Japanese Culture and Cuisine Class

This evening I went to a class on Japanese Culture and Cuisine with Alona. It was really fun. We felt like we were in Japan and learned alot about Japanese culture and sushi. Su Shi means rice with vinegar and if you want to judge good sushi you should judge it by the rice. Every sushi artist has a unique way of making the rice and good sushi rice is not starchy. In Japan you start sushi training at 10 and the first few years you are only allowed to touch the veggies. This is because getting your knife skills up to speed is very important because you don't want to touch the sushi fish because the oils from your hands changes the fish and makes it not as good. Only the head sushi chef makes and applies the rice to the seaweed. Also in Japan the wasabi is mixed into the sushi instead of how we dab it on. He also said western cultures just have it all wrong- we layer flavors but the Japanese want to separate everything out. So for example in France you would have something like Tiramisu- a layering of texture and flavor where in Japan you would have a little bowl of the cream sauce, black rice, fruit, green tea- all separated and that would be the dessert. Mixing was repulsive to him. I thought this was interesting. I learned a lot and we were given miso soup, soy beans, and 6 types of sushi to try. Good experience to go to Japan for a night.