Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know Frondhouse stuff works dot com. Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as
Speaker 1: always is the dour Charles w Chuck Bryant and Jerry,
Speaker 1: who's snortling over there, which is kind of like a
Speaker 1: like a laughing through your nose. What I thought, dour?
Speaker 1: I thought it meant like a gloomy or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you seem a little bluemy today. No, do you think
Speaker 1: the smile is space? Yeah? That one, man. I wish
Speaker 1: I had a picture of that. We could put that
Speaker 1: on a T shirt, and then I could wear that
Speaker 1: T shirt, and then you could get a picture of
Speaker 1: me wearing that T shirt and put that on a
Speaker 1: T shirt and wear that T shirt and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. It would be like Ryan Gosling and
Speaker 1: mcaul yep. That to Beau this time though? This time? Yeah, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: you're always making me be Ryan Gossly. Who wants that? Nobody?
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good man, I gotta tell you so.
Speaker 1: We're about to do sushi. By the way, this thing
Speaker 1: made me really hungry. Oh my god, I want sushi
Speaker 1: so bad now and have for days. Now. Just remember
Speaker 1: the yawning episode and people are like, oh, I listen
Speaker 1: to this and I yawn the entire time. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: prepared to want sushi everybody, Even if you don't like
Speaker 1: sushi or never had sushi, I guarantee you you will
Speaker 1: want sushi by the end of this or we will
Speaker 1: give you your money back for this episode. So you've
Speaker 1: had sushi, yeah, I mean it's one. It's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite foods. I could live in Japan and eat
Speaker 1: sushi every day. Yes, I'm going to Japan next year
Speaker 1: and I plan on eating sushi every day. I would
Speaker 1: have I would not get sick of it. No, No,
Speaker 1: it'd be really tough to especially with the variety of
Speaker 1: do you know everybody thinks sushi is basically like, um,
Speaker 1: a little bite of rice with a bunch of ingredients
Speaker 1: tucked in it or on top of it. Yeah, or
Speaker 1: maybe it's like a little little lump of rice with
Speaker 1: some you know, fish on under something. There's a whole
Speaker 1: galaxy of sushi out there, especially when you go to Japan.
Speaker 1: I mean, just prepared to have your mind blown. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've had it before, but yeah, my buddy Jason lives
Speaker 1: up it there and it's like, it's not like sushi
Speaker 1: Avenue here, Indicator Georgia, does he ever mail you sushi?
Speaker 1: It probably wouldn't stay very well. Um, but if you
Speaker 1: figured out a way to stick it into one of
Speaker 1: those live organ courier things, it would be great. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't think so well. You know, if you eat
Speaker 1: raw sushi here, with the exception of tuna, and by
Speaker 1: here I mean the United States, Um, it's not fresh.
Speaker 1: It's been frozen by law except for tuna. And I
Speaker 1: couldn't find out why tuna was the only exception, But
Speaker 1: all fish that's intended to be served raw has to
Speaker 1: be frozen. US frozen is fine, And then of course
Speaker 1: thought back out, but it can't just be from the
Speaker 1: ocean to your plate. Yeah, and before the pedantic ones
Speaker 1: among you start emailing, Josh said sushi when he was
Speaker 1: talking about raw fish and infects, Sushi is rice and
Speaker 1: that is sushimi, using the colloquial exactly. When people say, hey,
Speaker 1: let's go out for sushi, it's like a a genre
Speaker 1: of food, like hey, let's go out for Italian and
Speaker 1: you don't go and they say, actually, that's a Sicilian
Speaker 1: item of food. Yeah, if this is ringing true to
Speaker 1: you and it's reminding you of yourself. Take a take.
Speaker 1: You need to do some personality changes. If this is
Speaker 1: your friend, then you should surround yourself with higher quality
Speaker 1: people in that. Yeah, I mean go out for sushi.
Speaker 1: That means you can have me so soup, and that
Speaker 1: means going out for sushi and you can have uh
Speaker 1: like at a mammy and a seaweed salad. And that's
Speaker 1: all part of the experience that's going out for sushi
Speaker 1: yah and this country it basically is shorthand for Japanese.
Speaker 1: You're going out for Japanese, yes, sort of, but not hibachi.
Speaker 1: Habachi is not Japanese. Is strictly a Rocky Aoki American. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean they do have habaski girls and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but the experience, the benni hana version totally American invention.
Speaker 1: I've never been to one of those places. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's like there's a guy like chopping and
Speaker 1: cooking and and like tossing stuff into his hat and everything. Alright,
Speaker 1: So chuck Um, thank you for pointing out the sushi thing,
Speaker 1: because I am going to do that a lot. And
Speaker 1: we should say when if you are specifically talking about
Speaker 1: sushi in Japan. You're talking about. Um. Vinegard rice is
Speaker 1: roughly what the word means, medium or short grain. The
Speaker 1: stuff that's on top, Um, the neta, which is a
Speaker 1: fish seafood topping that you put on sushi is actually
Speaker 1: that raw fish is called sashimi like you said it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can eat that by itself as well. If it's
Speaker 1: fried stuff, it's called tempura. Yeah. Different types of sushi
Speaker 1: have different kinds of names. But UM, let's get into this,
Speaker 1: shall we. Let's let's talk about the history, because this
Speaker 1: whole thing didn't even start in Japan. Yeah, it's pretty interesting, uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at sushi, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of folklore surrounding it, Um, a lot of mysterious origins. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the old wives tales from Japan is that
Speaker 1: funny It just appeared out of nowhere one day, mysteriously.
Speaker 1: Uh No, it just means it can't be there now,
Speaker 1: I'm just teasing. You're joshing, I am josh in the chuck.
Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. There's an old Japanese wives tale about
Speaker 1: an elderly lady who would hide her rights from thieves
Speaker 1: and osprey nests, and she would forget where they were,
Speaker 1: and they would ferment the rice wood and then the
Speaker 1: seafood that the osprey would eat would fall down in there,
Speaker 1: and waila, that was the first sushi. Yes, that's a
Speaker 1: great story. But it's a lie. Yeah, not necessarily, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not a lies folklore, which are lies. I guess
Speaker 1: it's told by old ladies. Very harsh way to say it. Um.
Speaker 1: So there's the The earliest sushi supposedly was around in
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia, in I don't know, years ago. They
Speaker 1: were taking cooked rice which does ferment, and packing fish
Speaker 1: in it, and then the fermentation of the rice, yeah,
Speaker 1: I kept it long before refrigeration, but it also kind
Speaker 1: of pickled the fish. But then once the fish was
Speaker 1: pickled over the course of like weeks, and they would
Speaker 1: place it under like a heavy stone or something like
Speaker 1: that to basically compress it. And once the once the
Speaker 1: fish was pickled, they throw the rice out and to
Speaker 1: seat the fish. Yes, and in fact, a sushi kitchen
Speaker 1: can be called a suki bar or a pickling place.
Speaker 1: That's bam. The original version of sushi was basically fermented
Speaker 1: fish that was fermented with rice. Pickled fish fermented with rice.
