Latest / Stuff You Should Know / SYSK Selects: How Sushi Works
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Good morning everyone, Happy Saturday. We're gonna take you back
- 0:04Speaker 1: in time this week to July fourteen, the little episode
- 0:09Speaker 1: that we like to call How Sushi Works. This is
- 0:12Speaker 1: making me hungry just thinking about it, and I remember
- 0:14Speaker 1: eating sushi for probably like three or four days straight
- 0:17Speaker 1: after we recorded this one. It's a good one because
- 0:20Speaker 1: Josh and I are both big at sushi fans, and
- 0:22Speaker 1: it was really cool to learn the history and sort
- 0:24Speaker 1: of the ins and outs of how sushi works. So
- 0:26Speaker 1: here we go everyone with How Sushi Works. Welcome to
- 0:35Speaker 1: Stuff you should know, a production of My Heart Radios
- 0:37Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
- 0:47Speaker 1: Clark with me as always is the dour Charles w
- 0:50Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, and Jerry, who's snortling over there, which is
- 0:56Speaker 1: kind of like a like a laughing through your nose. Yeah,
- 1:00Speaker 1: what I thought that were? I thought it meant like
- 1:01Speaker 1: I'm gloomy or something. Yeah, you seem a little gloomy today. No,
- 1:06Speaker 1: do you think the smile is fake? Yeah? That one
- 1:11Speaker 1: man always I had a picture of that. We can
- 1:13Speaker 1: put that on a T shirt and then I could
- 1:16Speaker 1: wear that T shirt and then you could get a
- 1:20Speaker 1: picture of me wearing that T shirt and put that
- 1:22Speaker 1: on a T shirt and wear that T shirt and
- 1:24Speaker 1: so on and so forth. It would be like Ryan
- 1:26Speaker 1: Gosling and um, yeah, who do you do that? Mcaulay culkin, right, yep,
- 1:33Speaker 1: that's get to McAuley culkin this time though. This time. Yeah, alright, alright,
- 1:38Speaker 1: you're always making me be Ryan Gosling. Who wants that? Nobody?
- 1:44Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good man, I gotta tell you. So,
- 1:47Speaker 1: we're about to do sushi. By the way, this thing
- 1:49Speaker 1: made me really hungry. Oh my god. I want sushi
- 1:52Speaker 1: so bad now and have for days now. Just remember
- 1:56Speaker 1: the Yawning episode and people are like, oh, I listen
- 1:59Speaker 1: to this and I you all in the entire time. Yeah, well,
- 2:01Speaker 1: prepared to want sushi everybody. Even if you don't like
- 2:04Speaker 1: sushi or never had sushi, I guarantee you you will
- 2:07Speaker 1: want sushi by the end of this or we will
- 2:10Speaker 1: give you your money back for this episode. That's right.
- 2:13Speaker 1: So you've had sushi? Yeah, I mean it's one. It's
- 2:15Speaker 1: one of my favorite foods. I could live in Japan
- 2:18Speaker 1: and eat sushi every day. Yes, I'm going to Japan
- 2:21Speaker 1: next year and I plan on eating sushi every day
- 2:23Speaker 1: I would have I would not get sick of it. No, No,
- 2:26Speaker 1: it'd be really tough to Yeah, especially with the variety
- 2:29Speaker 1: of Sure. Do you know everybody thinks sushi is basically like, um,
- 2:33Speaker 1: a little bite of rice with a bunch of ingredients
- 2:37Speaker 1: tucked in it or on top of it. Yeah, or
- 2:39Speaker 1: maybe it's like a little little lump of rice with
- 2:42Speaker 1: some you know, fish on it or something. There's a
- 2:44Speaker 1: whole galaxy of sushi out there, especially when you go
- 2:47Speaker 1: to Japan. I mean, just prepared to have your mind blown.
- 2:50Speaker 1: I mean you've had it before. But yeah, my buddy
- 2:52Speaker 1: Jason lives up it there, and it's like, it's not
- 2:53Speaker 1: like sushi Avenue here, Indicator Georgia. Does he ever mail
- 2:56Speaker 1: you sushi? It probably wouldn't stay very well. Um, but
- 3:01Speaker 1: if you figured out a way to stick it into
- 3:04Speaker 1: one of those live organ courier things, it would be great. Uh.
- 3:09Speaker 1: I don't think so well. You know, if you eat
- 3:13Speaker 1: raw sushi here, with the exception of tuna, and by
- 3:17Speaker 1: here I mean the United States, Um, it's not fresh.
- 3:22Speaker 1: It's been frozen by law, except for tuna. And I
- 3:26Speaker 1: couldn't find out why tuna was the only exception, but
- 3:29Speaker 1: all fish that's intended to be served raw has to
- 3:32Speaker 1: be frozen. Flash frozen is fine, and then of course
- 3:35Speaker 1: thought back out. But it can't just be from the
- 3:38Speaker 1: ocean to your plate. Yeah, and before the pedantic ones
- 3:42Speaker 1: among you start emailing, Josh said sushi when he was
- 3:46Speaker 1: talking about raw fish and infects. Sushi is rice and
- 3:49Speaker 1: that is sushimi using the colloquial Exactly when people say, hey,
- 3:56Speaker 1: let's go out for sushi, it's like a h a
- 4:00Speaker 1: genre of food, like hey, let's go out for Italian
- 4:03Speaker 1: and you don't go and they say, actually, that's a
- 4:05Speaker 1: Sicilian item of food. Yeah. If this is ringing true
- 4:10Speaker 1: to you and it's reminding you of yourself, take a take.
- 4:14Speaker 1: You need to do some personality changes. If this is
- 4:17Speaker 1: your friend, then you should surround yourself with higher quality
- 4:20Speaker 1: people in that. Yeah, I mean go out for sushi.
- 4:22Speaker 1: That means you can have me so soup, and that
- 4:24Speaker 1: means going out for sushi and you can have uh
- 4:27Speaker 1: like at a mamma and a seaweed salad. And that's
- 4:30Speaker 1: all part of the experience that's going out for sushi. Yes,
- 4:33Speaker 1: in this country, it basically is shorthand for Japanese. You're
- 4:36Speaker 1: going out for Japanese, Yes, sort of, but not habach
- 4:41Speaker 1: Habachi is not Japanese. Is strictly a Rocky Aoki American
- 4:46Speaker 1: Oh is it? Yes? I mean they do have habaschi
- 4:48Speaker 1: girls and stuff like that, but they experience the benni
- 4:51Speaker 1: hana version. Totally American invention. I've never been to one
- 4:55Speaker 1: of those places. Oh yeah, I mean it's like there's
- 4:57Speaker 1: a guy like chopping and cooking and toss and stuff
- 5:00Speaker 1: into his hat and everything. Alright, So chuck um, thank
- 5:06Speaker 1: you for pointing out the sushi thing, because I am
- 5:08Speaker 1: going to do that a lot. Yeah, and we should
- 5:10Speaker 1: say when if you are specifically talking about sushi in Japan,
- 5:14Speaker 1: you're talking about um. Vinegard rice is roughly what the
- 5:19Speaker 1: word means, medium or short grain good rice. The stuff
- 5:22Speaker 1: that's on top um the neta, which is a fish
- 5:26Speaker 1: seafood topping that you put on sushi is actually that
- 5:31Speaker 1: raw fish is called sushimi. Like you said, Yeah, you
- 5:34Speaker 1: can eat that by itself as well. If it's fried stuff,
- 5:37Speaker 1: it's called tempura. Yeah. Different types of sushi have different
- 5:40Speaker 1: kinds of names. But um, let's get into this, shall we.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about the history, because this whole thing
- 5:46Speaker 1: didn't even start in Japan. Yeah, it's pretty interesting, uh.
- 5:50Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at sushi, there's a lot
- 5:52Speaker 1: of folklore surrounding it, um, a lot of mysterious origins. Um.
- 5:55Speaker 1: One of the old wives tales from Japan is that fine,
- 5:58Speaker 1: it just appeared out of no wear one day mysteriously.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Uh No, it just means it can't been there. Now,
- 6:04Speaker 1: I'm just teasing. You're joshing, I am joshing the chuck.
- 6:08Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. There's an old Japanese wive style about
- 6:11Speaker 1: an elderly lady who would hide her rice from thieves
- 6:14Speaker 1: and osprey nests, and she would forget where they were,
- 6:18Speaker 1: and they would ferment the rice wood and then the
- 6:20Speaker 1: seafood that the osprey would eat would fall down in
- 6:23Speaker 1: there and waila, that was the first sushi. Yes, it's
- 6:26Speaker 1: a great story, but but it's a lie. Not necessarily
- 6:29Speaker 1: it's no, it's not a lies folklore wi her lies.
