According to the Oxford English
Dictionary, the word sushi first entered the English language in 1893, thanks
to the book A
Japanese Interior by Alice Mabel Bacon.
(However, the word “bacon” did not enter the lexicon thanks to a book by Alice
Mabel Sushi.) Oxford
defines sushi as “a Japanese dish consisting of small balls or rolls of
vinegar-flavoured cold rice served with a garnish of vegetables, egg, or raw
seafood.” It’s interesting that the primary ingredient in sushi is the rice,
not the fish. Sushi is not to be confused with sashimi, which are thin slices of raw fish, sans rice. (The
word sashimi literally
means “pierced flesh,” and entered the language in 1880.) I strongly
recommend a trip to Sushi Thai on Phila Street to closely examine the
difference between the two. In fact, I’ll meet you there in 10 minutes...
If the previous paragraph is
making you a bit peckish, just wait until you see the documentary Jiro
Dreams of Sushi, which the Saratoga Film Forum will be
screening this Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.
Sukiyabashi Jiro is a tiny
restaurant located in a subway station in Tokyo’s Ginza district. A bit
unprepossessing, and here in the States we would probably look askance at a
sushi restaurant—or any
restaurant—located in a subway station, but Sukiyabashi Jiro has been acclaimed
as one of the best sushi restaurants in the world—if not the best—and owner and sushi chef Jiro Ono has been
recognized by the Japanese government as a national
treasure.
Sushi is a relatively recent
culinary import to the United States, with the first sushi bars only
cropping up in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo in the mid-1960s. The first is
believed to be Kawafuku Restaurant, which opened in 1966. Originally catering
to expatriate Japanese who were immigrating to the U.S. at the time, as well as
traveling Japanese businessmen, a few intrepid Americans were intrigued by the
idea of raw fish and the idea gradually began to spread, becoming somewhat popular
by the latter half of the 1970s. The California roll—rice and raw fish and/or
vegetables, although a traditional California roll featured avocado, wrapped in
seaweed—was
invented by a chef at LA’s Tokyo Kaikan restaurant in the mid-1970s, and it
is the California roll-style that is commonly, though not entirely correctly, thought of as “sushi” today. The
cuisine prospered in the 1980s and 1990s, with the number of sushi restaurants quintupling between
1988 and 1998.
(Historically speaking, sushi is
not a centuries-old Japanese cuisine, either, as it dates only from 19th-century Edo which, as historians and crossword puzzlers know, was the original name of Tokyo.)
Along with the number of restaurants, the
variety of sushi also increased, such that it was subject to much experimentation,
to the extent that—like many ethnic foods in the U.S.—much American sushi is
unrecognizable to the Japanese back home, and in fact American-style sushi has been exported back to Japan. Apparently, in Tokyo, you can order a Nixon roll (insert own joke here).
Sushi chefs think of themselves
as artists, and sushi and sashimi dishes are prepared with not only taste but also
appearance in mind. And remember: only dip the fish, not the rice, in soy
sauce. As for mixing wasabi into the soy sauce...once an insult, it is becoming
acceptable, but still may be frowned upon. Oh, and never rub your chopsticks
together to ostensibly remove splinters. (If you are interested in the past and
present of sushi in America, I strongly recommend The
Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson.)
Keep all this in mind as you
watch Jiro Ono at work—and don’t be surprised if you end up dreaming of sushi.
