How well do you know sushi?
Sushi began as a way to preserve fish and became a global favourite. These six questions follow its path from fermented rice to fast food, conveyor belts and salmon.
Did you know?
- Fatty tuna belly, or toro, was once considered low-grade in Japan. The rich meat spoiled quickly without refrigeration, and many people preferred leaner fish. Tastes changed in the 20th century, and today toro is one of the most expensive pieces in a sushi restaurant.
- The pale pink pickled ginger served with sushi, called gari, is meant to refresh the palate between different fish. Young ginger turns naturally pink when it is pickled in sweet vinegar, although some commercial brands add colouring to make the shade stronger.
- In a sushi restaurant it is perfectly traditional to eat nigiri with your fingers. If you use soy sauce, the usual advice is to turn the piece over and dip the fish side lightly, because rice soaks up too much sauce and can fall apart.
How sushi became a world food
Sushi started not as a delicacy but as a way to keep fish from spoiling. Methods of fermenting fish in rice spread from Southeast Asia and China to Japan more than a thousand years ago. Over the centuries, cooks shortened the fermentation and began eating the rice too, then switched to vinegar for a quick sour taste. The word sushi originally referred to that sourness. Today the name covers many styles, from rolls to rice topped with raw or cooked fish, vegetables or egg.
From preservation to fast food
By the Edo period, cooks were seasoning freshly cooked rice with vinegar instead of waiting for it to ferment, a style called hayazushi, or 'fast sushi'. In the early 1800s, Edo's street stalls began selling nigiri, and the cook Hanaya Yohei is often credited with popularising it. Because there was no refrigeration, fish was cured in salt or vinegar, marinated in soy sauce or lightly cooked. Many classic Edo-style toppings, such as vinegared mackerel, still reflect those old techniques.
The craft behind the counter
Sushi chefs traditionally train for years, often starting by washing dishes and preparing rice before they are allowed to slice fish. Rice is cooled in a wide wooden tub while being fanned and mixed, so each grain stays glossy and separate. Some Tokyo chefs use akazu, a reddish vinegar made from sake lees, which gives the rice a mellow, deeper flavour and a light brown colour. Many chefs also age certain fish for days to develop its taste and texture.
Sushi around the world
As sushi spread abroad, chefs adapted it to local tastes. The California roll, with crab or imitation crab, avocado and cucumber, is an inside-out roll with rice on the outside and was developed in North America in the 1960s and 1970s, partly for diners unused to seaweed. Conveyor-belt restaurants made sushi cheaper and more casual, and supermarket sushi became common in many countries. Today sushi is eaten on every continent, though its forms can look very different from the original.