A Little More Thought of Sushi

Sushi is very very popular throughout the world. I’ve definitely done nothing to such status given to the food but I’m just glad about that because what sushi is nowadays is the fruit of people’s hard work for pursuit of better taste since the origin and I like the idea of sharing happy feeling with people from all over the world while we we have this good food.

Usually, we just take it for granted what sushi is like but I’d like to stop my chopsticks this time and write about how it has ended up as what it is nowadays.

Originally, sushi was just fish which were pickled for preservation. Heavily-salted raw fish was wrapped with steamed rice and the fish became fermented by fermentation of rice and its protein changed into some amino acids, which, by the way, are the base of the taste of Japanese cuisine. The technique is said to have come from China more than 2000 years ago with rice farming culture.

When did it get ready to eat ? After a while, from a few month to even a few years, rice was removed and only fish was eaten.

But as you already know, we human-beings are not very patient and people in the old times seems so. People started to want to eat pickled fish earlier and to eat the wrapping rice as well. The cooking style changed, said around 700 years ago, to comply with “customer service”. Fish were pickled for a shorter time and both the tastes of half-raw fish and lightly salty, sour rice were able to be enjoyed.

Then, around 300 years ago, people wanted to eat sushi earlier again! We sometimes feel we’re urged to hurry when things around us has been progressing and has been convenient and it seems like the same in the past.

Rice vinegar was invented around that time and it made it possible to put sour taste to rice instantly and change sushi to “fast food”. Fish still needed to be cooked, like cooked in soy broth or pickled in vinegar since there was no fridge, of course, at the time. The similar style to the current sushi, a rice ball in much bigger size with fish on the top, was invented in Edo, the former name of Tokyo, around 200 years ago to be made and eaten more quickly. Edo was developing rapidly as one of the largest cities in the world and many people worked for its construction at that time so “fast food” was wanted, like quick lunch bite in busy business districts nowadays.

Raw fish became able to be eaten after ice makers and fridges were developed, around 100 years ago, and then finally the current style of sushi showed up.

We're always proud that sushi has gotten worldwide popularity but don't really know what it used to be or think about how it has come to what it is nowadays, so I wanted to think a bit more about it, which makes my mouth water anyway.