|
Sushi
by Ryuichi
Yoshii
published
by Periplus Editions
1999, 112
pages
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If You Knew Sushi...
Reviewed
by Linda L. Richards
I was Japanese in another life. Maybe
more than one life. I'll tell you how I know this. When I'm
not feeling well or I'm sad or in some other type of funk
that demands comfort food, my needs never waver. What I
require at those times is a well-prepared chirashi or a big
steamy bowl of miso ramen or -- if I'm hungry as well as sad
-- maybe a nice teriyaki don. In short, the foods that I
most readily plunk into the comfort department all hail from
the land of cherry blossoms and well-prepared fish. They
make me feel better and -- beyond that -- I can't begin to
explain. I don't even bother trying to figure it out
anymore: I just know where to go when the mood hits me.
A celebratory dinner? Take me to my favorite kaitan bar! A
quiet dinner for two on a rainy night? I have a favorite
spot for noodles on a damp night. A business dinner? Leave
the shoes outside the tatami room and bring on the damp
towels.
I'm fortunate to live in a city where locating good, fresh
and properly prepared Japanese food is about as difficult as
finding a burger place in most American cities. And one of
the best parts of that is the fact that where
there's a population large enough to support a big pile of
Japanese restaurants, there's also going to be at least a
little pile of stores with supplies for making my own
Japanese food, including the various accouterments required
for the making of sushi.
But before you even head out shopping, the first requirement
of sushi-making is a book. A really good book is best, but
even an adequate one will get you started and I've bought
more than my share of adequate ones over the years. It takes
over 10 years of training to become a sushi chef so --
without the benefit of formal training in the art of
creating sushi -- I figured I'd better get my hands on all
the books I can. If, however, you were restricted to one
book, Sushi by Ryuichi Yoshii would be a good
starting point.
Not only is Sushi a carefully executed primer
on both the preparation and the philosophy of sushi, it's
also -- quite simply -- the most beautiful book on the
subject that I've seen. The photos are wonderful and the
book's layout is clean and inviting, but that's only part of
it. The fact is, Yoshii is an artist and the raw materials
that sushi consists of are his medium. What else but this
could explain the "Apple" and "Slice of Watermelon" sushi
illustrated in the book? Imagine minced salmon around sushi
rice garnished so it looks precisely like a tiny apple. Or
minced tuna on sushi rice, edged with cucumber skin and
topped with black sesame seeds; the finished piece looking
uncannily like a triangle of watermelon. Or futomaki so
beautifully colored and intricately wrapped the pieces look
like stained glass? Or tuna and avocado rolls with the
aesthetic beauty of small chunks of pop art? And while I'm
not about to even think about making anything
so complicated that it's supposed to end up looking like
stained glass, the photos of Yoshii's "designer sushi" are
inspirational and appetite-inspiring. Sushi, after all, is
intended to excite the eyes as well as the palate, and this
book knows that before all else.
The Japanese believe that food should satisfy all the
senses. Food is always prepared with great care and
beautifully presented: sometimes very simply, and sometimes
in an intricate array. The freshest ingredients are combined
in ways that delight the eyes as well as the taste buds.
Seasonings are generally quite subtle, in order to enhance
the natural flavors.
In this lovely primer, Yoshii goes on to explain first about
some of the sensibilities around sushi, then about some of
the differences, availabilities and pronunciations. Some of
the niceties of eating at a sushi bar are covered, as are
the origins of sushi. It's an informative section.
The next section covers the utensils you'll need and -- like
the rest of the book -- crystal clear photographs illuminate
the descriptions. A section on ingredients is wonderful for
those new to the intricacies of Japanese food. It's good to
have things like bonito flakes and Aji-ponzu explained to
you if you've never encountered them before.
If you're serious about trying your hand at sushi, the
section on selecting fish and seafood will be important.
Point form lists of things to think about and look for are
the very best I've seen. And the explanations accompanied by
photographs of how to fillet a fish in the san-mai oroshi
style are complete and detailed. A detailed chapter on
making sushi rice provides the foundation for many of the
recipes to follow, and when they follow they are ample and
run the sushi gamut from maki (small rolls) to futomaki (big
rolls), hand rolls, Nigiri-sushi, decorative sushi and so
on.
Those making sushi for vegetarians will especially like the
chapter on vegetable sushi. Although vegetarian sushi is far
from uncommon, I haven't seen a selection this good or this
wonderful-looking. Tofu sushi, avocado sushi, snow pea
sushi, asparagus sushi, shiitake
mushroom sushi, eggplant sushi... the list goes on. Most
of it beautifully illustrated and all of it well explained.
| March 1999
Linda
L. Richards
is the editor of January Magazine and the author of
Mad
Money.
|
