Temakizushi

The monthly park mom potluck is one of my favorite activities.  Each time I join the boisterous evening, I walk away feeling a stronger connection to these women.  Every month, we come together for an evening of eating, relaxing, and talking in a tatami room at a local community center that we rent for the night.  Several kids come, increasing the volume in the room exponentially, but everyone has a great time despite the noise.

This month, instead of our regular potluck, we had a temakizushi party.  "Te" is hand in Japanese and "maki" is roll, translating the entire word to mean "hand roll sushi".  It is a popular party food, as the host makes a lot of sushi rice (short grain white rice mixed with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt) and condiments (like cucumbers, shiso leaves, and mayonnaise), while guests bring various types of fish to share.  For our party, 3 moms made and brought rice, everyone else brought snacks, and all the attendees split the cost of fish that one mom purchased.  While most of the fish was served simply slices, some of it was soaked in a soy sauce marinades and some of it was served as a paste.  There was something for everyone!

Large sheets of nori (dried seaweed) was divided into quarters and placed in stacks around the table.  We each picked up a piece of nori, topped it with a small amount of rice and then decorated it with various types of fish and finishing it with some cucumber or a shiso leaf and a dab of soy sauce.  It was then folded like a taco and consumed on the spot, never even touching a plate.

I love temakizushi.  It is always such a relaxed party where people can eat whatever kind of sushi they want and play with new combinations.  It is also extremely easy to prepare for, as the only thing that is cooked is the rice.  The only exception is that my husband likes to have little sausages as part of his temakizushi offerings.  At first I balked at this, but then after eating it decided it was quite good.

We made sure the kids had lots to eat as well.  Instead of letting them make tamakizushi (many of the kids are 2 and 3 years old), a few of the moms made some rolls for them with sausage, tuna, or salmon with cucumbers.  Someone also brought lots of karaage (fried chicken) for both the adults and kids.

I wanted to hold a temakizushi party in the states, but always got stuck in the details of planning it.  In the states, I would need to purchase everything because trying to get multiple attendees to get different sashimi grade fish (the only kind that should ever be consumed raw) is quite a challenge.  And just explaining it to people who don't get it is difficult, at best.  There also isn't the variety of fish available in the US as there is in Japan.  So, even though we had a couple temakizushi dinners (just our family), it was never as exciting or fun as what I experienced tonight.  There is just something better about having the authentic dinner in the authentic location with authentic people.  So.  Much.  Fun.