Stuff You Should Know - How Sushi Works

Episode Date: July 15, 2014

Sushi grew out of a way to ferment fish a couple thousand years ago and in the late 20th century began to take the world by storm. What began as traditional, rigid food has come to evolve with new delicious innovations being added to the original canon. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always, and this is the Dower Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry, who's snortling over there, which is kind of like a, like a laughing through your nose. Yeah, I thought Dower,

I thought it meant like a gloomy or something. Yeah, you seem a little gloomy today. You kidding? No. You think the smile is fake? Yeah, that one. Man, I wish I had a picture of that. We could put that on a t-shirt. Yeah.

And I could wear that t-shirt. Yeah. And then you could get a picture of me wearing that t-shirt and put that on a t-shirt and wear that t-shirt. Yeah. And so on and so forth. And we'd be like Ryan Gosling and... Oh yeah, who did you do that with?

Macaulay Culkin. Right. Yep. That's what we could do. I get to be Macaulay Culkin this time though. This time? Yeah. All right. All right.

You're always making me be Ryan Gosling. I know, who wants that? Nobody. How are you? I'm good, man. I got to tell you. So we're about to do sushi, by the way. This thing made me really hungry.

Oh my God. Yeah. I want sushi so bad now and have it for days now. Yeah. Just remember the yawning episode? Mm-hmm. And people are like, oh, I listen to this and I yawn the entire time. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, prepare to want sushi, everybody. Even if you don't like sushi or never had sushi, I guarantee you you will want sushi by the end of this. Or we will give you your money back for this episode. That's right. So you've had sushi? Yeah.

I mean, it's one of my favorite foods. I could live in Japan and eat sushi every day. Yes. I'm going to Japan next year and I plan on eating sushi every day. I would have. I would not get sick of it. No. No.

It'd be really tough too. Yeah. Especially with the variety involved. You know, everybody thinks sushi is basically like a little bite of rice with a bunch of ingredients tucked in it. Yeah. Or on top of it. Yeah, or maybe it's like a little lump of rice with some fish on it or something.

There's a whole galaxy of sushi out there. Yeah, especially when you go to Japan. I mean, just prepare to have your mind blown. I mean, you've had it before, but my buddy Jason lives over there and it's like, it's not like Sushi Avenue here in Decatur, Georgia. Does he ever mail you sushi? No. No.

I probably wouldn't stay very well. No. But if you figured out a way to stick it into one of those live organ courier things. Oh. It'd be great. I don't think so. Well, you know, if you eat raw sushi here with the exception of tuna. Yeah.

And by here, I mean the United States. It's not fresh. It's been frozen by law. Yeah. Except for tuna. And I couldn't find out why tuna was the only exception. But all fish that's intended to be served raw has to be frozen. Flash frozen is fine, and then of course thawed back out, but it can't just be from the ocean

to your plate. Yeah. And before the pedantic ones among you start emailing, Josh said sushi when he was talking about raw fish. And in fact, sushi is rice and that is sashimi. True. Thank you. I'm using the colloquial version.

Exactly. When people say, hey, let's go out for sushi, it's like a genre of food. Like, hey, let's go out for Italian. Right. And you don't go, and they say, actually, that's a Sicilian item of food you're treating Italian. Yeah. If this is bringing true to you and it's reminding you of yourself, you need to do some

personality changes. If this is your friend, then you should surround yourself with higher quality people in that. Yeah. I mean, go out for sushi. That means you can have miso soup and that means going out for sushi. And you can have like edamame and seaweed salad. And that's all part of the experience that's going out for sushi. Yes.

In this country. It basically is shorthand for Japanese. You're going out for Japanese. Yes, sort of. But not Hibachi. No. Hibachi is not Japanese. It's strictly Iraqi-Iyoki American.

Oh, is it? Yes. I mean, they do have Hibachi girls and stuff like that. But they experience the Benihana version. Yeah. Totally American invention. I've never been to one of those places. Oh, yeah.

I mean, it's like there's a guy like chopping and cooking and going, hey, and like tossing stuff into his hat and everything. Just never been. Yeah. All right. So Chuck. Yeah. Thank you for pointing out the sushi thing because I am going to do that a lot.

Yeah. And we should say when, if you are specifically talking about sushi in Japan, you're talking about vinegared rice. Yes. Is roughly what the word means. Yeah. Medium or short grain vinegared rice. The stuff that's on top, the neta, which is a fish seafood topping that you put on

sushi is actually that raw fish is called sashimi, like you said. Yeah. And you can eat that by itself as well. If it's fried stuff, it's called tempura. Yeah. Different types of sushi have different kinds of names. But let's get into this, shall we? Let's talk about the history because this whole thing didn't even start in Japan.

Yeah. It's pretty interesting. I mean, if you look at sushi, there's a lot of folklore surrounding it, a lot of mysterious origins. One of the old wives tales from Japan. Is that funny? It just appeared out of nowhere one day mysteriously. No, it just means it can't be.

