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To the uninitiated sushi equates to raw fish and Japan. The country may be right but Sushi is not raw fish; the proper name for sliced raw fish is sashimi. Sushi means, literally, it is sour.Modern sushi may contain fish, cooked or raw, but may also contain other elements.
The basic ingredient of sushi is rice prepared with special sushi vinegar which is then topped with the other ingredients. It was in the Muromachi period (14th and 15th centuries) that the people of Southeast Asia added vinegar to rice in order to preserve it and to improve the taste. In the Edo period of Japanese history (early 19th century) pickled fish conserved in vinegar was sometimes referred to as sushi and was the original Japanese fast food eaten by hand.
It was the dish, invented by Hanaya Yohei, which became the forerunner of modern sushi; it used fresh fish from Tokyo Bay (Edo-mae) and was called Edomae zushi.To many the word sushi also conjures up the idea of a sushi bar which is almost the Japanese equivalent of a British pub where people sit around casually eating and drinking with their friends.
Sushi rice is made with short grained white rice mixed with salt, sugar and, of course, rice vinegar which can vary from bar to bar; sometimes sake is also added. The rice has to be just sticky enough to hold together without being too gooey. In some forms of sushi a seaweed wrap called nori is used. Nori is itself sometimes eaten by itself or with added flavouring as a snack; in sushi it is made into sheets and allowed to dry out. Forms of sushi using nori are norimaki and temaki.
One of the commonest forms of sushi is nigirizushi (note the s in sushi is changed to a z when added to another word). The rice is formed into an oblong mound or ball and a topping of for example, salmon, tuna, octopus, eel or fried egg added. A special form of nigirizushi is temarizushi where the rice and fish are pressed together by hand into a ball.
To illustrate that sushi is not just made with fish there is a form called inarizushi in which the sushi rice is filled into pouches of deep fried tofu. This is apparently named after the Shinto god Inari who liked tofu and is one of the cheapest forms of sushi available.
Oshizushi is where the rice and fish are pressed together, usually in a wooden box. If you want a bowl of rice with the topping just scattered over it you will need to order chirashizushi.
There are many types of sushi depending on how the rice is shaped, what topping is added or whether all the ingredients are combined rolled or pressed together. When sushi was first eaten hundreds of years ago only the contents would have been consumed, the rice, which would have helped in the fermentation and preservation of the fish, would have been discarded.