Speaker 1: Then they threw the rice out. Somebody said, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, does this rice taste like, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is delicious, And what would it taste like if
Speaker 1: I put this fermentued fish on the rice? And they went,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is even better. So they said, well,
Speaker 1: let's try this a different way. If we're not gonna
Speaker 1: throw the fish or throw the rice out, let's actually
Speaker 1: gut the fish. And this is the tenth century, by
Speaker 1: the way, and by now this is in Japan. Um,
Speaker 1: let's get the fish, soak it in saki, which is
Speaker 1: Japanese rice wine, and then pack that thing full of
Speaker 1: rice and let that ferment and then after a few
Speaker 1: weeks we'll just slice it and then eat that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And each each of these steps basically is speeding the
Speaker 1: process up a lot. Like the very first process took
Speaker 1: about a year and a half, did it And it
Speaker 1: was only for like the uber wealthy. Once they added sake, though,
Speaker 1: that speeded that up. That speeded that up, and that
Speaker 1: stuff still around. It's called nara sushi or rice sushi. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, ripe sushi, and apparently you can still get that.
Speaker 1: And it's a little like for your American taste buds.
Speaker 1: It might taste a little funny, but I'll bet once
Speaker 1: you get used to you're like, this is I have
Speaker 1: to have us all the time. Probably so. Uh So.
Speaker 1: Then in the sixteen hundreds, early sixteen hundreds of Japanese
Speaker 1: military leader name Tokugawa Aye Yasu. We're gonna do our
Speaker 1: best with these Japanese pronunciations. Yes, give us a break. Uh.
Speaker 1: He moved the capital from Kyoto to Ito, which would
Speaker 1: later become Tokyo, and by the nineteenth century it was
Speaker 1: a hoppin city. And in the mid seventeen hundreds they
Speaker 1: sped up that process a little bit more by skipping
Speaker 1: the saki and using rice vinegar, yeah, which made it
Speaker 1: like a matter of days after that for a couple hours, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is what I was following up with, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is I mean that's super quick, and then you would
Speaker 1: fly set into pieces and uh again just cutting that
Speaker 1: preparation time. Yeah. And then in um Kyoto, which was
Speaker 1: the former uh seat of power in Japan before it
Speaker 1: was moved to Ato or Tokyo, um they would take
Speaker 1: that vinegar and in some ingredients maybe a little cucumber,
Speaker 1: a little dried seaweed, which is known as nori, and
Speaker 1: they put it in a box and press it together
Speaker 1: and you'd have oshi sushi, which is Osaka style sushi.
Speaker 1: It's it's like a square of sushi, right. And there
Speaker 1: was a guy who lived in Ato in Tokyo in
Speaker 1: the eighteen twenties, and his name was Yohei Hanaya, and
Speaker 1: he had a little cart where he was making oshi
Speaker 1: sushi and everybody liked it and all that. But apparently,
Speaker 1: as the story goes, some of his customers were like,
Speaker 1: I'm very busy and important and I don't have time
Speaker 1: for you to press this into a box. That's hurry up.
Speaker 1: Make it snappy. So he took some of that rice,
Speaker 1: that vinegar flavored rice, and rolled it up in his
Speaker 1: hand a little bit, and then he would take some
Speaker 1: fish that was taken out of Tokyo bay or Edo.
Speaker 1: May I mean. He was set up right there on
Speaker 1: the water exactly, and he cut off a little bit
Speaker 1: of slice and put it in there, maybe with the
Speaker 1: streak of a sabi, and handed it to the He said, here, jerk,
Speaker 1: is that fast enough? That took me like three minutes exactly,
Speaker 1: And they said, well, by god, this is Japanese street food.
Speaker 1: That is fast food that we can use our hands
Speaker 1: for and eating two bites and nigiri sushi. Uh, what
Speaker 1: a lot of people think of as sushi was born.
Speaker 1: The modern sushi was born right there in that food stall,
Speaker 1: that's right. And then the Great Canto earthquake hit Tokyo
Speaker 1: and land prices went down, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: there was a lot of retail space, and so the
Speaker 1: sushi car said, hey, maybe we should move these things
Speaker 1: inside and started a legit restaurant. And it happened all
Speaker 1: over the place, and by the nineteen fifties it was
Speaker 1: the sushi restaurant was where it was at. Yes, basically
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties, yes, to refrigeration, you could chip fish.
Speaker 1: By the seventies and the post war economy, people were
Speaker 1: loving the stuff. So it started to boom in other
Speaker 1: like all over Japan, and then started to spread to
Speaker 1: other parts of the world. It did, and in the
Speaker 1: United States it was first adopted in the sixties in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Of course it was Los Angeles. There was
Speaker 1: a place called Kawa Fuku and that was the first
Speaker 1: big American embraced um sushi restaurant in the United States.
Speaker 1: And and then the yuppies came, and you think, like
Speaker 1: eighties in sushi, right, I do, I always have, Yeah,
Speaker 1: But apparently it wasn't until like the nineties that sushi
Speaker 1: really hit New York. And it was because of a
Speaker 1: unknown man named Robert de Niro who who talked the
Speaker 1: chef of Nobu, whose name is uh Nobu Yuki Matsu.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in so much trouble when I get home.
Speaker 1: So de Niro talked the chef of Nobu, Nobu Yuki Matsushisa.
Speaker 1: I think that's it. It's really close, if not to
Speaker 1: open Nobu, which was already an l A icon in
Speaker 1: New York in So apparently sushi didn't hit New York
Speaker 1: big time until the nineties, even though I think of
Speaker 1: it like total American psycho fodder. Yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: was a sound I think it probably the explosion didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was very much a California thing. Um.
Speaker 1: That first restaurant was a little tokyo in l A.
Speaker 1: And then in the seventies they opened one in Hollywood
Speaker 1: called Oshow in nineteen seventy and that was you know,
Speaker 1: that was when the celebrity started going and they was like, oh,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is so exotic and delicious and
Speaker 1: I could eat it every day. And um, something really
Speaker 1: really big happened in nineteen seventy three. Um, there was
Speaker 1: a place in Los Angeles, uh, and there was a
Speaker 1: sushi chef there. His name was Manashita, and Manashita created
Speaker 1: an inside out roll a maki which is maki sushi
Speaker 1: is a hand roll or no, it's a role that
Speaker 1: used a bamboo mat for We'll get into it. So
Speaker 1: was it inside out a regular inside out maki roll
Speaker 1: with avocado, crab and cucumber, that's right, yes, okay. And
Speaker 1: he made the California role and that became the entree,
Speaker 1: Like that's the gateway drug to sushi for a lot
Speaker 1: of Americans. Yeah, because it doesn't have the raw fish
Speaker 1: in there. If you're creeped out by that, it's like
Speaker 1: you can start on the California roll and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just sort of like a salad, all right,
Speaker 1: And then once you go and eat California rolls enough times,
Speaker 1: you're like, well, maybe I will try a bite of that,
Speaker 1: and once you do, you're never going back. It's like
Speaker 1: I can still lead a California roll like a bite
Speaker 1: of it or something like that. But I'm more like,
Speaker 1: that's a waste of sushi, Like I want I want
Speaker 1: good nagiri or yeah, if I've got that, I'll put
Speaker 1: that six dollars towards something else. Yeah, but I'll make
Speaker 1: a California roll at home because it's uh, oh you
Speaker 1: making my home. Yeah, And well we'll get we'll get
Speaker 1: to all that. So Chuck, that's the history of sushi
Speaker 1: up to right now. Now, um, yeah, let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about fish in a second. Let's take a message break first. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we're talking about fish. Raw Fish is a common
Speaker 1: ingredient when you go to a sushi restaurant. But if
Speaker 1: you're not into that, there are plenty of other offerings.