- 6:32Speaker 1: I guess it's told by old ladies. Very harsh way
- 6:35Speaker 1: to say it. Um. So there's the the earliest sushi
- 6:40Speaker 1: supposedly was around in in Southeast Asia in I don't
- 6:46Speaker 1: know years ago. They were taking cooked rice which does ferment,
- 6:51Speaker 1: and packing fish in it, and then the fermentation of
- 6:54Speaker 1: the rice, yeah, I kept it long before refrigeration, but
- 6:58Speaker 1: it also kind of pickled the fish. But then once
- 7:01Speaker 1: the fish was pickled over the course of like weeks,
- 7:04Speaker 1: and they would place it under like a heavy stone
- 7:06Speaker 1: or something like that to basically compress it. And once
- 7:09Speaker 1: the once the fish was pickled, they throw the rice
- 7:12Speaker 1: out and to seat the fish. Yes, and in fact,
- 7:14Speaker 1: a sushi kitchen can be called a suki bar or
- 7:17Speaker 1: a pickling place. Yeah, that's bam. The original version of
- 7:22Speaker 1: sushi was basically fermented fish that was fermented with rice,
- 7:26Speaker 1: pickled fish fermented with rice. Then they threw the rice out.
- 7:30Speaker 1: Somebody said, well, wait a minute, does this rice taste like,
- 7:33Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is delicious. And what would it
- 7:36Speaker 1: taste like if I put this fermented fish on the rice?
- 7:39Speaker 1: And they went, oh my god, this is even better.
- 7:41Speaker 1: So they said, well, let's try this a different way.
- 7:43Speaker 1: If we're not gonna throw the fish or throw the
- 7:45Speaker 1: rice out, let's actually gut the fish. And this is
- 7:48Speaker 1: the tenth century, by the way, and by now this
- 7:51Speaker 1: is in Japan. Um let's get the fish, soak it
- 7:54Speaker 1: in saki, which is Japanese rice wine, and then pack
- 7:58Speaker 1: that thing full of rice and like that from it.
- 8:03Speaker 1: And then after a few weeks we'll just slice it
- 8:06Speaker 1: and then eat that. Yeah, And each each of these
- 8:09Speaker 1: steps basically is speeding the process up a lot. Like
- 8:12Speaker 1: the very first process took about a year and a half,
- 8:15Speaker 1: did it And it was only for like the uber wealthy.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Once they added sake though, that speeded that up. That
- 8:20Speaker 1: speeded that up, and that stuff still around. It's called
- 8:22Speaker 1: nara sushi or rice sushi. Yeah, I'm sorry, ripe sushi,
- 8:27Speaker 1: and apparently you can still get that. And it's a
- 8:28Speaker 1: little like for your American taste buds, it might taste
- 8:31Speaker 1: a little funny, but I'll bet once you get used
- 8:33Speaker 1: to it, you're like, this is I have to have
- 8:35Speaker 1: us all the time. Probably so uh So. Then in
- 8:38Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds, early sixteen hundreds of Japanese military leader
- 8:42Speaker 1: name Tokugawa a Yasu. We're gonna do our best with
- 8:46Speaker 1: these Japanese pronunciations. Yes, give us a break. Uh He
- 8:50Speaker 1: moved the capitol from Kyoto to Itto, which would later
- 8:53Speaker 1: become Tokyo, and by the nineteenth century it was a
- 8:56Speaker 1: Hoppin city, and in the mid seventeen undreds they sped
- 9:00Speaker 1: up that process a little bit more by skipping the
- 9:04Speaker 1: saki and using rice vinegar, yeah, which made it like
- 9:08Speaker 1: a matter of days after that, uh, for just a
- 9:11Speaker 1: couple of hours, right, which was what I was following
- 9:14Speaker 1: up with, Yeah, which is I mean that's super quick.
- 9:16Speaker 1: And then you would slice it into pieces and uh
- 9:18Speaker 1: again just cutting that preparation time. Yeah. And then in
- 9:22Speaker 1: um Kyoto, which was the former UH seat of power
- 9:27Speaker 1: in Japan before it was moved to Ato or Tokyo,
- 9:30Speaker 1: um they would take that vinegar and some ingredients, maybe
- 9:34Speaker 1: a little cucumber, a little dried seaweed which is known
- 9:37Speaker 1: as nori, and they put it in a box and
- 9:39Speaker 1: press it together, and you'd have oshi sushi, which is
- 9:42Speaker 1: osaka style sushi. It's it's like a square of sushi. Right.
- 9:48Speaker 1: And there was a guy who lived in Ato in
- 9:51Speaker 1: Tokyo in the eight twenties, and his name was Yohi Hanaya,
- 9:56Speaker 1: and he had a little cart where he was making
- 9:58Speaker 1: oshi sushi and everybody he liked it and all that.
- 10:00Speaker 1: But apparently, as the story goes, some of his customers
- 10:04Speaker 1: were like I'm very busy and important, and I don't
- 10:06Speaker 1: have time for you to press this into a Box's
- 10:08Speaker 1: hurry up, make it snappy. So he took some of
- 10:11Speaker 1: that rice, that vinegar flavored rice, and rolled it up
- 10:13Speaker 1: in his hand a little bit, and then he would
- 10:15Speaker 1: take some fish that was taken out of Tokyo bay
- 10:18Speaker 1: or Edo may I mean he was set up right
- 10:20Speaker 1: there on the water exactly, and he cut off a
- 10:22Speaker 1: little bit of slice and put it in there, maybe
- 10:25Speaker 1: with the streak of was sabi, and handed it to
- 10:26Speaker 1: the He said, here, jerk, is that fast enough? That
- 10:28Speaker 1: took me like three minutes exactly. And they said, well,
- 10:31Speaker 1: by god, this is Japanese street food. That is fast
- 10:34Speaker 1: food that we can use our hands for and eating
- 10:37Speaker 1: two bites and nigiri sushi. Uh, what a lot of
- 10:42Speaker 1: people think of as sushi was born. The modern sushi
- 10:45Speaker 1: was born right there in that food stall, that's right.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And then the Great Canto earthquake hit Tokyo and land
- 10:51Speaker 1: prices went down, and all of a sudden there was
- 10:53Speaker 1: a lot of retail space, and so the sushi cart said, hey,
- 10:57Speaker 1: maybe we should move these things inside and start a
- 11:00Speaker 1: legit restaurant. And it happened all over the place, and
- 11:03Speaker 1: by the nineteen fifties it was the sushi restaurant was
- 11:07Speaker 1: where it was at. Yes, basically in the nineteen thirties,
- 11:11Speaker 1: next to refrigeration, you could chip fish. By the seventies
- 11:15Speaker 1: and the post war economy, people were loving the stuff. Yeah,
- 11:19Speaker 1: So it started to boom in other like all over
- 11:21Speaker 1: Japan and then started to spread to other parts of
- 11:23Speaker 1: the world. It did, and in the United States it
- 11:25Speaker 1: was first adopted in the sixties in Los Angeles. Of
- 11:29Speaker 1: course it was Los Angeles. There was a place called
- 11:31Speaker 1: Kawa Fuku and that was the first big American embraced
- 11:37Speaker 1: um sushi restaurant in the United States. And and then
- 11:41Speaker 1: the yuppies came and you think, like eighties in sushi, right,
- 11:46Speaker 1: do you? I do? I always have, Yeah, But apparently
- 11:50Speaker 1: it wasn't until like the nineties that sushi really hit
- 11:53Speaker 1: New York And it was because of a unknown man
- 11:57Speaker 1: named Robert de Niro who who talked this the chef
- 12:01Speaker 1: of Nobu, whose name is uh Nobu Yuki Matsu. I'm
- 12:08Speaker 1: going to be in so much trouble when I get home.
- 12:11Speaker 1: So de Niro talked the chef of Nobu Nobu Yuki Matsushisa.
- 12:17Speaker 1: I think that's it. Yeah, it's really close, if not
- 12:20Speaker 1: to open Nobu, which was already in l a Icon
- 12:23Speaker 1: in New York in So apparently sushi didn't hit New
- 12:27Speaker 1: York big time until the nineties, even though I think
- 12:29Speaker 1: of it as like total American psycho fodder. Yeah, I
- 12:33Speaker 1: mean it was around. I think it probably the explosion
- 12:35Speaker 1: didn't hit. I mean it was very much a California thing. Um,
- 12:38Speaker 1: that first restaurant was in Little Tokyo in l A
- 12:41Speaker 1: And then in the seventies they opened one in Hollywood
- 12:44Speaker 1: called Oshow in nineteen seventy and that was you know,
- 12:48Speaker 1: that was when the celebrity started going and they was like, oh,
- 12:51Speaker 1: oh my god, this is so exotic and delicious and
- 12:53Speaker 1: I could eat it every day. And um, something really
- 12:57Speaker 1: really big happened in nineteen seventy three. Um, there was
- 13:01Speaker 1: a place in Los Angeles, uh, and there was a
- 13:06Speaker 1: sushi chef there. His name was Manashita, and Manashita created
- 13:10Speaker 1: an inside out roll a maki, which is maki sushi
- 13:14Speaker 1: is a hand roll or no, it's a role that
- 13:16Speaker 1: use a bamboo mat for We'll get into it. So
- 13:18Speaker 1: was it inside out, a regular inside out maki roll
- 13:22Speaker 1: with avocado, crab and cucumber. That's right, yes, okay, And
- 13:28Speaker 1: he made the California role and that became the entree.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Like that's the gateway drug to sushi for a lot
- 13:34Speaker 1: of Americans. Yeah, because it doesn't have the raw fish
- 13:36Speaker 1: in there. If you're creeped out by that, it's you
- 13:38Speaker 1: can start on the California roll and be like, oh,
- 13:40Speaker 1: this is just sort of like a salad, all right,
- 13:41Speaker 1: and then once you go and eat California rolls enough times,
- 13:44Speaker 1: you're like, well, maybe I will try a bite of that,
- 13:47Speaker 1: and once you do, you're never going back. It's like
- 13:51Speaker 1: I can still eat a California roll, like a bite
- 13:54Speaker 1: of it or something like that. But I'm more like,
- 13:56Speaker 1: that's a waste of sushi, Like I want I want
- 13:59Speaker 1: good nagiri here. Yeah, if I've got that, I'll put
- 14:02Speaker 1: that six dollars towards something else in the h but
- 14:05Speaker 1: I'll make a California roll at home because it's uh,
- 14:07Speaker 1: oh you make it my home. Yeah. Nice, And well
- 14:10Speaker 1: we'll get it. We'll get to all that. So Chuck,
- 14:12Speaker 1: that's the history of sushi up to right now. Now, Um, yeah,
- 14:20Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about fish in a second. Let's take
- 14:23Speaker 1: a message break first. Okay, so we're talking about fish.