I know. I'm just teasing. You're joshing. I am joshing the chuck. That's right. There's an old Japanese wives tale about an elderly lady who would hide her rice from thieves and osprey-ness and she would forget where they were and they would ferment the ricewood and then the seafood that the osprey would eat would fall down in there.

And voila, that was the first sushi. Yes. It's a great story. But it's a lie. Yeah, it's not a lie. It's folklore. Which are lies. I guess it's told by old ladies.

It's a very harsh way to say it. So the earliest sushi supposedly was around in Southeast Asia in, I don't know, like 2,500 years ago. Okay. They were taking cooked rice, which does ferment and packing fish in it. Yeah. And then the fermentation of the rice. Yeah, it kept it long before refrigeration.

Oh yeah. And but it also kind of pickled the fish. But then once the fish was pickled over the course of like weeks and they would place it under like a heavy stone or something like that to basically compress it. And once the fish was pickled, they'd throw the rice out and just eat the fish. Yes. And in fact, a sushi kitchen can be called a suki-ba or a pickling place. Yeah.

That's, bam. The original version of sushi was basically fermented fish that was fermented with rice, pickled fish fermented with rice. Yes. Then they threw the rice out. Somebody said, well, wait a minute, what does this rice taste like? Oh my God, this is delicious. Yeah.

And what would it taste like if I put this fermented fish on the rice and they went, oh my God, this is even better. So they said, well, let's try this a different way. If we're not going to throw the fish or throw the rice out, let's actually gut the fish. And this is the 10th century, by the way. And by now, this is in Japan. Let's gut the fish. Soak it in sake, which is Japanese rice wine.

Yeah. And then pack that thing full of rice and let that ferment. Yeah. And then after a few weeks, we'll just slice it and then eat that. Yeah. And each of these steps basically is speeding the process up a lot. Like the very first process took about a year and a half. Oh, did it?

And it was only for like the uber-wealthy. Once they added sake though, that speeded that up. That speeded that up. And that stuff still around is called narazushi or rice sushi. Yeah. I'm sorry, ripe sushi. Yeah. And apparently you can still get that.

And it's a little like for your American taste buds. It might taste a little funny. But I'll bet once you get used to it, you're like, this is, I have to have this all the time. Probably so. So then in the 1600s, early 1600s, Japanese military leader named Tokugawa Ayiasu. And we're going to do our best with these Japanese pronunciations. Yes.

Give us a break. He moved the capital from Kyoto to Ito, which would later become Tokyo. And by the 19th century, it was a hoppin city. And in the mid 1700s, they sped up that process a little bit more by skipping the sake and using rice vinegar. Yeah. Which made it like a matter of days after that. Or just a couple hours.

Right. Yeah. Which is what I was following up with. Yeah. Which is, I mean, that's super quick. And then you would slice it into pieces and again, just cutting that preparation time. Yeah. And then in Kyoto, which was the former seat of power in Japan before it was moved to Ito or Tokyo.

Yeah. They would take that vinegar and some ingredients, maybe a little cucumber, a little dried seaweed, which is known as nori. Yeah. And they'd put it in a box and press it together. Yeah. And you'd have Oshisushi, which is Osaka style sushi. It's like a square of sushi, right?

Yeah. And there was a guy who lived in Ito in Tokyo in the 1820s. And his name was Yohei Hanaya. And he had a little cart where he was making Oshisushi. And everybody liked it and all that. But apparently, as the story goes, some of his customers were like, I'm very busy and important. And I don't have time for you to press this into a box.

Just hurry up, make it snappy. So he took some of that rice, that vinegar flavored rice, and rolled it up in his hand a little bit. And then he would take some fish that was taken out of Tokyo Bay or Edo Mei. Yeah. I mean, he was set up right there on the water. Exactly. Yeah.

And he cut off a little bit of slice and put it in there, maybe with a streak of wasabi and handed it to the people. He said, here, jerk, is that fast enough? That took me like three minutes. Exactly. And they said, well, by God, this is Japanese street food. That is fast food that we can use our hands for and eat in two bites. And nigiri sushi, what a lot of people think of as sushi was born.

The modern sushi was born right there in that food stall. That's right. And then the great Kanto earthquake hit Tokyo and land prices went down. And all of a sudden, there was a lot of retail space. And so the sushi cart said, hey, maybe we should move these things inside and start a legit restaurant. And it happened all over the place. And by the 1950s, it was the sushi restaurant was where it was at.

Yes. Basically. In the 1930s, thanks to refrigeration, you could chip fish. By the 70s in the post-war economy, people were loving the stuff. So it started to boom all over Japan and then started to spread to other parts of the world. It did. And in the United States, it was first adopted in the 60s in Los Angeles. Of course, it was Los Angeles.

There was a place called Kawafuku. And that was the first big American-embraced sushi restaurant in the United States. And then the yuppies came. And you think like 80s in sushi, right? I do. I do. I always have. Yeah.

