Photo by dylan

Assembly Line Sushi

The first time I had sushi I was home for the summer from college. My best friend invited me to dinner with his family. He has two siblings and invited a couple other friends, so we had a large enough group to get a private room. When the sake came I knew I was going to like the dinner. Then the waiter brought in two large boards with about a dozen rolls on each. There were California Rolls, Hawiian Rolls, Philadelphia Rolls, Seattle Rolls, Tampa Rolls. I didn’t realize how Americanized sushi was. I was having a hard time with the suction cups on the ocotopus. It took a few shots of sake before I mustered up the courage, but I popped that sucker in my mouth and chewed, and chewed, and chewed. It wan’t bad, but it wasn’t my favorite. My favorite is the Dynamite Roll (yellowtail, prawn tempura, bean sprouts, carrots, avocado, cucumber, chili, and spicy mayonnaise) and the marinated sea eel.

Sushi is a bite-sized piece of sticky rice dressed with vinegar and traditionally topped  with raw fish but also with egg or vegetables. The two main kinds are Maki and Nigiri. The maki is the kind we are most familiar with in the states. The rice and ingredients are pressed into seaweed paper and wrapped into a roll. Nigiri is a more delicate presentation of an oblong mound of rice topped with an expertly cut piece of raw fish. The art of preparing nigiri takes many years to perfect. Traditionally, the ancient art of Sushi etiquette and technique is taught by a master sushi chef, or Itamae (literally, “in front of the board”), who trains the wakiita (literally, “near the cutting board”) for decades. Today, you can become a certified sushi chef in the U.S. in as little as twelve weeks.

Since my first encouter with sushi, it has really taken off in the U.S. Sushi restauarants are popping up all over the place. You can even get sushi in quality grocery stores. And it’s even the #42 thing Stuff White People Like... “Regardless if you are vegetarian, vegan, or just guilty about eating meat, all white people love Sushi.  To them, it’s everything they want: foreign culture, expensive, healthy, and hated by the ‘uneducated.’” stuffwhitepeoplelike.com

And now, sushi has joined the ranks of the Subway and Chipotle-style restaurants.  U Sushi  is an assembly line–style sushi restaurant. You tell the guy by the cutting board what you want. He passes it down to the next person who adds more toppings and passes it to a third person who rolls it up, cuts it, and warps it to go.  What a great concept, but there’s nothing like the traditional sit-down, hours-long, feast. Our fast-food culture is good in a pinch, but it shouldn’t replace the companionship of friends and family enjoying sake, sushi, and a little sumpin sumpin.

Geoffrey