Isn’t sushi just as appealing to the eyes as it is to the taste buds?  Here’s a great picture taken by Donald Cook of Potrero, CA:

And a yummy California roll taken by Vince Chan of Canada:

Japanese has many kinds of cooking style and each method has it’s own unique way of cooking the food. Learn how to distinguish the differences between these cooking methods in Japanese can be very useful for learning Japanese cooking recipes.

Let’s start with the most basic way of cooking and that’s to boil. The Japanese verb for boiling something in Japanese is waku. Waku means to cook something using water.

Ane wa ima oyu wo waite imasu.
My sister is boiling hot water now.

Kono niku wo sanjikan waku to, yawaraku narimasu.
If you boil this meat for 3 hours, it will become soft.

Oyu mo wakasenai, anta ittai dou yatte ryouri suru no?
You can’t even boil hot water, how on earth are you going to cook?

The most popular and the healthiest way to cook is to steam your food. To steam your food you need to place your food over boiling water and close it with a lid (the steam or hot air will cook your food). The Japanese word for steaming is musu.

Watashi wa mushi buta ga daisuki!
I love steamed pork!

Tamago ha butaniku to isshoni musu to, sugoku oishiku narimasu yo.
If you steam the eggs together with the pork, it will be super delicious.

One of the most ways to cook is to fry your food. You will need abura (oil) to fry any food. The Japanese verb for frying is ageru.

Kono butaniku no agekata wo watashi ni oshiete kurenai?
Can you teach me how to fry this pork?

Watashi wa tabemono wo ageru yori, masu no hou ga kenkou teki to omoimasu.
I think it’s healthier to steam your food than to fry them.

Toufu wa sonna fuu ni ageru to, mazuku natte shimau zo.
If you fry the toufu that way, it will become horrible.

Copyright 2006 - Rippasama.

To learn more about cooking words in Japanese, you can view the original article here:
www.myjapansensei.com/words/japanese_basic_cooking.html

Rippasama is the author of numerous simple & easy to understand Japanase lessons which you can learn to improve your Japanese. You can visit http://www.myjapansensei.com/ for more Japanese lessons

