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We're going to take you back in time this week to July 15th, 2014, the little episode that we like to call How Sushi Works.

This is making me hungry, just thinking about it. And I remember eating sushi for probably like three or four days straight after we recorded this one. It's a good one because Josh and I are both Big Atsushi fans. And it was really cool to learn the history and sort of the ins and outs of how sushi works. So here we go, everyone, with how sushi works.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know. A production of radios HowStuffWorks. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me, as always, is the DOWER'S, Charles W. Chuck Bright and Jerry Nordling over there, which is kind of like a like a laughing through your nose. Yeah, I thought that. I thought they meant like a gloomy or something. You seem a little gloomy today. You know, you think the smile is fake.

Yeah. Well, you know, I wish I had a picture of that. We could put that on a t shirt. Yeah. And then I could wear that t shirt.

Yeah. And then you could get a picture of me wearing that t shirt and put that on a t shirt and wear that t shirt. Yeah. And so on and so forth.

And we'd be like Ryan Gosling and um. Yeah. How'd he do that. Macaulay Culkin. Right. Yep. That's I get to be Macaulay Culkin this time though. This time. Yeah. All right.

All right. You're always making me be Ryan Gosling. I know he wants that.

Nobody. How are you? I'm good, man. I got to tell you, so we're about to do sushi, by the way. This thing made me really hungry. Oh, my God. Yeah. I want sushi so bad now.

And I have for days now. Yeah. Just remember the yarning episode and people are like, oh, listen to this Anniyan the entire time now. Yeah. Well prepared to want sushi everybody. Even if you don't like sushi, you're never had sushi. I guarantee you you will want sushi by the end of this or we will give you your money back for this episode. That's right. So you've had sushi? Yeah. I mean, it's one it's one of my favorite foods.

I could live in Japan and eat sushi every day.

Yes, I'm going to Japan next year and I plan on eating sushi every day.

I would have I would not get sick of it. No, no. It'd be really tough to. Yeah. Especially with the variety, I'm sure. You know, everybody thinks sushi is basically like a little bit of rice with a bunch of ingredients tucked in it. Yeah. Or on top of it. Yeah. Or maybe it's like a little little lump of rice with some, you know, fish on it or something.

There's a whole galaxy of sushi out there. Yeah.

Especially when you go to Japan. I mean just prepare to have your mind blown. I mean you've had it before but yeah, my buddy Jason lives over there and it's like it's not like Sushi Avenue here in Decatur, Georgia.

Does he ever mail you sushi now? Yeah, probably wouldn't stay very well there, but if you figured out a way to stick it into one of those live organ courier, things would be great.

Uh, I think so.

Uh, well, you know, if you eat raw sushi here with the exception of tuna. Yeah. And by here I mean the United States, um, it's not fresh.

It's been frozen by law. Yeah. Except for tuna. And I couldn't find out why tuna was the only exception. But all fish that's intended to be served raw has to be frozen flesh frozen is fine and then of course thawed back out. But it can't just be from the ocean to your plate. Yeah. And before the pedantic ones among you start emailing Josh Sushi when he was talking about raw fish and in fact, sushi is rice and that is sashimi.

True.

Thank you. Uh, by using the colloquial. Exactly.

When people say, hey, let's go out for sushi, it's like a, uh, a genre of food like, hey, let's go out for Italian.

Right.

And you don't go and they say, actually that's a Sicilian item of food you're eating out of.

Yeah.

If this is ringing true to you and it's reminding you of yourself, take a take. You need to do some personality changes.

If this is your friend, then you should surround yourself with higher quality people. Yeah, well, let me go out for sushi. That means you can have miso soup and that means going out for sushi and you can have, uh.

Yeah. Like at Emami and, uh, seaweed salad. And that's all part of the experience. Yeah. That's gone out for sushi.

Yeah. In this country it basically is shorthand for Japanese. You're going out for Japanese.

Uh, yes, sort of. But you know, hibachi now Habashi is not Japanese is strictly a Rocky Aoki American. Oh is it. Yes. I mean they do have Habashi grills and stuff like that. But the experience, the Benihana version. Yeah, totally American invention.

I've never been to one of those places. Oh yeah.

I mean it's like there's a guy like Chopan and Cook in England and like toss and stuff under his hat and everything just never been.

Yeah. All right. So Chuck. Yeah. Um, thank you for pointing out the sushi thing, because I am going to do that a lot. Yeah. And we should say when if you are specifically talking about sushi in Japan, you're talking about, um, vinegar. Rice, yes. Is roughly what the word means.

Yeah. Medium or short grain vinegar, rice, the stuff that's on top. Um, the netta which is a fish seafood topping that you put on sushi. Yeah. Is actually that raw fish is called sashimi like you said.

Yeah. You can eat that by itself as well. If it's fried stuff it's called tempura. Yeah. Different types of sushi have different kinds of names.

But um let's get into the shall we, let's just talk about the history because this whole thing didn't even start in Japan.

Yeah. It's pretty interesting. Uh, I mean, if you look at sushi, there's a lot of folklore surrounding it, a lot of mysterious origins. Um, one of the old wives tales from Japan is that it just appeared out of nowhere one day mysteriously.

Uh, no. It just means it can't be. No, I'm just teasing. You're joshing. I am joshing the chocolates. Right.

Uh, there's an old Japanese wives tale about an elderly lady who would hide her rights from thieves and aspirins and she would forget where they were and they would ferment the rice, wood and the seafood that the Osprey would eat would fall down in there.

And voila, that was the first sushi. Yes, it's a great story. But but it's a lie. And it's nothing like it's folklore which are lies.

I guess it's all by old lady. Very harsh way to say it.

Um, so there's the the earliest sushi supposedly. Yeah.

