Despite my Irish surname, I am actually of Japanese descent, and sushi is part of my heritage.
My immigrant mother made sushi for special occasions including holidays, parties and church and community potlucks.
She didn’t bake cookies nor cakes, but taught us how to make several kinds of sushi, although not the kinds non-Japanese have come to enjoy at sushi bars.
All the gals in my circle of friends know how to make the plainer sushi of our mother’s generation, and they undoubtedly learned from their mothers and those before them.
There are three kinds in my “repertoire.”
The first kind is the makizushi, or rolled sushi: seasoned rice with various ingredients wrapped in seaweed(nori)and rolled with a bamboo mat called the sudari. After the short grain “sticky rice” is cooked, it’s slightly cooled and seasoned with a mixture of vinegar and sugar.
Then put about a small rice bowlful atop a sheet of nori and flatten .
Firm, cooked vegetables such as thin slices of carrots, string beans and dried gourd strips or mushrooms cooked in a sweetened soy sauce , and a strip of egg omelet, shrimp flakes and broiled eel or tuna are placed on the rice and tightly rolled.
Another kind i enjoyable to eat is inarizushi also called cone sushi. The wrapper is made of fried tofu called aburage. Ingredients similar to the ones put in the makizushi are coarsely chopped and mixed into the seasoned rice, and stuffed into the pockets of aburage, and eaten like an ice cream cone. Or, a variation is ones shaped like miniature footballs.
Chiraishi, also called mazemeshi, is the seasoned rice mixed with the same kinds of ingredients, also chopped. but merely scooped into bowls or made into rice balls.
So of the three kinds I am familiar with and can make, the makizushi is the most time consuming and elaborate, and reserved for special occasions while the inarizushi and chiraishi are easier to do and can be had as often as one cares to.
Although until about 25 years ago, I observed many non-Japanese didn’t even want to try a piece of sushi. I once took some makizushi to a church social and only a couple of pieces were taken by another Japanese person, but now it’s gotten very popular and it’s the “in” thing to claim knowledge of a favorite sushi bar. Sushi there are made by chefs specially trained to produce tidbits that have raw fish, sea anemone eggs and caviar, or make rolls with rice on the outside called urazushi(inside out) filled with avocado, cucumber, crab, or cream cheese and other ingredients previously unknown in Japan. Moreoveer, the sushi chefs are often non-Japanese, probably trained in six-week crash courses, while it’s said the original sushi chefs went through a ten-year period of apprenticeship and training.
I was surprised last year when we took our grandkids to a Japanese restaurant and they ordered “dragon” a roll of urazushi consisting of cream cheese and broiled eel, and cleverly shaped to resemble a dragon with horns and a tail.
And I am still amazed to go to a Japanese eatery and see Caucasians order a roll of “maki” slahered with teriyaki sauce and accomanied by wasabi and pickled ginger, accompanied by beer or sake(rice wine). An example was a recent vacation that included Charleston, SC, and passing a sidewalk cafe where some patrons were eating sushi with chopsticks; in the Deep South where grits are said to be the favored local dish!.
I think it’s wonderful more Americans are cosmopolitan in their approach and attitude toward foods formerly unfamiliar to them and have come to enjoy food as different as sushi.