But apparently, it wasn't until the 90s that sushi really hit New York. And it was because of an unknown man named Robert De Niro who talked the chef of Nobu, who's name is Nobu Yuki Matsushisa. Oh, I'm going to be in so much trouble when I get home. So De Niro talked the chef of Nobu, Nobu Yuki Matsushisa. I think that's it. Yeah. It's really close, if not, to open Nobu, which was already an LA icon in New York in 94.

So apparently, sushi didn't hit New York big time until the 90s, even though I think of it as like a total American psycho fodder. Yeah. I mean, it was around, I think it probably the explosion didn't hit. I mean, it was very much a California thing. That first restaurant was in Little Tokyo in LA. And then in the 70s, they opened one in Hollywood called Osho in 1970. And that was, you know, that was when the celebrities started going and they was like,

oh, my God, this is so exotic and delicious. Right. And I could eat it every day. Yeah. And something really, really big happened in 1973. There was a place in Los Angeles, and there is a sushi chef there. His name was Manashita. And Manashita created an inside out roll, a maki, which is maki sushi is a hand roll,

or no, it's a roll that you use a bamboo mat for. We'll get into it. So was it inside out or regular? Inside out maki roll. Okay. With avocado, crab. And cucumber. That's right.

Yes. Okay. And he made the California roll and that became the entree. Like that's the gateway drug to sushi for a lot of Americans. Yeah. Because it doesn't have the raw fish in there. If you're creeped out by that, you can start on the California roll and be like, oh, this is just sort of like a salad.

Right. And then once you go and eat California rolls enough times, you're like, well, maybe I will try a bite of that. And once you do, you're never going back. Yeah. It's like I can still eat a California roll, like a bite of it or something like that, but I'm more like, that's a waste of sushi. Like I want, I want a good nigiri or.

Yeah. If I've got that, I'll put that $6 towards something else. Exactly. For sure. Yeah. But I'll make a California roll at home because it's. Oh, you make it my home? Yeah.

Nice. And well, we'll get it. We'll get to all that. So Chuck, that's the history of sushi up to right now. Now. Um, yeah, but let's, let's talk about fish in a second. Let's take a message break first. Stuff you shouldn't know.

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We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair.

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Raw fish is a common ingredient. When you go to a sushi restaurant, but if you're not into that, there are plenty of other offerings. You talked about tempura. We talked about the California roll. You can use veggies. This article says virtually any type of vegetable, but I completely disagree with that.

Yeah. Like you're not going to roll up broccoli or cauliflower in sushi, are you? No, but man, I am crazy for ground up cauliflower as like a rice substitute or something like that, or like a mashed potato substitute, have you had it? Like colletators, like pureed cauliflower. So good. Yeah, I've been making colletators for years.

Dude, I spent my entire life up until like a couple months ago hating cauliflower. I never told you about colletators? No, I've heard of it before. I just never really tried it, but you and me and I started making it, and I'm like, wow, this is good. Yeah, and it's, you know, I hate it when people say it tastes just like something. It doesn't taste just like mashed potatoes, but it's got its consistency and it's good.

Right, it mimics the consistency, not the taste. Yeah, but the taste isn't too far off. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, it doesn't taste like rotted horse meat compared to like mashed potatoes or something, but I think it's like it's its own distinct thing. It is. So that's my treatise on cauliflower.

Yeah, you won't put cauliflower in your sushi though. But you can find asparagus in sushi fairly frequently. Yeah. Cucumber. Sure. Uh, well, I guess that's it. No, there's some more stuff. Mushrooms.

Oh yeah, mushrooms. It's a big staple of a lot of sushi. That was the third one. Yeah, some nice shiitakes. Boom. Have you been to umisushi yet? No. It is amazing.

Yeah, the one I've been on lately is, oh shoot, I can't think of the name of it now. Miso, I think is the name of it in the Old Fourth Ward. And it's good, a little pricey, but you know. Oh yeah, misoizakaya. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be real good. It's good stuff.

It's more, um, it's like a nouveau sushi, which I guess umisushi is kind of, but they have like an old traditional sushi chef running the place there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, in America, you're going to find some variations. And in fact, the inside out roll apparently is a totally American thing,

even though it has now since found its way over to Japan, but it did not originate in Japan. Right, no. The reverse roll or inside out. It was like an echo that came back by storm. And if you don't know what we're talking about, that's when the rice is on the outside of the roll. Right.

And the nori is on the inside instead of the other way around. Yes. All right, so Chuck, if you are going to use fish, or you're ordering at a sushi place, most of the fish you're going to see is saltwater. Sea fish. Yeah, you don't want to trout roll. No, and the reason why is because-

Or a bass roll. Freshwater fish are much more prone to parasites than saltwater fish. Parasites don't like salt as much, right? Yeah. But occasionally you will see a freshwater sea food. There's like a type of eel that's really good that's freshwater. Yeah, I love the eel. Or is that unagi?

