Roots and Recipes Draft

            As a young girl in elementary, I loved spending time with the family at dinner. We’d always enjoy the dinners where everyone, including the kids, would make different and unique things ourselves. My mom always loved going to the sushi bar where they made different sushi that tasted greatest. That’s how she thought of sushi night. When I asked my mom how she came up with this dinner, she said, “This didn’t start from my parent or old relatives like most recipes. It started as I ate culinary sushi at authentic Japanese restaurants.” My mom wanted to know how they made their creations so she experimented herself. Then she came up with a whole variety of sushi. I always craved this special occasion and looked forward to it constantly. Whenever my parents asked my sister and I what we wanted for dinner, we automatically said, “ Sushi night!”

            My mom’s sushi is out of this world. She knows how to pick the perfect combinations that makes you constantly begging for more. It’s hard to even say which one of hers is the best because she knows how to make a variety of creations. Once you walk into the kitchen, you’ll see that our table is full of ingredients we can use to prep our sushi. I wouldn’t know what kinds of things compliment each other. As I watch my mom make hers, she takes out the fresh sashimi. The glossiness of the fish just catches your eye. Like my mom said, “Fresher is better”. Then you’ll see her cooking the sweet tamago in the small, square shaped pan. Her technique to make it seems complicated. She’d pour a little big of prepped eggs at a time. Then she uses the spatula to fold it and press it. Eventually it becomes light yellow, rectangular shaped, and it’s as fluffy as a cloud. After cooking the tamago, she starts making unagi. Unagi is eel smothered with teriyaki sauce. She cooks it on her largest pan. I remember as a child, I ran to the kitchen just so I could see her making it. I was barely tall enough to see over the stove, so I would grab a chair to stand on. Then I could smell the aroma of grilled fish with sweet teriyaki sensation. It’s like no other. You can hear the sizzling of all the fish oils coming off.

            Once she’s done prepping everything, the magic happens! She takes out crisp nori and spreads a tiny bit of rice on the end. Then she layers it with Hamachi, unagi, and ikura. Then rolls it in a cone shape where you can still see some fish sticking out. She makes it like this because she knows these are my favorite ingredients. Then it’s time to eat! Taking a bite into her sushi is hard because it’s stuffed. Once I take a bite, some things fall out because she adds a lot into it. But just taking a bite of the soft sashimi, combined the sweetness of the unagi, and the salty yet sweet taste of the ikura just explodes your taste buds. My mom said “Since the seafood is so delicate and soft, it tastes like butta!” Then I keep asking for more and more until I’m completely full. This new tradition of sushi nights will never be put aside and is always a part of my family. These special kinds of dinners is what keeps us together.