Sushi Rolls – Another Most Popular Item of Japanese Cuisine
By Kimiko B Shisumo

Sushi rolls are the most popular form of sushi. Japanese and American restaurants serve two types of sushi to their patrons.

Seaweed called nori on outside of sushi is one variety of sushi rolls. The second type has nori inside the roll.

Whether or not the nori is on the outside or inside of the roll can dramatically change the flavor and texture of the sushi. Nori enthusiasts often prefer seaweed on the outside of their sushi rolls.

This style of sushi roll is called futomaki. Sushi rolls that have nori inside them are called uramaki. Futomaki is preferred to uramaki as it is more popular and and traditional in form.

A sushi restaurant or sushi bar, even a grocery store, would supply you the futomaki variant. Even though futomaki is vegetarian it is served with toppings of fish eggs.

Generally futomaki is cut into pieces and then served. However, on certain Japanese festivals it is offered as a roll. Since Japanese prefer to eat with their fingers, uramaki is not a preferred choice. As uramaki is has a tendency to be sticky and it falls apart under pressure, it is difficult to eat it either with fingers or chopsticks.

A uramaki sushi roll, on the other hand, is non-vegetarian in nature and is served with sesame or fish egg toppings. Uramaki has primarily originated in North America since its natives are not fond of coating on futomaki.

Hosomaki stands out in the entire sushi rolls family. Like futomaki, hosomaki is wrapped with the nori on the outside of the roll.

There are four primary types of hosomaki. These include Kappamaki, Tekkamaki, Negitoromaki and Tsunamayomaki.

- Kappamaki that has cucumber as its main ingredient is said to cleanse the palate after eating raw fish dishes and its accompaniments.

- The red color of tuna fish gives tekkamaki its name and base ingredient.

- Negitoromaki is filled with tuna and scallions. Fatty tuna is commonly used in this type of sushi roll.

- Lastly Tsunamayomaki has canned tuna and mayonnaise in it. This is considered a home style sushi, and can be made by virtually anyone easily.

Kimikoshi Sumo is a Japanese food expert and self proclaimed perfectionist. Her sushi help website at http://www.hereishelp.com offers simple yet delicious fish rolls for creating the perfect meal on a fixed budget. Kimi’s cooking book on sushi “Introduction to Sushi” is jam packed with tips for lip-smacking rolls.

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How to Throw an Extravagant Sushi Party on a Budget, Part 1
By V Udasco

We all know that in this economy, cash is hard to come by, especially during the holiday season. However, you can throw a great sushi-themed party no matter the occasion, and it’s more affordable than you think!

Why not host a sushi themed holiday dinner?! Trade that dry turkey and stuffing in for some great tasting and healthy sushi, and start a tradition of your own! For any occasion, sushi is a yummy and popular way to go…you can just throw a “We Love Sushi” party, too!

You will really impress your guests with your exotic menu and they will appreciate your unique theme. You can host a Sushi Party that your relatives and guests will be wowed by. Just don’t blame me when they beg you to throw a Sushi Party over and over again!

Hosting a party at home can be a very stressful and daunting task, especially if are cooking a full course meal for your guests. When planning any get together, you must do the leg work regardless of what is being prepared. However, these tips can eliminate your stress, while keeping more of your hard earned money in your bank account.

Planning Phase (can be done on the internet, from the comfort of your own home)

• Determine your budget. Having a limited budget, you need to get the most bang for your buck. This means you will have to find great deals and do a lot of the leg work yourself.

• Send out RSVP’s to determine how many people will attend. By knowing who will be attending, you will have a better idea if you should cater towards vegetarian sushi recipes, fish recipes or both. If the majority of people attending don’t feel comfortable with raw fish, you can prepare “cooked” sushi recipes (i.e. tempura roll, Philadelphia roll with smoked salmon, cooked shrimp nigiri, California roll, and etc.) and not as much sashimi or spicy raw tuna roll. You get the idea and besides, if you stay away from the sushi grade ingredients needed for sashimi, you will save money there, as well.

• Depending on your guests, if they are close friends or family and want to bring something, you can have them bring a side dish such as edamame (soybeans) or sake (rice wine) or even dessert, maybe a green tea ice cream. Many of these items can be found at major grocery stores and this could help to minimize your costs.

• Research various sushi recipes online, both hot and cold, cooked and raw, to start developing your menu. When developing your menu, select ingredients that are in season and grown or produced locally. By doing this, you will save on cost and ensure the freshest ingredients.

