Sculpting Sushi

Rocks, salt, rice and raw fish.

More than a millennia ago, in Southeast Asia, those were the ingredients for making sushi. Today's sushi chefs are limited only by their imaginations.

The term sushi actually refers to the sticky rice used in creating the savory and healthy snacks, and in the beginning the rice was thrown away. The practice got its start centuries before refrigeration was available, when raw fish was preserved by packing it with rice and salt and pressing it with a heavy stone. Rice helped ferment the fish and lent the seafood a vinegary flavor, but only the fish was eaten.

Over time, as food shortages spread in the 15th and 16th centuries, the fermentation process was shortened from as much as a year to a month, and the rice was eaten with the fish. However, the curing process made the fish sour and its taste was unlike the fresh and light delicacies with which most Americans are familiar.

The fermentation was sped up even more over time, and today in Japan there is still a form called narezushi that requires at least 24 hours of fermentation. Not everyone appreciates the sour taste of this sort of sushi, so the next step in sushi's evolution was met with enthusiasm.

During Japan's Edo period (1603-1967), especially in the early 19th century when urban areas grew rapidly, there was a need for "fast food." Street vendors proliferated, and they eliminated sushi's time-consuming fermentation process by adding vinegar to the rice, to get that familiar tangy flavor. The fish was fresh, the sticky rice tasty and people loved it.

It took another 150 years for sushi to become popular in the U.S., but once it did during the 1970s, the dish developed even more.

"Since sushi came to the United States, it needed to be tweaked," says Ben Cachila, a partner in Emi, a sushi and fusion restaurant in Pawleys Island, S.C. Cachila's father-in-law, Shozo Sakata, is the sushi chef.