It is the weekend and you cannot go to a fine diner to celebrate payday or to spend some quality time with your family. If you want something out of the regular and you are a fan of foreign cuisine, ‘sushi’ is definitely a name that will pop up in your mind.
It is a simple dish where fish is salted and wrapped in fermented rice. But what this simple dish can do inside your mouth is inexplicable. It’s basically a combination of flavours wrapped into a small bite, sometimes using nori seaweed, sometimes a thin layer of fish. Inside, there can be any combination of ingredients like salmon, crab, prawn, tuna, avocado, cucumber, tofu, caviar etc. The vinegar from the rice masks the underlying flavour of raw fish excellently, although the fish itself has no bad odour to account for. Dip it in some pungent wasabi and soya sauce for that added kick. But if you do not prefer raw fish, there are selections of raw fish as well. There are different types of sushi and the ones popular here in Bangladesh are Maki, Sashimi, and Nigiri.
Talking about cooking the fish, Mishal Chowdhury, a young businessman from Dhaka used to have his own prejudice against sushi as Bengali people are used to having thoroughly cooked fish. But his impression has changed for good when he tried the ‘Ebi meets Sake’ sushi from Kiyoshi. “I love the texture and mouthfeel of this food. The Nori wrap has its own zing, and the slightly torched salmon or shrimp hits the taste buds differently”, says Mishal as he craves his favourite sushi.
However, the presentation varies from chef to chef. Some serve it with a blend of sweet, sour, and spicy Japanese sauce which also goes by the name dynamite sauce. Some add salty crumbs from prawns or crab. Some prefer to keep it simple and serve it with a layer of thinly fish or Nori. And some can be a little extravagant and put it all in.
Sadia Alam, a medical student from Sirajul Islam Medical College, is a fan of crab sushi’s and her favourite sushi places are Kiyoshi and Koreana. “I love the burst of flavours in my mouth. It is both exotic and comforts food at the same time for me”, says the sushi lover.
Japanese restaurants are on the rise in Bangladesh currently as more and more people are taking interest in Japanese food these days. Kiyoshi, Izumi, Umai, Tokyo Express, Sushi Samurai, Sushi Tei, Izakaya, Midori, Tokyo Kitchen etc. would be some mentionable ones. Besides, with the rising popularity of Sushi, some online-based sushi delivery services have also opened up. Sushi Club BD, Daisuki Sushi, Itamae with love, Oshi Sushis etc. are some of the sushi joints from where one can order for home delivery.
As popular as it may be, Sushi is quite an expensive food in Bangladesh. Not everyone can afford to have some every now and then due to the high price. This inspired Raju Ahmed, the owner of Sushi Club BD, to start his own online-based sushi place in Dhaka where he offers a good amount of sushi at reasonable prices. He imports all the necessary ingredients from Japan and Korea and has two sushi chefs trained by a Japanese chef. “My goal is to satisfy the customers that’s why I try to take as many orders as I can promise to deliver within time. And the orders are always pre-booked to the full brim”, said Mr Raju.
But commonly making sushi at home has not become very popular yet because of the collection of the ingredients and their prices. Those who want are enthusiastic about it, can find their required products at places like Korean Mart in Gulshan. Sushi traces its origins back for millennia, to the rice fields of Asia – China, to be specific although most people assume that sushi was first created in Japan. But Japan is certainly the sushi capital of the world now as it has taken the art of sushi making to another level. And the charm of sushi has spread throughout the whole world, currently winning over the hearts of Bangladeshi food lovers.
Sushi is full of health benefits—it’s full of protein, vitamins, antioxidants, and omega 3 fatty acids. Good for your heart, good for your tastebuds, and good for life. So, unlike all the other fried junk or rich food that food lovers feast on every weekend which are generally bad for health due to all the calories and fat, sushi is rich in nutritional food elements that are actually good for health.
