Shoulda Been a Sushi Chef

sushi (SOO-shee) 1. A Japanese dish of cooked seasoned rice (zushi) garnished with a variety of cooked or raw ingredients such as fish, shellfish and vegetables; there are four principal types of sushi: chirashi-zushi (cooked or raw fish, shellfish and sometimes veggies on loosely packed zushi, usually served in a bowl), maki-zushi (made by rolling zushi and other ingredients in nori – thin sheets of dried seaweed), nigiri-zushi (made by placing tane, or topping, over a bed of pressed zushi) and oshi-zushi (sushi pressed into a wooden box mold, covered with toppings, then unmolded and cut into squares). 2. An imprecisely used term for nigiri-zushi. 3. An incorrectly used term for sashimi. (The Prentice Hall Dictionary of Culinary Arts, Second Edition)

Shoulda been a sushi chef (yeah, say that five times fast). I've had a few pleasant experiences with sushi, but always in a restaurant (or a very exotic jungle-themed Russian nightclub). Never had I actually considered making the neat little spirals. My roommate however, consulted with her half-German, half-Chinese friend (who is presently in Hong Kong) and the most on-hand expert we had.

They weren't artisan by any means, but they still looked nice when we chopped them up. We took some rice - it wasn't even cooked very well! (I've gotta be honest, for some reason I just cannot master light fluffy rice.) But anyways, we took very sticky rice, spread it out on some thin seaweed paper and lined up skinny strips of carrot, cucumber, hot pepper (yes, one of the mystery peppers from the other night), avocado and "crab meat" to our liking. Rolled it up in a tight little roll, slice into little pucks and voila! Sushi! It was quite good, and SO easy. I didn't realize how versatile and easy it was to make - I'd love to experiment with some smoked salmon (I don't trust myself to prepare edible raw meat just yet).