Throughout history, there has been a legacy of delicious duos.  Soup met crackers, peanut butter courted jelly, and ham was introduced to eggs.  Recently, a new duo has joined the ranks of great culinary creations: sushi and sake.  Move over wine and cheese, you’ve got competition.
Sake, while it is Japanese for “alcoholic beverage,” has a more specialized meaning in America.  Here, sake generally refers to a drink brewed from rice, more specifically, a drink brewed from rice that goes well with a rice roll.  Some people even refuse to eat raw fish without this escort.
Sushi, as an entrée, is something people either love or hate.  For those who have never tried it, sushi can seem unappealing.  Some people don’t like the concept of eating raw fish, others aren’t willing to try something new, and, naturally, some people fear a protest from the Little Mermaid.  Whichever apprehension people have about sushi, the existence of sake has helped the raw fish industry; sushi must raise its glass in a toast.  Sake, single handedly, has helped reel people into the raw fish craze.
Perhaps this is based on sake’s natural ability to enhance sushi, or perhaps it’s based on the fact that novices find it easier to eat raw fish once they are a tad tipsy. Whatever the reason, sake and sushi are a winning combination. But, of course, they aren’t the only combination.
Like most wine, sake goes with more than one thing: sushi and sake are not in a monogamous relationship.  Instead, sake is very versatile; it is able to be served alone, or with a variety of other foods.  Some of these foods include Tempura, Chinese Food, and Yakitori.
The history of sake is not as cut and dry as the food it enhances; sake’s past is not well documented and its existence is filled with ambiguities. There are, however, a great number of theories floating around. One theory implies that sake began in 4800 B.C. with the Chinese, when it was created along the Yangtze River and eventually exported to Japan.  A completely different theory suggests that sake began in 300 A.D. when the Japanese began to cultivate wet rice.  However it began, sake was deemed the “Drink of the God’s,” a title that gave it bragging rights over other types of alcohol.
In a page straight out of the “Too much information” book, sake was first made from people chewing rice, chestnuts, acorns, and millets and spitting the combination back out into a tub. The starches, when combined with enzymes from saliva, turned into sugar.  Once combined with grain, this sugar fermented. The end result was sake. 
In later years, saliva was replaced by a mold with enzymes that could also turn rice into sugar.  This discovery undoubtedly helped pave the way for sake to become the item it is today. Yes, there is nothing quite like taking spit out of a product to help it flourish.
Though sake initially began to increase in quality and in popularity, it was dealt a hefty spill when World War II broke out.  During this time, the Japanese government put restrictions on rice, using the majority of it for the war effort and lessening the amount allotted for brewing.
When the war concluded, sake began to slowly recover from its proverbial hang over and its quality began to rebound.  But, by the 1960’s, beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages posed competition and sake’s popularity once again began to decline.  In 1988, there were 2,500 sake breweries in Japan; presently, that number has been reduced by 1,000.
Sake, though it should be refrigerated, can be served in a variety of temperatures: cold, warm, or hot.  In Japan, the temperature is usually dictated by the temperature outside: sake is served hot in the winter and cold in the summer.  When consumed in the US, sake is typically served after it is heated to body temperature.  More seasoned drinkers, however, prefer to drink it either at room temperature or chilled.
Unlike many other types of wine, sake does not age well: it is the Marlon Brando of the wine industry.  It is typically only aged for six months and then should be consumed within a year.  Sake is also higher in alcohol than most types of wine, with most types of sake having between a 15 and 17 percent alcohol content. The flavor of sake can range from flowers, to a sweet flavor,  to tasting of, go figure, rice.  It can also be earthy and the aftertaste can either be obvious or subtle.
Sake is one of those wines that some people really like, as they drink it like water and wear shirts that say, “Sake to Me.” Others find it unappealing and would rather have a Merlot or a Pinot Noir.  Whether it’s loved or hated, no one can argue that sake doesn’t possess a certain uniqueness. This alone makes it worth a sip.  It really is an original; so just try it out, for goodness sake.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor at http://www.savoreachglass.com  With a vast knowledge of wine etiquette, she writes articles on everything from how to hold a glass of wine to how to hold your hair back after too many glasses. Ultimately, she writes her articles with the intention that readers will remember wine is fun and each glass of anything fun should always be savored.

Thousands of students across the country are studying for careers in many different professions, but almost all involve spending time at a PC. To quench the hunger that often develops after spending hours in front of a computer screen, many students find the library vending machines to be a convenient option. Although these high-calorie, low-nutrient foods satisfy your immediate hunger, they do little to increase energy levels and brainpower the rest of your body is craving.

To address this snacking situation, Chef-Instructors from The Art Institutes were put to the PC-friendly test and asked to develop low-mess, high-energy foods for snacking at computers. “Students of Multi-Media & Web Design, Media Arts & Animation and Graphic Design spend many long and hungry hours at the computer. We asked some of our chefs to help develop foods that would not only be easy to eat and have a low-mess factor, but also supply enough energy to avoid the sluggishness that comes from too much junk food,” says Jeffrey Durosko, spokesperson for The Art Institutes.

Chef Instructor Christine Geyer of The Art Institute of Los Angeles Culinary Arts Program offers recipes that satisfy sweet tooths, but also creations that “don’t leave residue on fingers, such as salt, seasonings on trail mixes or pretzel mixes,” says Geyer. Raspberry Cooler, Citrus Delight and Top Banana are yogurt-based snacks in a glass. Made with fresh fruit, juice and flavored yogurts, these high-energy drinks are perfect for computers “as long as you put it in a cup with a lid and use a straw,” Geyer cautions.