- 14:41Speaker 1: Raw Fish is a common ingredient when you go to
- 14:43Speaker 1: a sushi restaurant. But if you're not into that, there
- 14:46Speaker 1: are plenty of other offerings. You've talked about tempora, We
- 14:49Speaker 1: talked about the California California roll You can there can
- 14:52Speaker 1: be uh, you can use veggies. This article says virtually
- 14:56Speaker 1: any type of vegetable, but I completely disagree with that. Yeah, Like,
- 15:00Speaker 1: you're not gonna roll up broccoli or cauliflower and sushi,
- 15:03Speaker 1: are you? No? But man, I am crazy for ground
- 15:07Speaker 1: up cauliflower as like a rice substitute or something like that,
- 15:11Speaker 1: or like mashed potatoes substue, like collie tatos like purede
- 15:15Speaker 1: califlowers so good. Yeah. I've been making collie tatoes for years, dude.
- 15:19Speaker 1: I spend my entire life up until like a couple
- 15:22Speaker 1: of months ago, hating cauliflower. I never told you about
- 15:25Speaker 1: collie tatos. No, I've heard of it before. I just
- 15:29Speaker 1: never really tried it. But you mean, and I like
- 15:30Speaker 1: started making it, and I'm like, wow, this is good. Yeah,
- 15:33Speaker 1: and it's you know, I hate it when people say
- 15:35Speaker 1: it tastes just like something. It doesn't taste just but
- 15:39Speaker 1: it it's got its consistency, then it's good. Right. It
- 15:43Speaker 1: mimics the consistency, not the taste. Yeah, but the taste
- 15:47Speaker 1: isn't too far off. I mean, yeah, it doesn't taste
- 15:51Speaker 1: like rotted horsemeat compared to like mashed potatoes or something.
- 15:54Speaker 1: But I think it's like it's its own distinct thing.
- 15:56Speaker 1: It is. So that's my treatise on cauliflower. You won't
- 16:00Speaker 1: put cauliflower in your sushi, though, but you can find
- 16:03Speaker 1: asparagus and sushi fairly frequently. Yeah, cucumber. Uh, well, I
- 16:08Speaker 1: guess that's it. No, there's some more stuff. Mushrooms. Oh yeah, mushrooms.
- 16:12Speaker 1: It's a big staple of a lot of sushi. That
- 16:14Speaker 1: was the third one. Yeah, it's some nice shitakis boom.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Have you been to Umi Sushi yet? Uh? Now, it
- 16:21Speaker 1: is amazing. Yeah. The one I've been on lately is
- 16:24Speaker 1: um shoot. I can't think of the name of it now. Uh.
- 16:30Speaker 1: Mis I think is the name of it in the
- 16:32Speaker 1: old fourth ward And it's good, little pricey, but you know,
- 16:34Speaker 1: oh yeah Misosakaya. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be
- 16:37Speaker 1: really good. It's good stuff. It's more um, it's like
- 16:40Speaker 1: now vou sushi, which I guess Umi sushi is kind of.
- 16:43Speaker 1: But they have like a like an old traditional sushi
- 16:46Speaker 1: chef running the place there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean
- 16:49Speaker 1: in America, you're gonna find some variations. And in fact,
- 16:51Speaker 1: the inside out roll apparently is a totally American thing,
- 16:56Speaker 1: even though it has now since found its way over
- 16:58Speaker 1: to Japan. But it did not originate in Japan, right, No,
- 17:03Speaker 1: the reverse roll or inside out it was like an
- 17:05Speaker 1: echo that came back by storm. And if you don't
- 17:09Speaker 1: know what we're talking about, that's when the rice is
- 17:10Speaker 1: on the outside of the roll and the nori is
- 17:12Speaker 1: on the inside instead of the other way around. Yes,
- 17:15Speaker 1: all right, so Chuck, if you arguing use fish or
- 17:17Speaker 1: you're ordering out of a sushi place, the most of
- 17:21Speaker 1: the fish you're gonna see is um saltwater see see fish?
- 17:25Speaker 1: Yeah you do. You don't want to trout roll? No,
- 17:28Speaker 1: And the reason why it is because freshwater fish are
- 17:31Speaker 1: much more prone to parasites the saltwater fish. Parasites don't
- 17:35Speaker 1: like salt as much, right, yeah, um, But occasionally you
- 17:40Speaker 1: will see a freshwater seafood. There's like a type of
- 17:44Speaker 1: eel that's really good that's fresh water. Yeah, I love
- 17:47Speaker 1: the eel. What is that? Always get the two eels confused,
- 17:51Speaker 1: and I always get like, after all these years, I
- 17:53Speaker 1: still can't commit it to memory, and about every third
- 17:56Speaker 1: time order the wrong one. Oh really, I don't think
- 17:58Speaker 1: I've ever had the saltwater eel. Yeah, I mean it's
- 18:00Speaker 1: not bad, of course, but I like the like the
- 18:02Speaker 1: freshwater more. Yeah, yeah, I do too. And you can
- 18:05Speaker 1: buy I make that's one of the ones that make
- 18:06Speaker 1: at home. You can there's a great Japanese market over
- 18:08Speaker 1: by the cab Farmer's market and you can buy it
- 18:10Speaker 1: and the refrigerator and they make it in the oven.
- 18:13Speaker 1: And yeah, because that's the thing. If you order the
- 18:15Speaker 1: freshwater eel like it does, it doesn't come raw like
- 18:18Speaker 1: it's seared or something like that. Seared then like a
- 18:21Speaker 1: karyaki sauce. So delicious it is. Man, you know what's okay?
- 18:27Speaker 1: So you're gonna have freshwater fish um or freshwater seafood
- 18:31Speaker 1: most of the time. Saltwater saltwater, thank you, man, and
- 18:34Speaker 1: um one of the most highly prized seafood that you're
- 18:40Speaker 1: going to find in sushi of any type is tuna.
- 18:44Speaker 1: So and there's different types of tuna. Um. They they'll
- 18:47Speaker 1: they'll use a yellow fin, big guy, blue fine, and
- 18:51Speaker 1: blue fin is the most expensive one. Yeah, And apparently
- 18:54Speaker 1: it wasn't until the fifties that the Japanese came to
- 18:56Speaker 1: prize blue fin, like before they used it for calf food.
- 18:59Speaker 1: Like they wouldn't even eat that stuff. Yeah, that's what
- 19:01Speaker 1: I heard, Like the belly is was originally and now
- 19:04Speaker 1: it's like the prize and the belly now or used
- 19:06Speaker 1: to be, like they wouldn't eat it. Yeah. The actually
- 19:08Speaker 1: the record for the highest priced fish ever sold I
- 19:13Speaker 1: believe anywhere um was sold at the Tokyo Fish Market
- 19:16Speaker 1: last year. It was a four ninety pound blue fin tuna.
- 19:20Speaker 1: How much at one point eight million dollars toly crap
- 19:24Speaker 1: for just that tuna, and I guarantee they made their money.
- 19:28Speaker 1: And then some man, yeah it's a big tuna. I
- 19:30Speaker 1: feel kind of bad for that guy, even though I
- 19:32Speaker 1: love to eat him so much. The tuna, you know, well,
- 19:34Speaker 1: there's definitely a moral thread that runs through tuna or
- 19:37Speaker 1: not sushi, like apparently yellow fin tuna, farm raised tuna
- 19:42Speaker 1: or raised a lot like veal and fatten until their
- 19:44Speaker 1: muscles deteriorate alive um and and then of course there's
- 19:49Speaker 1: the have you seen the raw or live frog video?
