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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. |
