Sushi time

I was pretty excited about making sushi for the first time. I have never done it on my own before and so started out by buying the necessary things; bamboo mat, sushi seasoning, Japanese rice, Continental cucumbers, tuna and salmon.

Then contemplating, I realised that it was not much fun doing it by myself and so I asked Mun Yen to join me since she cooks regularly and loves Japanese culture too. She was really enthusiastic and even said that she would prepare the meso soup. Then, I knew Lee Kai (a fellow CMC inmate) would be bored with nothing to do, so I said that he could come watch us, since he was not interested in making it.

Luckily it is the holidays so no one was around to use the kitchen while we occupied practically the whole preparation table. We put our things everywhere and you can see the salmon and tuna on separate places. The salmon is the lighter coloured fish on the white plate and the tuna is the darker coloured one on the chopping board.

That blur in the corner is me cutting up the rolled sushi. The rice was the tricky part, as according to Lee Kai, was the most difficult part as it had to be of the right stickiness and texture. So, not wanting to cause a disaster, I followed the proportions written on the back of the packet of Japanese rice I bought, then seasoned the cooked rice with sushi seasoning. I also fanned the rice vigorously while seasoning it to cool it rapidly. The rice was a success!

This is the thinly sliced salmon thanks to Mun Yen. She is really good at handling the salmon and slicing it thinly enough. I, however, sliced rather thick pieces of tuna thinking it would be the same since I like eating the fish so much. However, as my brother ate it, he said that the tuna flavour was too strong! Oh, well, at least you guys in Penang don't have to worry about eating that!

This is the meso soup that Mun Yen prepared. Since we don't know how to make the meso paste we got the readily made one and she just added the tofu to give it extra taste. I think one of the best dishes was the meso soup. It tasted just like the ones I had in Japan! Some pictures here are by Mun Yen and this is one of them.






This is a close up of one of our nigiri. Another one by Mun Yen. She is really interested in photography and can take quick pictures and make them turn out really spectacular.

This is one dish of our nigiri and sushi.

This dish contains most of our sushi.

This is Mun Yen. She was delighted to eat the products and drink the soup that smelled really good. She filled the bowls with soup and served them out while I took the dishes with the food over to the table.

This is also by Mun Yen. This is what the whole ensemble looks like. Both of us have never made sushi before, and it turned out well. It was a good thing it did because we had to eat the whole lot! Mun Yen also threw in some rock melon for cleansing our mouths after eating the sushi. It tasted really juicy, firm and sweet--very unlike the rock melons I buy that I let ripen close to rotting before cutting to eat.

This is another by Mun Yen. The packet of Japanese rice is at the end of the table. It is a good thing I bought that rice because it has a resealable packet; although it doesn't mean much, but it makes it slightly more convenient to store.





Lee Kai was very doubtful about eating the "raw fish" because he said they contained bacteria that were possibly dangerous to eat.

Another of Mun Yen's! Despite his initial reluctance, he became eager to eat some of the sushi. He could not taste the fish, however, as he does not know how to appreciate the sushi, poor fella.