My Inarizushi lunch for school excursions when I was a kid was filled with only simple Inarizushi with no toppings. I am not sure when Inarizushi with toppings was invented, but I am pretty sure it didn’t exist when I was a kid. Tea is usually self-served, though they may provide the first cup for you. At most kaiten-zushi, cups and green tea powder can be found at the table, as well as a faucet for hot water. The name of this sushi is associated with a type of shrine called ‘ Inari Shrine’, which used to worship the deity, Inari. It is said that the favourite food of the fox, the messenger of Inari, was aburaage (deep fried thin tofu) so people offered aburaage to the shrine. If you can’t get the cooked aburaage pouch, don’t worry. In the next post, I will introduce a recipe for Home-made Inari Sushi which explains how to make seasoned aburaage from scratch. How to make Inari Sushi

You could buy sushi vinegar from the supermarket or Asian grocery store instead of making it from scratch. For the required quantity of store-bought sushi vinegar, refer to the instructions on the bottle.It is better to make a reservation before going; if you don’t speak Japanese, asking someone who does (such as the hotel concierge) may be more helpful. If you do not like wasabi, be sure to tell the master beforehand - almost all pieces of sushi come with wasabi inside them as default. On the other hand, if you really like wasabi, you can always ask for more (same with shoga). Kaiten-zushi restaurants also tend to have more innovative and non-sushi menus compared to formal sushi restaurants; many have various side dishes and desserts, as well as strange combinations of sushi that seem suspect at first but are actually not bad at all. I always wonder why they add “mum” at the end, expecting me to get everything ready. But now that I am posting temakizushi, they can prepare it and I can be invited for a change. About sushi rice Some sushi restaurants may offer “full courses,” in which sushi may be preceded by an assortment of other dishes, such as sashimi and grilled fish.

There are quiet, local beaches and heaving popular ones; gentle coves for families and reef breaks for surfers. Peak summer is July and August, when many beaches have temporary huts, festivals, and firework displays. Note that the Japanese sun is strong! Many locals wear hats or hide under beach umbrellas. If you don’t know what to eat, state your budget to the master and then tell him “ omakase de onegaishimasu,” which means leaving the selection of sushi to the master’s recommendation according to which fish are in-season. Most Asian and Japanese grocery stores also sell the Japanese brand short grain rice, e.g. Koshihikari. See the sample bag of Koshihikari rice in my post, How to Cook Rice the Japanese Way. To fill an aburaage pouch, you will need about 30-35g of sushi rice (small handful). You can fill with more or less rice but 30-35g would make it the right size, I think. I called it ‘Inari Sushi’ so that my readers will know that this is a sushi recipe. But in Japan, it is called ‘Inarizushi’ (いなり寿司 or 稲荷寿司), changing the sound ‘sushi’ to ‘zushi’ for easier pronunciation.So, I usually cut it into a quarter as you can see in the other photos. This will not easily let you make a perfect cone shape as the yakinori sheet is not long enough. But hey, it is self-serve and I am not really fussed about how it looks. You could make a small roll like the photos below as well! Cutting ingredients for temakizushi Originally, “sushi” was a form of preserving fish, introduced to Japan in the 8th century from Southeast Asia; this involved wrapping a piece of gutted fish in fermented rice. This allowed for fish to be stored for several months, but surprisingly, the rice was thrown away. Later, the preserved fish was eaten with rice, Japan’s staple food, and was called nare-zushi, which can still be found today. Store-bought aburaage pouches usually come with a small amount of the liquid the aburaage pouches were cooked in. You need to squeeze the liquid out of the pouches before filling with the sushi rice. The quantity of ingredients is approximate as it all depends on how much people can eat and how much rice vs ingredients people use to make temakizushi.

Although there is no need to rush, it is best that the sushi be eaten as soon as it is served, especially for those with seaweed. Sushi is a food representative of Japan and there are quite few different forms of it. Nigirizushi (握り寿司, hand-pressed sushi), c hirashizushi (ちらし寿司, scattered sushi), and oshizushi (押し寿司, pressed sushi) to name a few. But I think that temakizushi is best suited for serving a crowd, particularly with your family and friends. There are good reasons for this: Here are the seven best beaches within a two-hour radius of Tokyo. Enjoy the surf in sight of Mt Fuji at Zaimokuza Beach, KanagawaTo decorate Inarizushi with toppings, leave the pouch open without covering and place a couple of toppings on the rice. The toppings can be almost anything as long as they go well with sushi rice.

A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes. There are no rules as to what should go inside temakizushi but you must have suitable rice to make sushi rice. The best grain rice for sushi in general is short grain rice. It is often sold as “sushi rice”. You can buy sushi rice at supermarkets or Asian grocery stores.There are different types of Inarizushi depending on the region in Japan. The shape can also be different. You can roll almost anything when it comes to temakizushi. Traditional ingredients are those similar to nigirizushi, i.e. raw fish such as tuna and kingfish, cooked prawns (shrimps), dashimaki tamago (Japanese rolled omelette), and cucumber. For the Inarizushi with toppings, I made cooked prawns with diced avocado and seasoned pork mince (ground pork) with Iri Tamago (finely scrambled egg). You can find how to cook seasoned mince (ground meat) and Iri Tamago in my post, Sanshoku Bento (Tri-coloured Rice Bowl). Sushi masters, or taisho, take great pride in their work, treating sushi-making almost like an art after decades of training; thus, it’s essential to know the different manners involved in eating sushi and making the most out of the delicious experience. Table of contents