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Diane M. Dresback

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Making Maki

January 27, 2016 Diane Dresback

For most of my life, I refused to eat sushi. The thought of raw fish turned my stomach. Cooked fish — well, some cooked fish proved enjoyable. But the uncooked variety? No way. 

I’m not sure where I developed my disdain for consuming raw fish. Likely from watching too many movies where a starving character in the wilderness plucks some unsuspecting Salmon, minding his own business while making his up-stream journey, and takes an enormous bloody bite from its flesh as the slimy creature wriggles wildly. 

So my life without sushi went on. Until about six years ago. 

While at the Asian Kitchen in Mesa, Arizona, my oldest son convinced me to try a piece of his “safe” and “un-fishy” smelling Philly roll. Hesitant, but attempting to model bravery, I obliged. The Philly roll consisted of smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber. How can you go wrong with anything with cream cheese in it? 

I was beyond surprised to find it delicious! 

My next experience came with a group of filmmaking friends celebrating the upcoming screening of our feature film - Atrophy. We wandered into Sapporo in Scottsdale, Arizona. Several different types of rolls were ordered that we could all share. But my heart became set on only consuming one once I tasted the Tootsie roll made with crab mix, cucumber, tempura flakes and Eel sauce. 

I began kicking myself for all the decades that had passed me by without taking pleasure in the Japanese cuisine. 

Over the past few years, I’ve indulged in different kinds of sushi, but retain a sort of conservativeness with my tastes. A chunk of cool raw fish on top of rice is a bit more than my mouth’s texture-sensors can handle, so I avoid Nigiri style sushi. 

The crazy question I continue to ask when trying something new, “Is it fishy?” may seem a bit ridiculous. I like fish that isn’t overly fishy tasting. But there are a lot of sushi rolls that are more mild, plus it’s not all raw. The combination of the ingredients is what makes the rolls so delectable - Salmon, Spicy Tuna, California, Tempura Shrimp. For those that just can’t get themselves to stomach the fish can opt for Avocado or Veggie rolls.

I remember a place that my son took me to in Austin, Texas called Tomodachi Sushi. His favorite was called the Ex-Girlfriend roll - crab, avocado, spicy tuna with halibut tempura and spicy mayo. Not sure if the original maker had a bad breakup with his girl or what, but it was yummy nonetheless.

Over the holidays, Rick and I met with some of our children in Cornville, Arizona for a few days. As usual with our family get-togethers, we do a lot of cooking. One night my oldest son and his wife taught us how to make homemade sushi. 

We each prepared our own by starting with Nori — a thin flexible green sheet of edible dried seaweed.  We topped the Nori with a layer of Pearl Rice which is small grain white rice with rice vinegar, sugar and salt added to make it nice and sticky. 

My son shared some sushi trivia that is quite interesting. 

The sushi we were making with the rice on the inside and the Nori on the outside is technically called Maki. But often restaurants here in the States hide the seaweed from us American’s by placing the rice outside of the Nori. This is called Uramaki. 

In Japan, Uramaki is rare because in that country sushi is eaten with your fingers and with sticky rice that can create quite the mess. That’s why some high end sushi places will tell people that it's perfectly fine and polite to eat sushi with your fingers instead of chopsticks.

Okay back to our Maki making. Next came about an inch wide strip of sliced cucumbers, avocado, some crab mix (purchased in a prepared state), and a splash of spicy mayo. Alright so the crab mix was imitation, but it was made of pulverized white fish. Apparently most sushi crab in America is made that way due to the high cost of actual crab. My son mixed the “crab” with mayo, vinegar and salt.

Then we rolled the Nori up tightly — sort of like rolling a sleeping bag, and sliced it into bite-sized chunks.

From there we drizzled a homemade Unagi sauce that my daughter-in-law had prepared. It’s more commonly known as an Eel Sauce although it contained no actual Eel. Cooked with a blend of saki, murin, sugar and soy sauce, it possessed a wonderfully sweet, salty taste. 

Finally we sprinkled Panko on top which is Japanese-style breadcrumbs made from white bread without the crust. This offered a light, airy texture adding a crunchy sensation to every bite.

I must admit, our homemade Maki was every bit as savorous if not better than anything I’ve purchased in a restaurant!