- 19:54Speaker 1: There is a type of sushi that is it's called
- 19:58Speaker 1: um iki zukuri, which is live sushi. And there's an
- 20:04Speaker 1: iki zukuri video. And if you have a light stomach
- 20:09Speaker 1: at all or anything like that, are bothered by animals
- 20:12Speaker 1: being killed, like you should not watch this. But the
- 20:15Speaker 1: point is you eat the thing while it's basically part
- 20:20Speaker 1: of it is still alive on the plate looking at you,
- 20:23Speaker 1: like this frog is sitting there blinking. It's a frog.
- 20:26Speaker 1: There's a frog, and I can't remember what the other
- 20:28Speaker 1: one is, but there's They showed two things being prepared.
- 20:31Speaker 1: It's not have you have you seen Old Boy the original?
- 20:34Speaker 1: Remember he eats that squid live. That's a that's live sushi.
- 20:39Speaker 1: Like that was real? Yeah, not for me. Yeah, you
- 20:43Speaker 1: get pretty adventurous. That would you do that? Probably just
- 20:46Speaker 1: to try it? Yeah, I mean, it's just like, I
- 20:49Speaker 1: know everything is killed that we eat, but it's just like,
- 20:54Speaker 1: I don't know, being confronted with it, who knows that.
- 20:57Speaker 1: I can imagine some of the people who are into
- 20:59Speaker 1: like that slow food movement are like, well, yeah, that's
- 21:01Speaker 1: the way you should do it. You should have to
- 21:03Speaker 1: confront the death while you eat. No. I mean a
- 21:05Speaker 1: lot of people would say it's hypocritical to not do that,
- 21:08Speaker 1: you know, right, but a lot of but a hypocrite,
- 21:11Speaker 1: A lot of people are comfortable with that. Emily won't
- 21:13Speaker 1: eat anything that reminds her of an animal, Like she
- 21:15Speaker 1: didn't even like bones in her chicken. Yeah. Uh. And
- 21:18Speaker 1: like if someone served her a fish with a head
- 21:20Speaker 1: on it, like fully cooked, she would just be like, no, no, no, no,
- 21:24Speaker 1: that fish is looking at me. It's like the duck
- 21:27Speaker 1: and a Christmas story. Yeah, he's smiling. Uh. Okay, So
- 21:34Speaker 1: we're talking about tuna. Tuna is delicious, Salmon is delicious,
- 21:37Speaker 1: yellowtail and hamachi and surf clam, and there's all sorts
- 21:42Speaker 1: of delicious seafood that you can get on your sushi
- 21:46Speaker 1: or in your rolls, and then you just spread out
- 21:48Speaker 1: from there. If there's a fried chicken in there, it
- 21:50Speaker 1: might be a little too americanized, Although if that's what
- 21:54Speaker 1: you're into, then great, well they'd be considered temporal chicken
- 21:57Speaker 1: in that case. Yeah. But if there's fried chicken and
- 22:01Speaker 1: mayonnaise rolled up in rice. Then this sounds kind of good.
- 22:04Speaker 1: Well no, but it's is it sushi? Well, Kenny Rogers Roasters.
- 22:09Speaker 1: I feel like there's been kind of you know, there's
- 22:12Speaker 1: definitely a traditional thread of sushi, right, yeah, I don't know,
- 22:15Speaker 1: mind mixing it up a little bit, and there's like
- 22:16Speaker 1: traditional preparations and then there's traditional ingredients. But then it's
- 22:21Speaker 1: like you said, you know, in the seventies, when the
- 22:23Speaker 1: California roll was made here in America, it was sent
- 22:26Speaker 1: back and now you can get a California role pretty
- 22:28Speaker 1: much anywhere in Japan, and it's expanded from there. So
- 22:32Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think sushi is kind of this
- 22:35Speaker 1: evolving thing. I've seen cereals added. Have you seen that
- 22:39Speaker 1: corn flakes or rice crispies on top? Yeah, I'm not
- 22:42Speaker 1: into that, either for crunch yea or or or squirting
- 22:45Speaker 1: a bunch of sauce on top. I'm not a big
- 22:46Speaker 1: fan of that either. Yeah. Well, that's another thing that
- 22:50Speaker 1: we'll talk about when we talk about how to eat sushi.
- 22:52Speaker 1: But really there's a lot of sushi that's prepared that
- 22:55Speaker 1: you're not supposed to do anything to except eat. Yeah. True,
- 23:00Speaker 1: So I guess we should finish what can be in
- 23:03Speaker 1: sushi thing by mentioning row and tomago. Row is the
- 23:07Speaker 1: fish eggs, like the little delicious orange. It's almost like caviar. Yeah,
- 23:13Speaker 1: and there can be a little tiny ones and larger ones.
- 23:15Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a difference in the name. Do you know.
- 23:17Speaker 1: I didn't look that up. No, Jerry's nodding. Is there
- 23:21Speaker 1: a difference in the name. I'm sure it's not necessarily
- 23:23Speaker 1: by size, but probably by fish. Yeah. I think the
- 23:25Speaker 1: smelt row is the smaller I think so. Yeah, the
- 23:29Speaker 1: little little tiny beads. Yeah, and that's usually added with
- 23:32Speaker 1: a roll or on top of something, and the other
- 23:34Speaker 1: larger ones. A lot of times that's just wrapped in
- 23:36Speaker 1: the nori and that's all you're eating. Yeah, Or there's
- 23:38Speaker 1: just like one on top of the thing. Oh yeah,
- 23:40Speaker 1: like a little bead for presentation. Yeah, I want to say,
- 23:43Speaker 1: a coil egg on top of a legs. Yesterday, this
- 23:49Speaker 1: was raw. Okay, I didn't realize it was going to
- 23:51Speaker 1: be raw. I ate it anyway, Like you said, I'm adventurous,
- 23:55Speaker 1: but man, I was like, I'm never ordering that again.
- 23:57Speaker 1: Was it not good? No? I'm not too big gun
- 24:00Speaker 1: raw eggs um except strangely in like a tataki or
- 24:05Speaker 1: um carpaccio or something like that. Yeah, yeah, I that's weird.
- 24:10Speaker 1: I guess. I guess I'll just have to keep ordering
- 24:13Speaker 1: it then, whether I like it or not. All right,
- 24:16Speaker 1: Tomago is egg in sushi. But it is cooked and
- 24:19Speaker 1: it's like it's an it's an omelet. It's it's it's
- 24:22Speaker 1: made by adding little layers of egg. I've seen some
- 24:25Speaker 1: people like bake it in a pan. It's probably the
- 24:27Speaker 1: shortcut method. There's probably more traditional method. But um, it's
- 24:30Speaker 1: almost like because it's sweet ish umelets, it's almost like
- 24:34Speaker 1: a dessert sushi. Yeah. And that's it's like an inch
- 24:37Speaker 1: stick and a slice and you put it on some
- 24:39Speaker 1: sushi rice with a little band of nori tied around it,
- 24:42Speaker 1: and that's delicious as well. Avocado, so you say it avocado? Uh,
- 24:50Speaker 1: that is very popular and that means tuna of the
- 24:52Speaker 1: land in Japan. Yeah, that's their The word for avocado
- 24:55Speaker 1: means tuna of the land. It's pretty cool. Yeah, avocado
- 24:58Speaker 1: is like a great addition to any thing. Yeah, I agree,
- 25:01Speaker 1: and very good for you too. It really is the
- 25:03Speaker 1: good fat, yes, yeah, good for your heart and your brain. Um,
- 25:08Speaker 1: what else goes along with sushi? The soy sauce the
- 25:10Speaker 1: show you Yeah, it's the type of soy sauce and
- 25:14Speaker 1: like you can. You can dip your sushi and soy
- 25:17Speaker 1: sauce if you prefer, but you're supposed to use it
- 25:19Speaker 1: very sparingly. Yea. And supposedly you're not supposed to dip
- 25:22Speaker 1: the rice either. No, I drown it. I'm just you
- 25:26Speaker 1: want to talk about how to eat sushi the proper way? Uh? Sure, Okay,
- 25:31Speaker 1: I don't do it, that's fine. Yeah, a lot of
- 25:34Speaker 1: people eat it with chopsticks. Yeah. Supposedly it's an insult
- 25:37Speaker 1: to the sushi chef, um to drown your sushi and
- 25:40Speaker 1: rice drown it and that soy sauce you mean? Yes? Um?
- 25:44Speaker 1: And where would I be without you just saying wrong
- 25:47Speaker 1: stuff here and there? No big deal? Um. So basically,
- 25:50Speaker 1: let's say you have a piece of nagiri, which is
- 25:52Speaker 1: just a little lump of sushi with um, like some
- 25:55Speaker 1: some topping on it. Yeah, say tuna, okay, Uh, you
- 25:59Speaker 1: kind of lightly grab the nagiri on one side with
- 26:04Speaker 1: your on both sides with your fingers yes, you don't
- 26:06Speaker 1: need to use chopsticks. Sushi was originally a finger food,
- 26:09Speaker 1: and um, you can feel free to eat it the
- 26:12Speaker 1: traditional way using your hands. Um, So you grab the
- 26:15Speaker 1: sides kind of lightly but firmly. You tilt it over.
