Wake Up Little Sushi - Recap
Alton sits at the counter of a sushi-ya, or sushi restaurant. Few things are as exotic and intriguing... or as frustrating and tedious, as eating the food of foreign lands. This is true of Japanese cuisine, and certainly true of sushi. Alton speaks to the itamae, or sushi chef, in Japanese, attempting to order a meal. Strange ingredients, dozens of styles, ritual and tradition all combine to make ordering a challenge. Alton cannot order correctly and the itamae refuses him sushi, abruptly suggesting chicken teriyaki instead.
Alton believes the best way to learn is at the sushi bar. The itamae practices his craft at the bar so watching him is like a lesson at culinary school. Alton tries his favorite phrase, omakase onegai shimasu, which roughly translated means that he puts his fate in the itamae's hands. This revs up the chef’s pride, summoning his finest skills, sharpest knives and top quality critters for your meal. But Alton bungles the phrase and the chef refuses him all service. He can’t even get chicken teriyaki now!
Alton excuses himself, rises, and disembarks from... a simulation module. It seems the sushi-ya and the itamae within it are clever simulations running within a metal box on which someone has stenciled “Sushi 1.0.” Alton finds a technician and instructs him to check the itamae program; Alton thinks it’s running hot.
Then Alton signs and heads for his kitchen. It seems that if he wants sushi, he will have to make it for himself.
According to legend, sushi dates back a thousand years, to a woman who hid her rice from bandits. She climbed a tree and stashed the rice in a seabird’s nest. By the time she could retrieve her meal it had fermented and now contained bits of sea critters left over from the bird’s meals. The desperate woman tried it anyway and discovered it was delicious!
Alton keeps his sushi supplies in a kit. From this metal box Alton removes dark soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sushi rice (a short grained rice), and nori – dried and pressed sheets of green algae. Alton prefers packages that hold just a few sheets of nori, because this ingredient readily absorbs water and when it does, it disintegrates quickly. Once exposed to the environment, nori doesn’t last long. Moving on, Alton extracts a rice spoon, rolling mats and a small container of wasabi. Alton explains that most wasabi preparations contain little or no real wasabi, because the plant (a rhizome) is expensive and hard to find. Related to the mustard, wasabi requires specific kinds of soil and grows on moist and shaded hillsides. Some grows in Oregon and some in New Zealand, but the Japanese variety remains superior. Top sushi-ya establishments grate the plant into a small bowl with a sharkskin grater; it has a sweet and floral flavor with a just a little kick – not the fiery flavor most recognize. Alton finishes discussing his kit by mentioning gari, or pickled ginger, used mostly as a palate cleanser. Often made with dyed vinegar, commercial varieties are typically orange or pink. Homemade varieties are usually white.
His kit explained, Alton begins preparing his meshi – sushi rice. He starts by rinsing the rice grains until the water runs clear – three washes usually does it. This gets rid of starch dust that would otherwise produce gummy glue. To cook the rice Alton mixes it with equal parts water (by volume) and puts it over high heat until it boils. No salt at this point in the cooking. When it boils he covers the pot and removes it from the heat for ten minutes. Or, he says, you could use a rice cooker. Rice cookers have a place in homes that make and eat a lot of rice; otherwise, they’re unitaskers – and Alton has rules about unitaskers. To drive the point home he opens a window and pitches the rice cooker out it.
While the rice absorbs liquid Alton adds sugar and kosher salt to rice wine vinegar and microwaves that mixture for half a minute or a little longer to dissolve some but not all of the sugar and salt. When the rice is done Alton decants it into a large unvarnished wooden bowl (glass will do, but unvarnished wood will wick away a little of the moisture for perfect texture). Then he drizzles on the vinegar mixture and cuts it in with slashing motions. Stirring would break grains open and create a starchy mess. Slow cooling is essential at this step. Fan the rice to cool it (a paper plate works well). That helps the sugar/vinegar mixture adhere to the outside of the grains and lightly glue them together so that the meshi can be molded. When the rice reaches room temperature Alton covers it with a damp towel and stashes it on the counter – not the refrigerator. That would cool the rice too much and crystallize the starch.
The rice ready and waiting, Alton’s next topic is where to get the fish. Since food can make you sick, and raw fish can make you really sick, where to get your fish is more important (especially for beginners) than what fish to prepare. The right combination of freshness, texture and flavor make good sushi. Alton selects fishmonger John Stewart (who wonders whether his customer has come to pay his bill) and mentions sushi. The man mentions red snapper, mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna and Spanish mackerel, recommending tuna and mackerel for sushi. While he prepares the fish Alton mentions, sotto voce, that the government regards flash frozen fish (to at least -20) as safer than fresh fish. Cooks lacking a quality fishmonger can find what they need on the Internet and have it shipped to them.
