History of Sushi
History of Sushi
By Steve J Gerwig
Pure and beautiful, plumb and chewy, sushi’s in it’s own world of tempting clean and fresh flavors.
Sushi can be over the top chic at times, but it started out with much humbler roots.
Sushi is over 2000 years old and started out in Japan. It started out as a process used to preserve fish by pressing the fish in a salt and rice mixture. The earliest known type of sushi was called “Nare-Zushi” or preserved carp. It was stored for months that way then opened and eaten without the rice. It is still eaten this way in some parts of Southeast Asia.
Around the fifteenth or sixteenth century the process was shortened creating the “Nama-Nare-Zushi” or partially fermented sushi. In this form the rice was eaten with the fish. It wasn’t until much later, around the seventeenth century, when the Japanese started adding vinegar to cooked rice to get the trademark tangy rice taste of today.
They called this “Haya-Zushi“or instant vinegared sushi rice.
By the eighteenth century “Maki-Zushi” or rolled sushi, began to appear. When the early nineteenth century rolled around (a little sushi humor there) “Nigiri-Zushi” or finger sushi, came into popularity as sushi stalls started popping up all over Japan. Sort of the first Fast Food sushi, people could eat these little bite sized rolls on the go.
The greatest moment in sushi history occurred in 1824 when a Tokyo sushi stall vendor named Hanaya Yohei made a finger sushi topped with a slice of raw fish. Word spread quickly and now we have sushi in it’s current form.
Raw fish and vinegared rice, what a delectable combination.
Steve has been writing articles on a wide variety of subjects. Come visit my latest site at http://philandtedstrollers.net/. You will find information and reviews from other Phil and Ted Strollers owners here.
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Tags: food sushi, sushi, sushi rice
Sushi Updates | MySushiSet | 14 May 2010 |