I always get the two eels confused, and I always get like after all these years, I still can't commit it to memory. Right. And about every third time I order the wrong one. Oh really? I don't think I've ever had the saltwater eel. Yeah, I mean it's not bad, of course, but I like the-

You like the freshwater more? Yeah. Yeah, I do too. And you can buy, I make, that's one of the ones I make at home. You can, there's a great Japanese market over by the the cab farmers market, and you can buy it in the refrigerator and bake it in the oven and- Yeah, because that's the thing, if you order the freshwater eel, like it doesn't come raw.

Yeah. Like it's seared or something like that. Yeah, it's like a sauce. Seared and then like a teriyaki sauce. Right. So delicious. It is, man. You know what's-

Elevating. Okay, so you're going to have freshwater fish. Yeah. Or freshwater sea food most of the time. No, no, saltwater. Saltwater, thank you, man. Yeah. And one of the most highly prized sea food that you're going to find in sushi of any type is tuna.

Oh, so good. And there's different types of tuna. They'll use a yellow fin, big eye, blue fin. Yeah. And blue fin is the most expensive one. Yeah. And apparently it wasn't until the 50s that the Japanese came to prize blue fin. Like before they used it for cat food, like they wouldn't even eat that stuff.

Yeah, that's what I heard. Like the belly was originally, and now it's like the prize and the belly now used to be like they wouldn't eat it. Yeah, actually the record for the highest priced fish ever sold, I believe anywhere, was sold at the Tokyo Fish Market. Last year it was a 490 pound blue fin tuna. How much? $1.8 million.

Holy crap. For just that tuna. Wow. And I guarantee they made their money and then some. Man. Yeah. That's a big tuna. I feel kind of bad for that guy, even though I love to eat him so much.

The tuna? Yeah, you know. Well, there's definitely a moral thread that runs through tuna, or not sushi. Yeah. Like apparently yellow fin tuna, farm raised tuna are raised a lot like veal. Yeah. Batten until their muscles deteriorate alive. Yeah.

And then of course, there's the, have you seen the raw or live frog video? No. There is a type of sushi that is, it's called ikizukuri, which is live sushi. And there's a ikizukuri video. And if you have a light stomach at all or anything like that, bothered by animals being killed, like you should not watch this. But the point is, you eat the thing while it's basically,

part of it is still alive on the plate looking at you. Like this frog is sitting there blinking. It's a frog? There's a frog, and I can't remember what the other one is, but there's, they showed two things being prepared. It's nuts. Have you, have you seen Old Boy, the original? Yeah, yeah.

Remember he eats that squid live? Oh yeah. That's a, that's live sushi. Wow. Like that was real. Yeah, not for me. Yeah. You get pretty adventurous though, would you do that?

Probably. Just to try it? Yeah. I mean, it just, like, I know everything is killed that we eat. Right, right. But it's just like, I don't know, being confronted with it. Who knows? I can imagine some of the people who are into like that slow food movement are like,

well, yeah, that's the way you should do it. Yeah. You should have to confront the death while you eat. No, I mean, a lot of people would say it's hypocritical to not do that, you know? Right. But a lot of people. But I'm a hypocrite. Yeah.

A lot of people are comfortable with that. Emily won't eat anything that reminds her of an animal. Like she doesn't even like bones in her chicken. Yeah. And like if someone served her a fish with a head on it, like fully cooked, she would just be like, no, no, no, no. Yeah. That fish is looking at me.

It's like the duck in a Christmas story. Yeah. He's smiling. Okay. So we were talking about tuna. Tuna is delicious. Salmon is delicious. Yellowtail and hamachi and surf clam.

And there's all sorts of delicious seafood that you can get on your sushi or in your rolls. And then you just spread out from there. If there's fried chicken in there, it might be a little too Americanized. Although if that's what you're into, then great. Well, it'd be considered tempura chicken in that case. Yeah. But yeah, come on. If there's fried chicken in mayonnaise rolled up in rice, then...

That sounds kind of good. Well, I know, but is it sushi? Well, I think... Or is it Kenny Rogers' roasters? I feel like there's been kind of, you know, there's definitely a traditional thread of sushi, right? Yeah. I don't mind mixing it up a little bit.

And there's like traditional preparations, and then there's traditional ingredients. Yeah. But then it's like you said, you know, in the 70s, when the California roll was made here in America, it was sent back. And now you can get a California roll pretty much anywhere in Japan. Yeah.

And it's expanded from there. So I think... Yeah, I think sushi's kind of this evolving thing. I've seen cereals added. Have you seen that? No. Corn flakes or Rice Krispies on top? No.

Yeah, I'm not into that either. For crunch? Yeah, or squirting a bunch of sauce on top. I'm not a big fan of that either. Yeah. Well, that's another thing that we'll talk about when we talk about how to eat sushi. But really, there's a lot of sushi that's prepared

that you're not supposed to do anything to except eat. Yeah, true. So I guess we should finish what can be in sushi thing by mentioning roe and tamago. Roe is the fish eggs, like the little delicious orange. It's almost like caviar. Yeah, and there can be little tiny ones and larger ones. I'm sure there's a difference in the name.