Speaker 1: You've talked about tempora, We talked about the California California roll.
Speaker 1: You can that can be uh, you can use veggies.
Speaker 1: This article says virtually any type of vegetable, but completely
Speaker 1: disagree with that. Yeah, Like you're not gonna roll up
Speaker 1: broccoli or cauliflower and sushi, are you? No? But man,
Speaker 1: I am crazy for ground up cauliflower as like a
Speaker 1: rice substitute or something like that, or like massed potato
Speaker 1: substude like collie taters, like puade califlower so good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've been making collie taters for years, dude. I spend
Speaker 1: my entire life up until like a couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: hating cauliflower. I never told you about collie taters. No,
Speaker 1: I've heard of it before. I just never really tried it.
Speaker 1: But you mean, and I like started making it, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, this is good. Yeah, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: I hate it when people say he's just like something.
Speaker 1: It doesn't taste just thing, but it's it's got its consistency,
Speaker 1: then it's good. Right. It mimics the consistency, not the taste. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the taste isn't too far off. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't taste like rotted horsemeat compared to like mashed
Speaker 1: potatoes or something. But I think it's like it's its
Speaker 1: own distinct thing it is. So that's my treatise on cauliflower. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You won't put cauliflower in your sushi though, but you
Speaker 1: can find asparagus and sushi fairly frequently. YEA cucumber, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I guess that's it. No, there's some more stuff. Mushrooms.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, mushrooms it's a big staple of a lot
Speaker 1: of sushi. That was the third one. Yeah, it's some
Speaker 1: nice shitakis boom. Have you been to Umi Sushi yet? Uh? Now,
Speaker 1: it is amazing. Yeah. The one I've been on lately
Speaker 1: is um shoot. I can't think of the name of
Speaker 1: it now, uh me so I think is the name
Speaker 1: of it in the old fourth word. And it's good,
Speaker 1: little pricey but you know, oh yeah, Misosakaya. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be real good. It's good stuff. It's
Speaker 1: more um it's like new veau sushi, which I guess
Speaker 1: Umi Sushi is kind of. But they have like a
Speaker 1: like an old traditional sushi chef running the place there.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean in America, you're gonna find
Speaker 1: some variations. And in fact, the inside out roll apparently
Speaker 1: is a totally American thing, even though it has now
Speaker 1: since found its way over to Japan. But it did
Speaker 1: not originate in Japan, right, No, the reverse roll or
Speaker 1: inside out it was like an echo that came back
Speaker 1: by storm. And if you don't know what we're talking about,
Speaker 1: that's when the rice is on the outside of the
Speaker 1: roll and the nori is on the inside instead of
Speaker 1: the other way around. Yes, alright, so Chuck, if you argue,
Speaker 1: use fish or you're ordering at a a sushi place.
Speaker 1: The most of the fish are gonna see is um
Speaker 1: salt water see see fish. Yeah, you don't want to
Speaker 1: trout roll No. And the reason why it is because
Speaker 1: freshwater fish are much more prone to parasites. The saltwater fish.
Speaker 1: Parasites don't like salt as much. Right, yeah. Um, But
Speaker 1: occasionally you will see a freshwater seafood. There's like a
Speaker 1: type of eel that's really good, that's fresh water. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love the eel. Is always get the two eels confused,
Speaker 1: and I always get like, after all these years, I
Speaker 1: still can't commit it to memory, and about every third
Speaker 1: time order the wrong one. Oh really, I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever had the saltwater eel. Yeah. I mean it's
Speaker 1: not bad, of course, but I like the like the
Speaker 1: freshwater more. Yeah, I do too. And you can buy
Speaker 1: I make that's one of the ones that make at home.
Speaker 1: You can there's a great Japanese market over by the
Speaker 1: farmer's market and you can buy it and the refrigerator
Speaker 1: and they make it in the oven. And yeah, because
Speaker 1: that's the thing. If you order the freshwater eel like
Speaker 1: it does. It doesn't come raw like it's seared or
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, it's like a seared then like
Speaker 1: a karyaki sauce. So delicious it is. Man, you know
Speaker 1: it's okay. So you're gonna have freshwater fish, yeah, um
Speaker 1: or freshwater seafood most of the time, saltwater saltwater, thank
Speaker 1: you man and um. One of the most highly prized
Speaker 1: seafood that you're going to find in sushi of any
Speaker 1: type is tuna. And there's different types of tuna. Um.
Speaker 1: They they'll they'll use a yellow finn, big guy, blue
Speaker 1: fine and blue finn is the most expensive one. And
Speaker 1: apparently it wasn't until the fifties that the Japanese came
Speaker 1: to prize bluefin. Like before they used it for caffood.
Speaker 1: Like they wouldn't even eat that stuff. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I heard, Like the belly is was originally and now
Speaker 1: it's like the prize and the belly now or used
Speaker 1: to be, like they wouldn't eat it. Yeah. Actually, the
Speaker 1: record for the highest priced fish ever sold I believe
Speaker 1: anywhere um was sold at the Tokyo Fish Market last year.
Speaker 1: It was a four ninety pound blue fin tuna. How
Speaker 1: much at one point eight million dollars, Holy crap for
Speaker 1: just that tuna. And I guarantee they made their money.
Speaker 1: And then something man, yeah, that's a big tuna. I
Speaker 1: feel kind of bad for that guy, even though I
Speaker 1: love to eat him so much. The tuna, well, there's
Speaker 1: definitely a moral thread that runs through tuna or not sushi,
Speaker 1: like apparently yellow fin tuna. Farm raised tuna or raised
Speaker 1: a lot like veal and fatten until their muscles deteriorate
Speaker 1: alive um and and then of course there's the have
Speaker 1: you seen the raw or live frog video? There is
Speaker 1: a type of sushi that is it's called um iki zukuri,
Speaker 1: which is live sushi, and there's an iki zukuri video.
Speaker 1: And if you have a light stomach at all or
Speaker 1: anything like that, are bothered by animals being killed, like
Speaker 1: you should not watch this. But the point is you
Speaker 1: eat the thing while it's basically part of it is
Speaker 1: still alive on the plate looking at you like this
Speaker 1: frog is sitting there blinking. It's a frog. There's a frog.
