Rice Rice Baby

Sushi making is a lot harder than it looks, at least when you are as uncoordinated as I am.  I love sushi in all its forms – nigiri, maki, temaki, sashimi.   I blame it on the fact that I was born in Japan and lived there for the first 4 years of my eating life.  I also love taking cooking classes, so when those two things lined up in the universe I was very happy.  The chef/owner of a local sustainably run sushi restaurant was giving a class on making rolls so my Aussie husband and I signed up and were ready to learn the ins and outs of rolling rice. 

I’m sure Chef Hajime lined up what he thought would be simple maki rolls for us to practice on, but it took me a whole lot of tries to get a finished product that would even hold together.  Once he stopped eating all the rice off his fingers, my Aussie husband took up a mat and presto – made a beautiful, evenly compact roll.  He at least had the good manners to not laugh too loudly at my attempts. 
I finally got something to hold together long enough to take a picture –

 

At least it tasted good...

And then the chef had us try the hand rolls.  I did not take any pictures.  It was not pretty.  It was, however, very tasty so I did not consider the evening a total loss.