MY LIFE AS A FOODIE
SUSHI
SURPRISE
Sometimes a
meal disaster can
turn out to be a
meal discovery.
Charity Keita sets out to make vegetarian futomaki for
Sunday dinner and while no one ends up eating much
of it, this leads to a brilliant epiphany.
I
think seafood sushi is overrated.
Now before you go up in arms,
please take a second to hear me
out: on the rare occasions that
I am somewhere where the fish
is something to write home about, I
want to taste said fish in all its glory.
When it comes to Japanese style
seafood, this means serving it raw
and undressed (sashimi), with a little
bowl of soy sauce and wasabi on
the side and sticky rice in a separate
bowl.
Why go through the trouble of
eating raw fish, if you are going to
coat it in seaweed, rice, mayonnaise
and heavens knows what else? All
you accomplish is to successfully
hide the amazing texture of the raw
flesh and the delicate flavours that
lie therein.
My contempt for fish sushi does
not, however, extend to the concept
of sushi in general. Far from it, I
find there is something incredibly
sexy about a rice and nori (toasted
seaweed) roll. Be it a maki (regular
roll), a futomaki (a fat roll) or a
temaki (a hand rolled roll), if it
contains some complex and exciting
combination of flavours, I say, “bring
it on!”.
It was in this spirit that I set out
to make vegetarian futomaki as a
starter for a sunday dinner we had
organised the other day. Luan was
set on sticking a pork loin and some
potatoes in the oven and go down
the traditional sunday roast route.
Despite the incongruence between
the two dishes, I decided that I was
going to steam ahead with this foray
into the world of homemade sushi.
And steam I did: I went all out and
cooked my rice in a bamboo steamer
lined with banana leaves. Except I
must have gotten something wrong
-possibly the fact that my steamer
was too small for its pot, so we were
using cellophane to try to keep the
steam in, which really slowed down
the procedure- because before I
knew it the potatoes were golden,
the pork loin crackling and the
sukuma wiki ready, while the rice
was still the wrong side of crunchy.
So much for my sushi starter!
By the time we had finished
our roast, nobody had any space
for a little rice roll, no matter how
vegetarian or delicate. So the guests
left, sardonically commenting on
how good my sushi was, and we sat
down to watch Mad Max III.
Turns out there was a silver lining
to this umpteenth culinary mishap
of mine. The next morning, as I was
wondering what to pack for lunch, I
had an epiphany. Forget vegetarian
sushi, how about leftover pork sushi
with gravy?
Sometimes a meal disaster can
turn out to be a meal discovery. Who
would have ever guessed that the
delicious apple and carrot gravy that
Luan had concocted, would turn out
to make such an excellent lining
to my pork, carrot, cucumber and
avocado futomaki roll?
21.