Chef Instructor Chris DeJohn of The Art Institute of Colorado’s Culinary Arts Program says, “Dim sum works well, as does simple cheese and fruit skewers. Just cube your favorite cheeses (hard cheeses work best) with favorite fruits that don’t drip like strawberries, grapes or pineapple,” explains DeJohn. Other PC-friendly food DeJohn likes are wrap sandwiches or spicy tuna and egg omelet sushi for those interested in a more ambitious snack for nibbling at the computer.

For Chef-Instructor Peter Babcock of The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, the best computer snacks are the simplest. “I like fresh apples, grapes or bananas for high energy with low mess. Dried fruits like cherries, cranberries or apricots are also great because they’re tasty and leave no sticky residue on your hands,” he says. For himself, Babcock purchases specialty hard candies he keeps in his pockets, passing them around to other faculty and students. Other PC-acceptable snacks he likes are carrots and cucumber slices, even childhood favorites such as celery with peanut butter.

In addition to fruits and vegetable snacks, Chef Babcock likes to prepare a flavorful chicken broth with fresh vegetables on a Sunday, cutting up extra vegetables for snacks during the week and using the chicken for chicken salad sandwiches to eat during lunch breaks - although not at the computer. “Chicken broth from a thermos is a nutritious, low-mess snack, as well as a great comfort food,” says Chef Babcock.

High Energy Foods

Raspberry Cooler
Recipe from Chef Instructor Christine Geyer of The Art Institute of Los Angeles

• 1 cup raspberry yogurt
• ½ cup canned pineapple juice
• ¼ cup canned cream of coconut
• 3 ice cubes

In a blender, puree yogurt, juice and cream of coconut with ice cubes.

Citrus Delight
Recipe from Chef Instructor Christine Geyer of The Art Institute of Los Angeles

• 1 cup lemon yogurt
• ¼ cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 fresh peach, sliced, or 1 large canned peach
• 3 ice cubes

Spicy Tuna and Egg Omelet Sushi Rolls with Tabiko
Recipe from Chef Instructor Chris DeJohn of The Art Institute of Colorado

• 6 ea. sheets of Nori seaweed
• 1 lb. Koko rose rice or other traditional sticky rice
• ½ lb. Tuna - Sushi grade albacore or yellow fin (Ask for this at the fish counter)
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 2 oz wasabi (Japanese green horseradish)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 6 oz. Tabiko caviar
• 4 oz. soy sauce
• 2 oz. hot chili sauce
• 1 ea. avocado
• 1 ea. English cucumber
• 4 oz. rice vinegar
• 2 oz. sugar
• 1 qt. and 2 cups water
• 2 oz. pickled ginger
• 1 pinch of kosher salt

Tools:

1 7-inch non-stick omelet pan

1 Sushi mat (Can be obtained from a specialty cook’s store)

1 French knife or Chinese cleaver

1 2 qt. sauce pot w/ cover or an electric rice cooker

The first step: Rinse the rice under cold, running water until the water draining becomes clear. Mix the 1 quart and 2 cups of water with the sugar and rice vinegar. Bring to a boil in the saucepot. Add the rice, stir and cover. Cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes or until water is absorbed. Cool and reserve for later.

The second step: Chop the tuna finely and add the hot chili paste and a pinch of kosher salt. Reserve until later.

The third step: Heat the omelet pan and add the beaten eggs. Cook the omelet over low heat so the egg remains yellow and does not brown. Cool and reserve for later.

The fourth step: Mix the wasabi with the 2 tablespoons of water and make a paste. Cover and reserve for later.

The fifth step: Peel and seed the cucumber and cut into long strips about 1/4″ wide and 10″ long. Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. With a large spoon, scoop out the flesh in one piece and slice into strips. Reserve for later.

