The maki-zushi topic

[Big Bunny]

One of my favorite lunch spots has been experimenting with the content of their rice rolls. Nothing too outrageous, but for a couple of months now they have made maki with tuna salad.

Today, I had maki made with thin strips of boiled ham. Maybe this is a bit far, I think; then I wonder how far "authenticity" can be stretched or has been stretched?

In a way, this is a similar question to our discussion of pasta on the Indian board.

What's "In" and what's "Out" of maki?

BB

[torakris]

I often pick up maki-zushi at the supermarket for a quick lunch, I rarely eat it at restaurants so am unsure of the recent trends there.

The most popular maki in the supermarket in my area seems to be what is called a sarada maki (salad maki), it usually has either tuna salad, ham or fake crab with cucumbers, egg and lettuce. The other popular is some type of deep fried protein, usually shrimp or pork with lettuce.

[Yuki]

California Roll is always popular and so is tempura roll. I have been seeing lots of vegetarian roll and some of them don't sound particularly appetizing such as carrot roll, green pepper roll, and the tomatoes roll . One thing is that most rolls these day are usually too big to fit in my mouth, I need to take 2-4 bites per slice. There is usually some kind of sauce in those huge rolls too, the common one are teriyaki, ginger, and some other "exotic" sauces.

[Hiroyuki]

In Japan, there are two types of maki-zushi: hoso-maki 細巻き (small-diameter rolls) and futo-maki 太巻き (large-diameter rolls).

For hoso-maki:

Kanpyo maki (gourd strip) rolls, kappa maki (cucumber) rolls, and tekka maki (raw tuna rolls) used to be the most common, but there are a lot others now, such as natto-maki (I, for one, don't like natto-maki although I like eating natto with plain cooked rice).

For futo-maki:

Common ingredients include: gourd strips, shiitake mushrooms, cucumbers, fried eggs, eels, carrots, bamboo shoots, just to name a few. Just about everything is accepted, even grilled beef, wienna sausage, and so on.

I'd like you to take a look at some artistic rolls called matsuri-zushi (festival sushi)

http://www.kengaku.com/main/maturi1.htm

http://www.kengaku.com/main/maturi2.htm

and e-maki-zushi (e = picture)

http://www.town.tako.chiba.jp/azidokoro/futo.html

Beautiful, aren't they?

***

Do you know why cucumber rolls are called kappa maki? Kappa are imaginary human-like creatures who live in rivers. They are said to like cucumbers.

Edited May 18, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

Ha! Goofi-maki. A few months ago a pan-Asian place here in Washington, DC called Nooshi (noodles and sushi) sent around flyers in the neighborhood announcing their sushi happy hour which they called "Funky Sushi". $20 for miso and all the "funky" sushi you can eat. Apparently no one explained the finer and more salient points of the word funky to the owners.

Funky Sushi..........EWWWWWWW

[Big Bunny]

The place where I have maki for lunch is a Korean-owned N.Y. style deli here in Baltimore.

They do an excellent job of supplying a large variety of dishes, but I suspect that experimenting with the maki is one of the few creative things that they get to do.

The young woman at the checkout is quite proud of their experiments, although I don't know if she does any cooking herself. When I got the boiled-ham roll yesterday, she asked me to give her any suggestions I could think of.

I am a good cook, but rarely invent anything. The only input I have been able to come up with is that the rolls seem to be getting too complex. One idea I had was to put the ham on the outside, and just put a slice of pickle in the middle - try for one, simple good bite.

I get their maki once or twice a week. It is an excellent, inexpensive light lunch.

BB

[jrufusj]

The place where I have maki for lunch is a Korean-owned N.Y. style deli here in Baltimore.

I think Big Bunny has inadvertantly hit it on the head...Korean-owned.

Kim bap is basic, value-oriented Korean fast food. It is essentially a hosumaki made with whatever you might put on a siple fast sandwich, plus a few other things. Ham, seasoned beef, canned tuna, mayo, pickle, kimchi, orangish processed cheese, and similarly ghastly items all make an appearance. The rice also tends to be underseasoned. Koreans will generally treat kim bap as picnic food or like a fast food burger in the US...food eaten without much thought or concern. It is also a big favorite with kids.

I will admit that I used to get pretty good cheap fresh binchou maguro and make a tuna salad roll with QP mayo, sesame oil, wasabi paste, and scallions as a dressing. Typically, I would do this for a platter for big, informal cocktail parties.

As Jinmyo might say, Goofi-maki just makes me go ガー!

Jim

[torakris]

We have had lots of sushi thread but yet not one of them is devoted to the humble sushi roll.