Do you know how to look that up? No. Cary's nodding. Is there a difference in the name? I'm sure it's not necessarily by size, but probably by fish. Yeah. I think the smelt roe is the smaller.

I think so. Yeah, the little tiny beads. Yeah, and that's usually added with a roll or on top of something. And the other larger ones, a lot of times, that's just wrapped in the nori, and that's all you're eating. Yeah, or there's just like one on top of the thing.

Oh, yeah, like a little bead for presentation. Yeah, I want to eat a coi leg on top of- Yeah, coi leg's lit yesterday. Yes, this was raw. Oh, OK. I didn't realize it was going to be raw. I ate it anyway, because like you said, I'm adventurous, but man, I was like,

I'm never ordering that again. Was it not good? No, I'm not too big on raw eggs, except strangely in like a tataki or a carpaccio or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, that's weird. I guess I'll just have to keep ordering it

then whether I like it or not. All right, tamago is egg in sushi, but it is cooked, and it's like, it's an omelet. It's made by adding little layers of egg. I've seen some people bake it in a pan. It's probably the shortcut method. There's probably a more traditional method, but- It's almost like it, because it's sweet-ish omelet.

It's almost like a dessert sushi. Yeah, and it's like an inch thick in a slice, and you put it on some sushi rice with a little band of nori tied around it, and that's delicious as well. Tamago. Avocado. Is that how you say it?

Avocado. That is very popular, and that means tuna of the land in Japan. Yeah, the word for avocado means tuna of the land. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Avocado is like a great addition to anything. Yeah, I agree.

And very good for you too. It really is. It's the good fat. Yes. Good for your heart and your brain. What else goes along with sushi? The soy sauce, the shoyu. Yeah, it's the type of soy sauce,

and you can dip your sushi in soy sauce if you prefer, but you're supposed to use it very sparingly. Yeah, and supposedly you're not supposed to dip the rice either. No, I drown it. I'm just... You want to talk about how to eat sushi the proper way? Sure.

Okay. I don't do it. That's fine. Yeah. A lot of people eat it with chopsticks. Yeah. Supposedly it's an insult to the sushi chef to drown your sushi in rice.

I drown it in the soy sauce, you mean? Yes. And where would I be without you? I'm just saying wrong stuff here and there. Yeah. No big deal. So basically, let's say you have a piece of nigiri, which is just a little lump of sushi with some topping on it.

Yeah. Say tuna. Okay. You kind of lightly grab the nigiri on one side. With your fingers? On both sides with your fingers. Yes, you don't need to use chopsticks. Sushi was originally a finger food,

and you can feel free to eat it the traditional way using your hand. Yeah. So you grab the sides kind of lightly but firmly. You tilt it over. Yeah. You tilt the nigiri over and then you just basically have it. So you're holding onto the tuna and holding it almost like a basket. So the rice is on top and the tuna is on the bottom.

You just flipped your sushi over. Yeah. If you want a little bit of show you, you can just kind of just barely like pass it through to show you the soy sauce. Just a tip. Yes. Yeah. Of just the seafood.

Yeah. You're not supposed to touch the rice to it. Yeah, that's what I hear. You take one bite, depending on the size, you can put the whole thing in your mouth and eat it, but you want to put it the topping side down. Okay. And then if it's a big piece of nigiri,

then you can bite it and then eat it in two pieces. All right, here's Chuck's method. I take it and I dump the entire thing in a big bowl of soy sauce and then I pull it out and I stick it in my mouth and chew it up and eat it all. And then I wash it down with a Sapporo. Well, that's customary. I'm a happy guy. You would probably like a Chirashi sushi,

which is basically a bowl of rice with sushi toppings. Yeah, I could be done with that. Is there the nori in there though? Because I love the nori. I think everything you want in there. Okay. Whatever kind of sushi you want, it's just like in a bowl. It's just like a KFC bowl, but with sushi.

Yeah, or man, what are those awful beef bowl places out west, the Yoshinaki or something, beef bowl, like in the shopping malls? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I can't remember the name of them. Are they not good? Well, I mean, you tell me, you get like a three-pound beef and rice bowl for like three dollars. Oh, wow, that sounds good. I don't think they're known for their high-quality meats and ingredients.

I got you. So by beef, you mean cat? Yoshinori, what is it called? It's a chain. They're all over LA. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about. I don't think they have them here in Georgia.

Wasabi, I don't do the wasabi just because I don't like the taste. I know most people like to put it in their soy sauce and mix it up. Apparently that is an insult as well. It's abnormal. That's what Yumi does though. Yeah. She puts in her soy sauce, puts a lot of it in there. Yeah, so does Emily. She loves that stuff.

But the thing is, most sushi is going to already have a little streak of wasabi on top of the rice beneath the topping. So you don't necessarily need any. And if you've ever wondered why your nostrils are suddenly clear and you're breathing very easily, even though you didn't use any wasabi, it's because it was already on there. Yeah, and here in the United States, you're not eating wasabi anyway. Nope.