Assembling the sushi rolls: Place the seaweed square 10″ x 10″ (should come this size) on the sushi mat with the shiny side down. Mound 4 oz. of cooked rice down the center of the seaweed in a horizontal line across the entire square. Gently spread the rice forward and backward to cover the entire sheet of seaweed as evenly as possible. Place some strips of sliced cucumber on top of the rice in a horizontal line across the entire square. Place some avocado on top of the rice, next to the cucumbers in a horizontal line across the entire square. (Leave about 1/2″ of space between the cucumbers and avocado. In the space between the avocado and cucumber, spoon some of the tuna mix in a horizontal line across the entire sheet of seaweed.

Slice the omelet into strips and place next to the tuna mix in a similar fashion.

Top with a line of Tabiko caviar the same way. Take the end closest to you and fold over the center mixture. Compress down into a round cylinder. Tighten and roll, being careful not to roll the mat into the sushi! Cover and reserve in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Repeat these steps until all of your ingredients are gone. Should make about six sushi rolls.

Do not stack or wrap rolls together as they will stick to each other. To slice, trim the ends and discard. Wet the blade of the knife and cut the rolls into 1″ to 1-1/2″ pieces. Serve with wasabi mixture, pickled ginger, and soy sauce, the traditional condiments for sushi.

Courtesy of ARA Content

The Art Institutes is a system of 20 schools is located nationwide, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary professionals. The Art Institutes family of schools has provided career-oriented education programs for over 35 years with more than 100,000 graduates. Courtesy of ARA Content, e-mail: info@aracontent.com

Japan is a country of many traditions and etiquettes. Everything in Japan has its own way to be done and if you do something different, everyone will look at you wonderingly. Tourists coming to Japan are amazed and interested by the large variety of food available. However, there are some basic table manners that foreigners should know so that they don’t feel like a fish out of water in Japan.

In Japan, it is an important etiquette to say traditional phrases before and after a meal. People start a meal by saying “itadakimasu” (”I gratefully receive”) and after finishing eating they say “gochisosama (deshita)” (”Thank you for the meal”) with a bow. It is crucial for you to say these phrases, especially when you are invited for a meal or someone cooks for you.

Chopsticks are used widely in all Japanese homes and restaurants. It may be very difficult for foreigners to become familiar with using Japanese chopsticks. Besides knowing how to eat using chopsticks, foreigners have to know some rules of this kind of utensil. One of the most important rules is not to pass food with your chopsticks directly to somebody else’s chopsticks and vice versa. You shouldn’t point your chopsticks at somebody or something. Playing with your chopsticks at a meal is also inadvisable. When you want to get food from a shared plate to your own plate, use the other ends of your chopsticks. This is considered polite and considerate in Japan.

It is appreciated in Japan to wait until everyone is served before you start eating. It is also considered considerate to empty your dishes completely because the Japanese are very economical. When eating, try to chew with your mouth closed and don’t burp during the meal because that is considered bad manners. If you are given some extra food, for example a bowl of rice, accept it with both hands. When eating, try not to eat in big pieces. You should separate the large piece with your chopsticks and eat every small piece. In contrast to some Western countries where people are often taught not to make slurping noises when eating soup or noodles, it is considered a normal thing in Japan. It even seems strange in Japan if you eat noodles without a sound!

If there are alcoholic drinks at the meal, you shouldn’t just pour the alcohol into your own glass. You should check your friends’ glasses frequently and if their glasses are getting empty, you should serve them with more. It is considered bad manner to be seen drunk in public in some formal restaurants. However, in some informal ones drunkenness is acceptable as long as you don’t bother others.

There are usually no napkins used at Japanese meals, thus you should prepare for yourself some tissues or a handkerchief. In Japan and in some other Asian countries, during the meal you shouldn’t talk about anything related to the toilet or any similar topics. This is strictly unappreciated because it is assumed that people lose their appetite when hearing about those things.

For no people on earth is it more true than the Japanese, when you say, “you are what you eat”. The Japanese are, by all accounts, the people with the least obesity problem, the highest longevity rate, and best health record. What are they eating?

