Sushi

Sushi is a Japanese dish made with rice, vinegar, and usually fish or vegetables. The rice is the most important part. It is short-grain white rice mixed with a bit of vinegar, sugar, and salt, which gives it a slightly tangy taste. On top of or rolled inside the rice, cooks add raw fish, cooked seafood, egg, vegetables, or sheets of dried seaweed called nori.

Many people think sushi means raw fish, but that is not quite right. Plenty of sushi has no fish in it at all. A cucumber roll, for example, is just rice, nori, and cucumber. The word "sushi" actually refers to the seasoned rice. Whatever sits on top or inside is called the topping or filling.

Sushi did not start in Japan. It began more than 1,000 years ago in Southeast Asia as a way to keep fish from spoiling. People would pack fresh fish in salt and rice and let it sit for months. The rice would slowly ferment and protect the fish. When it was time to eat, people threw the rice away and kept only the fish. The idea traveled to China and then to Japan.

The kind of sushi most people eat today is much newer. In the early 1800s, a chef in Tokyo named Hanaya Yohei wanted to serve food fast, like street food. He pressed a small ball of vinegared rice in his hand and laid a slice of fresh fish on top. This style is called nigiri, and it could be eaten in just a few bites. It became hugely popular in Tokyo and spread from there.

There are several common kinds of sushi. Nigiri is the hand-pressed rice with fish on top. Maki is a roll, with rice and fillings wrapped in nori and sliced into rounds. Temaki is a hand-rolled cone shaped like an ice cream cone. Sashimi is just slices of raw fish with no rice, so it is not technically sushi at all.

Sushi is usually eaten with soy sauce, a spicy green paste called wasabi, and thin slices of pickled ginger. The ginger is meant to clean your mouth between different pieces so you can taste each one clearly.

Today sushi is eaten all over the world. The California roll, with crab, avocado, and cucumber, was invented in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Many sushi rolls people order in the United States were never served in Japan at all.