Although you can get it at Umi Sushi. Oh, really? But it's going to cost you. Yeah, so that's the fact of the podcast for me. What you're eating is horseradish and mustard paste that's dyed green. And they call it wasabi. Wasabi, when people say it's Japanese horseradish, it actually isn't even horseradish. It's in that fan.

It's like a cousin of horseradish. And it is expensive. It grows by the river and you're eating the root. It lives in a van down by the river. But yeah, apparently it's so pricey. Like you've probably never had real wasabi unless you're highfalutin' like you and go to fancy sushi places. Yes. I'm sure Nobu has real wasabi.

I dress like a little gentleman. I wear a velvet jacket and velvet shorts with knee socks and a little hat. Yeah. And they sing while they serve me. It's wonderful. Well, that's funny. You mentioned that because being a sushi chef in Japan, you're also supposed to be part performer. It's a very social thing to sit at the sushi bar.

Yeah, you're not necessarily performing like at a hibachi place. It's not like that. You're performing. You're not a clown. You're just you're friendly. Yeah. You're helpful. You want the person to feel like they are welcome and that they are being led in on your expertise.

Yeah, like ask if you've never been and you want to try it out. Sit at the sushi bar and ask. I like it anyway just because I like to watch it. But ask the chef like, Hey, man, what's what's good today? Yes, and what are you in the mood for? I say, Hey, man, because there's still a lot of discrimination in Japan, even with women becoming sushi chefs. Oh, yeah. It's still a thing.

Yes, it is Chuck. Yeah, which is no good. And apparently, regardless of your gender, if you're a sushi chef, you are required to work at least two years. If you're working at a decent sushi place, it sounds like a lot, but it used to be 10. Yeah. Well, I saw two years just to learn to make the rice and then another year training with a knife. Yes. Okay.

And that's in Japan. Here in America, they're turning them out because there's such a need. Right. But once you're a trained sushi chef, like you can become a journeyman and like go anywhere in the world these days and open your own place. Man, I'm so hungry. Have you seen zero dreams of sushi? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's highly recommended. I think that's streaming on Netflix, too. And you recommended that, I think, to me for the first time. Yeah, we went and saw it in theaters. It was good. Yeah, it was really good. I mean, it's... Talk about wanting sushi.

Yeah, and you don't have to like sushi. If you just appreciate art and craftsmanship and being the best at something, you should rent that movie. And family, too. It's cute. Like, it's the man and his two sons. I think Jiro's been making sushi for like 70 years or something like that. Yeah. And his two sons are following in his footsteps.

And it's really intimate documentary about that family. Totally. Yeah. So we talked a little bit, or I mentioned drinking a nice cold Sapporo. People, I don't like sake myself. I just don't dig the rice wine. But that is a big thing for a lot of people when they go out to eat sushi is to drink sake. But apparently, because it is rice-based and that your sushi is rice-based,

it doesn't complement one another. So you technically shouldn't be drinking sake as you eat the sushi. I think it's a lot like putting wasabi in the soy sauce. What? Just do what you want. Yeah. Well, all this stuff is, of course. As long as you're not insulting the sushi chef overtly and calling him things like sensei

and stuff like that, really buttering him up, I think you're doing okay. Do people do that? I'm sure they do. I haven't yet, but it's probably a good idea. All right. They recommend green tea, light beer, even water. But again, drink whatever you want. But if you're drinking sake, supposedly you're not supposed to pour your own.

You're supposed to pour your buddies, and then they pour yours. Yeah. And this is if you're going, if you want to be traditional. Sure. But it makes sake for sharing by definition. Buy that one moray. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Like if you can't pour your own sake, you're up the creek. If you're just drinking it by yourself, what are you going to ask? Like a stranger? Sure. Make a buddy. Make a new friend. Not in Japan. No.

All right. We're going to talk a little bit about how to make sushi right after this message break. I'm Mangesh Atikular, and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention.

Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed.

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, HeyDude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show HeyDude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use HeyDude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair.

Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to HeyDude the 90s called on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so you've never made sushi?

I'm surprised you guys haven't tried it. I've never made sushi, no. Well, I have. I haven't done it in a while. But you can get your nori sheets in grocery stores. Mm-hmm. I eat that stuff like a snack. Yeah, of course.

It's good. You can find your little crab sticks in cucumber, and where it gets a little tricky is the fish itself. If you live in a big city, there's probably a place where you can get sushi-grade fish. If you live out in the sticks, you may have a harder time, but you definitely want to get sushi or sashimi-grade fish and ask if it is sashimi-grade. Like we said, no freshwater. You don't want to trout roll. No, and you want it to be nice and vibrant in color.

Yeah. You don't want there to be any weird dark or soft spots. No. That's rot. Yeah, the tuna should be really bright red. Or pink. Yeah. Like dark pink.

