Is it a safe assumption that people know what this is?

8/18/2008 9:34:58 PM

no

8/18/2008 9:35:18 PM

no

8/18/2008 9:35:27 PM

yes.

8/18/2008 9:35:27 PM

I would sure hope so.

edit: then again I dono. Seems common to me but everything seems common to yourself when you're used to hearing it/knowing what something is I guess.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 9:36 PM. Reason : ]

8/18/2008 9:35:33 PM

no

8/18/2008 9:35:33 PM

do want, so hungry

8/18/2008 9:37:11 PM

Okay, guess I should not worry too bad.

I went into Akari to get some sushi, after I ordered instead of telling me they were adding nigiri to the menu, woman behind the counter called them the sushi with the fish on top. After that I was afraid they had no idea WTF they were doing, but I had already paid so I couldn't peace out.

BTW, I don't think I'll be going back. The stuff I make at home is better. They didn't have eel or roe either, and the woman behind the counter wasn't that familiar with the food. I said I couldn't have wheat and she suggested tempura. Then a crab roll, but fake crab has wheat too.

8/18/2008 9:44:08 PM

Quote :

"They didn't have eel"

FAIL. BBQ eel ftw

8/18/2008 9:45:02 PM

oh i forgot to post the countdown to bitching up above

my bad yall

8/18/2008 9:45:33 PM

What, it wouldn't make you concerned if a sushi place didn't use the right name for stuff? Yeah, I have trust issues with eating out thanks to the fact that someone putting the wrong stuff in my food can make me sick for a week. Ah well, guess I'm gonna have to learn Japanese so I'll be taken seriously when ordering sushi.

I mean honestly, anyone that's bough sushi more than 2 times knows the difference between temaki, nigiri, maki, futomaki, chirashi.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 9:59 PM. Reason : ...]

8/18/2008 9:53:42 PM

well it should have clued you in if it was a sushi place that didnt have nigiri prior to you going there




for the record, knowing japanese wont help that much.. a fraction of sushi chefs around here are actually japanese.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 10:01 PM. Reason : e]

8/18/2008 9:59:56 PM

Alright, it's Onigiri in this country, you hear?

And no, you are not cultured by knowing Japanese foods.

8/18/2008 10:06:35 PM

I did not see a menu before I walked in but you are correct. I should have walked back out when I noticed the lack of nigiri AND roe.

I do not claim to have any culture or class. I just like raw fish wrapped in and on top of rice. It's an addiction I started when I lived next to a Japanese grocery store and have not been able to properly satiate it since then.

8/18/2008 10:09:42 PM

Quote :

"Alright, it's Onigiri in this country, you hear?"

say waaat? thats not the same thing. im confuzzled

8/18/2008 10:10:58 PM

Frog, I was talking about nigiri and not onigiri. They are different. Unless you live outside of the US or something strange?

Now I want some scrambled egg musubi for breakfast tomorrow.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 10:20 PM. Reason : ...]

8/18/2008 10:16:48 PM

no

hardly ANYONE knows what this means

after working in a restaurant that served Sushi, 10% of the people who came in knew what that meant

sad

8/18/2008 10:17:28 PM

Quote :

"Okay, guess I should not worry too bad. I went into Akari to get some sushi, after I ordered instead of telling me they were adding nigiri to the menu, woman behind the counter called them the sushi with the fish on top. After that I was afraid they had no idea WTF they were doing, but I had already paid so I couldn't peace out. BTW, I don't think I'll be going back. The stuff I make at home is better. They didn't have eel or roe either, and the woman behind the counter wasn't that familiar with the food. I said I couldn't have wheat and she suggested tempura. Then a crab roll, but fake crab has wheat too."

maybe you should've just stayed home to begin with.




[there is always wheat; you will not escape the wheat.]

8/18/2008 10:19:54 PM

it is one of my favorite things to eat

8/18/2008 10:20:02 PM

Oh wait, I have heard this before. Yeah, not common knowledge.

8/18/2008 10:20:13 PM

you should go to waraji next time instead.

