Unless you live in a cave somewhere in Saskatchewan, you’ve probably noticed the recent trend of sushi restaurants popping up all over the major cities of the world (no offense to anyone living in Saskatchewan, of course). The raw fish craze has become the subject of countless restaurant reviews and uber-trendy “it” spots giving the Japanese staple food quite a bit of attention. These eateries with chic décor, dim lighting and intricately designed, square-shaped plates charge a pretty penny for all things raw.

History

So what’s the big deal about sushi? If you live in the Far East, sushi is nothing special. Their cultural staples of rice and fish make sushi a very unremarkable phenomenon. In fact, the concept of sushi dates back to a very practical purpose in 7th Century China when fish needed to be preserved for long periods of time. Previously, the fish had been packed in salt, which helped ferment the fish over a few months. But who wants to wait for months just to have a piece of salty fish?

In time, it was discovered that fish could be preserved just as well by rolling the fish in rice that had been soaked in vinegar. Not only was this tastier, but it allowed the fish to ferment in a matter of days rather than months. Once the fish was ready, the rice was usually discarded, but with drought and food shortage, people began eating the rice and the fish together for the nutrients.

Chef Yohei is credited with originating the first types of sushi in the 1800s when he served fish wrapped in rice to his friends at a dinner party. He created two styles of sushi named after two cities in Japan: Edo (present day Tokyo) and Osaka. The sushi that came from Osaka is most akin to what you’d be served at a sushi restaurant today, as they were known for blending rice with many different ingredients, especially fish, to form a decorative presentation. They also took advantage of the rich variety of seafood and fish in the area by placing a small piece of fish on a pad of seasoned rice to create nigirizushi. Today’s sushi chefs have come a long way since Yohei’s time, but they still use the same techniques and principles when constructing their rolls.

Sushi Sophistication

Even if you’ve heard about sushi and you think it sounds interesting, it can be intimidating to visit a sushi restaurant without knowing how to order. Let’s start with the menu:

You have some choices as to how you’d like your sushi to look:

- Nigri – a small piece of fish placed on a mound of rice, often secured with a small band of nori or seaweed. Some restaurants place a bit of wasabi in between the rice and the fish for added flavor.

- Maki – probably the most recognizable form of sushi, the ingredients are rolled inside rice and nori and cut into bite-size pieces.

- Temaki – cone-shaped hand rolls that include a great deal of fish and other ingredients wrapped in a large piece of nori. Because they are so large, they are eaten with hands rather than chopsticks.

Once you’ve decided what form your sushi should take, it’s simply a matter of choosing ingredients. Modern sushi restaurants in the United States pride themselves on creative rolls with interesting ingredients, so it pays to be adventurous. Below are some of the most popular types of nigri that will help you translate the menu from Japanese to English:

Magura = Tuna

Tai = Red Snapper

Awabi = Abolone

Hirame = Halibut

Saba = Mackerel

Ikura = Salmon Roe

Toro = Fatty Tuna

Ika = Squid

Mirugai = Giant Clam

Hamachi = Yellow Tail

Ebi = Shrimp

Uni = Sea Urchin

Tako = Octopus

Sake = Smoked Salmon

Unagi = Eel

Anago = Sea Eel

Kani = Crab

Tomago = Egg

Not a fish fan? There are plenty of vegetarian rolls and other dishes. A very popular vegetarian dish is inari, which consists of a thin piece of fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice. It’s quite tasty and a great choice for anyone.

While waiting for the meal, you can prepare your chopsticks. Some restaurants may have reusable chopsticks, which don’t require any preparation, but most places will have wooden chopsticks that need to be broken apart. You may want to rub the sticks together after they have been broken to remove any splinters. When you are not using your chopsticks, lean them on the provided rest or on the soy sauce dish. Still asking for the kiddy chopsticks with the rubber band attaching them at the top? Check out the instructions at eHow.com and make yourself learn once and for all.

The sushi will arrive at the table on some sort of wooden plank or long dish. You may want to pour some soy sauce into your small dish (low-sodium is usually available upon request) to serve as a dipping sauce for the sushi. Accompanying the sushi will be two small mounds of Japanese condiments:

- Wasabi – known as Japanese horseradish, the green pasty lump is quite spicy and made from the root of the wasabi plant. Many people mix it in with their soy sauce to add a spicy kick to their sushi when they dip. A very small amount, usually one chopstick-full provides more than enough spice for a small dish of soy sauce.