Back in the kitchen Alton reminds viewers that organization makes cooking faster and easier. To prepare for sushi, he arranges a wooden board and some service pieces, pickled ginger and half-sized sheets of nori, large and small bamboo mats (the smaller wrapped in cellophane), a pint of water spiked with a dash of rice wine vinegar, and his meshi. He sets out some wasabi and readies a large sushi knife (any narrow bladed slicing knife will do).
Alton brings his fish home whole. If the fishmonger cuts it, a tempting prospect, it will oxidize faster. For better quality, do the cutting at home. He cuts tuna against the grain and on the bias so it falls apart in the mouth; no one likes chewy sushi. For roundfish or flatfish he recommends angling away from the grain for the same result.
Back inside the sushi-ya simulator, Alton discusses the history of nigiri. In 1809, back when Tokyo was Edo and was about the size of London, a sushi chef named Yohei devised a new form. He dusted a small piece of fish with wasabi, turned it over and pressed it into an oval of rice. Quick and delicious, nigiri became popular and remains so. Alton watches as the itamae puts some together and the irate man accuses him of stealing the technique. When Alton comments that a good itamae can manage ten to twenty customers, but that this particular sushi-ya is nearly empty, the irate image orders him out. Alton exits as the simulator, now marked “Sushi 1.5” descends to the floor of the lab. He signs a clipboard and favors the technician with a dark look, causing the man to scurry away in obvious dismay.
In the kitchen, Alton demonstrates. Do not, he cautions, squeeze or squish the rice. He dips his hand in the water/vinegar mixture to moisten it and shapes the grains gently so the oval includes plenty of air. Then he paints a strip of fish gently with wasabi and “glues” it to the top of the rice.
Legend says that tekka-maki originated at an Edo gambling house when a gambler asked the cook to create something he could eat with one hand. The cook took tuna scraps and rice and rolled them into a nori sheet. This story may not be true: it is so similar the story that describes the origin of the sandwich that Alton cannot be anything but skeptical.
Tekka-maki, or tuna maki starts with a roll of nori. Alton lays his sheet on his rolling mat, rough side up, with the sheet right at the edge of the mat. He wets his fingers – they should not be dripping – and grabs some rice. It’s easier to remove rice than add it later, so Alton uses plenty, bringing it to a quarter inch or so from the edge of the sheet. On top of that he lays several thin slices of tuna, gently overlapping them. As before, Alton sliced the tuna against the grain and then split the slices. Once the ingredients are in place Alton gently rolls the mat and squeezes it just enough to seal the roll, without squishing it. Then he splits the roll in half and cuts each half into three pieces. With a little gari and a little wasabi, he’s ready to eat.
The California Roll puts the rice on the outside. Alton gathers some avocado, crab (or even krab) and cucumber sticks. He lays a sheet of nori on the smaller mat that he prepared by covering it with plastic wrap, then piles rice atop it and adds sesame seeds and flips the nori sheet so the rice is on the bottom. He quarters the avocado and lays that atop the nori first. The crab goes on that and finally several long and thin pieces of cucumber. Alton recommends no more than three different flavors for the middle; more than that and your palate will be confused. And, the roll will be hard to make and seal.
Ingredients in place, Alton again rolls using gentle, even pressure, then cuts down the middle and splits each part into three pieces. Some rice will fall off; that’s okay.
Back in the simulated sushi-ya, Alton demonstrates proper eating technique. Sushi will arrive on a platter with three sides: soy sauce, gari (pickled ginger) and wasabi. Alton leaves the wasabi alone, suggesting that if the itamae had wanted wasabi in the piece, he would have put it there. The wasabi may be used for sashimi (raw fish without rice) or ignored. Moving to the soy sauce, Alton suggests that it must underline flavors, not overwhelm them. So he recommends diners just barely drag the ball through, never dunk it. Fingers are permissible – this is finger food after all. And yes, you eat the piece in one bite. Alton attempts to continue the discussion but cannot speak around the mouthful of sushi. His attempts irritate and then enrage the itamae who accuses Alton of disparaging his sister! Alton tries to freeze the program but his poor enunciation isn’t up to the task. Finally he escapes the simulator box (now labeled “Sushi 6.0”).