The importance of rice

Rice is the main carbohydrate food in Japan, consumed with every meal. However, the real basis of the Japanese diet is not rice but fish, consumed at more than 70 kilos per person per year—which means 190 grams daily. This combination of rice and fish, as their staple food is far superior to the American meat and potato, the European little of this, little of that diets, and light years ahead of the Russian pork, potato and mayonnaise daily fare.

Miso Soup

Let’s see what else they eat. Miso and other soy products! Miso is a fermented soy product, and a soup is made from it that is light tasting and easy to digest. One gets all the benefits of soy from it. Also, the famous soy sauce. Japanese people, on the average consume about 200 grams of soy products daily.

So why are they so thin and so healthy?

There are a few very good reasons. One is their sparingly consumption of sugar.

Low in sugar

Japanese consume only 20 kilos of sugar per year (compared to the American 71 kilos per year). Another is the Japanese consumption of cereals (which obviously includes rice) to be 105 kilos per year (compared to the American 68 kilos per year).

The human body appears to be doing much better with natural cereals and less sugar than fried potatoes and ‘sugar in everything you eat’ diets. The Japanese have far less incidence of heart disease and cancer than Americans. As they eat as much meat as the Americans do (or more), and smoke more, the theory is refined sugar and stress are the two biggest contributors to destroying one’s health.

Portion size

Another important factor in the Japanese diet is portion size. The portions are small.

This means they savor their food; eat slowly and enjoy it. No “scarfing” down hamburgers and fries here, and king size cola drinks.

Eating with chop sticks help, as you eat more slowly, take smaller bites and are able to appreciate what you are eating. This aids in digestion, and that is a proven fact.

There are two more factors which must be mentioned that make the Japanese diet so successful.

The first is breakfast.

The typical Japanese breakfast can (and usually includes) green tea, steamed rice, miso soup with tofu, spring onions and omelet and both raw and grilled fish.

This gives your body all it needs to start your day well. You will feel better, and such food does not add weight to your body at all. In fact, it stimulates the metabolism mechanism. You will not gain weight, and if overweight, will lose weight.

Variety Never be bored - the second factor is variety.

A typical American will have about 30 varieties of food per week. A typical European (especially southern European) will have about 45. The typical Japanese will have about 100 varieties of food per week, and will include lots of fresh fish, vegetables, fruit and a variety of meats.

There is one over-riding element here as well; the Japanese cook their foods lightly and thus are never feeling stuffed and stuffy after eating.

As you can see the diet is great and its healthy and is perfect for those wanting to lose weight and avoid illness.

This article gives a history of noodles as well as a Japanese Soba noodle recipe and other noodle recipes.

Different cultures have their own way of taking some water and mixing it with an all-purpose flour, a rice flour, a wheat flour and adding either barley, buckwheat,soybeans,seaweed or tapioca. After combining whatever ingredients are used with the type of a chosen flour, they work the dough on a floured surface, roll the dough out and let it dry. Until, it is ready to be hand cut or hand pulled into whatever shape of a noodle that is desired. The finished noodle product is dropped into a hot chicken,a hot beef or a hot vegetable both from three to five minutes depending upon the noodle’s thickness. After the noodles are finished cooking, they are left in the broth for a few more minutes. The results are something of a phenomenon.

In five thousand B.C., the first forms of noodles were discovered in the Middle East. In three hundred A.D., the Chinese were using buckwheat as the main ingredient for their noodles and sharing the art of making them with the Japanese. In the seventeen hundreds, noodles were introduced in Naples, Italy. As a rival to rice, noodles have been a staple food in millions of households with the exeception of the cuisines of England and France. Noodles are inexpensive to make and enjoyed as a complete meal with vegetables, meat seafood or poultry added and as an ingredient in soup to begin a simple meal or a feast.

