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Sushi: Taste and Techniques

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This beautifully illustrated guide will enable readers to master and appreciate the art of sushi. The quintessential book for any sushi lover, Taste and Technique shows you all you need to know about this exceptionally delicious and healthy cuisine, how to locate the freshest ingredients, how to use the right equipment, and how to master the etiquette of eating sushi correctly. From makizushi to hand rolls to vegetarian versions, this book teaches you how to create any kind of sushi.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2002

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Kimiko Barber

20 books5 followers

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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
Profile Image for Christina.
28 reviews
July 26, 2012
My go to book for homemade sushi! The sushi rice recipe alone makes this book a must buy. When I make the rice I have to shoo my family out of the kitchen otherwise they will eat it before I get to make any rolls out of it, haha. The recipes are thorough and easy to follow and photos of the finished product are plentiful and gorgeous. Tempura shrimp inside out rolls are my favorite to make and eat ;). Before I bought this book I never made sushi before, and after a few sessions and mistakes I have it down. This is definitely the best buy for anyone who wants to create delicious sushi at home.
Profile Image for Tim.
396 reviews9 followers
August 20, 2012
If you want a low cost, £10, book on Sushi, this is the one.
From equipment to basic store cupboard ingredients. From basic recipes to fish guidance and preparation, it's here together with a large number of sushi dish recipes showing, in good photo's, the assembly.
I have better books on the subject, I have books that deal with the subject in more depth, but here you have as much as many people would wish to know at an amazingly low price.
Profile Image for Li.
182 reviews38 followers
September 11, 2021
There are hundreds of quality color photos of step-by-step techniques and finished product and dozens of recipes. The introduction defines sushi, talks about sushi etiquette, and gives ideas on what to drink with it. The first section goes over utensils, ingredients, and has basic recipes. I was surprised in the utensils the bazooka wasn't mentioned, as one is included in the sushi kit I bought recently and it is one of the handiest things for making rolled sushi.

The next section is 50 pages or so about the different types of fish, shellfish, and roe that is used in sushi. Even though I eat only veggie sushi, I was impressed with how "round" fish and "flat" fish differ in how they are cut up to be used. There are photograph diagrams of several types of round and flat fish with how to cut them. Other critters besides shellfish are crabs, lobster, shrimp, squid, and octopus are detailed in how to cut them up.

Most of the rest of the book is how to prepare sushi in its many forms and arrangements. Techniques range from hand-shaping to rolling, reverse rolling, and no-forming freestyle. There is a lot of attention paid to how to best present the sushi with garnishes. There are types that use rolled omelets, omelet purses, and shredded scrambled eggs that look interesting. There are stuffed sushi, stuffed tofu parcels, sushi wrapped in cabbage leaves, and sushi pressed in a wooden box. There's thin and thick and inside-out roll, and even sushi burritos!

There is a brief section on Sashimi, which basically are cubes of raw fish presented with creative sauces and garnishes.

The book includes a glossary and an index.

I haven't tried any of the recipes in the book yet as I wanted to become familiar with everything in it to see what jumped out at me to try. I have no doubt that any recipe in the book will be good. The authors (listed on my book at Kimiko Barber and Hiroki Takemura) know what they are doing when it comes to sushi.
Profile Image for Scott McCloskey.
Author 11 books48 followers
December 17, 2012
Sushi: Taste and Technique is a comprehensive look at many popular forms of sushi from start to finish; history, ingredient preparation, explanations, and final product. I will say this about the book -- it taught me how to make sushi. Is that not its purpose?

I encountered this book out of a personal desire to recreate some of the dishes I enjoyed while studying abroad in Japan years ago. I've tasted pretty decent sushi stateside, but let's face it, you're paying for the preparation, ambiance, and service, not just the ingredients (as with any restaurant food). I wanted to be able to enjoy one of my favorite dishes in its many variations without always having to include the restaurant experience.

Saying that, I should mention that I am not a chef of any reasonable experience. As a married man I do have the ability to create a variable enough menu to keep myself and my children decently fed without having to rely on fast food while my wife is away, but at the end of the day, she is the chef in our house. Still, this book was able to teach me to churn out, if I do say so myself, some pretty nice sushi dishes. That is one of this book's strengths -- even if you have very little experience in the kitchen, so long as you can read and follow directions, I would certainly recommend this book to anybody interested in learning its craft.

