coordination & therapy: if i can make sushi, you can make sushi

I know I’ve been blogging like almost once a day for the past week – ok except yesterday because I’m trying not to be so addicted to this thing and somewhere between “after dinner” and “blogging” and “watching Generation Kill“, I really need to find some time to have a life.

How often should a blogger blog? Now, this is truly the million dollar question in bloggersphere. It’s up there with How do I get the perfect WordPress Theme? and How the heck do I get more than one person (my mum) to read my blog? But sadly, there’s no answer for this and the pro’s will tell you that “it’s up to you”. Which is exactly the answer that most bloggers don’t want to hear.

I’m no pro. I don’t even have a blogging schedule, like they teach you to. To me blogging is therapeutic and considering the number of conversations I have with myself in my head, I almost owe it to my sanity to flush my brain and do a verbal dump right here, every day.

But luck’s on your side because there are other things I also find therapeutic. Like making sushi.

Making sushi is seriously one of those fun things in life. It’s easy, everyone can do it, and unless you are impossibly uncoordinated, you can do it well.

I know this because I have a highly acute sense of uncoordination. Believe me. I’ve never played team sports (because no one would ever pick me, not that I blame them) and I only ever do “individual” sports. Not even something like tennis where my brain has to kick into overdrive to move my feet to where the ball is, lift my arm (hopefully the same arm with the racquet), connect with the little green ball, hit it, and aim for it to land somewhere within this stratosphere.

Well, my idea of coordination is keeping one foot ahead of another on a treadmill. Not even on a street because then I’d have to negotiate people and traffic, and that my friends, involves coordination.

So anyway what I’m trying to say is.. sushi. I can. You can.

{and now you see why I need to blog every day}

The sushi I make are usually pretty standard issue ~ chicken & cucumber, crab & avocado or sometimes I go all kinds of crazy and make chicken, cucumber & avocado. I know, I push them boundaries.

The most important part of making sushi is using the correct rice. I’ve been a noob before and thought that I could do it with regular Chinese style long grained rice and while it kinda works, it doesn’t really work. Sushi rice needs to be sticky. It’s the glue that holds the roll together and don’t be stingy like I was, go buy yourself some Japanese sushi rice. Just do it.

The other critical part of making sushi is that when you’re making the rolls, make them tight. Tight is key, tight is the bible. In fact, it helps when you chant this while making the rolls. If the rolls aren’t solid, they’re gonna fall apart when you cut them into little itty bitty bite sized portions. Believe me, I know. So work that rolling mat, people, and squeeze the bejeezus out of those rolls. You’ll thank me later.

And seriously, that’s all there is to making sushi rolls. They’re even easy to eat ~ ah, that’s if you’ve mastered the art of the chopsticks and although I can be a totally useless Chinese person at times, this I can do.