What is sushi?
Many people think that sushi means fish. But from now on, you can correct such people and tell them that sushi means "marinated rice". The recipe is our secret, but we can tell that a good marinade (sushisu) will most often contain vinegar, salt and sugar.
Marinated rice is the essence of sushi, and inveterate sushi eaters judge the experience first of all by the rice. Sushi was discovered by chance when somebody found out that raw fish would keep fresh for many days when wrapped in boiled rice. The use of rice to preserve fish has been known both in China, Korea and Vietnam – perhaps also before it was discovered in Japan.
Taste of Tokyo is a meal in itself, and apart from soya sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi paste, the tray contains nigiri and/or maki-rolls.
Nigiri means "squeeze", and according to Japanese tradition, a nigiri should be the size of a little finger, so that it can be eaten in one bite. Nigiri will most often consist of fish and shellfish, typically salmon, prawn or white fish on a roll of marinated rice. Nigiri was "invented" in 1824 by Yohei Hanaya.
Maki is rolls of rice, seaweed and a filling of for example zucchini, salmon or tuna. Maki rolls may have the seaweed either on the inside (inside-out) or on the outside.
The sushi box will also include some pickled ginger. You can eat that between the sushi bites in order to clean your taste buds.
The box will also always contain some wasabi paste. Wasabi is hot, and you can mix it with the soya sauce to give your sushi some edge. Genuine wasabi tastes a bit like horseradish. The root grows wild in the mountains and is difficult to cultivate, so most wasabi is today made of horseradish with custard and green colouring. Also in Japan. Our wasabi also contains horseradish, but consists of 35 % Japanese wasabi root. And we do not add colouring.
The small bottle contains soya sauce, made from among other things soya beans, wheat, water and salt. Our soya beans are made by the Shoda family who own a factory outside Tokyo. In Japan, the soya plant is as important as the olive tree is to people in the southern European countries.