8/18/2008 10:23:57 PM

Ok, on second thought, it's sort of used as more an adjective. Yeah, it is principally a noun, but it's sort of a noun-adjective modifier thingy. You can't just have a Nigiri. That doesn't make any sense. It's Nigiri-sushi.

I mean, you can Nigiru something. But you can't eat a Nigiri.

[Edited on August 18, 2008 at 10:27 PM. Reason : ]

8/18/2008 10:26:35 PM

Quote :

"no hardly ANYONE knows what this means after working in a restaurant that served Sushi, 10% of the people who came in knew what that meant sad"

Holy shit, that is sad. Even sadder than me making a tuna salad roll.

8/18/2008 10:30:11 PM

Quote :

"Ok, on second thought, it's sort of used as more an adjective. Yeah, it is principally a noun, but it's sort of a noun-adjective modifier thingy. You can't just have a Nigiri. That doesn't make any sense. It's Nigiri-sushi. I mean, you can Nigiru something. But you can't eat a Nigiri."

Fair enough, I just didn't want to put nigiri-zushi in the title and then everyone would know it was sushi.

8/18/2008 10:34:44 PM

8/19/2008 12:28:44 AM

Quote :

"And no, you are not cultured by knowing Japanese foods."

I was waiting for a line like that.

8/19/2008 7:34:26 AM

Quote :

"oh i forgot to post the countdown to bitching up above my bad yall"

8/19/2008 8:48:49 AM

I think she should sue them.

8/19/2008 8:52:32 AM

indeed, litigation is the answer, they almost killed her!

8/19/2008 8:52:58 AM

zomg. As your japanese t-dub resident, I'll "try" to help clerify this shit.

Nigiri is a japanese word meaning grab or squeeze. So really, Nigiri is just hand pressed sushi; as opposed to using the bamboo to roll the sushi.

Most of the time, Onigiri is just simply sushi rice (white rice mixed with a little bit of rice vinegar) sometimes wrapped by seaweed. Shape doesn't matter. Sometimes it's a ball completely wrapped with seaweed all the way around, other times, its just simple molded squares of rice. My mom has occasionally made onigiri and added some sweet soy paste in the middle (like a filling) and still called it onigiri. So applying the word Nigiri to onigiri simply means the rice is squeezed together, if that makes any sense. No that doesn't mean O means rice. Gohan means rice (cooked) in japanese. The meaning of the word depends on the context which it is used in. But there are different types of Nigiri. Nigiri is a "technique" of making sushi.



[Edited on August 19, 2008 at 9:38 AM. Reason : THE MORE YOU KNOW...]

8/19/2008 9:28:51 AM

nope

8/19/2008 9:29:46 AM

yup

[Edited on August 19, 2008 at 9:36 AM. Reason : om nom nom nom]

8/19/2008 9:32:52 AM

wow i've called that "sashimi" all this time

8/19/2008 9:53:18 AM

^^^^ Onigiri is NOT made with vinegared rice. And onigiri can have a bajillion different things in or on it, not just seaweed. My personal favorite is either the onigiri with salted salmon on/in it or the one with BBQed beef in the middle. NOM NOM NOM.

8/19/2008 10:03:31 AM

Sashimi is usually just sliced fish on top of a "block" of rice. Pretty simple stuff. But damn, it's all good. yummy nom nom. Sashimi is actually a special technique to preping the fish, but I don't know what it is. It's just like how sushi is derived from "raw fish," when really, it's all sushi now (even the vegetarian/non-fish rolls). So anything that's just raw fish on top of rice is sashimi. If it's rolled in rice, then it's a "maki" roll. (rolled with seaweed on the outside, seaweed is refered to as Nori). I forgot what it's called when it's rolled with the rice on the outside >_<

^ depends on the chef really. There are a lot of exceptions and the world of sushi has really changed over the years. and actually, if you go out to kanki or similar japanese resturaunt, then yeah, they don't. I do when I make my sushi, my mom does as well. And that's okay. I've even had sushi in japan and it had the vinegar in it, but I know most places do not. OT, but I wish they had soba shops here

Now that I think about it, I wonder if they just used the leftover sushi rice and made onigiri from it? hm



[Edited on August 19, 2008 at 10:15 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on August 19, 2008 at 10:25 AM. Reason : .]

