Sushi Day

I haven’t written since posting photos from the night out at Shine. I only drank two beers that night, but I’ve felt like I’ve had a hangover for the last three days. I think I caught a bit of a cold on Monday during my first day at Kaisai High School. There was a typhoon warning that day and the school is right on the water; somehow this resulted in the school being very cold and I didn’t have a jacket. The next day I woke up with my head throbbing and my sinuses blocked up. The headache would stay with me for the whole day. We also started conversation club that day, so I was at the school until almost 6. I did the best I could do for my ailment: I bought 4 oranges, a carton of grapefruit juice, and slept for about 9 hours that night. This morning I felt great.

A few years ago, I watched Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a film by Robert Rodriguez. In the bonus features, the director shows us how to cook a dish that in the film, Johnny Depp’s character is of a self-proclaimed connoisseur. According to Robert, the reason for including this cooking segment with the film is that human beings, throughout the course of their lifetime, have three basic physical needs: eating, sleeping, and making love. Sleeping comes naturally to most of us, and making love is maybe a topic best left for a different kind of website, which leaves us with our appetites. Robert believes that because it is important that we eat, and that we will always be eating, learning to cook is a skill worth investing in. Tonight, I thought that I would try to cook some sushi.

Janice once treated us both to a sushi making course, which taught us everything from the history of sushi to the various kinds that can be made. We haven’t made sushi since the day of the course and I have since forgotten most of it, but the main essentials seemed to come back somewhat easily.

I decided on tuna rolls and California rolls – I figured that something easy would be best. After buying ingredients: tuna, crab, cucumber, avacadoes, rice vinegar, sugar, and seaweed, I made about five full-sized rolls out of the first batch of rice. I still had plenty of ingredients left over so I made another batch of rice and made another 6 full rolls. There was no way that I could eat all of this, so Cathy came over to help me eat some. After the both of us were stuffed, I still have enough sushi for tomorrow’s lunch and dinner.

I’ve included a few photos of my first attempt at sushi. I don’t have a good knife, so I butchered them a bit as I cut them up. Overall, they were pretty good.

Here are a few sites that might be useful for any sushi enthusiast.

http://sushiday.com/
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/sushirice.htm
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Appetizers/CaliforniaRoll.htm