Was around in. In Southeast Asia, in, I don't know, like 2500 years ago, they were taking cooked rice, which does ferment impacting fish in it. Yeah, and then the fermentation of the rice. Yeah. I kept it so long before refrigeration. Oh, yeah. But it also kind of pickled the fish. But then once the the fish was pickled over the course of like weeks and they would place it under like a heavy stone or something like that.

Yeah. To basically compress it. And once the once the fish was pickled they'd throw the rice out and just eat the fish.

Yes. And in fact a sushi kitchen can be called a sushi bar or a pickling place. Yeah, that's BAMN.

The original version of sushi was basically fermented fish that was fermented with rice. Pickled fish fermented with rice. Yes. Then they threw the rice out.

Somebody said, well, wait a minute, is this rice tastes like, oh, my God, this is delicious. Yeah.

And what would it taste like if I put this fermented fish on the rice and then went, oh, my God, this is even better. So they they said, well, let's try this a different way. If we're good, I'm going to throw the fish or throw the rice out.

Let's actually get the fish. And this is the 10th century, by the way.

Yeah. And by now, this is in Japan. Let's get the fish, soak it in Soki, which is Japanese rice wine. Yeah. And then packed that thing full of rice and like that from it. Yeah. And then after a few weeks we'll just slice it and then eat that. Yeah.

And each each of these steps basically is speeding the process up a lot. Like the very first process took about a year and a half. Oh did it. And it was only for like the uber wealthy. Once they added Sakey though that speeded that up, that speeded that up. And that stuff still around is called Naris Zushi or Rice Sushi. Yeah, I'm sorry. Rape sushi. Yeah.

And apparently you can still get that. And it's a little like for your American taste buds at my taste.

A little funny, but I'll bet once you get used to it you're like this is I have to have this all the time.

Probably so. Uh, so then in the sixteen hundreds, early sixteen hundred Japanese military leader named Tokugawa IASA and we're going to do our best with these Japanese pronunciations. Yes. Give us a break.

Uh, he moved the capital from Chiodo to Edo, which would later become Tokyo, and by the 19th century it was a Hoppen city and in the mid seventeen hundreds they sped up that process a little bit more by skipping the soki and using rice vinegar.

Yeah.

Which made it like a matter of days after that, uh, first couple hours, right. Yeah. Which is what I was following up with. Yeah.

Which is, I mean that's super quick and then would slice it into pieces and again just cutting that preparation time. Yeah. And then in Kyoto, which was the former seat of power in Japan before it was moved to Eddo or Tokyo. Yeah.

They would take that vinegar and some ingredients, maybe a little cucumber, a little dried seaweed, which is known as Nory. Yeah.

And they put it in a box and press it together. Yeah. And you'd have Ochi Sushi, which is Osaka style sushi. It's it's like a square of sushi, right. Yeah. And there is a guy who lived in Aido in Tokyo in the 1920s and his name was Yohei Haniyah and he had a little cart where he was making Ochi sushi and everybody liked it and all that. But apparently as the story goes, some of his customers were like, I'm very busy and important and I don't have time for you to press into a box office.

Hurry up, make it snappy. Yeah. So he took some of that rice, that vinegar flavored rice and rolled it up in his hand a little bit. And then he would take some fish that was taken out of, uh, Tokyo Bay or edamame. Yeah. I mean, he was set up right there on the water. Exactly.

And he cut off a little bit of slice and put it in there maybe with the streak of wasabi and handed it to the he said, here, jerk.

Is that fast enough? That took me like three minutes. Exactly. And they said, well, by God, this is Japanese street food. That is fast food that we can use our hands for and eat in two bites. And Nigerias sushi, uh, what a lot of people think of as sushi was born, the modern sushi was born right there in that food stall.

That's right. And then the Great Kanto earthquake hit Tokyo and land prices went down.

And all of a sudden there was a lot of, uh, retail space. And so the sushi cart said, hey, maybe we should move these things inside and start a legit restaurant. And it happened all over the place. And by the 1950s, it was the sushi restaurant was where it was at. Yes. Basically in the 1930s, the refrigeration, you could ship fish by the seventies and the post-war economy, people were loving the stuff. Yeah, it started to boom and other like all over Japan and then started to spread to other parts of the world.

It did. And in the United States, it was first adopted in the sixties. In Los Angeles, of course, it was Los Angeles. There was a place called the Cowwarr Fuku, and that was the first big American embraced sushi restaurant in the United States. Yeah. And then the yuppies came. And you think like 80s in sushi, right? I do, I do. I always have. Yeah, but apparently it wasn't until, like the 90s that sushi really hit New York and it was because of a unknown man named Robert De Niro.

Oh, you know, who talked to the chef of Nobu, whose name is Nobuyuki Matthews.

He's going to be in so much trouble when I get home. So DeNiro talked the chef of Nobu, Nobuyuki Matsue Shiza. I think that's it. Yeah, it's really close, if not to open Nobu, which was already an L.A. icon in New York in 94. So apparently Sushi didn't hit New York big time until the 90s, even though I think it was like total American psycho fodder.

Yeah, I mean, it was around I think it probably the explosion didn't hurt. I mean, it was very much a California thing. That first restaurant was a little Tokyo and L.A. And then in the 70s, they opened one in Hollywood called OSHA in 1970. And that was you know, that was when the celebrity started to in. And they were like, oh, my God, this is so exotic and delicious. And and I could eat it every day now.

And something really, really big happened in 1973. Um, there was a place in Los Angeles, uh, and there is a sushi chef there. His name was Monáe. Qaeda and al Qaeda created an inside out role, a Moki, which is Moqui. Sushi is a handrail or. No, it's a role that you use a bamboo mat for. We'll get into it. So was it inside out or regular inside out? Maki roll with avocado, crab and cucumber?

That's right. Yes, OK. And he made the California roll and that became the entree. That's the gateway drug to sushi for a lot of Americans.