- Ginger – this sweet, pickled condiment is used as a digestive aid or to cleanse the palate after the meal or in between rolls.

There’s no end to the types of sushi that can be created, so take your time ordering and try new things. Ask for any specials or what the sushi chef recommends and you’ll get the best of the best.

I Want to be a Sushi Chef

Sushi-making is undoubtedly an art, but crudely formed rice rolls are supposed to be relatively simple to make. Impress dinner guests with your new talent, but do a few practice rounds before you get to the real thing. It takes a while to get the knack.

The process itself is not hard, but it is difficult to explain without a visual aid. The best step-by-step instructions with pictures that I could find were at IMakeSushi.com. Their basic sushi-making directions are simple and easy to follow, which include a standard roll, inside-out roll and nigri. The site also has instructions on how to make more complicated rolls if you get really adventurous.

Copyright © 2006 Ampere Media LLC

The word “jidori” in Japanese means locally produced free-range chicken in each area of Japan.

It is an old-fashioned name and sounds like that the local chicken is really traditional strain kept in restricted area for long times, therefor, Japanese restaurant owners and farmers want to call it jidori to obtain much more profit.

However, you know that not of all jidori brands advertised in Japan are really traditional strain with delicious taste.

Actually, some of the strain was newly generated from the progeny strain of various local chicken from various region of Japan, in addition, sometimes bred with Korean or Chinese strain.

Here I will write about Aizu Jidori, which is one of the most famous and traditional jidori in Japan north area.

Aizu area is very famous as the place where Heike family and followers who were occupying western half of Japan for 200 years and the lost it at country-wide Samurai conflict in 12th century.

Aizu jidori is orally traditional chickens taken by Heike family from the capital city Kyoto to Aizu at that period and said to be handed down to now.

But in literature, the first one describing about Aizu jidori is found in a reference written in 1570s.

It is written in the reference that Aizu jidori feathers are very important decoration of the wears used in spring time festival “Aizu Higan-jishi festival” in Aizu area.

Yes, you can enjoy that traditional festival in March, and you can confirm that a lot of beautiful Aizu jidori feathers are used in traditional wears of dancers.

This is the reason why we believe the Aizu jidori is really traditional local chicken, at least 400 years history, and may inherit old taste for 800 years.

To be honest, when this Aizu jidori was recognized its value and researched in 1987, there were only a few numbers of birds kept in a few small farms.

So the investigators in chicken farming centers of Fukushima prefecture intensively took care of expansion of Aizu jidori number for 10 years, and thanks to them, now we can enjoy Aizu jidori taste in many restaurants.

You are suspicious about that are those chickens kept in a few farms were really the direct progeny of Aizu jidori, aren’t you? Don’t mind about that.

There are another famous jidori in the south side of Japan, Satsuma jidori, and the genomic DNA of both strain were sequenced and compared to each other, and were proven to be quite different ancestor chickens they derived from.

Yes, we Japanese are somehow paranoiac about the tradition or blood purity, probably because we give priority on the family than individuals .

Now these Aizu jidori is kept in large breeding farms in country side of Aizu, just like as they were in hills and fields in ancient days, a lot of natural exercise, appropriate time sun-bathing, natural foods and may have no stress.

Thanks to the farmers’ effort to keep Aizu jidori in organic style, we can enjoy Aizu jidori taste robably almost the same or better condition than 400 years ago.

In most famous Aizu jidori producing center Mishima town, the jidori farmers ship chickens at 120 days within a few days delay.

A hundred and 20 days are twice longer than the feeding time of broiler chicken usually kept until shipping.

There is a reason why, because the balance of the glutamic acid and inosinic acid in chicken meat is the best at 110-130 days old.

The glutamic acid and inosinic acid are known to affect the taste of meat synergistically better if those amino acids are included rich in the meat in good balance, and the best balance ratio developing timing was clarified to be 110-130 days by Fukushima chicken farming center.

Different from broiler chicken kept in small cages for 60 days without exercise, Aizu jidori grow in a large field with natural exercise and organic foods under the sun.

Such a breeding style presents you the best hardness and good smell of chicken meat when you put them into your mouth in Aizu jidori restaurants.

Good taste and good appearance with beautiful feather color, Aizu jidori is one of the best chicken you can find in Japan.I am very grateful to the staffs of chicken farming centers of Fukushima prefecture!

