of us, lunch)). A slice of bread, some fat (typically butter, sometimes mayo), some salami slices, cold cuts or cheese. Perhaps a veg garnish if you feel fancy.
It is. Source: Japanese friends of ours, a Japanese friend who immigrated to our country, a domestic relative who has spent several years in Japan and a domestic friend who has spent several years in Japan and is also married to a Japanese woman.
Sushi is the rice. The most common topping/filling is (usually raw) seafood - which spoils rather quickly, but you can top/fill it with cooked prawns, slices of Japanese omelet, gourd ribbons cooked in soy sauce, sugar and mirin, cucumber, or you can fill it in inari-age (tofu pouches which have been deep-fried and then marinated in soy sayce, sugar and mirin). And probably a lot more which I don’t have access to outside of Japan.
Go sit in the corner and think about what you have said
To repeat myself: Sushi is the rice. More specifically, the rice vinegar/sugar/salt flavored rice. Originally, it was lactic acid fermented rice, a way to keep boiled rice from spoiling.
It’s also standard in Chinese homes, at least in the US. I used to work with a bunch of data scientists of Chinese ethnicity. They learned that i ate rice most days (it’s the closest we have to a staple) and i didn’t own a rice cooker. So one of them gave me a spare he had lying around. Because he couldn’t imagine living without it.
It was fun going to China Town with them for lunch.
Yeah, it seems to be a big Central European thing, as well. I’ve definitely seen it in Germany. When I lived in Hungary there were old-style sandwich shops that served nothing but these sort of open-faced canapé sandwich. Speaking of Scandinavian, I’ve really been getting into store-bought crispbread and even making it myself from rye and sesame seeds lately, and that’s been a nice on its own as a snack or as a vehicle for some light toppings.
Another poster recommended that I bisect it through the core, put the flat ends down against the board, and slice that way. I think the style was that you hold the sharpened knife in one hand, press down on the half tomato with the other hand with four fingers tightly together, and then you use the thumb to slowly guide it forward along the board (while moving back the four fingers).
I know I bought myself one of these a ling time ago and that my wife put an old butcher block knife holder /knife set away in the basement.
I don’t know if I should start sharpening from the left or the right though.
I’m careful with them, and never use them on foods that will chip them, like bone-in meat. Anyway, the blades are also brittle, so i don’t want to use them for things where a little “give” is good, like meat or apples. But they are great for onions and tomatoes.
Why yes, i have a knife wardrobe, and many of my knives are only used for a few foods. I have a nasty mid-sized knife clad in Damascus, that i only use for meat, too. It likes blood, and will turn on me if i use it for vegetables.
Im no fan of spam, and I haven’t had spam sushi, but I know it is a legitimate thing in Hawaii.
The best sushi experience Ive had was in a little spot in Kihei, Maui. As others have described their experience in some restaurants in Japan, the chef chose the evenings menu.
There was no spam that night, I am sure its a much more casual form, byt my understanding is that it is a thing.
