Sushi - start here

Back in the 80s, Bill Scott and Aleksey Novicov invited me to join them at a friend's sushi party. Bill decided we should dress as the Kami-Kazi pilots who destroyed the USS Arizona. Not being up on my history, I wasn't burdened by the insensitivity of our statement.

Bill purchased three disposable white painting jumpsuits which we adorned with war slogans and topped off with head gear - rolled up bandannas with Kanji on them. Having lived in Japan when I was 12, I was appointed translator and trained my co-pilots to speak English with bad Japanese accents. We maintained these accents throughout the evening. It might be necessary to point out that there was an enormous amount of pre-flight gin consumed.

We made our dramatic entrance. Once the novelty of our joke ran out and the delta of our collective drunkenness became apparent we were more or less shunned. Perhaps strategically to draw us into another room, the hosts, Bill and Kathy Wright, set up Blade Runner on an endless loop substituting the sound track with popular Japanese music. I was riveted. I do recall the sushi was meticulously prepared - extraordinary in fact. I don't recall eating, or much else about that evening.

Since Bill and Kathy managed to make masterpieces of everything they tackled, I just assumed sushi was another one of those impossible projects. This view was confirmed by another sushi party I attended years later where the rice was too hot, the fish too fishy, and the presentation too frumpy.

Fast forward to Troy's son's birthday present last October -- a Sushi Kit. I was cynical about the results but compliant. It took a few attempts at the rice but I was astonished that we could produce something really good without props or massive amounts of gin. We did preserve the bad accents.

(I just ran this story by Bill Scott who has an alternate and truer version. I will be appending this shortly - if at least to provide a gestalt of the damage that large quantities of gin will have on historical accuracy but not on good times.)

Among the most important things; getting the rice right.

This Sushi section has a few parts:

First, Sushi Ingredients and Tools
Second, Sushi Rice
Third, Sushi Ingredient Preparations and Rolls