When I was a child, a robot was something that existed only in science fiction books or episodes of Twilight Zone - a robot that replicates a human behavior. Today, we are pretty close to living that fantasy. This sushi robot is smart enough to detect the texture of sushi before it picks and move the sushi. The hand looks strangely real. Now the next step should be making a robot that’s prettier to look at, prepares sushi the way you like, pour a cup of tea and converse with you while dining, but we know that’s too much to ask.

Finding The Best Places To Buy Sushi
By Craig Thornburrow

Sushi is an increasingly popular food item these days and many may wonder where the best place is to buy sushi. As more and more stores and restaurants are offering sushi to the raw fish buying public, purchasing the best type of sushi product is on the minds of sushi lovers everywhere. The following will list some of the more popular places to buy this delicacy and detail how to know which sushi is the best to purchase.

Restaurants Which Specialize in Sushi

As one may imagine, restaurants where the specialty is sushi is one of the best places to buy this type of food. Not only will these restaurants have the best selection with regard to sushi entrees but they will also often have the freshest selection due to the popularity thereof. A restaurant which goes through its food supplies quickly will often need to keep up a constant delivery of fresh ingredients in order to meet the demands of the sushi-eating patrons.

Restaurants Which Always Offer Sushi

Even restaurants which may not specialize in sushi but offer it on a constant basis might be a good choice as well. Again, this type of restaurant which always offers sushi will have a fresh supply on hand constantly as it is a staple on the menu. A restaurant which may have an occasional sushi special yet not have it as a permanent menu item might not be the best bet for those looking to buy sushi.

Grocery Stores with a Sushi Counter

More and more grocery stores are starting to offer sushi due to the increasing popularity of this item. Not only are the grocery stores selling this product but they have a sushi counter installed around the deli area. A grocery store with this type of section is another great place to visit for your sushi needs as it will often be freshly prepared by one who knows the art of sushi preparation.

Tips to Keep in Mind When Selecting Sushi Items

Now that one knows buying their sushi from a specialty restaurant, a restaurant which constantly offers sushi or a grocery store with sushi counter will often yield the best entrees, there are a few tips to keep in mind when buying this delectable food item. First, know what you are eating. It is a good idea to inquire about the sushi contents prior to buying it so that you are getting exactly what you want and nothing which you do not wish to have.

Another tip to keep in mind is to inquire about its freshness. Find out when it was prepared, if purchasing from a grocery sushi counter, and only choose one which is extremely fresh. This will help you to find the freshest sushi out there and not take the chance of getting sick from fish which is not fresh.

Lastly, when buying various sushi items, try to expand your repertoire in the sushi department from time to time. Try various sushi plates in order to increase your varieties of sushi which you eat. When you buy sushi, keep in mind that you don’t know if you like it until you try it.

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on sushi and sushi kits at http://www.sushikit.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Thornburrow
http://EzineArticles.com/?Finding-The-Best-Places-To-Buy-Sushi&id=1032531

Gomoku Sushi
By Eric Newman

Ingredients:

* 2 1/2 cups short-grain sticky rice

* 2 1/2 cups water

* 2 1/2 inch long konbu

Vinegar dressing

* 4 2/3 tablespoons rice vinegar or can be substituted using lemons

* 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Ingredients for mixing

* 7 dried shiitake mushrooms, softened

* 1/3 ounce kampyo, rubbed and boiled

* 2/3 cup dashi, including water used for soaking mushrooms

* 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

* 1/2 tablespoon mirin

* 1 tablespoon soy sauce

* 3 ounces lotus root

* 2 tablespoons dashi

* 2 tablespoons sugar

* 3 tablespoons rice vinegar

* 1 tablespoon sake

* sea salt

* 2 ounces carrot

* 1/4 cup dashi

* 1 teaspoon mirin

* 3 large eggs

* 1 teaspoon potato or corn starch

* 1 teaspoon sugar

* 1 tablespoon mirin

* 1 1/2 ounces snow peas

* 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds

* 3 1/2 ounces crab meat (canned)

* red pickled ginger

* 1 sheet toasted nori

Prep Time: 45 min
Cooking Time: 20 min

Instructions:
1 Make sushi rice flavored with vinegar or lemons.

2 To prepare ingredients: Shiitake mushrooms and kampyo: cut off stems of mushrooms and cut caps into thin strips. In a saucepan make 2/3 cup dashi, add mushrooms and kampyo and boil with a lid placed right on the ingredients for 3-4 minutes. Add sugar and mirin and boil for another 5 minutes, then add soy sauce. When kampyo is well flavored, remove from saucepan. Continue to cook mushrooms until broth is all gone. Cut kampyo into 1/2 inch long thin strips.

