Zen and the art of sushi-making...

As if I don't love sushi enough already- tonight, I tapped into the pulsing energies of that mystical universe otherwise known as sushi-making, specifically, maki-rolling. You think well, it's just a ball of rice flattened onto nori, a smear of wasabi, a helping of whatever filling you feel like, and you're good to go.

Erm... no.

I now have even greater respect for sushi chefs. The pictures tell exactly just how hard rolling the perfect maki roll is. I was disastrous until my last one- I'm not even going to go into it... It's hard to find affordable sushi-grade fish in Ann Arbor, so we stuck to making makis instead of nigiri sushi pieces. The fun was really in experimenting with the different fillings people brought with them: bulgogi with cream cheese, tofu with pickled plum and enoki, even artificial crabmeat with ranch dressing!

1. Rick's "Philly" roll, 2. Jinah's super-duper roll, 3. Rick's vegetarian roll, 4. Jude making his first roll, 5. Enoki mushrooms with marinated tofu, 6. Serene's disastrous first roll, 7. Marinated tofu with bulgogi, 8. Sesame marinated tofu, radish and burdock, 9. Serene before attempting her first sushi roll

[mosaic created with Flickr Toys]