8/19/2008 10:10:38 AM

I thought sashimi didn't have any rice; just the piece of fish.

8/19/2008 10:15:45 AM

here in the US it is served on rice
but traditionally it is just raw fish

[Edited on August 19, 2008 at 10:27 AM. Reason : sdf]

8/19/2008 10:26:26 AM

Quote :

"I would sure hope so. "

8/19/2008 10:56:25 AM

Ok, since we have people in here that know what sushi is I have another question. What's a good rice cooker? The cuisinart I have burns the rice at the bottom (got it for $20, only worth about that) and annoys me because of the lack of a timer and multiple settings. I realize I'm probably gonna have to spend $100 to $200 on a zojirushi, was just wondering if the $200+ ones were really that much better than the $100 ones. I pretty much just eat rice and corn chips as the only grains in my diet so I don't mind paying for a nice one.

8/19/2008 11:15:35 AM

Quote :

"^ depends on the chef really. There are a lot of exceptions and the world of sushi has really changed over the years. and actually, if you go out to kanki or similar japanese resturaunt, then yeah, they don't. I do when I make my sushi, my mom does as well. And that's okay. I've even had sushi in japan and it had the vinegar in it, but I know most places do not. OT, but I wish they had soba shops here"

What in the world are you talking about?

Onigiri =





Nigiri-sushi =



Onigiri is not made with vinegared rice. It's generally lightly salted rice.

Nigiri-sushi is made with vinegared rice. And yes, even a place like Kanki is using vinegared rice for their nigiri-sushi. The vinegared rice is what gives sushi part of its flavor. I seriously doubt you have ever been to a sushi shop, especially in Japan, that wasn't putting vinegar in its rice.

8/19/2008 11:16:57 AM

Get a zojirushi. That's what I use. You don't have to spend $200 on one though. I bought mine for $50 and it works great.

8/19/2008 11:18:13 AM

*ahem*

Quote :

"you should go to waraji next time instead."

8/19/2008 11:18:16 AM

I think I'm gonna make onigiri with some NC bbq in it. Bastardize the food of two cultures at once.

8/19/2008 11:20:07 AM

^ That is an AMAZING idea. I think I'm going to have to copy you

8/19/2008 11:21:11 AM

So I think this might be the American version of the rice cooker I have: http://tinyurl.com/6effme

The buttons and design pretty much look like mine but in English. And apparently they charge twice as much for it If it is the same one, I've never had any problems with it. You might want to try going over to the Japanese grocery in Cary and seeing if they sell it for cheaper there. It might be a Japanese model but you don't need to know Japanese to get it to work

8/19/2008 11:26:28 AM

Japanese version also has the added benefit of roommates not trying to use it, or at least not before I can warn them of what will happen if they try to use metal spoons in it.

8/19/2008 11:48:52 AM

ahahaha true.

One thing I like to do with my rice cooker is put some oatmeal with water and raisins or whatever into it the night before and set the timer to start cooking about an hour before I wake up. Then I have some oatmeal hot and ready for me in the morning

8/19/2008 11:50:56 AM

Quote :

"I seriously doubt you have ever been to a sushi shop, especially in Japan, that wasn't putting vinegar in its rice."

That's cool. Maybe it's an okinawan thing (I've been to Okinawa once and mainland once). In Okinawa, that's how they did it, both when I visited family and in the local shops. Is onigiri usually made with rice vinegar, no. So you are correct. But I know I've had it both ways. Some of the time, my mom even makes onigiri with the vinegar if she wants to. There's no set "this is the right way to sushi." hell, I'll stir fry some salami/balogne and egg and roll it up with cucumbers and carrots in a maki roll. Still sushi even though I haven't added any seafood elements (ie: roe, tuna, eel, etc). You have no reason to doubt me.

anyways...

8/19/2008 12:58:25 PM

^^ Man, I need to try that. That and using it for steaming veggies. Haven't done that yet

8/19/2008 2:03:06 PM

I put tomatoes, green onion, bell pepper, and broth in with the rice then once it's done put some cheese on top to melt.

I can't do this too often, I always eat too much of it and don't want to get fat.

8/19/2008 2:09:34 PM