Yeah. Because it doesn't have the raw fish in there. If you're creeped out by that, it's yeah. You can start on the California roll and be like, oh this is just sort of like a salad.

Right. And then once you go in California rolls enough times, you're like, well, maybe I will try a bite of that. And once you do, you're never going back. Yeah, it's like I could still eat a California roll like a bite of it or something like that. But I'm more like, that's a waste of sushi. Like I want I want. Yeah, good. Nigeria. Yeah.

If I've got that I'll put that six dollars toward something else for sure. Yeah. Uh but I'll make a California roll at home because it's uh. Oh you make it my home. Yeah. Nice. And uh well we'll get it. We'll get all that.

So Chuck, that's the history of sushi up to right now.

Now, um yeah. Let's, let's talk about fish in a second.

Let's take a message break first. Hey, everybody, it's your pals, Josh and Chuck, and we are here to tell you that the good people at Stanley, Black and Decker are celebrating the makers of the world, the men and women who build the world, who make, fix and create the world. Aren't they, Chuck?

That's right, because October is maker month in Stanley. Black and Decker wants to take this time to recognize and honor the people in these skilled trades profession.

Yeah. Did you know that right now there are 10 million global manufacturing jobs and three million trade jobs that are unfilled right here in the U.S. due to the skills gap? So there's no better time than now to consider a career in manufacturing or the trades. That's right.

Just check out Stanley Black and Decker Dotcom Slash Maker Month to see how they're inspiring makers through upskilling scholarship programs, steam education and more, and meet 31 amazing makers across the globe. And, you know, I mean, if our podcasting thing ever just dries up and blows away, I could see us doing jobs where we use our skills to build and fix and create things. Can't you, Chuck? Maybe.

But seriously, everyone, thank you to all the makers, doers and the bold thinkers out there. Your hard work does not go unnoticed. Stanley Black and Decker, proud to empower makers everywhere.

In this uncertain and turbulent time, it's helpful to reflect on a historical past, to understand how it can inform our present in our election special two part series of personality, we're digging into the life and legacy of Joe McCarthy. It's a sort of scary triumvirate.

If you add natural talent, the ambition that drives you to do something that's going to put you in the limelight and the willingness to do anything, including embellish or outright lie to get you where you want it to go.

Want to understand what really made Joe McCarthy tick and in turn would affect his psyche had on Americans of the Day. Take a listen to this new two part personality election special and all of our other episodes on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. OK, so we're talking about fish, raw fish is a common ingredient when you go to a sushi restaurant, but if you're not into that, there are plenty of other offerings.

You talked about tempura. We talked about the California, California. All you can there can be you can use veggies. This article says virtually any type of vegetable, but I completely disagree with that. Yeah, like you're going to roll up broccoli or cauliflower and sushi are, you know.

But man, I am crazy for ground up cauliflower as like a rice substitute or something like that or like mashed potatoes have to go at it like carlita's like pureed cauliflower.

So good. Yeah. I've been making Carlita's for years, dude.

I spent my entire life up until like a couple months ago hating cauliflower.

I never told you about college. No, I've heard of it before. I just never really tried it. But you, me and I started making it and I'm like, wow, this is good. Yeah. And it's you know, I hate it when people say it is just like something. It doesn't taste just kind of thing, but it's got its consistency and it's good. Right. It mimics the consistency, not the taste. Yeah, but it's the taste isn't too far off, I mean.

Yeah, it doesn't taste like rotted horse meat compared to like mashed potatoes or something, but I think it's like it's its own distinct thing. It is. So that's my treatise on cauliflower. Yeah.

You won't put cauliflower in your sushi, though, but you can find asparagus and sushi fairly frequently.

Yeah. Cucumber. Sure. Uh, well, I guess that's it.

Now there's some more stuffed mushrooms. Oh yeah. Mushrooms is a big staple of a lot of sushi. That was the third one. Yeah. That's chiotakis boom. Have you been to, um, sushi. No, it is amazing. Yeah. The one I've been on lately is. Oh shoot. I can't think of the name of it now. Uh, miso I think is the name of it in the old Fourth Ward and it's good little pricey but you know.

Oh yeah. Miso is a carrier. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be real good. It's good stuff. It's more um it's like, uh, Nuvo Sushi which I guess you me sushi is kind of but they have like like an old traditional sushi chef running the place there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean in America you're going to find some variations.

And in fact the inside out role apparently is a totally American thing, even though it has now since found its way over to Japan. But it did not originate in Japan. You know, the reverse roller inside out, it was like an echo that came back by storm.

And if you don't know what we're talking about, that's when the rice is on the outside of the roll. Right. And the nori is on the inside instead of the other way around.

Yes. All right. So check if you are going to use fish or you're ordering at a sushi place, the most of the fish you're going to see is saltwater. So you see fish. Yeah. You don't want a trout roll? No.

And the reason why is because a bass role, freshwater fish are much more prone to parasites. The saltwater fish parasites don't like salt as much, right? Yeah. Um, but occasionally you will see a freshwater seafood. There's like a type of eel that's really good. That's freshwater. Yeah. I love the eel. Is that energy.

I always get the two eels confused and I always get like after all these years I still can't commit it to memory. Right. And about every third time I order the wrong one. Oh really. I don't think I've ever had the saltwater eel.

Yeah. I mean it's not bad of course, but I like the like the fresh water more. Yeah. Yeah I do too. And you can but I make that's one of the ones that make it home. You can. There's a great Japanese market over by the the cat farmers market and you can buy it in the refrigerator and bake it in the oven and yeah.

Because that's the thing. If you order the freshwater eel like it, it doesn't come raw. Yeah. Like it's seared or something like that. Yeah. It's like a sauce seared. Like a teriyaki sauce.

Right. So delicious is man you know it's elevating.