- 26:20Speaker 1: You tilt this out, you tilt the nagori over, and
- 26:22Speaker 1: then you just basically have it. So you're grabbing your
- 26:24Speaker 1: holding onto the tuna and holding it almost like a basket,
- 26:28Speaker 1: so the rice is on top and the tune is
- 26:30Speaker 1: on the bottom. You just flipped your sushi over. If
- 26:33Speaker 1: you want a little bit to show you, you can
- 26:35Speaker 1: just kinda just barely like pass it through to show
- 26:39Speaker 1: you the soy sauce. Yes, of just the seafood. You're
- 26:45Speaker 1: not supposed to touch the rice to it. Yeah, that's
- 26:47Speaker 1: what you take. Um, one bite. Depending on the size,
- 26:51Speaker 1: you can put the whole thing in your mouth and
- 26:52Speaker 1: eat it. But you want to put it the topping
- 26:54Speaker 1: side down, and then if if it's a big piece
- 26:58Speaker 1: of nagiri, then um, you and bite it and then
- 27:01Speaker 1: eat it in two pieces. All right, here's Chuck's method.
- 27:04Speaker 1: I take it and I dumped the entire thing and
- 27:08Speaker 1: a big bowl of soy sauce and then I pull
- 27:10Speaker 1: it out and I stick it in my mouth and
- 27:12Speaker 1: chew it up and eat it all, and then I
- 27:15Speaker 1: wash it down with the SUPPORTO. Well that's customary, and
- 27:18Speaker 1: I'm a happy guy. You would probably like chi rashi sushi,
- 27:23Speaker 1: which is basically a bowl of rice with sushi toppings. Yeah,
- 27:26Speaker 1: I could. I could be down with that suc Is
- 27:28Speaker 1: there the nori in there? Though? Because I love the nori?
- 27:30Speaker 1: I think everything you want in there, Okay, whatever kind
- 27:33Speaker 1: of sushi you want, it's just like in a bowl.
- 27:36Speaker 1: It's just like a KFC bowl, but with sushi. Yeah.
- 27:39Speaker 1: Or oh man, what are those awful beef ball places
- 27:42Speaker 1: out west? Yoshi Naki or something beef bowl like in
- 27:47Speaker 1: the shopping malls. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
- 27:49Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of them. Are they not good? Well,
- 27:51Speaker 1: I mean you get you tell me, you get like
- 27:54Speaker 1: a three pound beef and rice bowl for like three dollars.
- 27:57Speaker 1: Oh that sounds good. I don't think it's They're known
- 28:00Speaker 1: of their high quality meats and so by beef, U
- 28:03Speaker 1: mean cat yoshinor what is it called. It's a chain.
- 28:07Speaker 1: They're all over l A. Yeah, I know you t
- 28:10Speaker 1: I'm talking about I don't think they have them here
- 28:11Speaker 1: in Georgia. Uh we sabi. I don't do the wasabi
- 28:15Speaker 1: just because I don't like the taste. Um. I know,
- 28:20Speaker 1: most people like to put it in their soy sauce
- 28:21Speaker 1: and mix it up. Apparently that is an insult as well. Uh,
- 28:25Speaker 1: it's it's abnormal. That's what Yumi does though. Yea, she
- 28:28Speaker 1: puts in his soy sauce, puts a lot of it
- 28:30Speaker 1: in there. Yeah, so does Emily. She loves that stuff.
- 28:32Speaker 1: But the thing is is most sushi is going to
- 28:35Speaker 1: already have a little streak of wasabi on top of
- 28:37Speaker 1: the rice, beneath the topping, so you don't necessarily need any.
- 28:42Speaker 1: And if you've ever wondered why your nostrils are suddenly
- 28:44Speaker 1: clear and you're breathing very easily even though you didn't
- 28:47Speaker 1: use any with sabi, it's because it was already on there. Yeah.
- 28:50Speaker 1: And here in the United States, you're not eating with
- 28:52Speaker 1: sabi anyway. Nope, although you can get it at Umi Sushi,
- 28:57Speaker 1: oh really, but it's gonna cost you. Yeah. So that's
- 29:00Speaker 1: the fact of the podcast. For me. What you're eating
- 29:02Speaker 1: is horse radish and mustard paste. That's dyed green, and
- 29:07Speaker 1: they call it was sabi was sabi. When people say
- 29:09Speaker 1: it's Japanese horse radish, it actually isn't even horse radish.
- 29:13Speaker 1: It's it's in that fan. It's like a cousin of
- 29:15Speaker 1: horse radish. And it is expensive. It goes by the
- 29:18Speaker 1: river and you're eating the root. It lives in a
- 29:20Speaker 1: van down by the river. But uh, yeah, apparently it's
- 29:24Speaker 1: so pricey. Like you, you're you've probably never had real
- 29:27Speaker 1: was sabi unless you're like high salutin like you and
- 29:29Speaker 1: go to fancy sushi places. Yes, I'm sure noboo has
- 29:32Speaker 1: real with sabi. Just like a little gentleman, I wear
- 29:35Speaker 1: a velvet jacket and velvet shorts with knee socks, which
- 29:40Speaker 1: is a little hat, and they sing, well they served me,
- 29:44Speaker 1: it's wonderful. Well, that's funny that you mentioned that, because
- 29:47Speaker 1: being a sushi chef in Japan you're also supposed to
- 29:52Speaker 1: be kind of part performer. It's very social thing to
- 29:55Speaker 1: sit at the sushi bar. Yeah, you're you're not necessarily
- 29:57Speaker 1: performing like at a habachi play. It's not like that.
- 30:00Speaker 1: You're performing, not a clown, You're you're you're just you're friendly. Yeah,
- 30:06Speaker 1: you're helpful. You want the person to feel like they
- 30:08Speaker 1: are welcome and that they they are being led in
- 30:12Speaker 1: on your expertise. Yeah, like ask if you've never been
- 30:15Speaker 1: and you want to try it out, sit at the
- 30:16Speaker 1: sushi bar and ask I like it anyway, just because
- 30:19Speaker 1: I like to watch it. But um asked the chef, like,
- 30:22Speaker 1: hey man, what's what's good today? And I say, hey man,
- 30:26Speaker 1: because there's still a lot of discrimination, um in Japan,
- 30:31Speaker 1: even with women becoming sushi chefs. Oh yeah, it's still
- 30:35Speaker 1: a thing. Yes, it is, chuck, Yeah, which is no good. Um.
- 30:38Speaker 1: And apparently regardless of your gender, if you're a sushi chef, um,
- 30:43Speaker 1: you are required to work at least two years if
- 30:47Speaker 1: you're working at a decent sushi place. Yeah. It sounds
- 30:50Speaker 1: like a lot, but it used to be ten. Yeah, well,
- 30:53Speaker 1: two years just to learn to make the rice and
- 30:55Speaker 1: then another year of training with a knife. Yes, and
- 30:58Speaker 1: that's in Japan. Here in America they're turning them out
- 31:01Speaker 1: because there's just such a need. Right. But once you're
- 31:03Speaker 1: a trained sushi chef, like you can become a journeyman
- 31:07Speaker 1: and like, go anywhere in the world these days and
- 31:10Speaker 1: open your own place. Man, I'm sorry. Um, have you
- 31:15Speaker 1: seen Gero Dreams of Sushi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's highly recommended.