Speaker 1: And I can't remember what the other one is, but
Speaker 1: there's they showed two things being prepared. It's not. Have
Speaker 1: you have you seen Old Boy the original? Remember he
Speaker 1: eats that squid live, that's a that's live sushi. Wow,
Speaker 1: Like that was real. Yeah, not for me, And yeah
Speaker 1: you get pretty adventurous. That would you do that? Probably
Speaker 1: just to try it? Yeah, I mean it's just like,
Speaker 1: I know everything is killed that we eat, right, but
Speaker 1: it's just like, I don't know being confronted with it.
Speaker 1: Who knows that. I can imagine some of the people
Speaker 1: who are into like that slow food movement are like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the way you should do it. You should have
Speaker 1: to confront the death while you eat. No. I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of people would say it's hypocritical to not
Speaker 1: do that, you know, right, but a lot of butte
Speaker 1: a lot of people are comfortable with that. Emily won't
Speaker 1: eat anything that reminds her of an animal, Like she
Speaker 1: didn't even like bones in her chicken. Yeah. Uh. And
Speaker 1: like if someone surved her a fish with a head
Speaker 1: on it, like fully cooked, she would just be like, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that fish is looking at me. It's like the duck
Speaker 1: in a Christmas story. Yeah he's smiling. Uh. Okay, So
Speaker 1: we're talking about tuna. Tuna is delicious salmon is delicious
Speaker 1: yellow tail and hamachi and surf clam, and there's all
Speaker 1: sorts of delicious seafood that you can get on your
Speaker 1: sushi or in your rolls, and then you just spread
Speaker 1: out from there. If there's a fried chicken in there,
Speaker 1: it might be a little too Americanized, although that's what
Speaker 1: you're into, then great, well it would be considered temporal
Speaker 1: chicken in that case. Yeah, but yeah, come on, if
Speaker 1: there's fried chicken and mayonnaise rolled up in rice, then
Speaker 1: that sounds kind of good. Well, I know, but it's
Speaker 1: is it sushi? Well, Rogers Roasters. I feel like there's
Speaker 1: been kind of you know, there's definitely a traditional thread
Speaker 1: of sushi, right, yeah, I don't know, mind mixing it
Speaker 1: up a little bit, and there's like traditional preparations and
Speaker 1: then there's traditional ingredients. But then it's like you said,
Speaker 1: you know, in the seventies, when the California role was
Speaker 1: made here in America, it was sent back and now
Speaker 1: you can get a California role pretty much anywhere in Japan,
Speaker 1: and it's expanded from there. So I think, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think sushi is kind of this evolving thing. I've seen
Speaker 1: cereals added have you seen that like corn flakes or
Speaker 1: rice crispies on top. Yeah, I'm not into that either
Speaker 1: for crunch, yeah, or or or squirting a bunch of
Speaker 1: sauce on top. I'm not a big fan of that either. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: that's another thing that we'll talk about when we talk
Speaker 1: about how to eat sushi. But really there's a lot
Speaker 1: of sushi that's prepared that you're not supposed to do
Speaker 1: anything to except eat. Yeah. So I guess we should
Speaker 1: finish what can be in sushi thing by mentioning uh
Speaker 1: row and tomago row is the fish eggs like a
Speaker 1: little delicious orange. It's almost like caviar. Yeah, And there
Speaker 1: can be little tiny ones and larger ones. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a difference in the name. Do you know I
Speaker 1: didn't look that up. No, Cherry's nodding. Is there a
Speaker 1: difference in the name. I'm sure it's not necessarily by size,
Speaker 1: but probably by fish. Yeah. I think the smelt row
Speaker 1: is the smaller m I think so, Yeah, the little
Speaker 1: little tiny beads. Yeah, and that's usually added with a
Speaker 1: roll or on top of something, and the other larger ones.
Speaker 1: A lot of times that's just wrapped in the nori
Speaker 1: and that's all you're eating. Yeah, Or there's just like
Speaker 1: one on top of the thing. Oh yeah, like a
Speaker 1: little bead huh for presentation. Yeah, I want to say,
Speaker 1: a coil egg on top of legs. Yesterday this was raw.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was gonna be raw. I ate
Speaker 1: it anyway, Like you said, I'm adventurous, but man, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm never ordering that again. No, I'm not
Speaker 1: too big on raw eggs um except strangely in like
Speaker 1: a tataki or um carpaccio or something like that. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I that's weird. I guess I guess I'll just have
Speaker 1: to keep ordering it them, whether I like it or not. Alright,
Speaker 1: Tomago is egg in sushi. But it is cooked and
Speaker 1: it's like it's an it's an omelet. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: made by adding little layers of egg. I've seen some
Speaker 1: people like bake it in a pan. It's probably the
Speaker 1: shortcut method. There's probably more traditional method. But um it's
Speaker 1: almost like because it's sweet umlet, it's almost like a
Speaker 1: dessert sushi. Yeah. And that's it's like an inch stick
Speaker 1: and a slice and you put it on some sushi
Speaker 1: rice with a little band of nori tied around it,
Speaker 1: and that's delicious as well. Half avocado, so you say
Speaker 1: it avocado? Uh, that is very popular, and that means
Speaker 1: tuna of the land in Japan. Yeah, that's the the
Speaker 1: word for avocado means tuna of the land. It's pretty cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: avocado is like a great addition to anything. Yeah, I agree,
Speaker 1: and very good for you too. It really is the
Speaker 1: good fat, yes, yeah, good for your heart and your brain. Um.
Speaker 1: What else goes along with sushi? The soy sauce to
Speaker 1: show you. Yeah, it's the type of soy sauce, and
Speaker 1: like you can. You can dip your sushi and soy
Speaker 1: sauce if you prefer, But you're supposed to use it
Speaker 1: very sparingly. Yea. And supposedly you're not supposed to dip
Speaker 1: the rice either. No, I drown it. I'm just you
Speaker 1: want to talk about how to eat sushi the propper way? Uh? Sure, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't do it, that's fine. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: people eat with chopsticks. Yeah. Supposedly it's an insult to
Speaker 1: the sushi chef to drown your sushi and rice. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: And where would I be without you? Just staying wrong
Speaker 1: stuff here and there. Um. So basically, let's say you
Speaker 1: have a piece of naguri, which is just a little
Speaker 1: lump of sushi with um like some some topping on it,
Speaker 1: say tuna. Uh, you kind of lightly grabbed the nagii
Speaker 1: on one side, on both sides with your fingers. Yes,
Speaker 1: you don't need to use chopsticks. Sushi was originally a
Speaker 1: finger food and um, you can feel free to eat
Speaker 1: it the traditional way using your hands. Um. So you
Speaker 1: grab the sides kind of lightly but firmly, you tilt
Speaker 1: it over. You tilt this out, You tilt the naguri over,
Speaker 1: and then you just basically have it. So you're grabbing,
Speaker 1: you're holding onto the tuna and holding it almost like
Speaker 1: a basket, so the rice is on top and the
Speaker 1: tuna is on the bottom. You just flipped your sushi over.