OK, so you're going to have freshwater fish. Yeah. Or freshwater seafood most of the time then. It's saltwater. Saltwater. Thank you man. Yeah. And um one of the most highly prized seafood that you're going to find in sushi of any type is tuna.

So good. And there's different types of tuna. Um they'll use a yellowfin. Big blue fin. Yeah. And Blue Fin is the most expensive one. Yeah. And apparently it wasn't until the 50s that the Japanese came to prized Bluefin like before they used it for cat food, like they wouldn't even eat that stuff. Yeah, that's what I heard. Like the belly is was originally and now it's like the prize and the belly now or used to be like they wouldn't eat it.

Yeah. The actually the record for the highest price fish ever sold, I believe anywhere was sold at the Tokyo Fish Market last year. It was a four hundred and ninety pound bluefin tuna. How much. Uh, one point eight million dollars.

Only crab for just that tuna.

Wow.

And I guarantee they made their money and then some man. Yeah, it's a big tuna. I feel kind of bad for that guy, even though I love to eat them so much. The tuna.

Yeah, well, there's definitely a moral thread that runs through tuna or not sushi. Yeah. Like apparently yellow fin tuna farm raised tuna or raised a lot like veal battan until their muscles deteriorate alive. Yeah. And then of course there's the have you seen the the raw or live frog video. Now there is a type of sushi that is it's called um Ekis Shakuri which is live sushi and there's a wicky security video.

And if you have a light stomach at all or anything like they're bothered by animals being killed, like you should not watch this. But the point is, you eat the thing while it's basic, part of it is still alive on the plate. Looking at you like this frog is sitting there blinking. It's a frog, there's a frog. And I can't remember what the other one is. But there's they showed two things being prepared. It's not. Have you have you seen.

Oh, boy. The original. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody eats that squid live. Oh yeah. That's a that's live sushi. Wow. Like that was real. Yeah. Not for me.

And yeah. You get pretty adventurous. Would you do that. Probably just to try it.

Yeah. I mean it just. Like, I know everything is killed, yeah, we eat right, right, but it's just like, I don't know, being confronted with it, who knows? I can imagine some of the people who are into, like, that slow food movement are like, well, yeah, that's the way you should do it. You should have to confront the death while you eat.

Now, I mean, a lot of people would say it's hypocritical to not do that, you know. Right. But a lot of I'm a hypocrite. Yeah. A lot of people are comfortable with that.

Emily won't eat anything that reminds her of an animal. Like she doesn't even like bones in her chicken. Yeah.

Uh, and like if someone served her a fish with a head on it, like, fully cooked, she would just be like, no, no, no, no. Yeah, that fish is looking at me.

It's like the duck in a Christmas story. Yeah, he's smiling.

Uh, OK, so we were talking about tuna. Tuna is delicious. Salmon is delicious. Yellowtail and hamachi and sirf clam. And there's all sorts of delicious seafood that you can get on your sushi or in your rolls and then you just spread out from there that there's fried chicken in there.

It might be a little too Americanized, although if that's what you're into then great. Well it'd be considered tempura chicken in that case. Yeah but yeah. Come on.

If there's fried chicken and mayonnaise rolled up in rice, then that sounds kind of good. Well I know, but is it sushi. Well or is it Kenny Rogers Roasters.

I feel like there's been kind of you know, there's definitely a traditional threat of sushi, right? Yeah. I don't know.

I mix it up a little bit and there's like traditional preparation's and then there's traditional ingredients. Yeah. But then it's like you said, you know, in the 70s when the California roll was made here in America, it was sent back. And now you can get a California old pretty much anywhere in Japan. Yeah. And it's expanded from there.

So I think. Yeah, I think so she's kind of this evolving thing I've seen Cereal's added, have you seen that Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies on top? Uh, yeah, I'm not into that either. Crunch. Yeah. Or or squirting a bunch of sauce on top. I'm not a big fan of that either.

Yeah, well, that's another thing that we'll talk about when we talk about how to eat sushi. But really there's a lot of sushi that's prepared that you're not supposed to do anything to except eat.

Yeah, true.

So I guess we should finish what can be in sushi thing by mentioning RO and Tomago. Ro is the fish eggs like the little delicious orange things like caviar.

Yeah. And there can be a little tiny ones in larger ones. Uh, I'm sure there's a difference in the name. Do you know I didn't look that up. No cherries nodding. Is there a difference in the name.

I'm sure it's not necessarily by size but probably by fish. Yeah. I think the smelt row is the smaller. Mm. I think so. Yeah. The little little tiny beads.

Yeah. And that's usually added with a roller on top of something and the other larger ones. A lot of times that's just wrapped in the nori and that's all you're eating. Yeah.

Or there's just like one on top of the thing. Oh yeah. Like a little bit uh for presentation. Yeah. I wouldn't say a colleague on top of the bay like yesterday. Yeah. This was raw oak. I didn't realize it was going to be raw. I ate it anyway. It's like you said, I'm adventurous but man I was like I'm never ordering that again. Was not good. No, I'm not too big on raw eggs.

Yeah. Um, except strangely like it to Takia uh um carpaccio or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's weird I guess. I guess I'll just have to keep ordering it then whether I like it or not. All right. Tomago is egg in sushi, but it is cooked and it's like it's an it's an omelet. It's, it's made by adding little layers of egg. Uh, I've seen some people like bake it in a pan.

It's probably the shortcut method. There's probably a more traditional method.

But, um, it's almost like because it's sweet. Yeah. It's almost like a dessert sushi. Yeah. And that's it's like an inch thick and a slice. And you put it on, uh, some sushi rice with a little band of nori tied around it and it's delicious as well. Tomago, avocado. So you say it avocado.

Uh, that is very popular.