The noodle feast begins with a Chicken Noodle Soup With Dried Bamboo Shoots
1-cup dried bamboo shoots(found in Asian markets)
1/2-lb rice stick noodles
2-1/2-quarts chicken stock or two cans chicken broth
1/1/2-quarts water or 1-1/2-cans water
2-chicken legs with thighs, or boneless chicken breasts
1/2-cup sliced canned bamboo shoots
1-Tlb plus one teaspoon fish sauce
1-Tlb mixed fresh coriander and scallion greens
Directions:Cover the dried bamboo shoots with water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil for thirty minutes. Drain the bamboo shoots and boil them again in one quart of water for two hours. Drain and shred the bamboo shoots coarsely. Set aside.Note: For cooking the rice noodles, drop one half of the package in boiling water and cook for five minutes. Drain and rinse them in cold water to keep them from sticking. In a large pot:add the chicken stock, the water and the chicken legs,or chicken breasts. Bring to a boil and cook for thirty minutes. After the chicken is finshed cooking remove it from the broth and set aside. Add the precooked bamboo shoots, the canned bamboo shoots,the fish sauce and the salt. Simmer for thirty minutes. To serve: shred the chicken and arrange some of it with the cooked noodles and the bamboo shoots into a soup bowl. Pour the hot chicken broth over the ingredients and top with the minced parsley and scallions.

Nancy an American woman with a Vietnamese daughter-in-law was given a recipe for a spicy vinegar and lime sauce. The recipe below is from Sat Thi’s mother.

Spicy Vinegar And Lime Sauce
3-cups hot water
1-1/2-cups sugar
1-cup fish sauce
1-cup vinegar
1-lime
Chili peppers to taste
Directions: Mix the ingredients in parts. The first two, then the last four and combine them together. Pour over any type of cooked orentail noodles.

Mary an American woman has always made her own egg noodles and dropped them into a meat broth such as; a pot roast, or beef roast or chicken broth that she served for her family’s supper.

Homemade Egg Noodles
(Serves 6)
3-large eggs
1-cup flour
1/2-tsp. salt
3-tsp. baking powder
1/2-cup flour(to use for rolling out the noodle dough)
Directions: Beat the eggs until they are foamy. Measure the dry ingredients into the beaten eggs and mix them together until they are of dough consistency. Measure the one-half cup flour and sprinkle it on a surface used to work the dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes and then roll it out in a thin sheet. Put the thin dough sheet on a piece of wax paper letting it dry. Cut the noodle dough into thin or medium sized strips. Drop the cut noodles into a hot chicken or beef broth cooking them for five minutes. Let them sit in the broth for at least four more minutes before serving them.

Soba noodles are a flavorsome wheat noodle product that can be boiled and then made into a cold noodle salad. The vinaigrette dressing is made with a combination of rice wine vinegar and lime juice for a lower calorie dressing.

Soba Noodle Salad
2-packages soba noodles
1-package commerical packaged shredded carrots
4-green onions, sliced
2-Tlbs.coriander (Chinese parsley)chopped
4-Tlb rice wine vinegar
2-Tlb.lime juice
3 or 4 drops hot sauce
Directions: Boil the noodles according to package directions and then let them cool.Mix the shredded carrots, the chopped green onions and the coriander into the cooled noodles. In a separate bowl, whisk the rice wine vinegar,the lime juice, and the hot sauce. Mix the dressing with the cooled noodles and serve.

Rounding out the noodle feast is a dessert called an apple raisin noodle pudding.

Apple Raisin Walnut Noodle Pudding
(Serves 4-6)
8-oz. broad egg noodles, broken into pieces
1/2-cup walnuts, chopped
1-cup raisins,
1/2-tsp. cinnamon
1/4-tsp. nutmeg
3 eggs, separated
1/4-cup butter
3-Tlbs. sugar
1/2-tsp. salt
Directions: Cook the noodles as directed then drain and rinse them in cold water. Combine the nuts, apples, raisins and spices together. Beat the egg yolks with the butter, sugar and the salt until well blended. Fold in the egg yolks into the cooked noodles and then the apple spice mixture. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the noodle mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for forty-five minutes.

