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Despite the fact that a Japanese restaurant can be seen quite often, sushi is still a mystery to us. This dish is considered not only healthy, tasty, but also “secret”. To reveal the secret of Japanese cuisine, the chef of one of the restaurants agreed. Most recently, he returned from Japan, where he spent two years. There, in the best restaurants, he had an internship. Therefore, he knows everything about Japanese cooking.
Japan is not the birthplace of sushi
There is a certain stereotype about sushi. Almost everyone thinks that sushi and rolls come from Japan. However, it is not. Their homeland is the Mekong Delta. Today there is China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia. There were too many fish in the waters of the Nine Dragon River. The fishermen experienced difficulties in storing and transporting it after the catch. Therefore, they came up with the idea of shifting it with sour rice. This is what influenced the duration of the shelf life.
The dish began to be called “Nare-sushi”. Pirates and merchants began smuggling it to Japan. But the concept of sushi was fully formed already at the end of the Edo era. This happened around the mid-1800s. The father of this concept is called Hanai Yoheya.
A delicacy called sushi
About a hundred years ago, rice was added to the sushi to start the process of decomposition of organic substances in fish. For this, only sour rice was used. Thus, we got the taste of “umami” – this is a unique sour taste. It is highly regarded by Japanese chefs. Guests were served sushi along with this rice, but they simply threw it away, eating only seafood. This dish was quite expensive, so not all Japanese could try it.
But after some time, the cooks began to cook rice, reminiscent of sour in taste, adding special vinegar to it. The Japanese tasted it and began to appreciate it, as well as the seafood itself. Today, the ability to cook such rice for sushi is equated to high art.
What is nori?
Nori is a special seaweed that rolls are rolled into. In ancient times, they were called a weed, which was often scraped off from the bottom of the boat and the wooden piles of the piers. Later, the idea arose to press them and dry them in the sun, giving them the appearance of a sheet of paper.
To date, such algae are the main source of trace elements and vitamins. On the Japanese coast, there are many special farms where nori is grown.
Rolls as art
What the Europeans call rolls, the Japanese call “maki sushi”. They got such a name because of the bamboo rug, which actually twists the rolls. This dish originated in the nineteenth century, when sushi became a frequent dish on the tables of the Japanese nobility. The most experienced chefs wanted to get the title of a virtuoso master.
It was during the chefs’ competition for the title of the best that they began to cut the rolls. Thus, they could show off their skills in front of the other participants. People contemplated in the context of whole paintings created from seafood, vegetables and many other ingredients. They were wrapped not only in the famous nori seaweed. To do this, they could use soy paper, thinly sliced uXNUMXbuXNUMXbcucumbers and an omelet prepared according to a special recipe.
What kind of fish is used for sushi?
Sanitary standards require manufacturers to carry out mandatory freezing of fresh seafood and fish. The temperature should not exceed minus twenty degrees, and the freezing time should be at least a day. Due to this, all parasites and pathogens die. Therefore, it is safe to eat sushi in our restaurants. But on the other hand, this procedure changes the taste of natural fish.
In Japanese restaurants, rolls and sushi are preferred to be made from freshly caught fish that has not been frozen. But such dishes are expensive, so they are served only in elite restaurants. For cooking, chefs choose only the best and freshest fish so that the client does not get poisoned. After all, this is the biggest shame for a chef and a restaurant that values its reputation. In order to reinsure the client and yourself more, wasabi is served in addition to the dish. This is a seasoning that has a very pungent taste, but it is able to neutralize the action of various microorganisms.
“Respected” soy sauce
In Japan, you can’t leave soy sauce on your plate, it’s considered bad manners. Because there it is quite a valuable product. In our restaurants, it is served in whole bottles. In Japanese restaurants, the chef himself pours the sauce over the rolls or sushi before serving it to the client. Even if it is poured into a small container, nothing should remain in it after the meal. At the same time, it is impossible to wet sushi in it, especially on the side where there is rice. Only fish or other seafood that is part of rolls or sushi is moistened in the sauce.
In addition, the Japanese will never combine the sauce, for example, with wasabi, especially in one plate. They believe that you can enjoy a dish that fully reveals its taste and aroma only if you use sauces and various seasonings very carefully. In addition, not every type of sushi and rolls requires additional sauce or wasabi.