International Sushi Day: Decoding The Sushi

With variety of cuisine ruling the market, one is left with ample choices as to what they want to eat. One such cuisine is Japanese, a rather simple yet delicate cuisine this century old gastronomical delight sees a lot of regional and seasonal dishes. From Rice to Sushi to Ramen to Nabe to Tempura the cuisine sees a lot of variety but one that has really been favourite of many off late is the sushi. A wholesome meal at any sushi restaurant surely can be one of the most exciting culinary experiences, but at the same time can be intimating too as the variety of sushi’s that we get to see in the menu might just leave us confused.

In a layman’s language Sushi is a traditional Japanese dish that sees the use of vinegared rice accompanied with variety of ingredients be it vegetables, seafood, and more. There’s a special variety of sushi rice that used in the preparation of this dish. This rather simple straight dish doesn’t really extend too far and mostly sees the use of a fish slice or a prawn with few veggies on a slab of rice that has been rolled up served with condiments like soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger.

Here are few variety of sushi that will help you lift your sushi game next time you are visiting any Japanese restaurant. Here are the different types of Sushi’s decoded. 

Gunkan Maki

One of the most common type of sushi, Gunkan Maki, the boat shaped shushi is wrapped in nori seaweed. The name translates to "battleship," that too from its shape. Topping like tobiko (flying fish roe), uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe) are commonly seen. But one can get as creative as possible with this one. The vinegared rice used in this sushi is hand-formed. 

Made by pressing the rice into a special box, Oshizushi come from Osaka which means "box sushi" or "pressed sushi”. One of the oldest forms of sushi, this one is absolutely clean and compact. Sliced into squares mostly fermented rice is used for this one. All the different toppings like lotus root, denbu along with the sushi rice is layered and placed in a mold and compressed giving this one it’s iconic stack type look.  

Futomaki

This type of sushi cut into thick round slice is mostly vegetarian. This fat rolled bit sized sushi sees mostly vegetable however it could also include some sweet dried fish or a tamagoyaki (egg omlet). The veg filling is mostly fillings include cooked spinach, cucumber, and some dried calabash gourd. 

Don’t confused Makizushi (Maki Sushi) with Futomaki as they almost look similar. This Japanese sushi roll sees various filling. The word Maki means roll where the sushi rice and fillings are wrapped up or rolled inside roasted, dried seaweed. This bite size sushi is loaded with either tuna, vegetable or even eggs at times. Served with wasabi and pickled ginger, this rolling the Makizushi is nothing less than an art. One needs to take care that the nori is not spilling out.