Sushi Party!

This weekend, we hosted a sushi-making party! The setup: each guest brought an ingredient or two of their choice, while Sam and I set up the chopping and rolling stations, provided the nori, prepared the rice, and cooked up other basics like tempura shrimp, soba noodles, and soy bean sprout salad.

Everyone showed up with a few goodies, which meant we had a lot of innovative ingredients to play with. On the seafood side, we had fresh tuna, salmon, yellowtail, sea bream, broiled eel, octopus, and squid. On the veggie/fruit side, we had mango, cucumber, avocado, asian pear, green apple, carrots, sweet bell pepper, scallions, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, tofu, mushrooms, tamago (egg), umeboshi (pickled plum), and more! Here are a few highlights of the evening:

Jon, Lindsay, and Sebastian fix the first rolls of sushi for the night, as Luke looks on.

Some ingredients on the table, including a bowl of spicy tuna sauce, made from a simple mix of mayo and sriracha hot sauce.

Maia perfects one of her artistic creations.

Adam shows off his diverse presentation skills with some tamago nigiri, yellowtail sashimi, and a tempura shrimp & avocado sushi roll.


Adam and Simon try their hand at sushi-making for the first time, while Sam and Kris plan their next moves...

Luke demonstrates how to prepare an inside-out roll, using the mat covered in seran wrap, to avoid getting rice stuck between the bamboo rods. This roll had a spicy kick!

Kim specializes in the veggie rolls...

Maia, Nathan, Sharlene, Elana, Sebastian, Matt, & Angie sit back to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the living room, aided by japanese beer and sake.

Kris, Lindsay, & Matt clean off their plates.


The most creative sushi of the night! Brian's "candy sushi", made of rice krispies and melted marshmallows, stuffed with maraschino cherries, chocolate syrup, twizzlers, and gushers...all wrapped in fruit rollup "nori"! It sounds crazy but was actually pretty yummy, albeit somewhat perilous - Kim was shocked into a sugar high for the rest of the evening.

Mark and Brian show off their "roast beef sushi", with a meaty substitute for nori. The goal of the night was to make creative yet tasty sushi. Mission Accomplished!