a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | robyn

December 28th, 2007 at 10:08 am

Ooh yay! Making your own sushi is great fun (when it’s not totally frustrating). It takes a couple of tries to get it right, but after that, everyone will be in awe of your sushi rolling skill.

I get all of my sushi supplies at Kaedeya Mart on Slater St. (right next to Suisha Gardens). Rice, nori, ginger, wasabi (imo, the best stuff comes pre-mixed in a tube, rather than as a powder), and other Japanese food oddities. They also have a good selection of ice-cream Mochi, and frozen sushi-grade fish ready for use.

Best bet for knives: a generic cleaver from any chinatown grocery. $10 knife, best Sushi knife I ever had. Looks like a big butcher’s knife, and usually comes with a sharpening stone. I use it for most of my Thai/Chinese/Japanese cooking. Also, run it under ice cold water a few times during the cutting process. Sounds silly, but this keeps it from sticking to the rice as you cut, and from destroying/deforming the sushi.

I could go on forever about sushi prep. This should be its own blog post….hmmm….

2 | scatteredmom

December 28th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

Mmm…I love sushi. It takes some practise to be able to roll it just right.

Making sure that you wipe and wet the knife with water before each cut helps if you don’t want to buy a new knife.

I guess it doesn’t fall under neccessity, does it? (bwahahahah!) :P

3 | Kim

December 28th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

Mine always came out looking awful or falling apart so I just leave it to the professionals :)

Good Luck!

4 | J

December 28th, 2007 at 10:40 pm

I love making sushi. I can only make the California rolls. The best and only book i used was Making Sushi for Dummies. I love these books, they really break it down for you.

The key trick in the book (from my point of view) is to make sure your knife is wet when you cut the roll into slices. This will help alot.

5 | daphne

December 29th, 2007 at 11:49 am

Sadly, Kaedeya is no longer in business, but I’ve found my sushi supplies all over Chinatown. As for sushi-grade tuna, I recommend Gerry’s Fish Market on Catherine (which used to be a Lapointe’s) or Lapointe’s in the market.

6 | Anna

December 29th, 2007 at 12:18 pm

Kaedeya (sp?) on Slater has unfortunately closed this fall. My Japanese friends swear by the Oriental grocer next to the Ogilvie Mandarin restaurant these days. You can also find most items you need at the Korean store on Catherine and Bank street. (including the ice cream mochi).

The best tuna we’ve ever gotten our hands on was from “One Fish Two Fish” on Merivale Road, not that far from you.

Practice makes perfect! It takes a while to get the hang of it.

7 | Theresa

January 2nd, 2008 at 2:03 am

I just tried Sushi out last month for the first time. I was actually amazed I could like raw fish. I am just a little scared on making it though.

8 | andrea

January 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 am

I used to be afraid to try raw fish in sushi, but then I tried realized it didn’t actually taste fishy. (If it does, you should be worried.) :) Raw salmon/tuna has a taste and texture that’s totally different from its cooked counterpart. Yum. I’m making more today! This time I will post photos. :)

9 | porter

January 2nd, 2008 at 8:47 pm

I crave sushi so often and now of course I’m craving it. I’m thinking we might need a date night tomorrow! My kids like it too but I love to go to my favourite place and take our time without the kiddies once in a while.
Good for you for making it on your own. My friend who makes amazing sushi took a couple of classes privately which wasn’t expensive believe it or not, and he learned loads and loads of neat things…he makes amazing sushi and his dinner parties are the best always.