I love sushi rolls from the futomaki (fat roll) to the hosomaki (thin roll) and even the temaki (hand roll). I have recently been on a sushi roll kick and have been eating them quite a bit for lunch. Some recent lunches:

a salad maki with fresh salmon, cooked shrimp, egg, lettuce, cucumber and mayo

from Precce supermarket

top: organic vegetable maki with tomato, cucumber, egg, daikon and mizuna

bottom: seafood maki with a couple kinds of fish, egg, cucmber, lettuce, and yamaimo (mountain yam)

from Mother's Organic Market

What are some of your favorite rolls?

[torakris]

here is a new thread on Foods that DO NOT belong in sushi rolls

[stephle]

I'm going to risk being moved over to the 'things that don't belong in sushi' thread but here goes...

I was at the Korean market a while back and wanted some food to eat in the car on the way home (it's about 40-45 mins to the store over and back) but the food court only had stews, noodles, or a full blown meat/rice/panchan dinner. I guess Korean food hasn't devolved to the level of McDonald's yet (as sad as I was, i was actually happy about this).

We've got an upcoming camping trip and usually when we arrive after the 60 min drive we have a light dinner--I've been thinking this might be the chance to attempt a Korean roll on the go.

Was thinking about a sushi-type roll with tamago, chopped kimchi, some of those nice bean sprout panchan, a slice of cold cucumber and perhaps some spicy pork as the center piece. Perhaps spread a little ssangchang or goguchang on the rice before rolling?

Does this sound like it'd work from a taste/texture perspective or have I totally gone off my rocker and should I just go and get a proper korean fix at a restaurant?

[torakris]

Actually the most common roll I make at home is a Korean style futomaki. I make them every summer for my sister when I visit Cleveland for my sister, who begs me for them. I based mine on a version that was served in a Korean restaurant on our college campus that we used to visit quite frequently for lunch.

They contain takuan (Japanese pickled radish), carrots, cucumbers and bulgoki seasoned beef. Last summer we also added kimchi, this was a a wonderful addition BUT make sure you squeeze every last drop of liquid out of the kimchi before you add it. Learn from my experience...

[stephle]

Actually the most common roll I make at home is a Korean style futomaki. I make them every summer for my sister when I visit Cleveland for my sister, who begs me for them. I based mine on a version that was served in a Korean restaurant on our college campus that we used to visit quite frequently for lunch.

They contain takuan (Japanese pickled radish), carrots, cucumbers and bulgoki seasoned beef. Last summer we also added kimchi, this was a a wonderful addition BUT make sure you squeeze every last drop of liquid out of the kimchi before you add it. Learn from my experience...

←

Ooh, those look tasty!! Love the takuan in the middle-colorful and tasty too! I also thought about making an outside in lettuce wrap type roll -- could be interesting too.

I still think my favorite filling for more traditional rolls though are soft shell crabs. Bristol Farms (a grocery store out here on the West Coast) does a pretty good one if you're in the hurry and need a fix.

[torakris]

This was a unique sushi roll in that instead of the typical soy sauce for dipping it was sold with a package of sesame dressing. I was so sure I would find this repulsive that I picked up a couple of soy sauce packs at the deli counter (free). To my great surprise it was really good!

[Fat Guy]

I love sushi rolls from the futomaki (fat roll) to the hosomaki (thin roll) and even the temaki (hand roll).

←

Just to add to the vocabulary list, the most recently pictured roll is uramaki (inside-out roll). Here in the US, and I think pretty much everyplace outside of Asia, uramaki are by far the most popular maki.

And to my way of thinking, they should be. The only way I like to eat hosomaki, futomaki or temaki is at the sushi bar, before the nori gets wet. Once you get into kaitenzushi or sushi from the refrigerator case at a supermarket, uramaki have the advantage of having the nori inside, so you get its flavor but its wet texture isn't unpleasant.

[SheenaGreena]

wow torakris, your kimbap looks fantastic (: super delicious even (:

if any of you want to do variations on it, add fish sausage (I know you can get this in Japan) from the korean grocery store or spam. I grew up on spam kimbap most of my life rather than bulgogi. Koreans also add seasoned gobo (great paired with bulgogi), seasoned spinach, and sliced omelette. A nice addition is also to wrap the kimbap with seaweed + perilla leaves (kkaenip or shiso). Also most importantly after you wrap the kimbap is to rub the whole roll with sesame oil and sprinkle the outside with sesame seeds.

Since you rub the maki roll with sesame oil, you should rub the knife (very carefully) with sesame oil so the rice doesn't stick to the knife and it's easier to cut.

I also like to mix siracha w/kewpie mayo, mix it with tuna, and add that to kimbap for a change

Here's a ghetto pic of some kimbap that my mother made for me when my sister, her boyfriend, and my dad all went crabbing. I know it's hers cause she hates takuan and always makes my mom take her's out

you can see carrot, takuan, spinach, spam, egg, and you can see a little piece of kkaenip in the corner peaking out

and here's the prep area

Edited October 16, 2007 by SheenaGreena (log)