Do you love Japanese food? The funny thing about Japanese food is that you either love it or you hate it. There is no in-between. And chances are, if you hate it, you probably haven’t really tasted Japanese food yet or haven’t given yourself a chance to sample it enough. Japanese food is hard to appreciate after only one bite. And sometimes, the idea that you are tasting raw food just won’t escape your mind that you are already predisposed to hating Japanese food even before you actually taste it.

Personally, I love Japanese food. There really is no other cuisine like it in the world in terms of its unique taste and presentation. Who would believe that something so raw could be so delicious? For those of you who have not yet discovered the pleasures of Japanese food, allow me to present the following primer.

The standard Japanese meal always involves a bowl of white rice as well as soup and side dishes such as pickles, vegetables, meat and fish. Japanese food is classified by the number of viands or “okazu” that are served with the rice, soup and side dishes. A meal with one okazu is called ichiju-issai and a prime example of this is the traditional Japanese breakfast which consists of miso soup, rice, grilled fish and one pickled vegetable.

The regular Japanese meal usually involves three okazu to go along with the soup, rice and pickles. Traditionally, each of these three okazu are cooked in a different way from the others. They can either be served raw or grilled, simmered, steamed or deep fried.

Another hallmark of Japanese food is seafood, which is the most popular and most widely consumed food in Japan. The most popular dishes include all types of fish as well as shellfish, squid and octopus. Crab is another favorite delicacy and so are whale and seaweed. Despite the fact that Japanese are not heavy meat eaters, you will hardly find any vegetarians among them either probably owing to their deep fashion for seafood. Beef and chicken are also popular among the Japanese.

Japanese food, once little more than a niche occupant in the greater scope of American cuisine, has become increasingly popular in recent years. The harmony of flavors and lightness emphasized in the typical Japanese dish appeals to the palettes of many in the United States, where heavy and often deep fried foods have long dominated the market. Many people remain reluctant about exploring this aspect of ethnic cuisine, however, for fear that they’ll find something on their plate which appears as though it came from the Iron Chef. This is far from the truth! The intent of this article is to introduce readers to a variety of different Japanese dishes, that they might go out and try something new without fear of what they’ll be eating.

Domburi: This dish is quite simply a bowl of rice adorned with some sort of topping. A variety of toppings are popular in Japan, many of which have successfully migrated across the Pacific and into American restaurants. One example of this dish is oyakodon, which uses both chicken and egg for its topping. Another sort of domburi, gyudon, is beefy in flavor and more popular in Japan as fast food. Those of you who are especially outgoing tasters might like to sample unadon, a type of domburi wherein strips of grilled eel coated in a thick soya sauce are used to top the rice bowl.

Ramen: This soup dish has been a staple of the American college student’s diet for years. Wildly popular around the world, ramen is to the Japanese what a burger and fries are to your average United States native. Ramen comes in a variety of bases and is best recognized for its long, slender noodles. Complimenting these noodles are such ingredients as dumplings, pork, miso (fermented soybeans) and soya sauce. It’s interesting to note that ramen originated in China, rather than Japan, but the dish is almost always associated with the latter source nowadays.

Sashimi: This dish is often mistaken for sushi by those still new to the realm of Japanese cuisine. Although it is often presented artistically, the fact remains that sashimi is raw fish, a truth which turns the stomach of many a squeamish American. Several types of sashimi are served, the most popular of which is probably tuna. Diners should be lend particular attention to the scent when partaking of this dish. The fish used to prepare sashimi must be exceptionally fresh and as such, it should be devoid of any fishy scent.

Sushi: Perhaps the most well-recognized of all Japanese dishes, sushi has become particularly popular in trendy regions of the United States. It is served in too many variations to list completely in the space of this article. To be considered sushi, however, the dish must contain rice that has been prepared with sushi vinegar. The most recognized form of sushi is probably norimaki, or sushi rolls. These rolls contain sushi rice and various sorts of seafood rolled in sheets of dried seaweed. Norimaki often includes vegetables, as well.

Tempura: This dish has also become quite popular within Japan and across the globe. Tempura is something of a finger food, consisting of differing types of seafood and/or vegetables fried in a special batter. The end result is a delightful treat which is crisp without being heavy, as is often the case with deep fried cuisine in America. The ingredients featured in tempura are too numerous to possibly list and often vary wildly from one restaurant to the next.

The five dishes listed above should provide the novice gourmand with a particularly tasty introduction to the world of Japanese cuisine. Enjoy!