Sushi is the most famous Japanese dish outside of Japan, and one of the most popular dishes. The Japanese usually enjoy sushi on special occasions.

Sushi is a dish of cooked rice flavored with vinegar and sugar. The most common sushi is nigirizushi where small oblong balls of hand-rolled rice are topped with various ingredients, usually raw fish. A bit of grated horseradish, called wasabi. It is usually added as a condiment.

During the Edo period "sushi" refered to pickled fish conserved in vinegar. Nowadays sushi can be defined as a dish containing rice which has been prepared with sushi vinegar. There are many different types of sushi.

Some popular ones are

Nigiri

Small rice balls with fish, etc. on top. There are countless varieties of nigirizushi, some of the most common ones being tuna, shrimp, eel, squid, octopus and fried egg.

Gunkan

Small cups made of sushi rice and dried seaweed filled with seafood, etc. There are countless varieties of gunkanzushi, some of the most common ones being sea urchin and various kinds of fish eggs.

Norimaki

Sushi rice and seafood, etc. rolled in nori seaweed sheets. There are countless varieties of sushi rolls differing in ingredients and thickness. Sushi rolls prepared "inside out" are very popular outside of Japan, but rarely found in Japan.

Temaki

Temakizushi (literally: hand rolls) are cones made of nori seaweed and filled with sushi rice, seafood and vegetables.

Oshizushi

Oshizushi is pressed sushi, in which the fish is pressed onto the sushi rice in a wooden box. The picture shows trout oshizushi in form of a popular ekiben (train station lunch box).

Inari

Inarizushi is a simple and inexpensive type of sushi, in which sushi rice is filled into aburaage bags.

Chirashi

Chirashizushi is a dish in which seafood, mushroom and vegetables are spread over sushi rice.

Note that "sushi" becomes "zushi" in word combinations in which "sushi" is the second word, e.g. nigirizushi.

= Hiroshi Matsuura =