And that means tuna of the land in Japan. Yeah. The word for avocado means tuna. The land is pretty cool. Yeah. Avocado is like a great addition to anything. Yeah I agree. And very good for you too.

It really is the good fat. Yes. Yeah.

Good for your heart and your brain. Um what else goes along with sushi. The soy sauce. The Shoigu. Yeah. It's the type of soy sauce and like you can, you can dip your sushi in soy sauce if you prefer, but you're supposed to use a very sparingly.

Yeah. And supposedly you're not supposed to dip the rice either. No, I drown it and just you want to talk about how to eat sushi the proper way.

Uh, sure. OK, I don't do it. That's fine. Yeah. And a lot of people eat it with chopsticks. Yeah. Supposedly it's an insult to the sushi chef. Um, to drown your sushi and rice. I'd drown it in soy sauce you mean. Yes.

Um, and what would I be without, you know, just saying wrong stuff here and there. Yeah. No big deal.

Um, so basically let's say you have a piece of negishi which is just a little lump of sushi with um but like some, some topping on it. Yeah. So hey tuna. OK, uh, you kind of lightly grab the, the negatory on one side with your finger on both sides with your fingers. Yes. You don't need to use chopsticks. Sushi was originally a finger food and you can feel free to eat it the traditional way using your hands.

Yeah. Um so you grab the sides kind of lightly but firmly you tilted over. Yeah. You tilt this, you tilt the Nigeria over and then you just basically have it. So you're grabbing, you're holding onto the tuna and holding it almost like a basket. So the rice is on top and the tuna is on the bottom. You just flipped your sushi over. Yeah. If you want a little bit of show you you can just kinda just barely like pass it through the show you the soy sauce.

Just the tip. Yes. Yeah. Of just the seafood. Yeah. You're not supposed to touch the rice to it. Yeah. That's what I hear. You take, um, one bite depending on the size you can put the whole thing in your mouth and eat it, but you want to put it the topping side down.

OK, and if it's a big piece of Nigeria then you can bite it and then eat it in two pieces.

All right. Here's Chuck's method, I take it, and I dump the entire thing in a big bowl of soy sauce. And then I pull it out and I stick it in my mouth and chew it up and eat it all.

And then I wash it down with the Sapporo. Mm hmm. Well, that's customary. And I'm a happy guy.

You would probably like to Rushy Zushi, which is basically a bowl of rice with sushi toppings.

Yeah, I could I could be done with that. Is there the Nory in there, though? Because I love the Nory. I think everything you want in there. OK, whatever kind of sushi you want is just like in a bowl. It's just like a KFC bowl. But with sushi. Yeah.

Oh man. What are those awful beef bowl places. That was the. Yoshi, Noki, or something people like in the shopping malls. Yeah, I know you're talking about I can't remember the name of them. Are they not good?

Well, I mean, get you tell me you get like a three pound beef and rice bowl for like three dollars. Oh, wow, that sounds good. I don't think they're known for their high quality meats. I got to buy beef. You mean Cat Yoshinari cow? What is it called? It's a chain there all over L.A.. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I don't think they have them here in Georgia. Uh, wasabi.

I don't do the wasabi just because I don't like the taste. Um, I know most people like to put it in their soy sauce and mix it up. Apparently that is an insult as well.

Uh, it's abnormal. That's what me does, though. Yeah. She puts in and puts a lot of it in there. Yeah. So does Emily. She loves that stuff.

But the thing is, is most sushi is going to already have a little streak of wasabi on top of the rice beneath the topping. Yeah. So you don't necessarily need any. And if you've ever wondered why your nostrils are suddenly clear and you're breathing very easily even though you didn't use any wasabi, it's because it was already on there. Yeah. And here in the United States, you're not eating wasabi anyway. Nope. Uh, although you can get it.

Uh, um, sushi. Oh really. It's going to cost you. Yeah. So that's the fact of the podcast for me. What you're eating is, uh, horseradish and mustard paste that's dyed green and they call it wasabi wasabi. When people say it's Japanese horseradish, it actually isn't even horseradish. It's in that it's like a cousin of horseradish and it is expensive. It goes by the river and you're eating a root. It lives in a van down by the river.

But, uh, yeah, apparently it's so pricey. Like your you've probably never had real wasabi unless you're, like, hifalutin like you and go to fancy sushi places. Yes. I'm sure Nobu has real wasabi.

I dress like a little gentleman. I wear a velvet jacket and velvet shorts with knee socks, breeches, a little hat. Yeah. And they sing well they serve me.

It's wonderful. Uh, well, that's funny that you mention that because being a sushi chef in Japan, you're also supposed to be kind of part performer. It's very social thing to sit at the sushi bar. Yeah.

You're not necessarily performing like at a hibachi place. It's not like that. You're performing not a clown.

You're you're just you're friendly. Yeah. You're helpful. You want the person to feel like they are welcome and that they they are being let in on your expertise. Yeah. Like ask if you've never been and you want to try it out, sit at the sushi bar. Yeah.

And ask. I like it anyway just because I like to watch it. But um ask the chef like hey man what's, what's good today. Yes. And it's pretty in the mood for I say hey man, because there's still a lot of discrimination um in Japan, even with women becoming sushi chefs.

Oh yeah. It's still a thing. Yes it is Chuck. Yeah. Which is no good. Um, and apparently regardless of your gender, if you're a sushi chef, um, you are required to work at least two years if you're working at a decent sushi place. Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but it used to be ten. Yeah.

But well two years just to learn to make the rice. Well another year training with a knife. Yes. OK, and that's in Japan. Here in America they're turning them out because there's such a need. Right.

But once you're a trained sushi chef, like you can become a journeyman and go anywhere in the world these days and open your own place. I am sorry, um, have you seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's highly recommended.

I think that's streaming on Netflix, too. Is it? Um, and you recommended that, I think to me for the first time. Yeah. We went and saw it in theaters. It was good. Yeah. It was really good. I mean this it's about wanting sushi. Yeah.

