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 Sushi
has a very interesting origin that has lasted for centuries
and continues to be a very popular food source today.
Sushi is made with a combination of shellfish, cooked
or raw fish, vegetables, and seasoned rice.
Although Sushi is most commonly linked to the Japanese
heritage, it actually began in China during the 7th
Century.
At that time,
any fish caught had to be preserved.
The only method possible was by fermentation.
Raw fish was cleaned, filleted, and then pressed
between layers of heavy salt and usually weighted down with
some type of stone. The
fish would remain this way for weeks at which the stone would
be removed and then replaced with some type of light cover.
The fish would stay in the salt layers for a couple of
months until the fermentation process was complete.
Over time, a
discovery was made that by rolling the fish in rice that had
been soaked in vinegar the fish was fermented in a matter of
days rather than months.
The rice was then tossed out and the fish eaten.
However, with drought and a food shortage, the people
began consuming the rice as well as the fish and thus, Sushi
as we know it today was born.
However, in
the 1800s, a very famous chef by the name of Yohei was
planning a large dinner party.
Finding that he had not set out enough fish to serve
his guests, he took a piece of fish from the freezer that had
not been fermented and decided to take his chances in serving
it. What he found
was that frozen fish actually retained their flavor and any
bacterium was killed. From
this discovery, Yohei created two styles of Sushi – one
called Edo, which began as “edomaezushi” that translates
to “in front of Edo” referencing catching fish in front of
the city of Edo, and the second, Osaka, for the city.
Interestingly,
the merchants in the city of Osaka were known for making a
distinct type of Sushi that consisted of seasoned rice blended
with other ingredients and then formed in a variety of
decorative packages that people could eat.
In Tokyo, Japan, the sea was loaded with rich shellfish
and fish. It was
from this city that nigirizushi was created, which consisted
of taking a small piece of the fish and serving it on a pad of
the seasoned rice. In
fact, if you were to visit Japan today, you would most likely
be served the nigirizushi style of sushi.
Sushi has
taken the world by storm and today is a multi-billion dollar
industry. Since
1970, more than 5,000 Sushi restaurants have been opened in
America alone and just a few years ago, one annual sale of
seaweed reached $36 million.
The popularity of Sushi continues to rise in that
people are looking for healthy food that is quick and easy to
make.
According to
the Millennium Edition of the Guiness
Word Records, two Sushi records exist.
The first was established in January of 1992 in which a
715-pound fin tuna was sold for more than $83,000 and used to
create 2,400 servings of Sushi for influential dinners at a
staggering $75 per serving.
The second record consisted of the creation of the
world’s longest Sushi roll.
It took more than 600 people to create a 3,279-foot
cucumber roll in October of 1997.
With such
incredible popularity as well as the health benefits of eating
Sushi, it is likely that this food will continue to be a part
of everyday life for many more centuries to come.
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