[Sca-cooks] sushi (probably oop)

[Elaine Koogler]

Yup.  I have the Tsuji book and it's really terrific, though as you 
noted, he is not really a historian.  However,  a better source is 
Naomichi Ishige's "The History and Culture of Japanese Food."  If you 
can borrow it from a library, it's best, because it is frightfully 
expensive...Devra got mine for me, and I recall paying an enormous price 
for it.  It's published by Kegan Paul, the same pubisher who charged 
$250 for "Soup for the Qan". 

Sushi is, as I understand it, just barely in period...and what you 
describe is the origin of sushi is what existed in period.  However, I 
have also been told that chirashi-zushi is also just slightly out of period.

Kiri

Ron Carnegie wrote:

>/*
>
>   Interesting theory.  I have no idea what history sushi has.  When I
>studied Japanese history years ago I could find very
>
>little on its food.  However not all sushi use wasabi.  According  to Shizuo
>Tsuji's book JAPANESE COOKING A SIMPLE ART, "Sushi originated as a way of
>preserving funa, or crucian, a kind of carp.  the fish was salted and
>allowed to mature on a bed of vinagered rice, after which the rice was
>discarded."  This if correct (Tsuji is a cook not a historian) implies that
>it is salt and vinegar that is preserving the fish.
>
>    The book also mentions that we (Americans) limit the term Sushi
>incorrectly,  much as I am being accused of on another thread ;).  What we
>call sushi is nigiri-sushi (hand shaped).  There is also oshi-zushi which is
>pressed sushi.  This is vinagered rice packed into a mold and covered with
>marinated or boiled fish.  Maki-sushi is rolled in seaweed, Americans
>usually get the cheap version of this called in Japan nori-maki. This is
>similar to maki-sushi but uses far more rice. It allows the chef to use less
>certain fish! Here I disagree with Tsuji.  I would argue that Americans
>combine nigiri and nori-maki when they say sushi, and some better places
>have been offering real maki-sushi for the last ten years or so.  The book
>is older than that 1980).  The next type of sushi described by Tsuji is
>apparently the most common in Japan.  This is chirashi-zushi or scattered
>sushi.  This is simply seafood and vegetables in or on vinagered rice.
>There is also Inari-ziushi and Fukusa-zushi which are lunch sushi.  On is in
>a bean curd pouch and the other in a square of paper thin omelets.  Tsuji
>says they only thing that is always present in any form of sushi is the
>vinagered rice, though the fish seems to be a common theme to me!
>
>    Sorry to have strayed off topic (or possibly off topic) Japanese food is
>a real interest of mine, left over from my short Japanaphile phase!
>
>Ranald de Balinhard,
>formerly Yakazawa Buntaro
>  
>
>> From what I read, in about ten seconds of contact. There were other
>>micro-organisms listed, with there reaction to wasabi, rice vinegar,
>>ginger, and one other ingredient that I forgot, but the wasabi-cholera
>>one was the one that stuck with me (I'm a bit of a non-canonical
>>wasabiophile when it come to sushi). Their point was how sushi evolved
>>as a way to preserve fish.
>>
>>--
>>Edouard, Sire de Bruyerecourt
>>bruyere at jeffnet.org
>>================================================================
>>"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly,
>>while bad people will find a way around the laws."
>>- Plato (427-347 B.C.)
>>
>>
>>
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