And you know, you have to like sushi if you just appreciate art and craftsmanship and being the best at something, you should written that movie and family too.

It's like it's the man and his two sons. I think Jiro has been making sushi for like 70 years or something like that. Yeah. And his two sons are following in his footsteps. And it's a really, uh, intimate. Yeah. Documentary about that family.

Totally. Yeah. Uh, so we talked a little bit or I mentioned drinking a nice cold Sapporo. Um, people I don't like Saki myself. Um, I just don't dig the rice wine. But that is a big thing for a lot of people when they go out to eat sushi used to drink sake, but apparently, uh, because it is rice based in that your sushi is rice based, it doesn't complement one another. So you technically shouldn't be drinking saké as you eat the sushi.

I think it's a lot like putting wasabi in the soy sauce. What, like just do what you want.

Yeah, well, all this stuff is of course, as long as you're not insulting the sushi chef. Yeah. Overtly. Yeah. And calling him things like Sensei and stuff like that. Really buttering him up. I think you're doing OK.

Did people do that. I'm sure they do. Uh, I haven't yet, but it is probably a good idea.

All right. Um, they recommend like green tea, light beer, even water. But again, drink whatever you want, but if you're drinking sake, supposedly you're not supposed to pour your own. You're supposed to pour your buddies and then they pour yours. Yeah. And this is if you're going you know, if you want to be traditional.

Sure. But it makes Soki for sharing by definition by that one. Mouret. Oh, yeah, yeah, like if you can't put your own psyche, you're up the creek. If you're just drinking it by yourself, what are you going to ask? Like a stranger? Sure. Make a buddy. Make a new friend in Japan now.

All right. We're going to talk a little bit about how to make sushi right after this message Rick. Hi, this is Hillary Clinton, host of the new podcast, You and Me both, there's a lot to be anxious and worried about right now, and it's made so much worse by the fact that we can't be together. So I find myself on the phone a lot, talking with friends, experts, really anyone who can help make some sense of these challenging times.

These conversations have been a lifeline for me.

And now I hope they will be for you to please listen to you and me both on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so you've never made sushi, I'm surprised you guys haven't tried it. I've never made sushi. Yeah, well, I have I haven't done it in a while. But you can get your nori sheets and grocery stores, and I eat that stuff like a snack.

Yeah, of course. Good. Uh, you can find your little crab sticks and cucumber. And where it gets a little tricky is, um, is the fish itself. Like, if you live in a big city, there's probably a place where you can get sushi grade fish. If you live out in the sticks, you may have a harder time, but you definitely want to get sushi or sashimi grade fish and ask if it is sashimi grade.

Um. Like we said, no fresh water, you don't want to try out roll, no, and you want it to be nice and vibrant color. Yeah. You don't want there to be any weird, like, dark or soft spots. No, that's right. Yeah. The tuna should be like really bright red or pink. Yeah. Like Dark pink. Yeah. I mean, you can if you know how to spot it, you know the difference.

Like if you get a little practice. Yeah.

And if you're not like Emily and you're buying the whole fish. Yeah. You want the eyes to be like not sunken in, you want them to be like still just kind of popping out like oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening.

Kind of eyes, you know. Yeah. It shouldn't smell too fishy either. If it smells superficially, that means it's probably not super fresh. Right. But once you have your fish and you've bought your Nory, you want to buy your rice. That's the first key ingredient you need to master. And like we said, in Japan, they spend two years learning how to make the rice properly. So don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go well at first, no.

Um, but the the the rice you're making, you want to start with sushi rice, which is a short or medium grain rice. And if you go to the store to buy rice like you go to Asian food market or something like that, they're going to have rice that says sushi rice. Yeah.

And it's going to come out like like you want it to be clumpy. It's not going to be like mushy. It's going to be nice and sticky. White rice. Well, if you make it right.

Right. You can mess it up pretty bad. And I've learned. Oh sure. Um, I use choros that something here in the United States you can look for. That's good stuff. Yeah. It's a real popular I think it started in California. Um, it's another one when we eat all the time is I think.

Oh it's like Nichi I believe.

Is that like the bread brand. Yeah. Karros is a variety. So it may be a calories though. Oh it's not a brand. I thought it was a brand that's a rice variety, medium range, medium range, medium grain.

So the key here, when you're making the rice, there's a lot of keys. But the first big key is you don't just throw it in the pot and cook it. You have to rinse it.

And what I do, what my friend John, you know, Chef John, he, um, he taught me to just put the rice, the dry, uncooked rice in a pot and start just a cold water, like a slow cold water run and just let it go like walk away and the rice will kind of stay at the bottom and the water will just kind of overflow. But it'll that continuous water movement and it's a little bit wasteful, you know, if you don't like to leave your sink running or your water running.

But what you want to do is just rinse the rice until the water is almost clear and you'll see it. It's real, real cloudy and kind of grainy. And as you keep washing it, it'll clear up and you want to do with your hands and be gentle with it. You don't want to mash it up. Uh, don't use a strainer because that can beat up the rice pretty bad.

Just treat it treated respectfully and sort of wash it with your hands until the water's clear. Right. So that's step one. Then you got to soak it for an additional half an hour in cold water. Okay, just walk away and leave it there. Okay.

Then you're going to add, uh, a half hours elapsed.

OK, we should just sit here for half an hour after the half hour has elapsed. You if you want, you can add a little socket to it. If you want, you can add something called dashi kobu. It's dried kelp. Um, I've never done that. But you can it makes it pop, does it? Sure. OK, then you're going to cook, you know, I mean, it will probably say on the package, but then you're going to cook it a lot like traditional rice.