Yeah, I mean, if you know how to spot it, you know the difference. Like if you get a little practice. Yeah, and if you're not like Emily and you're buying the whole fish, you want the eyes to be not sunken in. You want them to be still just kind of popping out. Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening kind of eyes. You know? Yeah, it shouldn't smell too fishy either.

If it smells super fishy, that means it's probably not super fresh. Right. But once you have your fish and you've bought your nori, you want to buy your rice. That's the first key ingredient you need to master. And like we said, in Japan, they spend two years learning how to make the rice properly. So don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go well at first. No, but the rice you're making, you want to start with sushi rice,

which is a short or medium grain rice. And if you go to the store to buy rice, like you go to Asian food market or something like that. Yeah. They're going to have rice that says sushi rice. Yeah. And it's going to come out like you want it. Yeah. It's not going to be clumpy.

It's not going to be like mushy. It's going to be nice and sticky white rice. Well, if you make it right. Right. You can mess it up pretty bad, I've learned. Well, sure. I use Calrose. That's something here in the United States you can look for.

That's good stuff. Yeah, it's a real popular, I think, that started in California. Or it's another one. One we eat all the time is, I think, oh, it's like Nishi, I believe. Is that like the brand? The brand? Yeah, Calrose is a variety. So it may be a Calrose still.

Oh, it's not a brand. I thought it was a brand. No, it's a rice variety. Medium-range? Medium-grain. So the key here when you're making the rice, there's a lot of keys. But the first big key is you don't just throw it in a pot and cook it. You have to rinse it.

And what I do, what my friend, John, you know, Chef John, he taught me to just put the rice, the dry uncooked rice in a pot, and start just a cold water, like a slow cold water run, and just let it go, like walk away. And the rice will kind of stay at the bottom, and the water will just kind of overflow, but it'll, that continuous water movement, and it's a little bit wasteful, you know, if you don't like to leave your sink running or your water running. But what you want to do is just rinse the rice until the water is almost clear. And you'll see it, it's real, real cloudy and kind of grainy, and as you keep washing it,

it'll clear up. And you want to do it with your hands and be gentle with it. You don't want to mash it up. Don't use a strainer, because that can beat up the rice pretty bad. Just treat it, treat it respectfully, and sort of wash it with your hands until the water's clear. Right. So that's step one.

Then you got to soak it for an additional half an hour in cold water. Okay. Just walk away and leave it there. Okay. Then you're going to add, Wait. A half hour is a lapse. Okay.

We should just sit here for half an hour. After the half hour is a lapse, if you want, you can add a little sake to it. If you want, you can add something called dashi kombu. It's a dried kelp. I've never done that, but you can. It makes it pop, does it? Sure. Okay.

Then you're going to cook, you know, I mean, it'll probably say on the package, but then you're going to cook it a lot like traditional rice. You boil it, cook it on a medium heat with the pot on for about 15 minutes, then simmer for about 20 minutes over low heat. And then they recommend here, I've never heard of this, to turn the heat up to high for a few seconds at the end. I'm not sure what that does. I think it maybe just like burns off any excess moisture.

That's what I would guess it does. All right. And then leave the lid on and let it sit for about 15 minutes completely off the heat. Mm-hmm. After that. Yep. All right. So now the vinegar.

Right. You want to start with rice vinegar. That's the kind you have to use is rice vinegar. Yeah. Appropriately enough. Yeah, no other don't think like, oh, I can use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. You could use sushi vinegar, which is prepared rice vinegar. Right.

But it's got to be rice vinegar. Right. But if you want to make it yourself, you use a little rice vinegar, about a quarter cup to a tablespoon of sugar and one and a half teaspoons of salt. Yeah. And that's for five cups of rice. Right. And you mix all that stuff up until the mixture is clear and you've got yourself some homemade

sushi vinegar. Yep. Once your rice is ready. Yeah. You want to turn it out into a bowl. Yeah. Is what it's called. Yeah.

We dump it out into a bowl. Yeah. And what you should get is, and you probably bought, if you're trying to make sushi, you probably bought a couple of things like your little bamboo rolling mat and a little wooden paddle, they call it. Mm-hmm. And it's, you know, basically a big flat spoon. And that is what you use to turn it traditionally into a wooden bowl.

Yeah. You can use anything but metal. Don't use metal. No, because it'll react with the vinegar. Yeah. That's no good. You turn it out with this sushi paddle or this rice paddle, which by the way, you and me and I have seen the world's largest rice paddle.

How big was it? It was big, bigger than me. Oh, like as big as this table? No, it was like the size of like a long canoe. Oh. I said the world's biggest rice paddle. Well, I didn't, like I was trying to, the flat part, was it as big as this table? Easily.

Okay. And which for everybody who's not in the room with us right now, the table's probably about three feet across, three in diameter. Well, did they use the thing? I don't see how you could. Or was it just one of the silly things like the world's biggest spatula that you saw on display? It was far from silly, but it was big.

