OMGSUSHI.

Om nom nom...Sushi is a delicious and healthy Japanese food, and pretty popular in the United States. I remember when sushi was almost a sort of food fashion statement for those who dared try it, but nowadays it's enjoyed by many people, and can be found prepared even at chain grocery stores (I've never tried the ones from grocery stores, so I can't vouch for how delicious or sickness-inducing they may or may not be).

This is a little dated, but I made my own sushi about a month ago. My brother bought me a sushi-making kit out of the blue, so I had some fun with it:

OH MY GOD WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT???

Okay...That's a little more recognizable.

(It's makizushi made with cucumber, white crab, wasabi and sesame seeds; or kappamaki, cucumber roll - named for the mythological mischievous kappa fairies who loved to eat cucumber...And then I added crab).

As you can see, I had a little trouble with my inside-out roll, because it didn't want to roll at all. It looks more like a...Well, I don't know what it looks like. Any ideas? But in the end, my regular sushi rolls turned out okay, proving that even if you're a silly little gaijin, you can make decent-looking sushi!

So, try to skip the sushi restaurant sometime and make your own! I do think buying a sushi kit is a good idea; the kit my brother got me came with an instruction book, an instructional DVD, a sushi-rolling mat, chopsticks, two sushi plates and two sauce dishes, for 20 bucks ("Simply Sushi", if you're curious). And of course the internet is also a good resource for sushi-related research:

http://sushifaq.com/
http://eatsushi.com/

FACT!:

"Sushi" actually refers to the vinegared rice.

A few types of sushi:

makizushi - sushi rolls
temakizushi - simple sushi hand roll
nigirizushi - rice nugget with toppings
chirashizushi - bowl of sushi rice with toppings
oshizushi - pressed sushi

Vocabulary (click on kanji for stroke order from kanji-a-day.com):

寿司 - sushi
外人 (gaijin) - foreigner
美味しい (oishii) - delicious