Alton hopes he’s given viewers the courage to try sushi, or for those already a fan, the courage to try a little “rice and roll” of their own. Exotic as it may seem, sushi is Good Eats!
After Alton leaves the simulator floor, the itamae peeks out of the doorway as the music swells to a sinister melody...
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Alton believes the best way to learn is at the sushi bar. The itamae practices his craft at the bar so watching him is like a lesson at culinary school. Alton tries his favorite phrase, omakase onegai shimasu, which roughly translated means that he puts his fate in the itamae's hands. This revs up the chef’s pride, summoning his finest skills, sharpest knives and top quality critters for your meal. But Alton bungles the phrase and the chef refuses him all service. He can’t even get chicken teriyaki now!
Alton excuses himself, rises, and disembarks from... a simulation module. It seems the sushi-ya and the itamae within it are clever simulations running within a metal box on which someone has stenciled “Sushi 1.0.” Alton finds a technician and instructs him to check the itamae program; Alton thinks it’s running hot.
Then Alton signs and heads for his kitchen. It seems that if he wants sushi, he will have to make it for himself.
According to legend, sushi dates back a thousand years, to a woman who hid her rice from bandits. She climbed a tree and stashed the rice in a seabird’s nest. By the time she could retrieve her meal it had fermented and now contained bits of sea critters left over from the bird’s meals. The desperate woman tried it anyway and discovered it was delicious!
Alton keeps his sushi supplies in a kit. From this metal box Alton removes dark soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sushi rice (a short grained rice), and nori – dried and pressed sheets of green algae. Alton prefers packages that hold just a few sheets of nori, because this ingredient readily absorbs water and when it does, it disintegrates quickly. Once exposed to the environment, nori doesn’t last long. Moving on, Alton extracts a rice spoon, rolling mats and a small container of wasabi. Alton explains that most wasabi preparations contain little or no real wasabi, because the plant (a rhizome) is expensive and hard to find. Related to the mustard, wasabi requires specific kinds of soil and grows on moist and shaded hillsides. Some grows in Oregon and some in New Zealand, but the Japanese variety remains superior. Top sushi-ya establishments grate the plant into a small bowl with a sharkskin grater; it has a sweet and floral flavor with a just a little kick – not the fiery flavor most recognize. Alton finishes discussing his kit by mentioning gari, or pickled ginger, used mostly as a palate cleanser. Often made with dyed vinegar, commercial varieties are typically orange or pink. Homemade varieties are usually white.
His kit explained, Alton begins preparing his meshi – sushi rice. He starts by rinsing the rice grains until the water runs clear – three washes usually does it. This gets rid of starch dust that would otherwise produce gummy glue. To cook the rice Alton mixes it with equal parts water (by volume) and puts it over high heat until it boils. No salt at this point in the cooking. When it boils he covers the pot and removes it from the heat for ten minutes. Or, he says, you could use a rice cooker. Rice cookers have a place in homes that make and eat a lot of rice; otherwise, they’re unitaskers – and Alton has rules about unitaskers. To drive the point home he opens a window and pitches the rice cooker out it.
While the rice absorbs liquid Alton adds sugar and kosher salt to rice wine vinegar and microwaves that mixture for half a minute or a little longer to dissolve some but not all of the sugar and salt. When the rice is done Alton decants it into a large unvarnished wooden bowl (glass will do, but unvarnished wood will wick away a little of the moisture for perfect texture). Then he drizzles on the vinegar mixture and cuts it in with slashing motions. Stirring would break grains open and create a starchy mess. Slow cooling is essential at this step. Fan the rice to cool it (a paper plate works well). That helps the sugar/vinegar mixture adhere to the outside of the grains and lightly glue them together so that the meshi can be molded. When the rice reaches room temperature Alton covers it with a damp towel and stashes it on the counter – not the refrigerator. That would cool the rice too much and crystallize the starch.
The rice ready and waiting, Alton’s next topic is where to get the fish. Since food can make you sick, and raw fish can make you really sick, where to get your fish is more important (especially for beginners) than what fish to prepare. The right combination of freshness, texture and flavor make good sushi. Alton selects fishmonger John Stewart (who wonders whether his customer has come to pay his bill) and mentions sushi. The man mentions red snapper, mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna and Spanish mackerel, recommending tuna and mackerel for sushi. While he prepares the fish Alton mentions, sotto voce, that the government regards flash frozen fish (to at least -20) as safer than fresh fish. Cooks lacking a quality fishmonger can find what they need on the Internet and have it shipped to them.