If you’re not making sushi at home you’re missing out on a delicious and extremely diet-friendly meal. It’s easy to make, fast, nutritious, and the raw fish you’re afraid of is completely optional.

First let’s have a brief overview of sushi for those who’ve never had it or those who have tried it but want to know more.

Sushi is the catch-all name for a wide variety of Japanese dishes. The word sushi actually refers to rice with rice vinegar added. Since this is a very basic and lightly flavored food, it is the many ingredients added to it that really define what dish you are eating. The raw fish you have heard of is sashimi — which is a crucial ingredient of many types of sushi — but you can create delicious sushi with almost any ingredient that goes with rice.

In America by far the most common type of sushi is maki-sushi, or rice wrapped in seaweed. The seaweed is called nori and forms the green skin you can see around sushi pieces. For this reason maki-sushi are also called nori rolls. Also popular are nigiri-sushi, small bars of rice topped with wasabi and sashimi.

It’s easy to include sushi in a healthy diet. Think of the ingredients: rice, vegetables, and fish. Not exactly a heart-attack in the making; just the opposite in fact. As long as you don’t go overboard on the rice it is extremely low in calories in addition to being low in fat. While we chomp pork rinds and potato chips, the Japanese have sushi. Care to guess which country has a longer average life span?

Let’s learn how to make a California roll, easily the most popular nori roll in America today. You will need the following items, all of which should be easy to find in your supermarket’s oriental foods section or at your local Asian market:

Bamboo rolling mat  Sushi rice (short or medium grain)  Nori (squares of roasted seaweed)  Salt  Sugar  Rice vinegar  Imitation crab meat  Avocado  Cucumber  Wasabi  Soy sauce

Prepare the rice according to the directions on the package. You will need about 3/4 cup cooked rice for each sushi roll, and most people will be full after eating 1 or 2 rolls.

In a small pan, place a tablespoon of vinegar and 1/3 tbsp of sugar and salt for each 3/4 cup of rice you are cooking. Heat the resulting mixture briefly and stir until the sugar dissolves. When the rice is almost done cooking, begin cutting your vegetables. Peel a cucumber and cut it into long thin strips, about a 1/4″ around. Same for the avocado. If you bought powdered wasabi prepare it also (just mix in tiny amounts of water until you get a thick paste).

Once the rice is done, remove it from heat and slowly fold in the vinegar mixture. Then lay the rice out on a sheet of waxpaper or a cutting board and allow it to cool (traditionally this is done by fanning the rice while slowly cutting and folding it with a special rice spatula). The rice should be slightly damp from the vinegar and sticky, but not wet and mushy, adjust the amount of vinegar mixture you add as needed. Getting the rice right is the most difficult part of making sushi, but a little practice will teach you what works.

Once the vinegared rice has cooled off, you are ready to put it all together. Lay your bamboo rolling mat in front of you horizontally (the bamboo sticks should run left-right). Take a sheet of nori and lay it on the rolling mat. For best luck with the rice, keep water handy to dip your fingers in. Spread a layer of rice on the nori, covering about 3/4 of it. The part of the nori not covered in rice will hold the roll closed (think of the glue strip on an envelope or the gum on a cigarette paper).

Place a strip of avocado and a strip of cucumber on the rice, and top it with crab meat. Now wet your fingers with cold water and dampen the part of the nori you left uncovered. Carefully roll the sushi using the mat. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry. It’s as simple as rolling up a sleeping bag or a beach towel, and it will be obvious to you once you actually have the ingredients in front of you.

Take the resulting roll and cut it into bite sized slices, usually 6 per roll. If you are having trouble cutting the roll without damaging it, try dipping your knife into water between each cut. Lay the pieces flat and they will look like little colorful discs. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce on the side.