Speaker 1: If you want a little bit to show you, you
Speaker 1: can just kinda just barely like pass it through to
Speaker 1: show you the soy sauce, just the tip, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: of just the seafood. Yeah, you're not supposed touch the
Speaker 1: rice to it. Yeah, that's what I hear. You take
Speaker 1: um one bite, depending on the size you can put
Speaker 1: the whole thing in your mouth and eat it. But
Speaker 1: you want to put it the topping side down, and
Speaker 1: then if it's a big piece of nigiri, then um,
Speaker 1: you can bite it and then eat it in two pieces.
Speaker 1: All right, here's Chuck's method. I take it and I
Speaker 1: dump the entire thing and a big bowl of soy sauce,
Speaker 1: and then I pull it out and I stick it
Speaker 1: in my mouth and chew it up and eat it
Speaker 1: all and then I wash it down with the supporo.
Speaker 1: Well that's customary. I'm a happy guy. You would probably
Speaker 1: like chio rashi sushi, which is basically a bowl of
Speaker 1: rice with sushi toppings. Yeah, I could. I could be
Speaker 1: down with that. Is there the nori in there? Though?
Speaker 1: Because I love the nori? I think everything you want
Speaker 1: in there, whatever kind of sushi you want, it's just
Speaker 1: like in a bowl. It's just like a KFC bowl.
Speaker 1: But yeah, or oh man, what are those awful beef
Speaker 1: bull places out west Yoshi Naki or something beef bull
Speaker 1: like in the shopping malls. Yeah, I know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. I can't remember the name of them. Are
Speaker 1: they not good? Well? I mean, you get you tell me,
Speaker 1: you get like a three pound beef and rice bowl
Speaker 1: for like three dollars. Oh, that sounds good. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's They're known for their high quality meats. So
Speaker 1: by beef, I mean cat yoshin nori. What is it called.
Speaker 1: It's a chain. They're all over l A. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know you don't talking about I don't think they have
Speaker 1: them here in Georgia. Uh, well, sabi. I don't do
Speaker 1: the wasabi just because I don't like the taste. Um.
Speaker 1: I know most people like to put it in their
Speaker 1: soy sauce and mix it up. Apparently that is an
Speaker 1: insult as well. Uh, it's it's abnormal. That's what Yumi
Speaker 1: does though. Yeah, she puts in the sauce, puts a
Speaker 1: lot of it in there. Yeah, so does Emily. She
Speaker 1: loves that stuff. But the thing is is most sushi
Speaker 1: is going to already have a little streak of wasabi
Speaker 1: on top of the rice, beneath the topping. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily need any. And if you've ever wondered
Speaker 1: why your nostrils are suddenly clear and you're breathing very
Speaker 1: easily even though you didn't use any with sabby, it's
Speaker 1: because it was already on there. Yeah. And here in
Speaker 1: the United States, you're not eating with sabi anyway. Nope,
Speaker 1: although you can get it at Umi sushi really, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna cost you. Yeah, So that's the fact of
Speaker 1: the podcast. For me. What you're eating is horse radish
Speaker 1: and mustard paste that's dyed green, and they call it
Speaker 1: was saby was sabi. When people say it's Japanese horse radish,
Speaker 1: it actually isn't even horse radish. It's it's in that fan.
Speaker 1: It's like a cousin of horse radish. And it is
Speaker 1: expensive that goes by the river and you're eating the root.
Speaker 1: It lives in a van down by the river. But
Speaker 1: uh yeah, apparently it's so pricey. Like you're you're you've
Speaker 1: probably never had real was sabi unless you're like high
Speaker 1: falutin like you and go to fancy sushi places. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sure noboo has real with saby. I just like
Speaker 1: a little gentleman. I wear a velvet jacket and velvet
Speaker 1: shorts with knee socks, which is a little hack, and
Speaker 1: they saying, well, they served me it's wonderful. Well, that's
Speaker 1: funny that you mentioned that, because being a sushi chef
Speaker 1: in Japan, you're also supposed to be kind of part performer.
Speaker 1: It's very social thing to sit at the sushi bar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're not necessarily performing like at a habachi place.
Speaker 1: It's not like that you're performing at a clown. You're
Speaker 1: you're you're just you're friendly. Yeah, you're helpful. You want
Speaker 1: the person to feel like they are welcome and that
Speaker 1: they they are being led in on your expertise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like ask if you've never been and you want to
Speaker 1: try it out, sit at the sushi bar and ask.
Speaker 1: I like it anyway, just because I like to watch it.
Speaker 1: But um asked the chef like, hey man, what's what's
Speaker 1: good today? And I say, hey man, Because there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of discrimination, um in Japan, even with women
Speaker 1: becoming sushi chefs. Oh yeah, it's still a thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is, chuck, Yeah, which is no good. Um. And apparently,
Speaker 1: regardless of your gender, if you're a sushi chef, UM,
Speaker 1: you are required to work at least two years if
Speaker 1: you're working at a decent sushi place. Yeah. It sounds
Speaker 1: like a lot, but it used to be ten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but well, two years just to learn to make the rice,
Speaker 1: and then another year of training with a knife. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: and that's in Japan. Here in America they're turning them
Speaker 1: out because there's just such a need, right. But once
Speaker 1: you're a trained sushi chef, like you can become a
Speaker 1: journeyman and like go anywhere in the world these days
Speaker 1: and open your own place. Man. I'm so um have
Speaker 1: you seen Zero Dreams of Sushi? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: highly recommended. I think that's streaming on Netflix too. Um.
Speaker 1: And you recommended that, I think to me for the
Speaker 1: first time. Yeah. We went and saw in the theaters.
Speaker 1: It was good. Yeah, it was really good. I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's about wanting sushi. Yeah, And you don't have
Speaker 1: to like sushi. If you just appreciate art and craftsmanship
Speaker 1: and being the best at something, you should written that movie.
Speaker 1: And family too. It's kid like. It's it's the man
Speaker 1: and his two sons. I think Giro has been making
Speaker 1: sushi for like seventy years or something like that, and
Speaker 1: his two sons are following in his footsteps. And it's
Speaker 1: really um uh intimate documentary about that family totally. So
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit or I mentioned drinking a
Speaker 1: nice cold sapporo. Um. People, I don't like sak myself. Um,
Speaker 1: I just don't dig the rice wine. But that is
Speaker 1: a big thing for a lot of people when they
Speaker 1: go out to eat sushi is to drink sake. But
Speaker 1: apparently because it is rice based and that your sushi
Speaker 1: is rice based, it doesn't compliment one another. So you
Speaker 1: technically shouldn't be drinking sake as you eat the sushi.
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot like putting with sabi in
Speaker 1: the soy sauce. Just do what you want. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: all this stuff is, of course, as long as you're
Speaker 1: not insulting the sushi chef overtly and calling him things
Speaker 1: like sense and stuff like that, really buttering him up,
Speaker 1: I think you're doing. Okay, did people do that? I'm
Speaker 1: sure they do. I haven't yet, but it's probably a
Speaker 1: good idea. All right. Um, they recommend like green tea,
Speaker 1: light beer, even water. But again, drink whatever you want.
