Sushi fever

By this time, eating sushi is an exotic and original activity, like ordering a pizza for dinner, becoming a widespread trend that goes beyond the simple food tasting, and more and more like a fashionable trend supported by the social media exposure.

Starting from its introduction thanks to the Chinese monks, passing from its constant evolution of taste and preparation techniques in Japan, sushi has become one of the most popular dishes all over the world, almost present in every country, where for the travellers all over the world represent a safe and appreciated food, contrasting the local specialties.

“...almost present in every country, where for the travellers all over the world represent a safe and appreciated food, contrasting the local specialties”

In order to understand its secrets, we must go to the country where everything started centuries ago: Japan. More and more travellers are seen visiting Japan recently, and as it is showed in the table below, the trend seems to increase every year. Reasons are different for travelling to the nation of the rising sun: visiting world heritage sites, discover the natural beauties that characterized the country, or to assist at the enormous technological advanced of its cities, but do you know that one of the main reasons for visiting Japan is eating the typical Japanese cuisine?

In fact travellers all over the world every year land in Japan to accompanied their touristic trip with the typical Japanese cuisine and its delicious like ramen and yakiniku, but in particular sushi. And if you are one of those travelers that loves sushi and want to try its real original taste and assist at its preparation by the Japanese masters of sushi you should visit Japan right now!

The country offers a lot of restaurants among which you are able to find the best sushi you will ever eat in your entire life, such as in the capital Tokyo, with Sukiyabashi Jiro (three Michelin stars from the Michelin Guide) or Komuro (one star Michelin), just to cite the most famous one.

Eating sushi in Japan is a completely different experience and every traveller should be aware of that. In fact, Japanese cuisine is far broader than what we find in restaurants in the western world, but one of the major differences resides in the kind of sushi we usually order, especially with the amount of uramaki and rolls compared to other specialties. In Japan, you will be much more likely to find sashimi than rolls.

When you think of American sushi, the quintessential roll is the avocado roll. This is a recent creation (when you consider the vast history of sushi) which took place in the 1960s in California when a sushi chef realized he could substitute expensive tuna with the fatty taste and texture of avocado. If we consider how diffused this kind of roll is in America, you begin to understand the major differences between Japanese sushi as opposed to the spread of sushi globally. Also, the idea of putting the rice on the outside is attributable to Western countries, which did not enjoy the sight or texture of seaweed on the outside of the roll, so they customized it to their own aesthetic. In Japan, on the other hand, fresh fish is more popular especially enhanced with a slight dab of wasabi and served on rice, allowing the natural flavours of the fish to be enjoyed. Etiquette is another aspect in which the experience of eating sushi differs. To the Japanese, sushi is seen as much as an art as much as a food, and the chef is the artist. Adding wasabi to a perfectly prepared and balanced roll would be like buying a painting and then adding a few “finishing touches” of your own in front of the artist. While the western world loves its condiments, you would not see authentic sushi served with wasabi on the side, only pickled ginger, used to cleanse the palate between different food items, and soy sauce (shoyu).

“.....the number of sushi places in 2006 was around 24.000, while more than ten years later, they are more than 90.000.”

The number of japanese restaurants all over the world underwent a remarkable increase in the last fifteen years, in fact the number of sushi places in 2006 was around 24.000, while more than ten years later, they are more than 90.000, following an increasing trend that seems to have no end.