- 31:20Speaker 1: I think that's streaming on Netflix too. Is um and
- 31:23Speaker 1: you recommended that, I think to me for the first time. Yeah,
- 31:26Speaker 1: we went and saw in the theaters. It was good. Yeah,
- 31:28Speaker 1: it was really good. I mean this it's about wanting sushi. Yeah,
- 31:31Speaker 1: and you don't have to like sushi. If you just
- 31:33Speaker 1: appreciate art and craftsmanship and being the best at something,
- 31:37Speaker 1: you should written that movie. And family too. It's cute
- 31:40Speaker 1: like it's it's the man and his two sons. I
- 31:42Speaker 1: think Giro has been making sushi for like seventy years
- 31:45Speaker 1: or something like that, and his two sons are following
- 31:48Speaker 1: in his footsteps. And it's really um uh intimate documentary
- 31:54Speaker 1: about that family totally. Uh So we talked a little
- 31:57Speaker 1: bit or I mentioned drinking a nice cold supporto. Um people,
- 32:01Speaker 1: I don't like sak myself. Um, I just don't dig
- 32:04Speaker 1: the rice wine. But that is a big thing for
- 32:08Speaker 1: a lot of people when they go out to eat sushi,
- 32:09Speaker 1: is to drink sake. But apparently because it is rice
- 32:13Speaker 1: basted and that your sushi is rice based, it doesn't
- 32:16Speaker 1: compliment one another. So you technically shouldn't be drinking sake
- 32:20Speaker 1: as you eat the sushi. I think it's a lot
- 32:22Speaker 1: like putting with sabi in the soy sauce. What like,
- 32:25Speaker 1: just do what you want. Yeah, well, all this stuff is,
- 32:27Speaker 1: of course, as long as you're not insulting the sushi
- 32:30Speaker 1: chef overtly yea and calling him things like sense and
- 32:33Speaker 1: stuff like that, really buttering them up. I think you're doing. Okay,
- 32:37Speaker 1: do people do that? I'm sure they do. I haven't yet,
- 32:40Speaker 1: but it's probably a good idea. All right. Um, they
- 32:44Speaker 1: recommend like green tea, light beer, even water, but again,
- 32:50Speaker 1: drink whatever you want. But if you're drinking sake, supposedly
- 32:53Speaker 1: you're not supposed to pour your own. You're supposed to
- 32:54Speaker 1: pour your buddies and then they pour yours. Yeah, and
- 32:57Speaker 1: this is if you're going, you know, if you want
- 32:59Speaker 1: to be traditional. Sure, but it makes saki for sharing
- 33:02Speaker 1: by definition, by that um one more a oh yeah yeah,
- 33:07Speaker 1: Like if you can't pour your own sake, you're up
- 33:10Speaker 1: the creek. If you're just drinking it by yourself, what
- 33:13Speaker 1: are you gonna ask like a stranger? Sure, make a buddy,
- 33:16Speaker 1: make a new friend on Japan now, all right, we're
- 33:21Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about how to make sushi
- 33:23Speaker 1: right after this message break. All right, so you've never
- 33:39Speaker 1: made sushi, I'm surprised you guys haven't tried it. I've
- 33:42Speaker 1: never made sushi. No, well I have, I haven't done
- 33:45Speaker 1: it in a while. But you can get your norri
- 33:47Speaker 1: sheets and grocery stores. I eat that stuff like a snack. Yeah,
- 33:50Speaker 1: of course. Uh, you can find your little crabsticks and cucumber.
- 33:55Speaker 1: And where it gets a little tricky is um is
- 33:58Speaker 1: the fish itself. Like, if you live in a big city,
- 34:02Speaker 1: there's probably a place where you can get sushi grade fish.
- 34:05Speaker 1: If you live out in the sticks, you might have
- 34:06Speaker 1: a harder time. Um, But you definitely want to get
- 34:08Speaker 1: sushi or sashimi grade fish. Um, and ask if it
- 34:12Speaker 1: is sashimi grade um. Like we said, no fresh water.
- 34:17Speaker 1: You don't want to trout roll No. And you want
- 34:19Speaker 1: it to be nice and vibrant color. Yeah. You don't
- 34:22Speaker 1: want there to be any weird like dark or soft spots, No,
- 34:27Speaker 1: that's rot. Yeah. The tuna should be like really bright
- 34:30Speaker 1: red um or pink yeah, like dark pink. Yeah. I
- 34:35Speaker 1: mean you can if you know how to spot it.
- 34:36Speaker 1: You know the difference like if you get a little practice. Yeah,
- 34:39Speaker 1: and if you're not like Emily and you're buying the
- 34:41Speaker 1: whole fish, you want the eyes to be like not
- 34:44Speaker 1: sunken in. You want them to be like still just
- 34:46Speaker 1: kind of popping out, like, oh my gosh, I'm I
- 34:49Speaker 1: can't believe this is happening kind of eyes, you know. Yeah,
- 34:53Speaker 1: it shouldn't smell too fishy either. If it smells super fishy,
- 34:56Speaker 1: that means it's probably not super fresh. But once you
- 34:59Speaker 1: have have your fish and you bought your nori, you
- 35:02Speaker 1: want to buy your rice. That's the first key ingredient
- 35:06Speaker 1: you need to master. And like we said, in Japan,
- 35:08Speaker 1: they spent two years learning how to make the rice properly.
- 35:12Speaker 1: So don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go well
- 35:14Speaker 1: at first. No, um, but the the the rice you're making,
- 35:19Speaker 1: you want to start with sushi rice, which is a
- 35:21Speaker 1: short or medium grain rice. And if you go to
- 35:23Speaker 1: the store to buy rice, like you go to a
- 35:25Speaker 1: um Asian food market or something like that, they're gonna
- 35:28Speaker 1: have rice that says sushi rice, and it's gonna come
- 35:31Speaker 1: out like like you want it. You're gonna be clumpy,
- 35:34Speaker 1: it's not gonna be like mushy. It's gonna be nice
- 35:37Speaker 1: and sticky white rice. Well, if you make it right right,
- 35:40Speaker 1: you can mess it up pretty bad. And I've learned, Um,
- 35:43Speaker 1: I use cal Rose. That's something here in the United States.
- 35:45Speaker 1: You can look for that stuff. Yeah, it's a real
- 35:47Speaker 1: popular I think that started in California. Um it's another
- 35:51Speaker 1: one when we eat all the time, is I think, um, oh,
- 35:54Speaker 1: it's like nishe I believe. Is that like the bread brand? Yeah,
- 35:59Speaker 1: cal Rose is a variety, so it may be a Calrow. Still, oh,
- 36:02Speaker 1: it's not a brand. I thought it was a brand.
- 36:04Speaker 1: Now that's a rice variety, medium rain, medium range, medium grain.
- 36:09Speaker 1: So the key here when you're making the rice, there's
- 36:12Speaker 1: a lot of keys, but the first big key is
- 36:14Speaker 1: you don't just throw it in the pot and cook it.
- 36:16Speaker 1: You have to rinse it. And what I do what
- 36:19Speaker 1: my friend John, you know, chef John he um, he
- 36:24Speaker 1: taught me to just put the rice, the dry uncooked
- 36:26Speaker 1: rice in a pot and start just a cold water,
- 36:31Speaker 1: like a slow cold water, um run and just let
- 36:35Speaker 1: it go like walk away, and the rice will kind
- 36:38Speaker 1: of stay at the bottom and the water will just
- 36:40Speaker 1: kind of overflow, but it'll that continuous water movement and
- 36:43Speaker 1: it's a little bit wasteful, you know, if you don't
- 36:45Speaker 1: like to leave your sink running or your water running.
- 36:47Speaker 1: But what you want to do is just rinse the
- 36:49Speaker 1: rice until the water is almost clear. Um, and you'll
- 36:53Speaker 1: see it. It's real, real cloudy and kind of grainy.
- 36:55Speaker 1: And as you keep washing it, it'll clear up. And
- 37:00Speaker 1: you want to do it with your hands and be
- 37:01Speaker 1: gentle with it. You don't want to mash it up.
- 37:03Speaker 1: Don't use a strainer because that can beat up the
- 37:05Speaker 1: rice pretty bad. Just treat it, treat it respectfully and
- 37:09Speaker 1: sort of wash it with your hands until the water
- 37:11Speaker 1: is clear. So that's step one. Then you got to
- 37:14Speaker 1: soak it for an additional half an hour in cold water.
- 37:17Speaker 1: Just walk away and leave it there. Then you're gonna
- 37:20Speaker 1: add uh half hours elapsed. Okay, we should just sit
- 37:24Speaker 1: here for half hour. Um. After the half hour has elapse,
- 37:27Speaker 1: you if you want, you can add a little sake
- 37:29Speaker 1: to it. If you want, you can add something called
- 37:31Speaker 1: dashi kanbu. It's a dried kelp. I've never done that,
- 37:36Speaker 1: but you can. It makes it pop, doesn't sure? Okay? Uh.
- 37:40Speaker 1: Then you're gonna cook you know, I mean they will
- 37:42Speaker 1: probably say on the package, but then you're gonna cook
- 37:44Speaker 1: it a lot like traditional rice. You boil it, cook
- 37:47Speaker 1: it on a medium heat with a pot on for
- 37:49Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes, then simmer for about twenty minutes over
- 37:52Speaker 1: low heat. And then they recommend here I've never heard
- 37:56Speaker 1: of this, to turn the heat up too high for
- 37:58Speaker 1: a few seconds at the end. I'm not sure what
- 38:00Speaker 1: that does. I think it maybe just like burns off
- 38:03Speaker 1: any excess moisture. That's what I would guess it does,
- 38:07Speaker 1: all right, And then leave the lid on and let
- 38:09Speaker 1: it sit for about fifteen minutes, completely off the heat
- 38:12Speaker 1: after that. All right, So now the vinegar, right, you
- 38:16Speaker 1: want to start with rice vinegar. That's the kind you
- 38:19Speaker 1: have to use. Is rice vinegar appropriately enough, and no
- 38:23Speaker 1: other don't think like, oh, can you use apple cider
- 38:25Speaker 1: vinegar or white vinegar. You could use sushi vinegar, which
- 38:29Speaker 1: is prepared rice vinegar, but it's gotta be rice vinegar, right,
- 38:32Speaker 1: But if you want to make it yourself, you use
- 38:34Speaker 1: a little rice vinegar um about a quarter cup to
- 38:38Speaker 1: a table spoon of sugar and one and a half
- 38:40Speaker 1: teaspoons of salt. Yeah, and that's for five cups of rice, right,
- 38:44Speaker 1: and you mix all that stuff up until the mixture
- 38:47Speaker 1: is clear and you've got yourself some homemade sushi vinegar.
