Redding Shotokan Karate

Friday, July 27, 2007

It was a busy day. I was in charge of making sushi. I went to three grocery stores in town to buy sushi ingredients, and headed to Lynette's home where we were having a blast this evening.

When I arrived there at 3:30pm, Lynette and Gareth met me in the driveway, helping me unload grocery bags, a rice cooker and my sushi utensils. After a happy and quick greeting, I immediately started cooking rice. Since I was the only one who knew how to make sushi for the night, I had invited members to come early to take my sushi lesson and help me make sushi. Soon we had about 14 people showed up with lots of smile and curiosity.

While waiting for the rice to cook, we started the prep work. We had cucumbers, avocados, green onions, smoked salmon, Philadelphia cream cheese, crab sticks, etc. I made a quick demonstration for each ingredient. Everyone then started working. They did pretty good. When the rice was ready, I showed how to make sushi rice. I emphasized that we should buy the right kind of vinegar -- the one that has the word "seasoned" or "sushi" on the label, not the regular rice vinegar. Then I added my secret ingredient to the sushi rice -- ground roasted sesame seeds! I demonstrated how to make a Philadelphia roll and a California roll with a bamboo roller mat, and then showed a few tricks to cut rolls neatly -- the tricks I learned from my sushi chef friend. They couldn't wait to make their own very first sushi. They did it so well. Wow! I was impressed. I will call you next time when I want to eat sushi.

While they were busy making their creative masterpieces, I made egg-flower soup with tofu, seaweed (wakame) and black mushrooms (shiitake). To my joy, it turned out pretty good. When the second round of rice was cooked, we made 70 pieces of inari sushi. This one was much easier than making rolls, just stuff sushi rice into brown seasoned fried tofu pockets. After two hours of the fun project, we had 150 pieces of sushi on the table, and they looked "close to" those at sushi bars. Wonderful job for the first try! I saw several members started tasting their own sushi. (Yes, we were all hungry.) The sushi was disappearing piece by piece pretty fast. I feared that they might eat up all sushi even before the party started. I decided to take a big portion of sushi pieces on a few plates, wrapped them up and hid them in the refrigerator. With the leftover rice, I made ten big rice balls. I was happy to see many people liked them.

Around 6pm, more people showed up with meat and even more food, and they started cooking BBQ on the deck. The sushi crew was busy cleaning up the kitchen. In the living room, some were enjoying DVDs of Mr.Ohshima's Waseda Lecture and Unity 2006. The house was filled with Mr.Ohshima's voice and his students' enthusiastic kiai all through the party.

We had about 30 members and their families with great food and friendship. It was very nice to have Pam Logan with us who happened to stay overnight at my home on her way to Washington. We sure missed those who didn't make it. Maybe next time...when we cook sukiyaki, udon noodle soup and/or curry and rice? Many thanks for Lynette and her husband Jim for offering their huge and beautiful home for the evening. It was a perfect night.