Speaker 1: But if you're drinking sake, supposedly you're not supposed to
Speaker 1: pour your own. You're supposed to pour your buddies and
Speaker 1: then they pour yours. Yeah, and this is if you're
Speaker 1: going you know, you want to be traditional, sure, but
Speaker 1: it makes saki for sharing by definition, by that um
Speaker 1: one more a oh yeah, yeah, Like if you can't
Speaker 1: pour your own sake, you're up the creek. If you're
Speaker 1: just drinking it by yourself, what are you gonna ask
Speaker 1: like a stranger? Sure, make a buddy, make a new
Speaker 1: friend in Japan. Now, all right, we're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about how to make sushi right after this message.
Speaker 1: All right, so you've never made sushi. I'm surprised you
Speaker 1: guys haven't tried it. I've never sushi, you know, well
Speaker 1: I have, I haven't done it in a while. But
Speaker 1: you can get your nori sheets and grocery stores. I
Speaker 1: eat that stuff like a snack. Yeah, of course. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can find your little crabsticks and cucumber. And where
Speaker 1: it gets a little tricky is um is the fish itself. Like,
Speaker 1: if you live in a big city, there's probably a
Speaker 1: place where you can get sushi grade fish. If you
Speaker 1: live out in the sticks, you might have a harder time,
Speaker 1: but you definitely want to get sushi or sashimi grade
Speaker 1: fish um and ask if it is sashimi grade um.
Speaker 1: Like we said, no fresh water. You don't want to
Speaker 1: trout roll no, and you want it to be nice
Speaker 1: and vibrant color. Yeah. You don't want there to be
Speaker 1: any weird like dark or soft spots. No, that's rot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the tuna should be like really bright red um or
Speaker 1: pink yeah, like dark pink. Yeah, I mean you can
Speaker 1: if you know how to spot it. You know the difference,
Speaker 1: like if you get a little practice. Yeah. And if
Speaker 1: you're not like Emily and you're buying the whole fish,
Speaker 1: you want the eyes to be like not sunken in.
Speaker 1: You want them to be like still just kind of
Speaker 1: popping out, like, oh my gosh, I'm I can't believe
Speaker 1: this is happening kind of eyes, you know. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: shouldn't smell too fishy either. If it smells superfishy, that
Speaker 1: means it's probably not super fresh. But once you have
Speaker 1: your fish and you bought your nori, you want to
Speaker 1: buy your rice. That's the first key ingredient you need
Speaker 1: to master. And like we said, in Japan, they spent
Speaker 1: two years learning how to make the rice properly. So
Speaker 1: don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go well at first. No. Um,
Speaker 1: but the the the rice you're making, you want to
Speaker 1: start with sushi rice, which is a short or medium
Speaker 1: grain rice and if you go to the store to
Speaker 1: buy rice, like you go to a um Asian food
Speaker 1: market or something like that, they're gonna have rice that
Speaker 1: says sushi rice. And it's gonna come out like like
Speaker 1: you want it. You're gonna be clumpy, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be like mushy. It's gonna be nice and sticky white rice. Well,
Speaker 1: if you make it right right, you can mess it
Speaker 1: up pretty bad. And I've learned, Um, I use col Rose.
Speaker 1: That's something here in the United States you can look for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a real popular I think that started in California.
Speaker 1: Um it's another one when we eat all the time,
Speaker 1: is I think, um, oh, it's like Nische I believe.
Speaker 1: Is that like the brand brand? Yeah, cal Rose is
Speaker 1: a variety, so it may be a cal Rows. Still, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's not a brand. I thought it was a brand.
Speaker 1: That's a rice variety, a medium rain, medium range, medium grain.
Speaker 1: So the key here when you're making the rice, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of keys, but the first big key is
Speaker 1: you don't just throw it in the pot and cook it.
Speaker 1: You have to rinse it. And what I do what
Speaker 1: my friend John, you know, chef John he Um, he
Speaker 1: taught me to just put the rice, the dry uncooked
Speaker 1: rice in a pot and start just a cold water,
Speaker 1: like a slow cold water um run and just let
Speaker 1: it go like walk away and the rice will kind
Speaker 1: of stay at the bottom and the water will just
Speaker 1: kind of overflow, but it'll that continuous walk our movement
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit wasteful, you know, if you
Speaker 1: don't like to leave your sink running or your water running.
Speaker 1: But what you want to do is just rent to
Speaker 1: the rice until the water is almost clear um and
Speaker 1: you'll see it. It's real, real cloudy and kind of grainy,
Speaker 1: and as you keep washing it, it'll clear up. And
Speaker 1: you want to do with your hands and be gentle
Speaker 1: with it. You don't want to mash it up. Don't
Speaker 1: use a strainer because that can beat up the rice
Speaker 1: pretty bad. Just treat it, treat it respectfully and sort
Speaker 1: of wash it with your hands until the water is clear.
Speaker 1: So that's step one. Then you got to soak it
Speaker 1: for an additional half an hour in cold water. Just
Speaker 1: walk away and leave it there. Then you're gonna add
Speaker 1: uh half hours elapse. Okay, you should just sit here
Speaker 1: for half um. After the half hour has elapsed, you
Speaker 1: if you want, you can add a little sake to
Speaker 1: it if you want. You can add something called dashi kanbu.
Speaker 1: It's a dried kelp. I've never done that, but you can.
Speaker 1: It makes it pop, does it? Okay? Uh? Then you're
Speaker 1: gonna cook you know, I mean they'll probably say on
Speaker 1: the package, but then you're gonna cook it a lot
Speaker 1: like traditional rice. You boil it, cook it on a
Speaker 1: medium heat with a pot on for about fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: then simmer for about twenty minutes over low heat. And
Speaker 1: then they recommend here I've never heard of this, to
Speaker 1: turn the heat up too high for a few seconds
Speaker 1: at the end. I'm not sure what that does. I
Speaker 1: think it maybe just like burns off any excess moisture.
Speaker 1: That's what I would guess it does, all right, And
Speaker 1: then leave the lid on and let it sit for
Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes completely off the heat after that. All right,
Speaker 1: So now the vinegar, right, you want to start with
Speaker 1: rice vinegar. That's the kind you have to use, is
Speaker 1: rice vinegar? Yeah? Appropriately enough? And you had no other
Speaker 1: don't think like, oh, can you use apple cider vinegar
Speaker 1: or white vinegar? You could use sushi vinegar, which is
Speaker 1: prepared rice vinegar. But it's gotta be rice vinegar, right,
Speaker 1: But if you want to make it yourself, you use
Speaker 1: a little rice vinegar um about a quarter cup to
Speaker 1: a table spoon of sugar and one and a half
Speaker 1: teaspoons of salt. Yeah, and that's for five cups of rice. Right,
Speaker 1: And you mix all that stuff up until the mixture
Speaker 1: is clear, and you've got yourself some homemade sushi vinegar.