There are so many different types of sushi out there. I’m not an expert by any means and am still quite tame with my choices. But eating sushi has definitely become an experience that I look forward to once in awhile. It’s well worth a try if you’ve never given it a go.

Although after all that good vacation eating, I’m now back in Austin eating celery and carrots sticks!

 

— I’d love to have you as part of my Readers Connect Group that will give you notifications of future blog posts, book announcements and giveaways. Simply SUBSCRIBE. Also, to watch and learn more about my independent films, visit www.mindclover.com.

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Archive

  • 2019
    • Jan 30, 2019 Is Your Head In the Right Game?
  • 2018
    • Oct 24, 2018 Determination Like Fire Ants
    • Aug 8, 2018 Little Doesn't Matter
    • May 30, 2018 My Two Mothers
    • Jan 4, 2018 Time & Energy - Choose Wisely
  • 2017
    • Sep 19, 2017 Reversing Perspective
    • May 21, 2017 Creative Connection
    • Jan 4, 2017 Your Next 24 Hours
  • 2016
    • Dec 5, 2016 Bubble Time
    • Sep 22, 2016 The Honor of Friendship
    • Jun 27, 2016 Saying Yes When You Need To Say No
    • Apr 27, 2016 Making Time Expand
    • Mar 30, 2016 The Reflection Tree
    • Mar 15, 2016 Should You Let Go of Unfinished Projects?
    • Jan 27, 2016 Making Maki
  • 2015
    • Dec 7, 2015 Transformation in a Second
    • Oct 6, 2015 Drill Team and Life (re-post from 4/10/14)
    • Aug 26, 2015 Did I Really Say Never?
    • Jul 8, 2015 Mustard, Potatoes and a Black Cat
    • Jun 8, 2015 Hey, Look At Me!
    • Apr 16, 2015 A Few Words About Happiness
    • Mar 19, 2015 Focus on Focus
    • Feb 19, 2015 My Scrawny TV Viewing Habit
    • Feb 6, 2015 Ten to Life
    • Jan 22, 2015 Jack
    • Jan 8, 2015 Old Traditions and New Thoughts
  • 2014
    • Dec 13, 2014 One Year in Cotulla
    • Nov 25, 2014 Promise of Protection
    • Nov 21, 2014 The White House
    • Nov 7, 2014 My Perception is My Reality
    • Oct 23, 2014 The Golden Years
    • Oct 14, 2014 Blue Copper is a Wrap!
    • Sep 24, 2014 OCD or Just Organized?
    • Sep 11, 2014 Unexpected Knock
    • Sep 4, 2014 Power in a Melody
    • Aug 28, 2014 Working Blue Copper
    • Aug 21, 2014 You Say You Can't?
    • Aug 14, 2014 Blossom on the Vine
    • Aug 8, 2014 Goodbye Faithful Slippers
    • Jul 31, 2014 A Kick for Blue Copper
    • Jul 24, 2014 Alaskan Wonderland
    • Jul 10, 2014 Flutter, Scamper, Crawl - Can I Love Them?
    • Jul 3, 2014 Returning to Davos
    • Jun 26, 2014 Mid-Year 2014 Update
    • Jun 12, 2014 The Irritation Bandwagon
    • Jun 5, 2014 Beauty in Motion
    • May 29, 2014 Actor Appreciation
    • May 22, 2014 Aversion
    • May 15, 2014 Giving Imagination Permission
    • May 8, 2014 It's About Success
    • May 1, 2014 Recording A Short Story
    • Apr 24, 2014 Going Sailing
    • Apr 17, 2014 Making A Difference
    • Apr 10, 2014 Drill Team and Life
    • Apr 2, 2014 Banana Nut Bread Makes Life Go Around
    • Mar 27, 2014 The Problem Neighbor
    • Mar 20, 2014 Finishing
    • Mar 14, 2014 Thorny Beauty
    • Mar 6, 2014 Just A Smidgin
    • Feb 24, 2014 Baggage
    • Feb 6, 2014 Last Words and The Old Woman
    • Jan 30, 2014 Screenplay to Novel
    • Jan 22, 2014 Anna
    • Jan 15, 2014 Breathing Sunshine
    • Jan 10, 2014 And off we go!

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