Seafood and Rice, and Everything Nice
By Edie Stoltz Zolkower

Need a quick and healthy snack or mean before your next soccer match? If you want something that’s both tasty and beautiful, try sushi (SOO-shee).

“Su” is the Japanese word for vinegar and”shi” comes from the word meshi, which means “cooked rice.” So, sushi is a style of Japanese cuisine that combines vinegar-seasoned rice with different types of seafood and vegetables.

Roll With It

Many think of sushi as a raw fish dish. But in fact, the most popular kind of sushi, the California roll, is made with only cooked seafood. This circle-shaped delicacy contains crabmeat (or imitation crab), avocado, and cucumber.

Some varieties of sushi contain no fin food at all. For instance, the carrot and cucumber roll contains only veggies. Still, adventurous eaters should skip the vegetarian fare and go straight for nigiri (nee-JEE-ree), a hand-formed rice ball topped with a slice or raw tuna, snapper or other sea creature.

Some Like it Hot

Just like Mc Donald’s chicken nuggets, it’s fun to dunk sushi in (three!) special sauces. The first is wasabi (WAH-sah-bee), a super hot, pasty Japanese mustard that is light green in color. Sushi is also served with shoga (SHOW-ga), or slices of pickled ginger. Shoga also has a spicy taste, but isn’t as hot as wasabi. Finally, try dipping your rice balls in soy sauce, a salty brown liquid made from soy beans. Mmmm…flavor city!

A Sushi How-To

To eat sushi, mix a small (remember, it’s very spicy!) amount of wasabi and soy sauce together in a small bowl. Next, pick up a piece of sushi with your fingers or a pair of chopsticks and dip it into the mixture Now, take a bite. One…two…through! Delicious.

After you sample the sushi, pop in a piece of shoga. The purpose of the pickled ginger is to cleanse your palate before the next taste is taken.

Sushi-mania

Sushi has become so popular in America that it can be found not only at Japanese and Chinese restaurants, but also at your favorite grocery store. So give sushi a try and enjoy a Eastern treat that’s both food and art.

Sushi Recipes