- 38:51Speaker 1: Once you're um, your rice is is ready, you want
- 38:57Speaker 1: to turn it out into a bowl. Is what it's called.
- 39:00Speaker 1: You dump it out into a bowl. Yeah, And what
- 39:03Speaker 1: you should get is and you probably bought if you're
- 39:05Speaker 1: trying to make sushi, probably bought a couple of things
- 39:07Speaker 1: like your little bamboo rolling mat and a little wooden
- 39:10Speaker 1: paddle they call it. It's, you know, basically a big
- 39:12Speaker 1: flat spoon, and that is what you use to turn it,
- 39:16Speaker 1: um traditionally into a wooden bowl. You can use anything
- 39:19Speaker 1: but metal. Don't use metal, no, because it'll react with
- 39:22Speaker 1: the vinegar. Yeah, that's no good. You turn it out
- 39:25Speaker 1: with this sushi paddle or rice padal which, by the way,
- 39:28Speaker 1: you me and I have seen the world's largest rice paddle.
- 39:30Speaker 1: How big was it? It was big, bigger than me, uh,
- 39:34Speaker 1: like as big as this table. No, it was like
- 39:36Speaker 1: the size of like a long canoe. Oh, I said,
- 39:40Speaker 1: the world's biggest rice paddle. Well I didn't that, Like
- 39:42Speaker 1: I was trying to the flat part was it as
- 39:44Speaker 1: big as this table easily? Okay, in which for everybody
- 39:49Speaker 1: who's not in the room with us right now, the
- 39:52Speaker 1: table is probably about three across three in diameter. Well
- 39:57Speaker 1: did they use the thing? I don't see how you could.
- 39:59Speaker 1: Was just one of the silly things, like the world's
- 40:02Speaker 1: biggest batchel of it it was. It was far from silly,
- 40:06Speaker 1: but it was big. It was on Miajima, which is
- 40:09Speaker 1: a neat little island off of Hiroshima, and they have
- 40:12Speaker 1: the world's largest rice paddle on display. So you're gonna
- 40:17Speaker 1: use that rice paddle to pry the rice out of
- 40:18Speaker 1: the pot into your wooden bowl. Uh, and you know
- 40:22Speaker 1: it will come out kind of like a like a
- 40:23Speaker 1: cake almost before you, you know, start messing with it.
- 40:27Speaker 1: And then here's the thing. You don't just dump this
- 40:30Speaker 1: the vinegar that you've made all over the rice. You
- 40:33Speaker 1: want to pour it over the paddle and then spread
- 40:36Speaker 1: the paddle around over the rice so it sort of
- 40:38Speaker 1: gently falls and distributes evenly. And then you want to
- 40:42Speaker 1: fold it in and mix it together gently again, make
- 40:45Speaker 1: sure everything's coated pretty well, and then cool it down
- 40:48Speaker 1: to you're supposed to be fanning it while you're doing
- 40:50Speaker 1: this and then cool it down to room temperature and
- 40:52Speaker 1: then you're all set to go. And then you want
- 40:54Speaker 1: to take your hands and rinse them in vinegar to
- 41:00Speaker 1: prevent the rice from sticking, just kind of lightly. Yeah,
- 41:03Speaker 1: you should have the paddle as well. Um, when you're
- 41:05Speaker 1: spreading it, you you need to soak that as well.
- 41:08Speaker 1: Really it works well, right um. And then you're ready
- 41:11Speaker 1: to start making the geri sushi, which is the easiest
- 41:13Speaker 1: sushi to make. Um, it's just basically finger sushi. You
- 41:17Speaker 1: take a little lump of rice and just kind of
- 41:21Speaker 1: roll it into an oblong shape in your hand. Uh,
- 41:25Speaker 1: press down one side on one side with the finger,
- 41:28Speaker 1: and that's the side that's going to be the bottom.
- 41:30Speaker 1: So basically you're adding stability. Yeah, and you don't want
- 41:32Speaker 1: it super firm, um, but you don't want it falling
- 41:35Speaker 1: apart either, right uh. And then um, you take a
- 41:38Speaker 1: little bit of a save, smear it on the top,
- 41:41Speaker 1: and then top it with whatever ingredients you want, say tuna, yum.
- 41:47Speaker 1: And they have little molds by the way, if you
- 41:48Speaker 1: don't feel like you should try and make it in
- 41:51Speaker 1: the palm of your hand, but they do have little
- 41:52Speaker 1: prefab molds. That you spoon the rice into and like
- 41:56Speaker 1: you press a little thing on top and then pop
- 41:58Speaker 1: them out, which would make it basically oshi sushi that
- 42:01Speaker 1: Osaka style. Remember they have the press mold. Oh is
- 42:05Speaker 1: that what that is? Yeah, but there's a strictly like
- 42:07Speaker 1: a box. Yeah. Yeah, this is like eight little individual compartments. Yeah.
- 42:12Speaker 1: There's shaped like flowers and hearts and stuff like that too.
- 42:14Speaker 1: I haven't seen that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, mine's just rectangular.
- 42:17Speaker 1: But I don't use it. I did it first, and
- 42:19Speaker 1: then I was like, no, I'm gonna try in the
- 42:21Speaker 1: palm of the hand. Have you ever made a nigii
- 42:24Speaker 1: um sushi with like that? You were just like, this
- 42:26Speaker 1: is perfect? No, no, yeah, I guess it's just practice
- 42:30Speaker 1: ten years at least. Yeah. I mean it tastes fine,
- 42:33Speaker 1: and they even point out on this article it'll take
- 42:35Speaker 1: some practice before it looks as good as it tastes.
- 42:37Speaker 1: The taste will be there, but it's not what you're
- 42:39Speaker 1: seeing the restaurant properly. You know, those guys are prosy um.
- 42:46Speaker 1: That was Nigeri sushi. I just mentioned the little hand
- 42:49Speaker 1: hand rolled finger sized pieces and sushi. Yes, you can
- 42:52Speaker 1: also make maki, yeah, and that's when you take the
- 42:56Speaker 1: full that's a sushi roll. That's when you have the
- 42:57Speaker 1: full sheet. Uh, you want to spread about a third
- 43:01Speaker 1: of it with a thin coating of rice, and you
- 43:04Speaker 1: want the nori shiny side down onto the mat, the
- 43:08Speaker 1: bamboo mat. Yeah, And so you spread your rice. You
- 43:10Speaker 1: don't want it super thick, yeah, on top of the
- 43:13Speaker 1: north And you know this is a little bit of
- 43:15Speaker 1: h if it's your first time, there'll be some trial
- 43:17Speaker 1: and air involved, you know, Like I put way too
- 43:20Speaker 1: much rice at first, and then it was hard to
- 43:22Speaker 1: roll and it looked like this big burrito essentially, So
- 43:26Speaker 1: you're gonna want the rice a little thinner than you
- 43:27Speaker 1: think even And then you uh put it on the sheet.
- 43:31Speaker 1: It's on the mat, and you put your toppings across,
- 43:34Speaker 1: kind of like you're making a burrito, and then you
- 43:37Speaker 1: fold the bamboo mat over. You roll the nori into
- 43:39Speaker 1: the toppings. Um And this description feels a little convoluted.
- 43:46Speaker 1: You basically just want to roll it in the mat
- 43:50Speaker 1: and I give it a good squeeze at the end
- 43:51Speaker 1: to make sure it's all together and to let it
- 43:53Speaker 1: know it's loved exactly. And you want to I imagine
- 43:58Speaker 1: this is another thing that comes out with practice. You
- 44:00Speaker 1: said it first it looks like a burrito. Um, but
- 44:03Speaker 1: if you roll it, and I would guess your hands
- 44:05Speaker 1: need to be kind of away from the center so
- 44:10Speaker 1: that you're putting an equal amount of pressure around the roll,
- 44:13Speaker 1: and you're lightly rolling it, being careful not to let
- 44:15Speaker 1: the mat get rolled up into the sushi. Yeah, I've
- 44:18Speaker 1: done that, just rolling it over the top. But you're
- 44:20Speaker 1: rolling the role together. And then you got a low
- 44:22Speaker 1: roll squeezed at the end, as per chuck. And then
- 44:25Speaker 1: you take a really sharp knife right and cut it
- 44:28Speaker 1: in half. Then you cut that in half and so
- 44:31Speaker 1: on until you have eight pieces and my friend, you
- 44:34Speaker 1: have a moki sushi maki. Yeah, And like I said,
- 44:37Speaker 1: it's a little hard to describe. The best way to
- 44:39Speaker 1: do it is just to throw yourself in there and
- 44:41Speaker 1: try it. And if you've ever seen sushi rolls, then
- 44:44Speaker 1: your instinct will kind of tell you how to do
- 44:46Speaker 1: it and just mess around. It's fun. Like, don't put
- 44:49Speaker 1: pressure on yourself to don't plan a big sushi dinner
- 44:52Speaker 1: party on your first dry Yeah, that's probably a good idea,
- 44:54Speaker 1: you know, Just try it out yourself and then sorry,
- 44:57Speaker 1: what we just described was footo maki. If you wanted
- 44:59Speaker 1: to make an inside out roll like a California roll,
- 45:02Speaker 1: you would be making what's called uromaki. And basically you
- 45:05Speaker 1: follow the same steps but just reversed. You start with
- 45:08Speaker 1: the rice and then you put the nori. You start
- 45:12Speaker 1: with the bamboo mat, then put the rice on that,
- 45:14Speaker 1: then nori, then your toppings, and then you roll that up.
