#8: Make sushi

I mentioned this event on Facebook but forgot to post it on here and update my 100 List! We made a foray into the world of homemade sushi all in the name of… a baby shower. My pregnant friend Samantha loves sushi but hasn’t been able to eat it for a while (obviously) so we thought it’d be fun to have some fishless sushi rolls at her shower. I wanted to do a test run though to guarantee success the day of the shower (you know how it goes – you try something new the day you need it and it’s a disaster). I didn’t quite know what to expect; I’d heard that making sushi was difficult the first time around and that rolling it correctly takes some effort. So I bought a bamboo rolling mat at an Asian grocery store for about $4, watched two instructional videos on YouTube, and gave it my best shot.

And what do you know, it actually worked! We used salmon, cucumber, avocado, a bit of cream cheese, and sesame seeds for our first attempt, but I only used cucumber, avocado, and sesame seeds for the shower sushi rolls. There’s definitely a flavor difference between homemade rolls and those found at our favorite sushi place (Umi’s Sake House in Belltown) so I’m convinced there must be some secret ingredient that normal people don’t know about. But for homemade sushi, I thought it was pretty good and fairly easy. Rolling the sushi takes some concentration to make sure you don’t roll in the plastic wrap or squish out the sushi innards but the process was much easier than I expected. The possibilities are endless!