You boil it, cook it on a medium heat with the pot on for about 15 minutes, then simmer for about twenty minutes over low heat. And then they recommend here, I've never heard of this to turn the heat up to high for a few seconds at the end. I'm not sure what that does. I think it may be just like burns off any excess moisture. That's what I would guess it does. All right.

And then leave the lid on and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Completely off the heat after that.

Yeah. All right. So now the vinegar, right. You want to start with, uh, rice vinegar? That's the kind you have to use is rice vinegar. Yeah, appropriately enough, yeah.

No other don't think like, oh, I can use apple cider vinegar. White vinegar.

You could use Souci vinegar which is prepared rice vinegar. Right. But it's got to be rice vinegar. All right. But if you want to make it yourself, you use a little rice vinegar, um, about a quarter cup to a tablespoon of sugar and one and a half teaspoons of salt.

Yeah. And that's four, five cups of rice. Right. And you mix all that stuff up until the mixture is clear and you've got yourself some homemade sushi vinegar. Yep. Once your your rice is is ready. Yeah. You want to turn it out into a bowl. Yeah. It's what it's called. Yeah. We dump it out into a bowl. Yeah. And uh what you should get is and you've probably but if you're trying to make sushi you probably bought a couple of things like your little bamboo rolling mat and a little wooden paddle they call it.

And it's basically a big flat spoon. And that is what you use to turn it, um, traditionally into a wooden bowl. Yeah, you can use anything but metal. Don't use metal. No, because it'll react with the vinegar. Yeah, that's no good. You turn it out with this sushi paddle or rice paddle, which by the way, you, me and I have seen the world's largest rice paddle. How big was it?

It was big. Bigger than me. Like as big as this table. No, it was like the size of like a long canoe. Oh, I said the world's biggest rice paddle. Well, I didn't like I was trying to the flat part. Was it as big as this table.

Easily OK.

In which for everybody who's not in the room with us right now, uh, the table is probably about three feet across three in diameter, you know. Well, did they use the thing I don't see how you could or was it just one of the silly things like the world's biggest spatula, that it was a display? It was far from silly, but it was big. It was on me. Ejima, which is a neat little island off of Hiroshima, and they have the world's largest rice paddle.

All right. On display.

So you're going to use that rice bottle to pry the rice out of the pot into your wooden bowl.

And it will come out kind of like like a cake almost before you start messing with it. And then here's the thing. You don't just dump the vinegar that you've made all over the rice.

You want to pour it over the paddle and then spread the paddle around over the rice. So it sort of gently falls and distributes evenly. Right. And then you want to fold it in and mix it together gently again, make sure everything's coated pretty well and then cool it down to you. Just be fanning it while you're doing this and then cool it down to room temperature. Then you're all set to go. Yeah.

And then you want to take your hands and rinse them in vinegar to prevent the rice from sticking just kind of lightly.

Yeah. You should have the paddle as well when you're spreading it, you you need to soak that as well. It works well. Right.

And then you're ready to start making Nigerias sushi, which is the easiest sushi to make. Yeah. It's just basically finger sushi. You take a little lump of rice. Yeah. And just kind of roll it into an oblong shape. Yeah. In your hand. Yeah. Pressed down one side on one side with the finger and that's the side that's going to be the bottom. So basically you're adding stability.

Yeah. And you don't want it super firm but you don't want it falling apart either. Right.

And then you take a little bit of wasabi, smear it on the top and then top it with whatever ingredients you want, say tuna.

Yes, and they have little molds, by the way, if you don't feel like you should try and make it in the palm of your hand, but they do have little prefab molds that you spoon the rice into and like you press a little thing on top and then pop them out, which would make it basically Ochi sushi, that Osaka style.

No, they have the mold. Oh, is that what it is.

Yeah, but there's a strictly like a box. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. This is like eight little individual compartments. Yeah. They're shaped like flowers and hearts and stuff like that too. I haven't seen that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Munster's rectangular but I don't use it. I did it first and then I was like now I'm going to try it in the palm of my hand.

Have you ever made, uh, sushi with like that? You were just like, this is perfect. No, no. I guess it's just practice ten years at least.

I mean, it it tastes fine. And they even point out in this article it'll take some practice before it looks as good as it tastes. Sure, the taste will be there, but it's not what you see in the restaurant probably. Right. You know, those guys are pros. Yeah.

Um. That was an injury Souci had mentioned, the little hand hand rolled, finger sized pieces of sushi. Yes, you can also make mochi.

Yeah, and that's when you take the fall. That's a sushi roll. That's when you had the full sheet.

You want to spread about a third of it with a thin coating of rice and you want the Nory shiny side down right under the mat.

The bamboo mat. Yeah. And so you spread your rice. You don't want a super thick on top of the north. Yeah. On top of the nori. And you know, this is a little bit of a if it's your first time, there'll be some trial and error involved. You know, like I put way too much rice at first and then it was hard to roll and it looked like this big burrito, essentially. So you're going to want the rice a little thinner than you think even.

And then you put it on the sheet, it's on the mat, and you put your toppings across, kind of like you're making a burrito and then you fold the bamboo mat over, you roll the nori into the toppings and. This description feels a little convoluted, you basically just want to roll it in the mat and I give it a good squeeze at the end to make sure it's all together and let it know its loved.

Exactly. Yeah. And you want to I imagine this is another thing that comes out of practice. Like you said at first, it looks like a burrito. Yeah. But if you roll it in, I would guess your hands need to be kind of away from the center. Yeah. So that you're putting an equal amount of pressure on the roll. Yeah. And you're lightly rolling it, being careful not to let the mat get rolled up into the sushi.

Yeah, I've done that. Just rolling it over the top. But you're rolling the roll together and then you got a little roll squeezed at the end as per chuck and then you take a really sharp knife. Right. And cut it in half. Yeah. Then you cut that in half and so on until you have eight pieces. And my friend, you have a mochi sushi. Mikey. Yeah.