Speaker 1: Once you're um, your rice is is ready. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to turn it out into a bowl, is what
Speaker 1: it's called. You dump it out into a bowl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And what you should get is and you probably bought
Speaker 1: if you're trying to make sushi, probably bought a couple
Speaker 1: of things like your little bamboo rolling mat and a
Speaker 1: little wooden paddle they call it. And it's, you know,
Speaker 1: basically a big flat spoon, and that is what you
Speaker 1: use to turn it, um traditionally into a wooden bowl.
Speaker 1: You can use anything but metal. Don't use metal, no,
Speaker 1: because it will react with the vinegar. Yeah, that's no good.
Speaker 1: You turn it out with the sushi paddle rice paddle, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you me and I have seen the
Speaker 1: world's largest rice paddle. How big was it was big,
Speaker 1: bigger than me. Uh, like as big as this table. No,
Speaker 1: it was like the size of like a long canoe. Oh,
Speaker 1: I said, the world's biggest rice paddle. Well I didn't that,
Speaker 1: like I was trying to the flat part. Was it
Speaker 1: as big as this table? Easily? Okay? In which for
Speaker 1: everybody who's not in the room with us right now,
Speaker 1: the table is probably about three three in diameter. Well
Speaker 1: did they use the thing? I don't see how you could.
Speaker 1: Or was it just one of the silly things, like
Speaker 1: the world's biggest batchel? Of it? It was. It was
Speaker 1: far from silly, but it was big. It was on
Speaker 1: me and GiMA, which is a neat little island off
Speaker 1: of Hiroshima, and they have the world's largest rice paddle display.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna use that rice paddle to pry the
Speaker 1: rice out of the pot into your wooden bowl. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you know will come out kind of like a
Speaker 1: like a cake almost before you, you know, start messing
Speaker 1: with it. And then here's the thing. You don't just
Speaker 1: dump this the vinegar that you've made all over the rice.
Speaker 1: You want to pour it over the paddle and then
Speaker 1: spread the paddle around over the rice. So it sort
Speaker 1: of gently falls and distributes evenly, and then you want
Speaker 1: to fold it in and then mix it together gently again,
Speaker 1: make sure everything's coated pretty well, and then cool it
Speaker 1: down to you're supposed to be fanning it while you're
Speaker 1: doing this, and then cool it down to room temperature.
Speaker 1: And then you're all set to go. And then you
Speaker 1: want to take your hands and rinse them in vinegar
Speaker 1: to prevent the rice from sticking just kind of lightly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should have the paddle as well. Um, when you're
Speaker 1: spreading it, you you need to soak that as well.
Speaker 1: Really it works well, right um. And then you're ready
Speaker 1: to start making nagari sushi, which is the easiest sushi
Speaker 1: to make. Um, it's just basically finger sushi. You take
Speaker 1: a little lump of rice and just kind of roll
Speaker 1: it into an oblong shape in your hand. Uh, press
Speaker 1: down one side on one side with a finger, and
Speaker 1: that's the side that's going to be the bottom. So
Speaker 1: basically you're adding stability and you don't want it super firm, um,
Speaker 1: but you don't want it falling apart either, right Uh.
Speaker 1: And then um, you take a little bit of a
Speaker 1: save smear it on the top and then top it
Speaker 1: with whatever ingredients you want, say, yeah, and they have
Speaker 1: little molds by the way, if you don't feel like
Speaker 1: you should try and make it in the palm of
Speaker 1: your hand. But they do have little prefab molds that
Speaker 1: you spoon the rice into and like you press a
Speaker 1: little thing on top and then pop them out, which
Speaker 1: would make it basically oshi sushi that osaka style. Remember
Speaker 1: they have the press mold. Oh is that what it is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's a strictly like a box. Yeah. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is like eight little individual compartments. Yeah. There's shaped like
Speaker 1: flowers and hearts and stuff like that too. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, mine's just rectangular. But
Speaker 1: I don't use it. I did it first and then
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I'm gonna try in the palm
Speaker 1: of the hand. Have you ever made a nigiri um
Speaker 1: sushi with like that? You were just like, this is perfect? No, No, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it's just practice ten years at least. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it tastes fine, and they even point out
Speaker 1: this article, it'll take some practice before it looks as
Speaker 1: good as it tastes. The taste will be there, but
Speaker 1: it's not what you're seeing the restaurant properly. You know
Speaker 1: those guys are pros Yeah. Um, that was Nigeri sushi.
Speaker 1: I just mentioned the little hand hand rolled fingerside pieces
Speaker 1: and sushi. Yes, you can also make mokey yeah. And
Speaker 1: that's when you take the full that's a sushi roll.
Speaker 1: That's when you have the full sheet. Uh, you want
Speaker 1: to spread about a third of it with a thin
Speaker 1: coating of rice. And you want the norri shiny side
Speaker 1: down onto the mat, the bamboo mat. Yeah. And so
Speaker 1: you spread your rice. You don't want it super thick, yeah,
Speaker 1: on top of the norri. And you know this is
Speaker 1: a little bit of h if it's your first time,
Speaker 1: there'll be some trial and air involved, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I put way too much rice at first, and then
Speaker 1: it was hard to roll and it looked like this
Speaker 1: big burrito essentially, So you're gonna want the rice a
Speaker 1: little thinner than you think even and then you uh
Speaker 1: put it on the sheet. It's on the mat, and
Speaker 1: you put your toppings across, kind of like you're making
Speaker 1: a burrito, and then you fold the bamboo mat over
Speaker 1: you roll the nori into the toppings. Um. And this
Speaker 1: description feels a little convoluted. You basically just want to
Speaker 1: roll it in the mat and I give it a
Speaker 1: good squeeze at the end to make sure it's all
Speaker 1: together and to let it know it's loved exactly. And
Speaker 1: you want to I imagine this is another thing that
Speaker 1: comes out with practice. Like you said, it first it
Speaker 1: looks like a burrito. Um, but if you roll it,
Speaker 1: and I would guess your hands need to be kind
Speaker 1: of away from the center so that you're putting an
Speaker 1: equal amount of pressure on the roll, and you're lightly
Speaker 1: rolling it, being careful not to let the mat get
Speaker 1: rolled up into the succi. Yeah, I've done that, just
Speaker 1: rolling it over the top. But you're rolling the roll
Speaker 1: together and then you got a little roll squeezed at
Speaker 1: the end as per chuck. And then you take a
Speaker 1: really sharp knife right and cut it in half. Then
Speaker 1: you cut that in half and so on until you
Speaker 1: have eight pieces, and my friend, you have a moki
Speaker 1: sushi moki. Yeah. And like I said, it's a little
Speaker 1: hard to describe. The best way to do it is
Speaker 1: just to throw yourself in there and try it. And
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen sushi rolls, then you're instinct will
Speaker 1: kind of tell you how to do it and just
Speaker 1: mess around. It's fun. Like, don't put pressure on yourself
Speaker 1: to don't plan a big sushi dinner party on your
Speaker 1: first dry Yeah, that's probably a good idea, you know,
Speaker 1: just try it out yourself and then sorry. What we
Speaker 1: just described was foodo maki. If you wanted to make
Speaker 1: an inside out roll like a California roll, you would
Speaker 1: be making what's called uromaki. And basically you follow the
Speaker 1: same steps but just reversed. You start with the rice
Speaker 1: and then you put the nori. You start with the
Speaker 1: bamboo mat, then put the rice on that, then nori,
Speaker 1: then your toppings, and then you roll that up. Did
Speaker 1: you say it was covered in plastic? Oh? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to put the the bamboo has plastic on it,
Speaker 1: and then the rice goes on the plastic like suran
Speaker 1: rapp or something. Yeah. Basically you just take suran wrap
Speaker 1: and and just cover both sides of your bamboo mat
Speaker 1: with that. Uh. And then of course there's the One
Speaker 1: of my favorite things to eat at sushi places is
Speaker 1: the hand roll. Yeah, the tim aki. It's like a
Speaker 1: nice cream cone of sushi. Yeah, and you can make those.
