by JoJo Tuinstra, 2025/03/09
I'm seeing these terms a lot in my research. You may want to remember them.
Okay, now that that's over with, let's get to the fun part!
A Tale of Three Tales. Who Created It?6
Claimant | Location | Restaurant | More |
---|---|---|---|
Ichiro Mashita | Los Angeles, CA | Tokyo Kaikan | Avocado replaces fatty tuna and crab (later cheapened to imitation crab only) is added for a nice seafood flavor. |
Ken Seusa | Los Angeles, CA (Tokyo, Japan) | Kin Jo (Fuzushi Rop-pongi) | Once a sushi chef at the famous Rop-Pongi in Tokyo, he was a mad scientist with his flavor choices. |
Hidekazu Tojo | Vancouver, Canada | Tojo's Restaurant | Dungeness crab, avacado, spinach, egg, and sesame seeds were the original ingredients in this version of the famous roll, served uramaki so Canadian customers would not be grossed out by seaweed. First called the Inside-Out Roll, now the Tojo Maki. |
Romanized name (English script) | Literal meaning | Japanese name (Hiragana/+Kanji) | What is it exactly? | I need a visual! |
---|---|---|---|---|
Uramaki | Inside-out roll | うらまき/裏巻き | The type of sushi you know and love. That is, if you have any taste (buds) 😉. Has the rice on the outside, seaweed hidden on the inside, which is the opposite of how it's "supposed" to go. That's right. Sushi usually has seaweed on the outside! | You can probably imagine what this looks like. |
Nigiri | Two fingers (i.e. length) | にぎり/握り | Not to be confused with onigiri aka musubi. Those are stuffed rice balls, and I'll actually talk about them later. Instead, this is a little rice patty with wasabi covered in a slice of fish and sometimes bound together with nori. A bite-sized snack! Did you know? Most Japanese people eat sushi with their hands and in one bite—that is perfectly okay!11 | You can probably imagine what this looks like. |
Sashimi | Pierced…body? 😱 | さしみ/刺身 | Someone forgot to put any rice on this nigiri. Just fish. | You can probably imagine what this looks like. |
Norimaki/more specifically makizushi | Seaweed roll/rolled sushi | のりまき/海苔巻き, まきずし/巻き寿司 | The OG? sushi, seaweed on the outside, rice on the inside. | You can probably imagine what this looks like. |
Hakozushi | Box sushi | はこずし/箱寿司 | This sushi is squishi! Ingredients are pressed into a rectangular shape. | You can probably imagine what this looks like. |
Temaki | Hand roll | てまき/手巻 | A big, handheld cone-shaped foodstuff with sushi-stuff inside and nori outside. | ![]() |
Chirashizushi | Scattered sushi | ちらしずし/ちらし寿司 | It's sushi if you made it, well, not a roll, and put all the ingredients in a bowl instead. | ![]() |
There are other even stranger seafoods lurking deliciously in the streets of Japan. Would you take the leap and try a few?
|
![]() Okonomiyaki.20 ![]() Well, is it? I'd want the octopus to have a chance at a happy life first…Images from 14,15,16 ![]() I never thought I'd find myself craving squid, yet here we are. Come to Papa!17 again. |
---|
These next foods get even crazier; they aren't just delicacies to foreigners, but to Japanese people as well.