Lotus root (renkon): Cut into 4 pieces lengthwise. Cut each piece into thin slices crosswise and soak in water. Cook indashi broth with sugar, vinegar, sake and a pinch of salt until all liquid is gone.

Carrots: cut into 1 inch long thin strips. Cook in dashi broth with mirin and a pinch of salt until all liquid is gone.

Eggs: To whisked egg add potato or corn starch mixed with an equal volume of water, sugar, mirin and a pinch of salt. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, spreading it out in skillet. Remoye excess oil. Turn heat to low and spoon in a small amount pf egg mixture, spreading it out to cover the surface of skillet thinly, and fry. When the under side is done, turn over and fry lightly. Repeat and make 4-5 thin sheets of fried egg. Cut sheets into thin strips.

Snow peas: string and boil lightly till tender-crisp. Cut diagonally into thin strips.

White sesame: roast and crush coarsely with knife.

Crab: remove from can and flake.

Red pickled ginger and toasted nori : cut into thin strips.

3 Add all prepared ingredients except red pickled ginger, nori, one-half of the egg strips and the snow peas to sushi rice and mix quickly in a chopping motion with wooden spatula.

4 Place the sushi rice mixture in a large serving dish and on top nicely arrange the remaining egg, snow peas, red pickled ginger and nori.

Eric Newman is an author for Teanobi.com. All articles may be used and reprinted as long as they have an active link at the bottom pointing to http://www.teanobi.com with the anchored text: green tea

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_Newman
http://EzineArticles.com/?Gomoku-Sushi&id=1264417

The Art of Making Sushi
By David Urmann

Making sushi is also considered an art. Here are several types of sushi.

Maki Sushi is comprised of fish or seafood wrapped in a roll of nori or seaweed. It has two variations, Hosamaki and Futomaki. Hosomaki is a thin type of maki that has only one kind of filling. It can be seafood, fish or one type of vegetable. Futomaki is a fat type of maki that has 2 or more kinds of fillings.

Nigiri Sushi is more popular. It is shaped with the use of hands. It comprises slices of seafood, tamago, raw fish or various other toppings. Then, wasabi is placed in-between slices as well as a thumb-sized chunk of vinegared rice or shari. In Japanese customs, you present these to couples as a sign of harmony and peace.

Uramaki is similar to maki, however, rice is placed on top of the nori instead of inside. It consists of more than 2 fillings. Sometimes, it is topped with a thin slice of avocado or fish. This is most popular in Western Sushi Bars.

Making Sushi

Maki
Feel your nori sheet. One side is smooth and the other side is rough. Nori should lie on your rolling mat with the rough side facing upwards.

Wet your hands and get about a handful of rice and roll it to a ball. Wet your hands so that rice won’t stick to your palms. Dry your hands when it’s time to work with the nori. Have a dry towel and bowl of water handy beside your working place.

Carefully place and spread equally the rice ball on your nori sheet. Make sure that your layer of rice almost covers the entire sheet, excluding about 2cm from the upper margins. This should be left uncovered to properly close your sushi roll.

Then, place one slice of fish by the nori’s edge. Add about 1 up to 3 “pre-cut” vegetables slices such as cucumber, carrot, asparagus, green onion and the like. Along your rolling mat’s closer edge, close your nori. Make it like a rectangular-shaped hill while tightening it from the upper part.

Move forward by rolling it continuously in rectangular-shaped hill steps. Make sure every move or roll you make is tight until the end portion. Always exert pressure on all 3 sides of your roll, especially along stops. It allows tight rolling.

Cut your roll into small sushi units with a sharp, wet knife.

Nigir Sushi
Wet your hands and get about 20 grams of vinegared rice or shari. Shape it into long and ovalic forms. Use the rice as base with the fish on top. The bottom should be flat and the top rounded.

Follow the measurements carefully. If you plan to make fish nigiri sushi, get a slice of fish. It should be 1cm thick and about 5cm x 3cm rectangular-sized. If it is a bit smaller, you should try slicing it at about 45 degrees. It maximizes fish surface. Then, take some pea-sized portions of wasabi. Smear this in the midst of your fish slices. Wasabi actually helps your fish slices become glued into your shari.

Place the slice of fish, facing down, along with the wasabi. Lay this gently on top of your rice. Then, firmly press on it so that it will stick to the rice. Using your other hand to hold your nigiri sushi’s sides, use the other to press it from the upper portion.

