BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Japanese Culture Sushi is it raw fish?

I am pretty new to these forums but I am hoping you can answer my question. Is sushi a raw fish dish? Someone told me it has to do with rice and not raw fish.

Hi Reptilepop! I can answer this! I'm the Japanese food site editor here at BellaOnline.

Sushi is seasoned white rice. There are many types of sushi. Most do have some variety of raw fish in or on them. However, sushi itself is steamed rice flavored with a mixture of rice vinegar and a bit of salt and sugar.

There are many types of sushi that do have feature raw fish or any fish at all. Some sushi has cooked seafood on or in it.

Some sushi is wrapped with nori sheets that are made of kelp. Others use rice paper or lettuce while others are not wrapped at all.

I highly encourage you to try sushi by going to a sushi bar, buffet or restaurant. Your friendly sushi chef will be happy to show you examples and answer your questions. If you go to a buffet, you'll see a fine array of the various types of sushi.

Some sushi have cooked and seasoned omelet or only vegetables and pickles. But be brave and try the seafood types. They are delicious. Start with the cooked seafood types, such as ebi (shrimp) and then work your way up to the raw fish. There are many types of raw fish that are mild in flavor.

Blend a little wasabi (green horseradish paste) with soy sauce to dip in your raw fish sushi. You will be pleasantly surprised to taste how mild and wonderful it is.

A good sushi bar serves only the freshest, healthiest and safest raw fish. Raw fish is nutritional, packed with omega 3 fatty acids and protein. It tastes so different than cooked fish and, dare I say, better! Similar to the difference between cooked fruit and raw fruit.

Good luck! And stop by the Japanese food site forum and let me know if you enjoyed your first experience with sushi.

One of my favorite types of sushi is shrimp, which is cooked

There is a local sushi restaurant in Memphis which has several dishes where the fish is cooked. My family likes that since they are still a bit put off by the raw fish (I personally love it, tuna roll is probably my favorite).

This restaurant has real sushi chefs who truly create works of art with all their dishes. It's almost too pretty to eat!

That's the Japanese way of presenting food. I really need to work on that myself. In fact, thanks for the idea for an upcoming article on mukimono or garnishing food!

I always thought or was told that sushi simply meant seaweed. I had no idea that it meant seasoned white rice.

Hey, Vance! Why not go to my site and take the sushi quiz? It's filled with interesting facts about sushi!