Sushi night! January 11, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else.Tags: sushi
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I have to apologize that there’s no “how-to” this week.
My boyfriend and I went to see about 12 apartments between Saturday and Sunday. We’d just wait for phone calls, go see an apartment, get a phone call and go see another apartment, and repeat… I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to find an apartment in NY (well, maybe you can) but it’s unbelievably stressful. I should know because I’ve moved 11 times in 14 years. It’s going okay so far, we just hope that we can find a good place soon!
Instead of a how-to, I’ll just post pictures of our sushi night!
My boyfriend and I sometimes have a sushi night. All you need is rice, rice vinegar, sugar, fresh fish and a sharp knife. You can find TONS of “how to make sushi online”, so I’m not gonna go into describing it. But if there’s an Asian supermarket nearby, pick up “Tamanoi Sushinoko.” (You can find it online too) This is a sushi rice mix powder, and if you’ve never made sushi before, it’s so much easier to make sushi-rice with this powder. Usually, you mix rice with rice vinegar+sugar+salt, but if you don’t dry rice well when you’re mixing it, the rice gets really watery and loose and it makes it harder to make sushi.

The package looks like this. It says "Tamanoi Sushinoko" in English.
Salmon and tuna blocks are about $6~7 each (for 2 X 5 X 1 1/2), and we only used half of each block or less. So for this whole plate, we spent about $7 + rice! We were so in mood for sushi when we made this, and we even made some California rolls.
Of course, we couldn’t finish the sushi.
Back in Japan, I used to have a sushi night when I was little. My grandma would cut the sashimi block, and I remember each sashimi piece was HUGE, but it was also so much fun! Well, sushi may not be for kids in the U.S., but it is really easy and fun and you can save a lot of money if you’re a sushi lover.
By the way, don’t buy shrink wrapped tuna… They aren’t good for sushi. They are dyed with food coloring to make them look redder. (shudder)
When you see sashimi block in a store, it may look really small, but you’ll only need 1/4 inch of it for each sushi. You’ll be surprised how many sushi you can make with one sashimi block.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll be done with our apartment hunt this week, so I can do a how-to next week!
I love sushi night. I make weird gaijin sushi like “misoyaki maki” using canned tuna and shiro miso, but it’s tsugoi oishii. (*^_^*)
Thanks for sharing your Sushi night story! We love hearing from people who make their own sushi. So did you learn from your grandpa or somewhere else? We actually hold a Sushi 101 class for people interested in learning how to roll sushi and everyone loves it. It definitely a great date!
Wow, im surprised you couldnt find a sushi place in NY. I live in the suburbs and I can always find a sushi place (though granted, some arent so hot) but ive had the honor of trying some really good sushi. But the prices are a little high in my opinion as a personal cheapskate (3.25 a roll) xD
Anyway, this post was really enlightening. Ive always wanted to try sushi myself but i was unaware of a few things like ‘where to start’. and also putting the rice vinegar. I know there are special ‘sushi’ rices in stores, but i was wondering if you had to add the rice vinegar to them or not.
Could we get a picture of the sashimi block next time you have a sushi night? I’ve made sushi rice before as a ‘different’ flavor when I make onigiri because I haven’t had too much success with fillings. I too make weird gaigin sushi… hotdog sushi, hard-boiled egg sushi… PB&J sushi (which my kids love the most)…
Btw – I found this rice powder mix on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ZGJCY/ref=ox_ya_oh_product
You get two packets. It says on Amazon to “Just mix this powdered sushi mix with cooked rice! About 1 tea spoon per cup cooked rice.” Is this what you did? Have you tried it with brown rice?
Hi Margo
Sorry for a late reply… but yes! That’s the one I use. I haven’t tried it with brown rice though. I’m not sure if brown rice is sticky enough, but if you’re making rolls, it should be okay. Good luck!