At any rate, another aspect of this book that I appreciated was the history lesson. At the outset, we are treated not simply to a brief introduction on what sushi is and then a soulless smattering of weights and measures, but to a full history lesson. An appropriate and refreshing amount of time is spent delving into the history of the food we're going to be preparing, which in my mind sets any volume like this apart from "just another cookbook". I feel as though more time was taken with this book, and more work went into it then just a reprinting of some lofty chef's personal repertoire. Perhaps to some this aspect of the book wouldn't be as appealing, but as a student of Asian culture since my college days, I in particular found this welcome and refreshing. Call me quirky, but my cookbook needs to have at least some content not related to actual cooking. Perhaps this is why I've always appreciated the show "Good Eats" over nearly any other cooking show, but I digress.

After the history lesson, we are presented with the most common ingredients and utensils that the majority of sushi dishes covered in the book require -- rice, wasabi, konbo, various types of fish, wooden buckets, fans, and so forth. Each item is described with sufficient detail for its role in the process. I haven't yet attempted to dissect some of the more challenging looking fish in the book, but at least there are a large number of varieties touched upon. Basic preparation of rice is covered, right down to mixing your own sweet vinegar and how to add it in a very traditional way (yes, it does make a difference). Following that, we are treated to the "meat" of the book. How to prepare our dishes from what is laid out before us. If I had to make any negative comment about the book, I would say that laying out the basic ingredients before the actual dishes did cause me to have to page through the book at inopportune times (such as when my hands were on the fish), but this is an acceptable shortcoming once you've done it a few times and anticipated which parts you need to memorize before beginning.

All in all, this book is clear, concise, easy to follow, and does not read like a textbook. I wanted to learn how to make sushi in a traditional way. Yes, I could use those "easy roller" devices, buy my vinegar already sweetened, go with wasabi paste instead of powder, and even purchase my meats already sliced to prepare, and there's nothing wrong with any of that, but I personally wanted to learn how to create sushi as a cultural experience, not just an enjoyable dinner (though that's certainly a plus). Sushi: Taste and Technique taught me what I wanted to know, the way I wanted to learn it.
Profile Image for La Gran Biblioteca de David.
859 reviews42 followers
May 2, 2021
Si eres un apasionado amante de la gastronomía asiática, japonesa en este caso, y del sushi (como yo) no os podéis perder esta joyita. Este libro, escrito por dos chefs japoneses, nos va a enseñar a hacer buenos platos de sushi. Si estáis pensando solo en ese cilindro envuelto en alga nori, o con el alga dentro, os va a sorprender la gran variedad y tipos de sushi que aparecen en este libro. Pero no es solo un libro de cocina lleno de recetas, es muchísimo más.

El libro comienza con una introducción. Aquí nos hablan de qué es el sushi. ¿Y qué es el sushi? Su definición exacta es una muy simple: "arroz aromatizado con vinagre, con un relleno o cobertura de pescado o marisco crudo, marinado, curado o cocido, hortalizas o huevo". Vamos a conocer los orígenes inciertos y oscuros del sushi con todas las posibilidades (pues no hay un consenso específico) y la evolución que ha tenido este plato desde la Edad Media, con el primer registro, hasta la actualidad. Y esto me ha parecido muy interesante, a la vez que instructivo.

Si esto es interesante, aún más lo es la etiqueta y la estructura a la hora de comer. En las siguientes páginas, vamos a conocer la estructura normal de una comida en Japón, con todo el protocolo social (que si bien no es una obligación, sí es una recomendación para no ser irrespetuoso), cómo usar los palillos y la eterna pregunta que muchos me han ido preguntando desde que cocino sushi: ¿dedos o palillos? Sigue con el uso correcto de la salsa de soja, que muchos la emplean mal, el empleo del wasabi y para qué sirve realmente y el del jengibre encurtido. Recuerdo la primera vez que probé estas dos cosas. Desconociendo lo que era, cogí una buena cantidad de wasabi y me la metí en la boca. ¡Completo error! Luego lo volví a hacer con el jengibre ¡Otro error! Con este libro aprenderemos cómo, cuándo y qué cantidad emplear, así como sus funciones y características.

Bien, tenemos la salsa, el wasabi y el jengibre, pero ¿qué podemos beber mientras comemos nuestro sushi? En esta introducción también conoceremos con qué bebidas podemos acompañar estos platos. Nos hablarán del té verde caliente (digestivo, refrescante y limpia el paladar), la cerveza (japonesa o no), el sake (con sus seis variedades, en japonés) y el vino.

El siguiente gran apartado está dedicado a los conocimientos básicos. Comenzamos con los utensilios, fáciles de encontrar y baratos dado el constante aumento de la popularidad del sushi y la comida asiática, donde encontramos el equipo esencial (esterillas y todos los tipos de cuchillos), el equipo adicional (barreño de madera, sartén japonesa y molde para prensar). Un inciso antes de seguir. Me ha resultado curioso y muy bueno el hecho de que tengamos el nombre japonés original de cada uno de estos utensilios (dogu) justo debajo de la palabra en español. Esto se va a mantener a lo largo de todo el libro: tendremos el nombre en nuestro idioma arriba y justo debajo el original japonés. Así nos vamos familiarizando también con el vocabulario que deberíamos emplear y saber qué es cada cosa.