Back in the kitchen Alton reminds viewers that organization makes cooking faster and easier. To prepare for sushi, he arranges a wooden board and some service pieces, pickled ginger and half-sized sheets of nori, large and small bamboo mats (the smaller wrapped in cellophane), a pint of water spiked with a dash of rice wine vinegar, and his meshi. He sets out some wasabi and readies a large sushi knife (any narrow bladed slicing knife will do).
Alton brings his fish home whole. If the fishmonger cuts it, a tempting prospect, it will oxidize faster. For better quality, do the cutting at home. He cuts tuna against the grain and on the bias so it falls apart in the mouth; no one likes chewy sushi. For roundfish or flatfish he recommends angling away from the grain for the same result.
Back inside the sushi-ya simulator, Alton discusses the history of nigiri. In 1809, back when Tokyo was Edo and was about the size of London, a sushi chef named Yohei devised a new form. He dusted a small piece of fish with wasabi, turned it over and pressed it into an oval of rice. Quick and delicious, nigiri became popular and remains so. Alton watches as the itamae puts some together and the irate man accuses him of stealing the technique. When Alton comments that a good itamae can manage ten to twenty customers, but that this particular sushi-ya is nearly empty, the irate image orders him out. Alton exits as the simulator, now marked “Sushi 1.5” descends to the floor of the lab. He signs a clipboard and favors the technician with a dark look, causing the man to scurry away in obvious dismay.
In the kitchen, Alton demonstrates. Do not, he cautions, squeeze or squish the rice. He dips his hand in the water/vinegar mixture to moisten it and shapes the grains gently so the oval includes plenty of air. Then he paints a strip of fish gently with wasabi and “glues” it to the top of the rice.
Legend says that tekka-maki originated at an Edo gambling house when a gambler asked the cook to create something he could eat with one hand. The cook took tuna scraps and rice and rolled them into a nori sheet. This story may not be true: it is so similar the story that describes the origin of the sandwich that Alton cannot be anything but skeptical.
Tekka-maki, or tuna maki starts with a roll of nori. Alton lays his sheet on his rolling mat, rough side up, with the sheet right at the edge of the mat. He wets his fingers – they should not be dripping – and grabs some rice. It’s easier to remove rice than add it later, so Alton uses plenty, bringing it to a quarter inch or so from the edge of the sheet. On top of that he lays several thin slices of tuna, gently overlapping them. As before, Alton sliced the tuna against the grain and then split the slices. Once the ingredients are in place Alton gently rolls the mat and squeezes it just enough to seal the roll, without squishing it. Then he splits the roll in half and cuts each half into three pieces. With a little gari and a little wasabi, he’s ready to eat.
The California Roll puts the rice on the outside. Alton gathers some avocado, crab (or even krab) and cucumber sticks. He lays a sheet of nori on the smaller mat that he prepared by covering it with plastic wrap, then piles rice atop it and adds sesame seeds and flips the nori sheet so the rice is on the bottom. He quarters the avocado and lays that atop the nori first. The crab goes on that and finally several long and thin pieces of cucumber. Alton recommends no more than three different flavors for the middle; more than that and your palate will be confused. And, the roll will be hard to make and seal.
Ingredients in place, Alton again rolls using gentle, even pressure, then cuts down the middle and splits each part into three pieces. Some rice will fall off; that’s okay.
Back in the simulated sushi-ya, Alton demonstrates proper eating technique. Sushi will arrive on a platter with three sides: soy sauce, gari (pickled ginger) and wasabi. Alton leaves the wasabi alone, suggesting that if the itamae had wanted wasabi in the piece, he would have put it there. The wasabi may be used for sashimi (raw fish without rice) or ignored. Moving to the soy sauce, Alton suggests that it must underline flavors, not overwhelm them. So he recommends diners just barely drag the ball through, never dunk it. Fingers are permissible – this is finger food after all. And yes, you eat the piece in one bite. Alton attempts to continue the discussion but cannot speak around the mouthful of sushi. His attempts irritate and then enrage the itamae who accuses Alton of disparaging his sister! Alton tries to freeze the program but his poor enunciation isn’t up to the task. Finally he escapes the simulator box (now labeled “Sushi 6.0”).
Alton hopes he’s given viewers the courage to try sushi, or for those already a fan, the courage to try a little “rice and roll” of their own. Exotic as it may seem, sushi is Good Eats!
After Alton leaves the simulator floor, the itamae peeks out of the doorway as the music swells to a sinister melody...
Share this article with your friends
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