Turning Japanese

Aah, Hawaii. This DCFuder just returned from Oahu and she can still picture the azure waves... The gently swaying palm trees... The amazing numbers of Japanese tourists! And there wasn't an obese one among them. I was so boggled by this lack of body fat that I consumed record amounts of Japanese food while I was in Hawaii just to see what the deal was and wanted to continue eating it FOREVER once I returned home.

Thus inspired, I signed up for the Japanese Sushi class through Arlington's Continuing Education program. On two consecutive Tuesdays, I huddled in the kitchen classroom at the Clarendon Education Center with a dozen other students. It's a simple kitchen, but outfitted with all the essential equipment and a long table for the group to sit around. Mary Moore, youthful beyond her years and soon to be a great grandmother, led us through the basics of making sushi, Japanese dining etiquette and shopping. She is of Taiwanese descent, married an American serviceman and learned about Japanese food and culture during Japan's occupation of Taiwan. Now she teaches people how to make sushi and is a Tupperware consultant (Fate is a funny thing, huh?).

The first Tuesday was devoted to the introduction of ingredients, how to make rice and making our own maki sushi (sushi rolls). She guided us through ingredients (types and brands of rice, vinegar, nori, etc.), how to choose fresh fish, and how to find everything at the grocery store. She was excellent about circulating around the room, giving pointers and answering questions as she went. One caveat: She loves chatting so much that sometimes things got left on the back burner, literally. Luckily some of my classmates were sharp enough to save our sushi seasoning and shepherd the rice to its happy, fluffy conclusion without many hitches. From there we learned the basic techniques of spreading the rice on our nori (the seaweed wrapper), filling it with ingredients, rolling everything up and slicing the roll into correctly proportioned pieces. I made one batch of classic vegetable rolls and one batch of simple tuna rolls, but I could have made more. When you receive your prep list for class and it says to bring a container for leftovers -- bring a big one! There were plenty of ingredients to go around and lots of rolls to be made.

But, the second class was where the real fun happened. Don't miss this class. There were noticeably fewer people in attendance for this class, which meant more sushi for everyone! Don't be the lazy one that skips this class and misses out on the really good stuff. Everyone pitched in to prep ingredients and we started off with California rolls, which are messy but fun. Then we progressed to nigiri (tuna, salmon, eel, egg, imitation crab, mackerel, shrimp) and tamaki (hand rolls). I made my tamaki with the spicy tuna mixture Mary whipped up and thought I made it look like a spicy tuna ice cream cone, but I can’t resist spicy tuna anything (if you want to know a secret about spicy tuna rolls, ask me). Overall the goal of the class is to familiarize you with the very basics and to have fun. So you want to make a roll with mayo, tuna, asparagus and that leftover cheese in your refrigerator? After the class you'll know the basics, so go for it. No one's guaranteeing it will taste any good, though (see below).

I was so excited by the class I decided to make a full sushi spread at home the very next weekend. but without classmates and an instructor to go grocery shopping; help prep the veggies; cook, fan and season the rice; slice the fish; make the wasabi; slice up oranges as an in-between-chore snack; and make tea (i.e. Do all the work), sushi making turned out to be a tiring production. The proportions of my rice to seasoning went disastrously wrong and I was left with a gelatinous, over-seasoned glump. I frantically mixed in plain rice, but ultimately ended up with hard little bullets of starch topped with thick and flabby fish slices. I was exhausted, covered in rice and vinegar, and left with endless amounts of barely edible sushi. My sushi had the texture you might experience when chewing gummy bears and squishy roasted red pepper slices at the same time, and just about as tasty.

Look to your left to see the offending sushi and note how the salmon slices could pass as mini steaks, and that is just platter #1. It was not the “bounty of the sea” feast that I envisioned and I realized that if the Mary Moore's class taught me one thing, it is to appreciate your sushi chef. To quickly and skillfully bring a platter of evenly sliced, attractively arranged, correctly seasoned sushi to your table is HARD. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of sushi because if you underestimate it, it will kick your ass, karate style.

If you want to take the class:
Arlington County Adult Education
Look in the .pdf course catalog for the Japanese Sushi class.
Arlington Residents -- $72
Arlington Seniors -- $59 (lucky bastards)
Non-Residents -- $89
Non-Resident Seniors -- $72

Bring a chef's knife, towel, small cutting board, bamboo sushi mat and a large container for your leftovers. Parking is validated after 6:15PM in the Clarendon Common parking garage (enter on N. Fillmore Street).

If you prefer to have a sushi chef make it for you (a very short, sushi short list):
Sushi Ko
2309 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-333-4187

Kaz Sushi Bistro
1915 Eye Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-530-5500