Otro apartado lo conforman los ingredientes (zairyo): la despensa básica (arroz japonés o de grano redondo, las láminas de algas secas, el wasabi, la salsa de soja con sus variedades, el jengibre encurtido, el vinagre de arroz, etc.) y los saborizantes frescos (mouli o rábano, la raíz de loto y las hojas de perilla). Conoceremos qué son, qué propiedades tienen y para qué y cuándo se utilizan, así realizaremos un empleo correcto de todos ellos.

A continuación viene el completo recetario. Comienza con las recetas básicas. Y, cómo no, empieza explicándonos de forma exhaustiva y fácil cómo preparar un buen arroz de sushi y cómo preparar y utilizar el vinagre. Si seguimos paso a paso esta receta nos va a salir un sushi digno de un chef japonés. Continúa con los huevos revueltos al estilo japonés, la tortilla fina japonesa, la tortilla japonesa enrollada (que nos dará un grosor espectacular con la que podremos rellenar nuestro sushi), un caldo japonés, las guarniciones y adornos y cuatro recetas de sopas (entre ellas la de miso).

Muy bien, ya tenemos nuestro arroz de sushi perfectamente listo con las guarniciones. ¿Y ahora qué? El siguiente gran capítulo lo forman los pescados, los mariscos y las huevas. Este capítulo arranca con una premisa: seguridad y sostenibilidad en el consumo de estos productos. Los pescados están divididos en pescados redondos (jurel, arenque, sardina, bonito, atún, caballa, salmón, etc.) y planos (rodaballo, rémol, lenguado, etc.). Aquí aprenderemos a ver si un pescado es fresco o no, las partes de cada pescado, algunas características de estos, la disponibilidad y sostenibilidad, qué partes debemos usar, cómo filetear un pescado plano y uno redondo (pues no se hace de la misma forma), cómo cortar filetes de pescado o rodajas, marinar la caballa y ablandar la piel. La sección de mariscos se estructura de igual forma que la anterior: tendremos una selección de mariscos con sus características y cómo prepararlos.

Todo este contenido base, pero totalmente esencial e imprescindible, conforma la primera parte del libro. Si seguimos todos los pasos ya tendremos lo esencial, ahora solo falta preparar el sushi. Tenemos muchos tipos de sushi: el sushi libre (chirashi zushi), el sushi relleno (inari zushi), el sushi prensado (oshi zushi), el sushi enrollado (maki zushi, el más famoso creo yo), el sushi modelado a mano (nigiri zushi) y el sashimi. Cada uno de estos tipos va a tener una portada donde se nos habla qué es y las características que lo diferencian de otro tipo. Algunos van a ser rápidos de hacer, con unos pasos simples, y otros van a tener un poco más de elaboración, pero también con unos paso a paso muy sencillos de seguir. Además te dan unas ideas muy vistosas y coloridas de emplatado para sorprender a tus comensales.

Por último, la edición. La edición de este libro es espectacular. Es un libro muy manejable dada sus dimensiones y su peso y de una grandísima belleza. Es una edición muy bien cuidada, lujosa y con una infinidad de fotografías con una grandísima calidad. Cada receta siempre va acompañada por una o dos fotografías del plato, además en algunas partes hay un paso a paso con una fotografía en cada uno (especialmente en la parte de filetear pescado, hacer rodajas y en otras elaboraciones más). También, como comenté anteriormente, han mantenido las palabras originales en japonés, para familiarizarnos con el vocabulario original. De igual forma, al final del todo hay un glosario con todos los términos empleados. El cierro se cierra con un índice terminológico.

En conclusión, nos encontramos ante un libro que es más una transmisión de la cultura gastronómica japonesa que un simple libro de recetas. Con este libro, una verdadera maravilla, vamos a conocer la historia del sushi, cómo comer al estilo japonés, el protocolo a seguir, todos los ingredientes empleadas con sus características y cómo hacerlas, qué partes debemos usar y cómo. Son recetas muy fáciles de seguir y que no generan mucho tiempo de empleo (salvo quizás la preparación del sushi). Un libro que contiene un total de 46 recetas solo de sushi (14 sushi libre, 7 sushi relleno, 9 sushi prensado, 8 sushi enrollado, 5 sushi modelado a mano y 3 sashimi), con unas fotografías espectaculares. En definitiva, un libro que nos acerca a la cultura gastronómica japonesa y nos enseña a preparar nuestros propios sushis al más estilo japonés. Una preciosidad de libro y una joya para los amantes culinarios.