Speaker 1: I've never had a lot of success with making those, Um,
Speaker 1: it does seem like the easiest, aren't they Not? For me.
Speaker 1: I never got it to come out right. But you
Speaker 1: make it in your hand. That's why it's called a
Speaker 1: hand roll. You hold the norri and you spread the
Speaker 1: rice on one end, cover about a third of it,
Speaker 1: and then you put your toppings diagonally. You're gonna fold
Speaker 1: your bottom corner up over the toppings and then roll
Speaker 1: it in the same direction. And just picture a waffle
Speaker 1: cone and that's what you're trying to emulate. And stick
Speaker 1: some soft shell crab in that mug and chow down.
Speaker 1: Wants Do you like set shell crab? You ever had that?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I like crab. I mean that's
Speaker 1: when it's the whole crab is just fried shell and all.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I've not had that. Yeah, it's good. In fact,
Speaker 1: when I was in d C, I went to uh
Speaker 1: a little that farmer's market at eighth and I they'll
Speaker 1: tell you about, and they had this place of some
Speaker 1: like crab cakes and soft shell crabs. Tich, so good
Speaker 1: is the crab season? Now? I don't know it's crab season.
Speaker 1: That day for me, I got one more thing from
Speaker 1: the book The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson just
Speaker 1: some surprising sushi facts. I think most of these we
Speaker 1: actually covered. Uh. They said in Japan they eat me
Speaker 1: so at the end of the meal to aid digestions
Speaker 1: and have an appetizer soup. Yeah, I've never knew that.
Speaker 1: I like the miso soup though. Yeah, that's good stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: And it says American chefs have probably never eaten a
Speaker 1: proper nagiri because sushi chef's packet too tightly on purpose,
Speaker 1: because Americans like it that way. Apparently it's looser. And
Speaker 1: have you ever did you experience that was a looser
Speaker 1: in Japan? Um, I've had a looser here? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like the nice places. I mean you can you can
Speaker 1: tell us by look it's not You would never point
Speaker 1: to it and be like, that's a dense lump of rice, right,
Speaker 1: Like you can see like a few of the individual grain.
Speaker 1: You can see the detail in the rice a little more.
Speaker 1: You can find it here. Yeah yeah. Uh. And his
Speaker 1: final little fact, he said that the knives used by
Speaker 1: sushi chefs are direct descendants of samurai swords a k
Speaker 1: A katana. Did not know that. I didn't know that either.
Speaker 1: There's one more fact in there I thought was interesting.
Speaker 1: Of all of the bluefin tuna caught in the world,
Speaker 1: is used for sushi. Oh really, yes, And the other
Speaker 1: is grilled rare, not on a salad. I don't know
Speaker 1: what they do with the other. Two million dollars per man.
Speaker 1: That's a lot per pound, Yeah, was it that? It
Speaker 1: had to have been the size of the fish and
Speaker 1: the quality of that fish too, I would guess y, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I mean, the guys at the Tokyo fish market
Speaker 1: know what they're doing when it comes to fish, you know.
Speaker 1: I would imagine they don't just look at some aged
Speaker 1: rickety um tuna and say, like, how much do you
Speaker 1: want for that? You know what I mean? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: let's figure this out real quick, Chuck. Are you're dividing it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So one point eight million dollars yeah, yeah, divided by
Speaker 1: four ninety pounds. Is that what you said? Remember that's
Speaker 1: three thousands, six hundred and seventy three dollars in rounding
Speaker 1: up forty seven cents a pound. Wow, that must have
Speaker 1: been one special tuna. Yeah. Man, at the very least
Speaker 1: he felt special when cut him up. I got nothing else. Well,
Speaker 1: we could probably sit here for five six hours and
Speaker 1: talk about this, but we're not going to. Instead, if
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about sushi, you can type
Speaker 1: that into the search bar at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: And I said, search parts means it's time for listener man.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this amputation feedback. Hey, guys, I was
Speaker 1: interested in how amputation works, and I thought i'd share
Speaker 1: an offshoot topic and one of my classes we studied
Speaker 1: a procedure called rotation plasty, which is an infrequent operation
Speaker 1: occurs when only part of the limb requires amputation, like
Speaker 1: a bone tumor in the lower part of the femur
Speaker 1: or upper tibia tibia excuse me. Traditionally, it's done on
Speaker 1: lower extremities, although a few upper extremity cases exist UH.
Speaker 1: The operation consists of removing a portion of the leg,
Speaker 1: ranging anywhere along the femur into the tibia fibular region,
Speaker 1: ultimately removing the knee. The ankle joint is still functional,
Speaker 1: so the surgeon removes all the muscle and bone, keeping
Speaker 1: the nerves that connect the two regions intact. The foot
Speaker 1: and ankle are then turned around to face backwards and
Speaker 1: reattached along the femur. I feel like we talked about that.
Speaker 1: I do too. It may not have been in that one,
Speaker 1: or maybe maybe it was. But the reason the foots
Speaker 1: placed backwards is because it didn't have the stability for
Speaker 1: it to be. It adds more stability, now, is that
Speaker 1: what it is? Yeah, she said the ankle becomes the
Speaker 1: new knee joint and results in a high range of movement,
Speaker 1: which helps many patients continue active lifestyles. Yeah, we definitely
Speaker 1: talked about that. Well, this isn't news to us then. Uh.
Speaker 1: The end result is it looks really strange but gives
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity for the patient at least. Check out
Speaker 1: some of the crazy images. So Kelly Crabbits of the
Speaker 1: Colorado School of Minds go forty niners. Apparently we discussed that,
Speaker 1: but at any rate, it's still interesting. Yeah, thanks a lot, Kelly, Kelly.
Speaker 1: Thanks Kelly. If you want to describe in greater details
Speaker 1: something we mentioned briefly, we are always happy for that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You can tweet to us at s
Speaker 1: Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you should know. You can send
Speaker 1: us an email to Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com and join us at our beautiful home on
Speaker 1: the web. Stuff you Should Know dot com for more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is it How
Speaker 1: stuff Works? Dot com