Thursday 31 December 2009

Sushi making - a great way to spend time with your loved ones


It always comes as a surprise to people that I don't like Thai food, as I lived in Thailand for ten years it must seem so, I suppose. I do like Japanese food though - a lot! I had incentive discount cards for 4 or 5 Japanese restaurant chains in Thailand. My favourite was Sukishi, a hybrid Japanese/Korean affair; very tasty Korean barbecue and excellent sushi at reasonable cost. The cost of sushi in the UK however, is unbelievable to the point of prohibitive for a lowly-paid English teacher.
There had to be an answer that would assuage my longing for unagi (smoked eel) and ebi (prawn) on delicious vinagared rice with a garnish of nori (seaweed). As so many other things in life the answer is in your own hands. Do it yourself, hmm, DIY Sushi? I'd heard that sushi chefs take years to become fully trained and the best Japanese chefs command huge salaries. Well, I may have a long way to go before being hired by a Tokyo sushi house, but I'm pleased with my efforts so far. The best thing about DIY sushi though is the fun you can have making it with your family.
We kitted ourselves out from Tesco, Sainsbury's and added a few authentic plates and sets of chopsticks from Thailand and Japan. We managed to get Japanese curry, rice, flavouring, ginger, seaweed, wasabi and miso soup from the supermarkets and supplemented a Thai sushi rolling mat with an imported Japanese one from the same source. All set to go, but how to turn all these high quality ingredients into a reasonable copy of the genuine article? I wanted curry and ebi tempura with a selection of sushi and sashimi and, of course, wasabi. Not as strange as it sounds, just think lightly smoked salmon with horseradish.
Here are the results:-



2 comments:

Gretel said...

Looks very professional to me! I feel very provincial, having never tried it, but it's on my 'to-do' list when my ship finally comes in.

bp_paula said...

Well done Mandy! It was worth sending you to Central Pinklao to learn how to make sushi.