Más en mi blog La Gran Biblioteca de David: https://lagranbibliotecadedavid.blogs...
Profile Image for Aaron Radcliff.
8 reviews
July 7, 2021
Is it fair to say I “read” what is essentially a cookbook? Maybe not. But the portions of history and cultural practices surrounding the creation/consumption of sushi are appreciated and will be used if I’m ever lucky enough to travel to Japan to try some. That might be a tad perplexing since I don’t actually like sushi, but I live in a landlocked US state, so it’s not like I’ve ever gotten some good quality stuff before.

Whether you want to try learning to make sushi at home or just want some tips on how to prepare whole fish, shellfish, or chirashizushi, this is a useful and informative guide to turn to.
Profile Image for Kuro Lilie.
13 reviews
May 23, 2023
[ENG] I bought this book at the time for a friend who was studying to be a chef. After seeing how good the book was in terms of information and explanation of how to prepare sushi (including cutting the fish), I decided to buy another book for myself.

[PT] Comprei este livro na altura para um amigo que estava a estudar para ser chef de cozinha. Depois de ter visto o quão bom o livro era em termos de informação e explicação de como preparar sushi (inclusive o corte dos peixes), decidi comprar outro livro para mim.
Profile Image for Miguel Ángel.
78 reviews3 followers
April 19, 2018
Más que un recetario, este libro contiene información sencilla y resumida de la elaboración de el sushi, así como los tipos que existen y los materiales e insumos necesarios para elaborarlos en casa. Sí eres amante del sushi y un cocinero entusiasta, este libro te ayudará a iniciarte en el camino del arte con arroz.
Profile Image for Paige Etheridge.
Author 6 books23 followers
July 28, 2020
I loved learning some if the history of sushi, learning when fishes are in season, and how types of sushi are made! The photos are dazzling too. I totally feel like I can make more in my own kitchen now!
Profile Image for Nushu Shri.
60 reviews
December 15, 2024
Loved the comprehensive overview of sushi dishes (from their history to their preparation), especially the sections with presentation tips. There's a nice balance of pictures and text. I look forward to trying out some of the ideas here!
Profile Image for Lynda.
243 reviews2 followers
August 1, 2022
Good book...great techniques, photographs and recipes
8 reviews
April 2, 2023
Great book that provides the soup-to-nuts background and how-to for all things sushi.
Profile Image for Jenny.
73 reviews
August 16, 2009
Lots of good info here. Topics covered include basic ingredients, properly preparing the fish, types of sushi and sushi etiquette. I just need to find me some sashimi grade fish now! I am looking forward to trying the recipes in this book - finally I will branch out from making spicy tuna rolls! Also, the pictures are gorgeous! Gotta love DK publishers!
Profile Image for Lynn.
303 reviews
September 7, 2014
Beautiful pictures. I was initially attracted to the fish and squid pictures, and their filleting techniques. They don't tell you alot, but just enough. If you want to learn how to slice a fish beautifully, learn fish names and be subject to a visual feast, and in the meantime learning a bit of Japanese here and there, here's your book.
Profile Image for Mathieu.
83 reviews7 followers
March 19, 2008
Very good, very complete. Recommended in Trevor Corson's Zen of Fish. Would buy a copy for myself, but I already have another book on the subject, which is not as good alas.
3 reviews
November 20, 2008
read it in a day. really easy read and the information is really valuable. For japanese cooking in general "Japanese cooking : a simple art" is probably a better reference book. A lot of the sushi book is fusion but its a great beginners book.
Profile Image for C.
1,264 reviews31 followers
March 30, 2010

I recommend this as a library read, as it is less likely to be used frequently in the kitchen as it is to be picked up, perused, and put back again... perhaps used as inspiration from time to time, or a recipe made...but likely not a full time use book.

Profile Image for Trey.
1 review
February 18, 2013
I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has been very helpful in understanding the different techniques when making sushi. There aren't very many recipes in this book but that really isn't the purpose. There are other books out there that do have recipes.
1 review
June 23, 2018
As a person who have some experience with sushi making. I would say this book is really good for starter and new people who want to be a part of sushi art. Detail but some ingredient is far away from reach for a lot of people.
Still, I would recommend this book to anyone.
Profile Image for Joanne McKinnon.
Author 8 books3 followers
April 27, 2015
Will be trying the Japanese omelet recipes. The broths are easy and quick to prepare. Already have the basic ingredients handy.
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