Uramaki
Your mat should be the “one side round and one side flat” type. Wrap it with a stretch of nylon. You can start with the round side but also ending with it. Create at least 2 up to 3 “full” rounds of such wrapping. Afterwards, roll your mat in order to squeeze out all the air locked inside. You can also use a toothpick to poke it to let the air out.

Get one piece of nori sheet. Break this down in the middle. If it does not easily break, it is either not a good brand or it is already old. Put your nori sheet on top of your rolling mat. This should be around 5cm from its edge. The rough side of your nori sheet should face upward.

Wet your hands. Create a ball of rice with one handful. Put the ball of rice inside your nori. Spread it evenly, gently pressing downwards. It should be about 1cm high,with equal layers of rice. You can add more rice as long as it is even, if necessary. Flip your nori over. The rice should face your mat.

Place one slice of fish along your nori’s edge. Add about 1 up to 3 “pre-cut” slices of vegetables. Close the filling, making a rectangular-shaped hill with nori. Make sure to tighten it along the upper portion.

Move forward by rolling it continuously in rectangular-shaped hill steps. Make sure every move or roll you make is tight until its end portion. Always exert pressure on all 3 sides of the roll, especially along stops, for tight rolling.

Cut your roll into small sushi units with a sharp, wet knife.

For more information on Making Sushi and Sushi Plates please visit our website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Urmann
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Art-of-Making-Sushi&id=1797278

Interesting Facts About Sushi Rice
By David Urmann

For the Japanese, sushi implies vinegared rice typically topped with meats, fish and vegetables. Outside Japan, sushi is more often mistaken as “raw fish” or “raw seafood.”

In Japan, they call sliced raw fish, sashimi. It is different from sushi because sashimi implies purely on the raw fish part. In Archaic grammar, “sushi” literally means “it’s sour.”

There are several types of sushi. The Nigirizushi sushi consists of toppings laid with “hand-formed” rice clumps. Aside from topping it with vinegared rice, it is also dabbed with wasabi and a bite-size, thin slice of fish, egg or various other seafoods.

Although the egg is cooked, the seafood and fish can be served raw. The types of fish you can use are salmon, tuna, mackerel and eel.

When eating Nigirizushi, make sure that the rice side is not dipped into the soy sauce. The fish side should be the one dipped or it will fall apart. You can do this alternately, not dipping it completely in soy sauce.

Makizushi is a type of sushi rolled inside some “nori,” a pressed and dried layered sheets of alga or seaweed. It can contain vegetables, fish, seaweed and rice. These are rolled into a cylindrical form with the aid of a bamboo mat or makisu. Afterwards, it is cut into suitable widths. Futomaki refers to the thicker rolls. Hosomaki refers to the thinner rools. Uramaki refers to the “inside-out” rolls.

Inarizushi has toppings stuffed inside a tiny pouch of fried tofu. This is more uncommon compared to Chirashi-zushi. You still need to go to a sushi restaurant in Japan to order this type of sushi. Chirashi-zushi has toppings scattered and served over a sushi rice bowl. This is not regularly served in Japanese restaurants outside of Japan. The toppings are either raw seafood or sashimi.

Temaki Sushi is also called the hand roll. It is almost the same as maki except for the part where you roll it into a cylinder and slice it. With Temaki Sushi, you roll it with your hands and form cone shapes. Then, it is eaten as is, not sliced.

In any sushi, the common denominator is always sushi rice. They only vary on toppings, condiments, fillings and the procedure these ingredients are placed together. These ingredients can also be collected using contemporary or traditional ways, making distinct results.

Sushi is not only a favorite dish in Japan. It is well-loved in other countries also.

If you want to learn how to make sushi rice, it is easy. First, you need a sushi vinegar called sushi-zu. Mix it with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves. Stir frequently in the process. Afterwards, let the mixture cool to room temperature. This mixture is called tezu.

Using either a spatula or just a regular spoon, cut and fold the rice as gentle as possible. Avoid smashing the rice grains.

Get a bowl and moisten the sides with tezu. It is ideal to use a wooden bowl because it absorbs moisture. If none is available, any bowl is fine with a flat bottom.

Place the rice in the bowl and add a quarter of sushi vinegar. Mix them together, making sure you follow a folding motion to avoid smashing the rice. Afterwards, fan to dry the mixture for about 5 to 6 minutes. This process will remove the excess moisture and will make the rice look glossy and shiny.

As a tip, a good sushi rice is somewhat chewy in the mouth, and sticky to your touch.

For more information on Sushi Rice and Rice Cookers please visit our website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Urmann
http://EzineArticles.com/?Interesting-Facts-About-Sushi-Rice&id=1934591