Ready to test your mad Sushi skills? Good. You can find it here:
Wescoe Terrace
Kansas Union
The KU Roll is a popular menu item at Wa, 740 Massachusetts St.
The Sushi Station, 1730 W. 23rd St.
Kokoro, 601 Kasold Dr.
photo illustration by Kit Lofler/Kansan
Wa Restaurant Incorporation, 740 Massachusetts St.
of him. The custom is analogous to shaking hands here. The proper fashion is to stand up, place your arms at your sides and bend slightly at the small of your back.
Next, to fully impress your chef, business partners or dining mates it might help to learn a few Japanese phrases. Relax, it's not as hard as you think. To wish someone a good evening say, kon bon wa (con-bon-wah). Next, very importantly, is thank you. If you say it directly after the waiter or chef serves you the food then its arigato gozaimasu (ar-ree-gah-toe go-zye-ee-moss). If it's at the end of the evening then say arigato gozaimashite (go-zye-ee-mosshta). Finally, when it's time to say goodbye, a safe way to say it is sayonara (sigh OH-nah-rah).
Now we get to talk about what—as this is the food section—to do and what not to do with the food. The easiest way to begin is to talk about the utensils, the chopsticks. To the uneducated American, their use may be a mystery. For a quick tutorial on how to use them flip to page 8. Their use, though, once you get the hang of it, is also full of cultural mores. To begin with, it's considered polite to break the sticks apart cleanly if they are connected. It's an insult to your host if you try to use the chopsticks to smooth out the rough edges on each other. It suggests to the host that you think their place is low quality.
It's also a big sushi party foul to use the chopsticks to stab at your food. The motion would connote violence and a general nasty feeling towards your host. Once you have the hold of the food, be it sashimi, raw fish, or the common sushi nigiri, fish on a block of rice with seaweed in between, it is polite to eat it all in one go. Eating sushi politely is bad
news for nibblers.
Another common mistake happens when people try to share their sushi orders. The Japanese are a community-centered society and sushi eating is a great way to be-with others, but it's considered rude to pass the pieces of sushi from one set of hashi to another. It is best to draw the platter of sushi to the edge of the table with your own chopsticks and then allow your friends to find their own fish.
If you want to add a little bit to the taste of your sushi, then it is polite to order some tea, beer or sake. Also, if a chef serves you, then it is a nod of great respect to order your food directly from him or her and leave the waiter responsible for your drinks. The use of vinegar, ginger and wasabi—a pungent green herb that's excellent to clear the sinuses—also add new palettes of taste to your meal.
The struggle to be completely polite is hard and takes practice, but these suggestions should be a good start to great eating. Also, if you don't get it at first, that's OK. Eat and be happy. Sayonara!
Patrick Cady, Jayplay writer, can be reached at pcady@kansan.com.
SUSHI RECIPES
Master Sushi Rice
4 cups sushi rice (Cairose/short grain)
Water
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup mirin
1/2 cup sugar
Garnish
1/4 cup gari (pickled ginger) julienne
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup chopped green scallions
Soy syrup
Wasabi oil
Wash rice at least three times or until water is clear. Fill rice cooker with water so it is about one inch over rice. I highly recommend a rice cooker - there's a reason more than two billion people in Asia use them.
Slowly heat vinegar, mirin and sugar until very hot but not boiling. Fold in 'su' (vinegar and sugar) with the hot rice, adding enough so that the rice has a tart/sweet taste. Rice should be shiny, not mushy. Carefully clean inside rim of bowl with damp cloth, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
Vegetarian Hand Rolled Sushi (Temaki)
Needed:
Sushi rice
Nori
Possible filling ingredients:
Carrot, julienned
Orange and red bell peppers, julienned.
Cucumber, julienned (Chinese B without seeds, or regular is also ok)
Asparagus
Avocado
Scallions, julienned
Garnishee
Black sesame seeds
White sesame seeds
Black sesame seeds/salt combination
Place a half sheet of nori horizontally in front of you on your nut. Place rice on left third of nori, leaving border of nori all around. Place filling ingredients vertically across middle of rice. Fold near corner of nori over to begin folding into cone shape. Continue to roll until cone is formed. Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce as condiments. (foodtv.com)
thursday, november 13, 2003
jayplay
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