Month: May 2025

Sushi has long been a staple plus delicacy of the culture plus traditions of Japan, with different forms of preparations, styles, plus serving methods that have turned this dish into a universal sensation all across the globe. Sushi offers an experience of natural beauty, excellence, plus energy that drives our social, intellectual, spiritual, plus biological evolution. It provides a level of satisfaction through both its simplicity plus intricate level of preparation that brings upon people an emotional satisfaction plus energizing spirit. Its visual aesthetics, presentation, plus textures are as important as its taste, plus nomor doubt define sushi as a true piece of art. The history, traditional techniques, plus moderen innovations of the harmonious plus imposing art of sushi is a journey worth exploring, so let’s begin!

A Brief History of Sushi
Sushi was invented roughly within the 8th century in Japan, a time when the country sought innovation through exploration of the arts, technology, plus food through the surrounding China, Europe, plus Korea. The earliest concept of contemporary sushi is known as ‘Narezushi’, adapted by the Japanese but has long been a tradition plus practice throughout many Asian continents, combining fermented sea animals such as fish pickled with rice, ultimately empowering its flavor and, most commonly known, its shelf life. In time the period to ferment the sushi would shorten through the innovative additions of alcohol, vinegar, plus Koji, a jenis of fungus. The dish would then transition itself into multiple significant periods within Japan, all presenting new forms of sushi styles such as the widely disukai banyak orang “nigirizushi”, meaning “hand-pressed sushi”. In the moderen era, sushi is known to be a jenis of street food where customers would pay for pieces that the chef makes in front of them set specifically at a low price to accustom the working class who want to spend their money without the expense of having to find overpriced restaurants. Another classic moderen take on presenting sushi is known as, “Kaitenzushi” or “rotating sushi”, where pieces of sushi are moved around a conveyor belt for customers to pick from. Speed plus affordability are considered in this style, where customers can be selective on both taste plus expense.

For a long time, sushi was considered exotic, plus maybe a little scary. But now you can find it practically everywhere, even in the grocery store. But what are all the different kinds of sushi?

What Is Sushi?
Sushi is a Japanese dish featuring specially prepared rice plus usually some tipe of fish or seafood, often raw, but sometimes cooked.

And though you might automatically associate the word sushi with raw fish, it’s actually the rice that is the most important ingredient. Indeed, the word “sushi” refers to the sour flavor of the vinegared rice. Regardless of the toppings or fillings, sushi always includes rice.

As a matter of fact, sushi rice is so important that sushi chefs in Japan undergo years of training just to learn how to cook the rice properly, before they ever begin to handle any fish or seafood.

Sushi Rice
Sushi rice is a medium-grained white rice prepared with vinegar plus other seasonings such as salt plus sugar. The usual variety of rice used for sushi is Japonica; in particular, the Koshihikari cultivar.

Japonica is a medium-grained rice with somewhat rounded grains, which makes it noticeably different from the skinnier, long-grained rice that we’re used to in the West, which is known as indica rice. Japonica rice is starchy, with higher levels of a starch called amylopectin than indica rice.

This extra starch causes it to cook up fairly sticky, which makes it easier to eat with chopsticks, plus is ideal for molding it together to make sushi.
Keeping in mind that all sushi is made with rice, but there are really only two main types of sushi—nigiri plus maki.

Nigiri sushi is comprised of an oval-shaped mound of rice with a slice of fish or seafood on top. The fish or seafood is usually raw, but sometimes it’s fermented plus occasionally, such as with eel or shrimp, it’s cooked.

The word nigiri in Japanese translates approximately to “grip” in English. Thus the Japanese word nigiri-zushi translates roughly as “hand-pressed” sushi.

The point is that with nigiri sushi, the rice is molded by hand plus the fish or other topping pressed by hand atop the rice. Sometimes the chef will include a bit of wasabi between the fish plus rice. The stickiness of the rice, along with the moisture from the topping, helps to adhere the strip of raw fish to the mound of rice underneath.

Typical examples of raw fish on nigiri sushi include tuna, salmon, plus yellowtail. Fatty tuna, which comes from the belly section of bluefin tuna, is another popular topping. Garnishes include minced scallions or ginger.

Interestingly enough, despite how you’re probably accustomed to eating it, nigiri sushi is meant to be eaten by hand, not with chopsticks. And while dipping the sushi into soy sauce is acceptable, the correct way to do it is to turn it over so that the fish side goes into the soy sauce, not the rice side. Leaving grains of rice in your soy sauce is considered a major faux pas.

ABSTRACT
Sushi first achieved widespread popularity in the United States in the mid-1960s. Many accounts of sushi’s US establishment foreground the role of a small number of key actors, yet underplay the role of a complex web of large-scale factors that provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. This article critically reviews existing literature, arguing that sushi’s US popularity arose from contingent, long-term, plus gradual processes. It examines US newspaper accounts of sushi during 1945–1970, which suggest the discursive context for US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than generally acknowledged. Using California as a case study, the analysis also explains conducive social plus material factors, plus directs attention to the interplay of supply- plus demand-side forces in the favorable positioning of this “new” food. The article argues that the US establishment of sushi can be understood as part of broader public acceptance of Japanese cuisine.

Introduction
Sushi is now ubiquitous throughout the United States plus Europe (the “West”), plus indeed across the world. Sushi’s initial establishment as a globally enjoyed food originated in the United States, plus was borne out of a process with three distinct stages: the consumption of sushi in the US by Japanese Americans after the Second World War, the sale of sushi to white Americans as part of Japanese restaurant offerings from the 1950s onwards, plus the opening of sushi bars in metropolitan areas of the US (particularly in California) in the early- to mid-1960s. Growing swiftly in popularity, by the late 1960s sushi had become a staple of high-end US dining. Before long, its popularity broadened, plus it began to diffuse more widely throughout the US plus beyond.

Many accounts of sushi’s establishment in the US foreground the role of a small number of key actors in achieving its widespread Western popularity, plus identify the country’s first sushi bars as being the genesis point for US sushi (e.g. CitationFeng; CitationAl-Jamie). Yet to do so, I argue, is to underplay the role of a complex web of social, political, legal, technological, economic, material, plus discursive factors which provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. Building on work that highlights intersecting world flows of people, goods, money, plus information in sushi’s US (and indeed Japanese) development (CitationBestor, “How Sushi Went Global”; CitationIssenberg), this article argues that sushi in the US arose out of processes that were contingent, long-term, plus gradual. In particular, I argue that the social plus discursive context for the US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than tends to be acknowledged in existing research, plus suggest that the US establishment of sushi was closely related to the increasing popularity of Japanese cuisine within postwar American foodways.