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Sashimi to uramaki: Different kinds of sushi you’ll come across at restaurants
Temaki, nigiri, uramaki—have you ever felt intimidated by these Japanese terms? Get familiar with these sushis you’re likely to find on a menu.
“This is raw fish! Kaun khata hai yeh (who eats this)?” This is the response you got a few years back, when anyone mentioned sushi. But that’s not the case anymore. Sushi seems to be the new pizza for Delhities. People are not hesitant to try sushi now. However, with so many varieties available, it can be a little tough to differentiate between them. This sushi chart makes it simple for you to learn about various types. Master chef Tetsu Akahira from Sakura, Metropolitan Hotel and Spa helps us decode the common type of sushis that you will find on a menu. Next time when you go to that swanky Japanese eatery, order in style!
Going back in time: “Sushi came from China. Japan never had it,” says Masterchef Tetsu Akahira from Metropolitan Hotel and Spa. Japan is surrounded by the sea so they took out fish and ate it with rice. When men went out sailing, they carried vinegar rice – the shelf life of the rice is very long, almost four days. They took raw fish and had it with rice and that’s how sushi was invented.”
Nigiri Sushi: This sushi is made of vinegared rice dabbed with wasabi paste. It is then topped with fillets of raw fish such as salmon, tuna and sea bass. You don’t need a bamboo mat or a nori sheet to make this.
Sashimi: Sashimi means sliced raw fish. Although this is a simple dish to prepare since it needs no cooking, you need to take great care when selecting the fresh fish. Fillets of tuna, sea bass and salmon are placed on a tray. The sashimi is served with soy sauce and wasabi.
Ho So Maki: This is made from vinegared rice and raw fish, seafood or vegetables, usually (but not always) wrapped in Nori, a paper-like, dried-and-roasted Japanese seaweed.
Uramaki Sushi: This inside-out sushi is made with vinegared rice. The rice is rolled around a seaweed or nori sheet. It is then laced with flying fish roe or toasted sesame seeds to give the sushi mild crunchiness.
Temaki Sushi: For this sushi, the nori sheet is rolled into a cone, and stuffed with rice and variety of other fillings such as shrimp, crab meat, shredded cucumber and avocado, and flying fish roe.
Terms you should know:
Nori is the Japanese name for edible seaweed species of the red algae genus Pyropia. Traditionally, sushi is assembled by laying down a sheet of Nori.
Wasabi is a plant of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. It is also called Japanese horseradish. It has a pungent taste.
Sushi is assembled by laying down a sheet of Nori atop of a bamboo mat, known as a Makisu, which helps the chef roll, compress, and form the heaping of rice, vegetables, and fish piled atop it into a familiar cylindrical shape.