• Make a few calls to your local grocery chain or seafood market to see what fish is in season. Ask if they have any sushi grade fish and the price. Sushi grade fish normally has been frozen for a specific period of time to kill any parasites that might have been in the fish, i.e. according to minimum health standards -4 degrees Fahrenheit or lower for at least 7 days). Ask if they have any seafood on sale…you may even ask who their fish suppliers are to purchase wholesale, if you are buying a large quantity of fish.

• To learn how to make sushi, you can either learn via the internet, which is full of resources (YouTube is a great source!) or purchase a sushi book if you feel adventurous and don’t mind the mess. It will take some trial and error, and also practice, but you’ll get it sooner than you think!

• If you don’t feel comfortable making the sushi, you have another alternative. Ask family members of friends if they know of a Sushi chef that you can hire on a per hour basis to prepare sushi “live” at your event. Another great idea is to visit your favorite sushi restaurant and ask the sushi chef if he works private parties. In this economy, you won’t have difficulty finding a sushi chef at a decent price and since they are already in the industry, they may be able to get the ingredients at wholesale price for you!

By doing most of the leg work above, you can save between 30 to 50% of the cost of Japanese sushi restaurant. The savings can be put towards a couple of good bottles of Sake to toast with your friends.

If you are in Southern California, you are in luck! One of our sushi chefs can assist you with your sushi party!

http://www.MatsuCateringSD.com

Matsu Catering is a Japanese owned and operated full service catering company. We poudly serve Southern California in San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=V_Udasco

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Author: Vikram Kumar

Great Japanese cooking requires food distribution that includes the authentic ingredients that you need for your Japanese meals. If you have a Japanese restaurant or just want to cook Japanese food, you need to search out the best food distribution so that you can find. It is vital that your Japanese cooking gets the freshest ingredients.

Japanese cooking is not difficult, but you do need to have the right ingredients for the dishes. If you are unfamiliar with Japanese cooking, you will find that it includes a lot of fish dishes as well as those that use rice. Another ingredient that is used in a great deal of Japanese cooking is kombu. This is an edible kelp that is harvested in Japan. It is not difficult to get the hang of Japanese cooking once you have learned the basic steps and have the right tools. You can even take a Japanese cooking class so that you can learn how to cook these foods.

In order to make authentic Japanese food, however, you do need to have the right ingredients. You should look for food distribution companies that will allow you to find the authentic foods that are needed for Japanese cooking. Fortunately, it is easier than ever to find food distribution companies because of the internet. The internet makes it easy to discover which are the Japanese food distribution companies that can deliver to you. Of course, it is necessary for the foods that you get for your Japanese cooking to be fresh. As is the case with any other type of cooking, the fresher the food ingredients, the better the finished dishes. This is important whether or not you have a restaurant or if you are just practicing Japanese cooking for the family.

Look online to find a Japanese food distribution company. Once you find such a company, you can then inquire as to how they can deliver authentic Japanese foods to you. Many of the food distribution companies will deliver to the restaurant only and only deal with restaurant accounts. Others will provide authentic Japanese food for anyone who is willing to pay for it.

Once you get the hang of the Japanese cooking methods, you can then cook all types of Japanese favorites, including kombu dishes that are a favorite and are part of Japanese cooking secrets. You may even decide to take a class or two to learn the cooking methods to cook Japanese food. In some cases, traditional cooking is handed down from generations, although there is always room for those who are willing to learn how to cook authentic Japanese foods.

Find the right food distribution company that will provide you with the freshest foods so that your Japanese fare tastes fresh. Learn what you can about cooking this type of cuisine and then you can start preparing many different types of Japanese meals. Japanese cooking is not difficult once you practice the recipes for some time and if you get fresh foods from a good Japanese food distribution company that supplies you with rice, fish and even fresh kombu.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/great-japanese-cooking-starts-with-food-distribution-821994.html

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Japanese cooking is well rewarding for anyone who learns and gets to eat the results of this cuisine. Look for a good Japanese food distribution company such as Japanese Kombu.

Author: sunil sharma

Tempura, sukiyaki, sashimi, sushi – even the words used to describe the most basic of Japanese dishes are exotic and beautiful. Japanese cuisine is easily one of the healthiest in the world, with its concentration on fresh fish, seafood, rice and vegetables. The pungent sauces and delicate flavors of fresh foods complement each other beautifully, and the methods of presentation turn even simple meals into beautiful events.

