I tried sushi rolls for the first time back in high school. It was during a sushi craze where restaurants were popping up left and right and nightly human interest stories were all about the use of chopsticks or the origin of the mysterious wasabi root. My mother has always been a trend-follower of sorts and brought home California rolls one day from Costco. I remember she was so enthusiastic about it, as though as Vietnamese immigrants we had never tried such a combination of rice and seafood, let alone season it with soy sauce. I ate one and didn't like it at all. Something about the texture of the cold rice and mush of the imitation crab meat didn't settle correctly with me, so I just shrugged it off.
My second encounter with sushi was at a friend's house. She, too, was overly excited about the bandwagon dish and urged me to give it another chance. I held my breath and drenched a roll in soy sauce. It wasn't too bad. Then again, it wasn't imitation crab meat from Costco. I decided then and there that it was an acquired taste, and soon enough I had acquired quite an insatiable taste for it.
Since that day I've expanded my sushi horizons to include an array of dishes that, over the years, I have grown to enjoy and love. Variations of sashimi are sweet delicacies that tickle my taste buds while more exotic choices such as sea urchin have yet gain access to my good side. Nonetheless, I am willing to try anything in the sushi department. And most recently I have been craving every dish and snack I know from the entire Japanese cuisine department. A hot bowl of authentic ramen, salty soba noodles, a steamy cup of miso with just the right amount of dashi, lightly cracked seaweed paper. This past weekend I drooled at the thought of rice with hard boiled eggs and soy sauce. Not quite Japanese, I know, but close enough to a subsitute rice and soy sauce entree that could be managed in my boyfriend's leaky ceiling residence. Now my stomach growls for shrimp boats, baked unagi, and the oh-so-melt-in-your-mouth-delicious o-toro sashimi. I must have. Now.
One day I will travel to Japan and bask in the glory that is their food. One day I will learn the Japanese dishes by their Japanese names and order them as such. One day I will try chicken sashimi. You heard me. That's raw chicken, and it's also known as sasami. One day...