If you feel brave and want to try do-it-yourself sashimi, here are a few safety tips. First of all, understand that millions of people eat raw fish every day without getting sick. However, most of them live right next to the sea where fresh fish is abundant. For many land-locked Americans this isn’t the case. Fish that is prepared for shipping to a grocery store in Boise is not handled in the same way as that bound for a San Francisco sushi bar. Look for fish that is specially labeled as sushi-grade. Avoid freshwater fish, with the notable exception of Salmon, which spends much of its life at sea. When buying whole fish, make sure the gills are bright red and not slimy, the eyes should be transparent and not cloudy, and there should be no fishy odor.

Take up a healthy and nutritious sushi addiction today. It may take you a while to get the rice and the rolling right, but once you are experienced you’ll be able to whip out several nori rolls in no time.

It is very popular Japanese sea food rice bowl especially in northern region. Oh, at first I have to explain about rice bowl style eating. In japan, steamed rice is the main food to take carbohydrate and protein in every three meal.

Steamed rice is very convenient food, as itself do not have strong taste, it can be adjusted to any dishes of fish, meat, vegetables and so on. So we Japanese use it to make rice bowl with those meat or fish putting them on rice. This is one of the Japanese original fast food. You may know “Yoshinoya” in some US cities selling beef rice bowl.

Sea urchin, have you ever seen it in seaside or sea food shop?

It looks like a hedgehog or chestnut in spiky shell, but inside the spiky shell, you can find a lot of yellow or orange colored gonad and Japanese love to eat them.

Since the numbers of sea urchin gradually decreased in these a few decades, the sea urchin is not cheap enough to use it as fast food. Now sea urchin rice bowl costs more than 3000yen, 25 US dollars, however, you can enjoy it at reasonable price in seaside village in Aomori prefecture.

Local small restaurants usually have sea urchin rice bowl in their menu, and it costs less than 1500 yen with a lot of fresh sea urchin.

Nuidou syokudou is one of the famous small restaurant in Sai village.

You can enjoy seafood set with sea urchin rice bowl at 1500 yen, and surprisingly, you will find a lot of sea urchin gonad put on the rice bowl, more than two times much than expensive one you usually can eat in Sushi bar in Japanese big cities.

The taste of sea urchin taste like …no I cannot imagine any western foods. Try and enjoy it when you visit Japan.

Akashi Japanese in South Miami- This hidden gem may be located next to the bustling traffic of US-1 and have a rough exterior, but it is surely worth a trip. Close to the University of Miami and right across from the parking garage of Sunset Place, this Miami restaurant attracts university students, dinner and movie goers, and families. I like to consider Akashi Japanese to be the best Sushi Restaurant in Miami not on South Beach.

Akashi’s Menu: Akashi restaurant serves fresh and excellent quality sushi. If you are a “rolls” person, then we recommend the Dragon Roll, which is a combination of tempura shrimp, crabmeat, masago, scallions, asparagus, and spicy mayo topped with avocado. This roll considered is a safe choice in addition to the traditional tuna or salmon rolls. If you would like to get a little crazy, try the Rob Roll, which is rolled inside-out with eel, crabmeat, scallions, asparagus, and spicy mayo with avocado. If you are a straight up sashimi lover, then you can’t go wrong with Akashi’s Sashimi Mori, which is simply a variety of sashimi. If you are on a date, one option is to order a boat which is a delightful combination of sushi and sashimi. It can be a little more romantic sharing a boat rather than enjoying individual rolls.

Dinner and a Movie: Akashi is conveniently located next to Sunset Place in South Miami, so you can watch a movie or shop before or after you eat.

Tips: Parking spots are limited, and you may be tempted to park at the Dry Cleaning Services across from Akashi but don’t! Occasionally cars are towed, so use the metered parking.

To get more information on Miami Sushi Restaurants or to view Miami Restaurant Menus, visit http://www.restaurantplace.com.