ABOUT SUSHI
The history of sushi
The initial homeland of sushi was the Southern Asia. The peeled and cut fish was laid out in layers, powdered with salt and put under the stone press. Few weeks later the stones were taken off and replaced with the light cover. During the next few months the fish fermented and after that it was considered to be ready for consumption.
Long before the 1900, one talented chief called Yohei, decided to present the fish the way that have become traditional since then, that is raw. The novelty became rapidly popular, and two different styles of preparation had emerged. Kansai — the style from the city of Osaka, Kansai region, and Edo, the style from Tokyo City, which was called Edo at the time. Osaka always was the trade capital of Japan, and local rice sellers welcomed sushi, that was actually specially prepared rice mixed with other ingredients and put in fancy, edible forms. Situated on the bay shore rich in fish and molluscs, Tokyo suggested nigirizushi, a piece of fish on top of a little lump of a spiced rice.
Initially, rice wasn’t supposed to be eaten. The matter is that the Chinese hieroglyph that means sushi, is translated as «pickled fish». More than a thousand years ago rice was not only one of the main food products, but also the principal means of preserving fish. Fresh fish was cut into tiny pieces that were abundantly powdered with salt and mixed with rice. Rice was subjected to natural fermentation, preserving fish from getting rot for a year. When needed, the fish was taken out of the mixture and served, and the rice that became unnecessary was either thrown away or used for pickling of another portions of fish. Only in the 16th century the fermented rice from the pickled fish had begun to be used in food, and later it had become the main integral component of sushi.
They started to add rice to the mushrooms, vegetables and other products, creating new dishes with unusual and special flavour. By the time the means of accelerated rice fermentation were invented, allowing it to obtain new flavors not during months and years, but in a few days. In the 17th century the real rice sushi appeared, consisting of boiled rice, rice malt, seafood and vegetables. So the fermented rice transformed from an auxiliary component for fish pickling into a basis for a new dish.
The addition of spiced vinegar, which made the long-lasted fermentation of rice unnecessary, became the next stage of sushi evolution. The vinegar, usually rice or fruit one, was blended with salted water, sometimes with sugar, mirin, sake, honey and seaweed. Then the blend was poured over the boiled rice, and the whole thing was complemented with fish, seafood, vegetables and kept under the pressure for some time. The resulted dish became so popular, that numerous shops, snack bars and restaurants started to emerge all around Edo, which was the name of Tokyo till 1868. They offered various kinds of sushi as well as specially processed rice for the preparation of sushi at home.
Since then the sushi preparation process, while remaining unchanged in general, continues to develop, to improve, and to be updated with new recipes. That’s why the dish constantly gains more and more fans.
|