The Japanese have easily a dozen different names for rice, depending on how it is prepared and what it is served with. The most common meal is a rice bowl, a bowl of white rice served with various toppings or ingredients mixed in. So popular is it that the Rice Bowl has even made its way into the world of Western convenience foods alongside ramen noodles. Domburi is a bowl of rice topped with another food: domburi tendon, for instance, is rice topped with tempura and domburi gyudon is rice topped with beef. The Japanese adopted fried rice from the Chinese, and a century ago, when curry was first introduced, developed Kare Raisu, curry rice. It is now such a popular dish that there are many fast-food restaurants that serves several versions of it in take-away bowls.

Besides white rice served as a side dish, Japanese cuisine also features onigiri – rice balls wrapped in seaweed, often with a ‘surprise’ in the middle, and kayu, a thin gruel made of rice that resembles oatmeal.

As an island nation, it’s not surprising that seafood is featured in Japanese cuisine. Sushi and sashimi both are raw fish and seafood with various spices. Impeccably fresh fish is the secret to wonderful sashimi and sushi, served with wasabi and soya sauce. The Japanese love of beauty and simplicity turns slices and chunks of raw fish into miniature works of art. Fish sliced so thin that it’s transparent may be arranged on a platter in a delicate fan that alternates pink-fleshed salmon with paler slices of fish. Sushi is typically arranged to best display the colors and textures to their best advantage, turning the platter and plate into palettes for the artistry of the chef.

Traditionally, meat plays a minor role in the Japanese diet, though it has been taking a larger and larger role over the past fifty years as Japan becomes more westernized. Beef, chicken and pork may be served with several meals a week now. One of the more popular meat dishes is ‘yakitori’ – chicken grilled on a skewer and served with sauce. A typical quick lunch might include a skewer of yakitori and a rice bowl with sushi sauce.

In an interesting twist, Japan has imported dishes from other cuisines and ‘Japanized’ them, adopting them as part of their own cuisines. Korokke, for instance, are croquettes adopted from those introduced by the English last century. In Japan, the most common filling is a mixture of mashed potatoes and minced meat. Other Soshoyu – western dishes that have made their way into Japanese everyday cuisine include ‘omuraisu’, a rice omelet, and hambagau, the Japanized version of an American hamburger.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/japanese-cuisine-351619.html

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By Cookie Jeans

Chef Anthony Bourdain, the popular host of the TV show No Reservation (Travel Channel) and the unofficial food expert of the world’s different cuisines, was once interviewed in a local lifestyle magazine if he gets jaded with the food that he gets to taste around the world. I cannot cite his answer verbatim but the gist of his response was this: Yes, he does get jaded with the food but that is only limited to some regions in Europe. In Asia, however, he could never feel jaded because, in his own opinion, in China alone, he could eat different recipes everyday for the rest of his life and that is the tip of the iceberg.
It only goes to show the variety of Asian cuisine: from the mostly spicy Thai cuisine, the mostly raw Japanese food to the varied influence found in Philippine food (Chinese, Malay, Spanish and American). When we say food, what comes to mind is that it is first subjected to heat in whatever form. With that in mind, it is hard to imagine how Japanese food came to be defined as such, but it is still food and Japanese food brings one of the most unique eating experiences. As for me, I have always been a fan of sushi. But I have learned how to make sushi in the most unconventional classroom: the online cooking games.

Cooking games have been around quite a long time now and they usually attract their fair share of devoted fans. I have never been one of those devoted fans of cooking games but I admit to playing cooking games once in a while. I never thought that I would get anything educational through it but funny enough, I did. I found out through cooking games that to make a good sushi, make sure that the fish is very fresh (as it is eaten raw). You slice it in thin strips, and then you wrap it inside rice shaped like a ball. Then you get a thin film of seaweed and put the rice there. Before rolling the rice and the seaweed, make sure that the seaweed is place on a wooden mat used to roll the sushi (All these could be brought at the nearest Japanese convenience store). Once all the ingredients are tightly packed, you can now take out the wooden mat then slice the roll into easy to bite sizes. Get your favorite wasabi sauce and give your sushi a deep. Remember not to put too much wasabi sauce for it is very, very hot to the tongue. The sushi is now ready to eat so you may feel free to enjoy.

These few instructions could be better understood if one plays sushi making in the aforementioned online game. Just by looking at the graphics one could easily follow the simple steps in sushi making. Who said that games have no any useful benefits to man does not know what he is talking about.