- 45:17Speaker 1: And did you say it was covered in plastic? Oh? Yeah,
- 45:20Speaker 1: you want to put the the bamboo has plastic on it,
- 45:25Speaker 1: and then the rice goes on the plastic like suran
- 45:27Speaker 1: wrap or something. Yeah. Basically you just take suran wrap
- 45:29Speaker 1: and and just cover both sides of your bamboo mat
- 45:33Speaker 1: with that. Uh. And then of course there's the one
- 45:37Speaker 1: of my favorite things to eat a sushi places is
- 45:39Speaker 1: the hand roll. Yeah, the tim aki. It's like a
- 45:41Speaker 1: nice cream cone of sushi. Yeah, and you can make those.
- 45:44Speaker 1: I've never had a lot of success with making those.
- 45:46Speaker 1: Um does seem like the easiest, aren't they not? For me?
- 45:50Speaker 1: I never got it to come out right. But you
- 45:52Speaker 1: make it in your hand. That's why it's called a
- 45:54Speaker 1: hand roll. You hold the nori and you spread the
- 45:55Speaker 1: ice on one end. Cover about a third of it,
- 45:58Speaker 1: and then you put your topping diagonally. You're gonna fold
- 46:01Speaker 1: your bottom corner up over the toppings and then roll
- 46:04Speaker 1: it in the same direction. And just picture a waffle
- 46:07Speaker 1: cone and that's what you're trying to emulate. And stick
- 46:10Speaker 1: some soft shell crab in that mug and chow down.
- 46:15Speaker 1: I want some sushi so bad? Do you like seft
- 46:17Speaker 1: shell crab? You ever had that? I don't think so.
- 46:20Speaker 1: I like crab. I mean that's when it's the whole
- 46:23Speaker 1: crab is just fried shell and all. Oh no, I've
- 46:26Speaker 1: not had that. Yeah, it's good. In fact, when I
- 46:29Speaker 1: was in d C, I went to uh a little
- 46:32Speaker 1: far that farmer's market at eight then I they'll tell
- 46:34Speaker 1: you about And they had this place that was someun
- 46:37Speaker 1: like crab cakes and soft shell crabs, which is so good?
- 46:41Speaker 1: Is it crab season now? I don't know it's crab
- 46:44Speaker 1: season that day for me. I got one more thing
- 46:49Speaker 1: from the book The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson,
- 46:52Speaker 1: just some surprising sushi facts. I think most of these
- 46:56Speaker 1: we actually covered. Uh they said in Japan they eat
- 47:00Speaker 1: me so at the end of the meal to aid digestions.
- 47:03Speaker 1: They have an appetizer, the soup. Yeah, I've never knew that.
- 47:07Speaker 1: I like the miso soup though. Yeah, that's good stuff. Um.
- 47:10Speaker 1: And it says American chefs have probably never eaten a
- 47:13Speaker 1: proper nagiri because sushi chef's packet too tightly on purpose,
- 47:17Speaker 1: because Americans like it that way. Apparently it's a looser.
- 47:20Speaker 1: And have you ever did you experience that was a
- 47:24Speaker 1: looser in Japan? Um? I've had a looser here? Oh yeah,
- 47:29Speaker 1: like the nice places. I mean, you can you can
- 47:32Speaker 1: tell this by look. It's not you would never point
- 47:34Speaker 1: to it and be like, that's a dense lump of rice,
- 47:37Speaker 1: Like you can see like a few of the individual grain.
- 47:40Speaker 1: You can see the detail in the rice a little more.
- 47:42Speaker 1: You can find it here. Yeah. Uh. And his final
- 47:45Speaker 1: little fact, he said that the knives used by sushi
- 47:48Speaker 1: chefs are direct descendants of samurai swords A k A Katana.
- 47:53Speaker 1: Did not know that. I didn't know that either. There's
- 47:55Speaker 1: one more fact in there I thought was interesting. Of
- 47:58Speaker 1: all of the blue fin tuna caught in the world
- 48:00Speaker 1: is used for sushi, oh really yes? And the other
- 48:04Speaker 1: is grilled rare and not on a salad. I don't
- 48:07Speaker 1: know what they do with the other two million dollars
- 48:11Speaker 1: per man, that's a lot per pound. Yeah, was it that?
- 48:15Speaker 1: It had to have been the size of the fish
- 48:17Speaker 1: and the quality of that fish too, I would guess yeah, yeah,
- 48:20Speaker 1: because I mean, the guys at the Tokyo fish market
- 48:23Speaker 1: know what they're doing when it comes to fish, you know.
- 48:26Speaker 1: I would imagine they don't just look at some aged
- 48:29Speaker 1: rickety um tuna and say, like, how much do you
- 48:33Speaker 1: want for that? You know what I mean? Yeah, So
- 48:36Speaker 1: let's figure this out real quick, Chuck, are you dividing it? Yeah?
- 48:39Speaker 1: So one point eight million dollars, yeah, divided by four
- 48:46Speaker 1: ninety pounds. Is that what you said? I remember, that's
- 48:48Speaker 1: three thousands, six hundred and seventy three dollars and rounding
- 48:52Speaker 1: up forty seven cents a pound, that must have been
- 48:56Speaker 1: one special tuna. Yeah. Man, at the very least, he
- 48:59Speaker 1: felt Ussel when they're crazy cut him up. I got
- 49:04Speaker 1: nothing else. Well, we could probably sit here for five
- 49:06Speaker 1: six hours and talk about this, but we're not going to. Instead,
- 49:09Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about sushi, you can
- 49:11Speaker 1: type that into the search bar at how stuff works
- 49:13Speaker 1: dot com. And I said, search parts means it's time
- 49:16Speaker 1: for listener mail. I'm gonna call this amputation feedback. Hey, guys,
- 49:22Speaker 1: I was interested in how amputation works and I thought
- 49:24Speaker 1: i'd share an offshoot topic and one of my classes
- 49:26Speaker 1: we studied a procedure called rotation plasty, which is an
- 49:30Speaker 1: infrequent operation occurs when only part of the limb requires amputation,
- 49:33Speaker 1: like a bone tumor in the lower part of the
- 49:35Speaker 1: femur or upper fibia tibia excuse me. Traditionally it's done
- 49:39Speaker 1: on lower extremities, although a few upper extremity cases exist.
- 49:43Speaker 1: The operation consists of removing a portion of the leg,
- 49:45Speaker 1: ranging anywhere along the femur into the tibia fibular region,
- 49:49Speaker 1: ultimately removing the knee. Uh. The ankle joint is still functional,
- 49:52Speaker 1: so the surgeon removes all the muscle and bone, keeping
- 49:55Speaker 1: the nerves that connect the two regions intact. The foot
- 49:58Speaker 1: and ankle are then turned around face backwards and reattached
- 50:02Speaker 1: along the femur. I feel like we talked about that.
- 50:04Speaker 1: I do too. Yeah, it may not have been in
- 50:06Speaker 1: that one, or maybe maybe it was. But the reason
- 50:09Speaker 1: the foots place backwards is because it didn't have the
- 50:12Speaker 1: stability for it to be it adds more stability. Now,
- 50:15Speaker 1: is that what it is? Yeah, she said, the ankle
- 50:18Speaker 1: becomes the new knee joint and results in a high
- 50:20Speaker 1: range of movement, which helps many patients continue active lifestyles. Yeah,
- 50:23Speaker 1: we definitely talked about that. Well, this isn't news to
- 50:26Speaker 1: us then. Uh. The end result is it looks really
- 50:29Speaker 1: strange but gives a huge opportunity for the patient at
- 50:32Speaker 1: least check out some of the crazy images. So Kelly
- 50:36Speaker 1: Kravitz of the Colorado School of Minds go forty nine
- 50:42Speaker 1: or apparently we we discussed that, but at any rate,
- 50:45Speaker 1: it's still interesting. Yeah, thanks a lot, Kelly, Yeah, Kelly,
- 50:48Speaker 1: thanks Kelly. If you want to describe in greater details
- 50:52Speaker 1: something we mentioned briefly, we are always happy for that
- 50:56Speaker 1: kind of thing. Indeed, you can tweet to us at
- 50:58Speaker 1: s Y s K podcast, so you can join us
- 51:00Speaker 1: on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know. You
- 51:03Speaker 1: can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
- 51:05Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com and join us at our beautiful
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