And like I said, it's a little hard to describe. The best way to do it is just to throw yourself in there and try it. And if you've ever seen sushi rolls, then your instinct will kind of tell you how to do it and just mess around. It's fun. Like don't put pressure on yourself to don't play in a big sushi dinner party. Yeah. On your first try. Yeah, it's probably a good idea. You know, let's try it out yourself and then sorry.

What we just described was Fudo Moqui. If you wanted to make an inside out roll like a California roll, you would be making what's called Kuramochi. Yeah. And basically you follow the same steps but just reversed. You start with the rice and then you put the nori. You start with the bamboo mat. Put the rice on that. Yeah. Then Nori then your toppings and then you roll that up.

Yeah. Did you say it was covered in plastic. Oh yeah. You want to put the, the, the bamboo has plastic on it and the rice goes on the plastic like saran wrap or something. Yeah.

Basically just take Saran Wrap and just cover both sides of your bamboo mat with that. Gotcha. Uh and then of course there's the one of my favorite things to eat at sushi places is the handrail. Yeah. The Tomoki. It's like an ice cream cone of sushi. Yeah. And you can make those. I've never had a lot of success with making those. Um, those seem like the easiest aren't they. Not for me. I never got to come out.

Right, but you make it in your hand.

That's why it's called a handrail. You hold the nori and you spread the rice on one end, cover about a third of it, and then you put your toppings diagonally. You're going to fold your bottom corner up over the toppings and then roll it in the same direction and just picture a waffle cone.

And that's what you're trying to emulate. Yeah. And stick some softshell crab in that mug and chow down. Nice.

And I want some sushi. So do you like softshell crab you ever had that? Uh, I don't think so.

I like crab. I mean, that's when it's the whole crab is just fried celano. Oh no, I've not had that. Yeah, it's good. In fact, when I was in DC, I went to uh, uh, a little that farmer's market ate that I was telling you about. And they had this place, it was on like crab cakes and, uh, soft shell crab, which is so good.

Is it crab season now. I don't know. Crab season that day for me. Uh, I got one more thing. OK, uh, from the book The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson. Mm. Just some surprising sushi facts. Oh yeah. I think most of these we actually covered, uh, they said in Japan they eat me. So, uh, at the end of the meal to aid digestion of an appetizer.

The soup. Yeah. I never knew that. I like the miso soup though. Yeah. It's good stuff. Um and it says American chefs have probably never eaten a proper negishi because sushi chefs pack it too tightly on purpose because Americans like it that way.

Apparently it's looser and it's not enough. Rice, have you ever, uh, did you experience that? Was it looser in Japan?

Um, I've had looser here. Oh, yeah, like the nice places. I mean, you can you can tell us by look, it's not you would never point to and be like that's a dense lump of rice. Right.

You can see like a few of the individual grain. You can see the detail in the rice a little more. You can find it here. Yeah. Yeah.

And his final little fact, he said that the knives used by sushi chefs are direct descendants of samurai swords. A.K.A. Catana did not know that I didn't know that either. There's one more fact in there I thought was interesting 80 percent of all the bluefin tuna caught in the world is used for sushi.

Oh, really? Yes. And the other is grilled rare and I don't want a salad. I don't know what they do with the other 20 percent for tuna, two million dollars per man, that's a lot per pound. Yeah. Was it had to have been the size of the fish and the quality of that fish do I would guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Because I mean, the guys at the Tokyo Fish Market know what they're doing when it comes to fish.

You know, I would imagine they don't just look at some aged rickety, um, tuna and say, like how much you want for that. Right. You know what I mean. Yeah. So let's figure this out real quick, Chuck e dividing it. Yeah. So one point eight million dollars. Yeah. Yeah. Divided by four hundred and ninety pounds. Is that what you said. I remember that's three thousand six hundred and seventy three dollars and rounding up 47 cents a pound.

Wow.

That must have been one special tuna. Yeah man at the very least he felt special when they cut him up. I got nothing else. Well we could probably sit here for five, six hours and talk about this, but we're not going to instead, if you want to learn more about sushi, you can type that into the search bar at HowStuffWorks dot com. And I said search bar means it's time for listener mail.

I'm going to call this amputation feedback. Hey, guys, I was interested in how amputation works and I thought I'd share an offshoot topic. And one of my classes, we studied a procedure called Rotationplasty, which is an infrequent operation occurs when only part of the limb requires amputation, like a bone tumor in the lower part of the femur or upper Libia tibia. Excuse me. Traditionally, it's done on lower extremities. Although a few upper extremity cases exist, the operation consists of removing a portion of the leg ranging anywhere along the femur into the tibia fibula region, ultimately removing the knee.

The ankle joint is still functional, so the surgeon removes all the muscle and bone, keeping the nerves that connect the two regions intact. The foot and ankle are then turned around to face backwards and reattached along the femur.

I feel like we talked about that. I do too. Yeah, it may not have been in that one. Or maybe maybe it was. But the the reason the foot plays backwards is because it didn't have the stability for it to be. It adds more stability now is that what it is. Yeah. She said the ankle becomes the new knee joint and results in a high range of movement, which helps many patients continue active lifestyles. Yeah, we definitely talked about that.

Well, this isn't news to us then. The end result is it looks really strange, but gives a huge opportunity for the patient.

At least check out some of the crazy images. So Kelly Kravitz of the Colorado School of Mines go forty nine ers.

Apparently we discussed that. But at any rate, it's still interesting. Yeah.

Thanks a lot, Kelly. Yeah, Kelly, thanks. Kelly. If you want to describe in greater detail something we mentioned briefly, we are always happy for that kind of thing. Indeed, you can tweet to us as Facebook podcasts. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff. You should know you can send us an email to Stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com and join us at our beautiful home on the web stuff. You should know Dotcom.

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