It was on Miyajima, which is a neat little island off of Hiroshima. Oh, cool. And they have the world's largest rice paddle on display. So you're going to use that rice paddle to pry the rice out of the pot into your wooden bowl. And it will come out kind of like a cake almost before you start messing with it. And then here's the thing. You don't just dump the vinegar that you've made all over the rice. You want to pour it over the paddle and then spread the paddle around over the rice.

So it sort of gently falls and distributes evenly. Right. And then you want to fold it in and mix it together gently again. Make sure everything's coated pretty well. And then cool it down to, you're supposed to be fanning it while you're doing this. And then cool it down to room temperature. And then you're all set to go. Yep.

And then you want to take your hands and rinse them in vinegar to prevent the rice from sticking. Just kind of lightly. Yeah. You should have the paddle as well. When you're spreading it, you need to soak that as well. It works well. Right. And then you're ready to start making nigiri sushi, which is the easiest sushi to make.

It's just basically finger sushi. You take a little lump of rice and just kind of roll it into an oblong shape in your hand. Press down one side on one side with the finger. And that's the side that's going to be the bottom. So basically you're adding stability. Yeah. And you don't want it super firm, but you don't want it falling apart either. Right.

And then you take a little bit of asabi, smear it on the top, and then top it with whatever ingredients you want. Say tuna. Yum. And they have little molds, by the way. If you don't feel like you should try and make it in the palm of your hand, but they do have little prefab molds that you spoon the rice into. And like you press a little thing on top and then pop them out.

Which would make it basically ohshi sushi, that Osaka style. Remember they have the pressed mold? Oh, is that what that is? Yeah, but there's a strictly like a box. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, this is like eight little individual compartments. Yeah, they're shaped like flowers and hearts and stuff like that too.

I haven't seen that. Oh, they have. Oh, yeah. Mine's just rectangular, but I don't use it. I did it first and then I was like, no, I'm going to try it in the palm of the hand. Have you ever made a nigiri sushi that you were just like, this is perfect? No. No.

Yeah, I guess it's just practice. Ten years at least. Yeah, I mean it tastes fine. And they even point out in this article it'll take some practice before it looks as good as it tastes. Sure. The taste will be there, but it's not what you're seeing in the restaurant properly. Right. You know, those guys are pros.

Yeah. That was nigiri sushi I just mentioned. The little hand-rolled finger-sized pieces of sushi. Yes. You could also make maki. Yeah. And that's when you take the full, that's a sushi roll. That's when you have the full sheet.

You want to spread about a third of it with a thin coating of rice and you want the nori shiny side down. Right. Under the mat, the bamboo mat. Yeah. And so you spread your rice, you don't want it super thick. On top of the nori. Yeah, on top of the nori. And you know, this is a little bit of a, if it's your first time, there'll be some trial and error involved.

You know, like I put way too much rice at first and then it was hard to roll and it looked like this big burrito essentially. Right. So you're going to want the rice a little thinner than you think even. And then you put it on the sheet. It's on the mat and you put your toppings across, kind of like you're making a burrito. And then you fold the bamboo mat over, you roll the nori into the toppings. And this description feels a little convoluted. You basically just want to roll it in the mat and I give it a good squeeze at the end to make sure it's all together. And to let it know it's loved.

Exactly. Yeah. And you want to, I imagine this is another thing that comes out with practice. Like you said, it firstly looks like a burrito. Yeah. But if you roll it, and I would guess your hands need to be kind of away from the center. Yeah. So that you're putting an equal amount of pressure on the roll.

Yeah. And you're lightly rolling it, being careful not to let the mat get rolled up into the sushi. Yeah, I've done that. Just rolling it over the top, but you're rolling the roll together. And then you've got a little roll squeezed at the end as per chuck. And then you take a really sharp knife and cut it in half. Then you cut that in half and so on until you have eight pieces. And my friend, you have a maki, sushi maki.

Yeah. And like I said, it's a little hard to describe. The best way to do it is just to throw yourself in there and try it. And if you've ever seen sushi rolls, then your instinct will kind of tell you how to do it. And just mess around. It's fun. Like don't put pressure on yourself. Like don't play in a big sushi dinner party on your first try.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. You know, just try it out yourself. And then, sorry, what we just described was Fudo maki. If you wanted to make an inside out roll, like a California roll, you would be making what's called Ura maki. Yeah. And basically follow the same steps, but just reversed. You start with the rice and then you start with the bamboo mat and put the rice on that.

Yeah. Then Nori, then your toppings. And then you roll that up. Yeah. Did you say it was covered in plastic? Oh yeah. You want to put the the bamboo has plastic on it. And then the rice goes on the plastic like saran wrap or something.

Yeah. Basically just take saran wrap and just cover both sides of your bamboo mat with that. Gotcha. And then of course there's the one of my favorite things to eat at sushi places is the hand roll. Yeah. The temaki. It's like a nice cream cone of sushi. Yeah.

And you can make those. I've never had a lot of success with making those. Those seem like the easiest, aren't they? Yeah. Not for me. I never got it to come out right. Gotcha. But you make it in your hand.

That's why it's called a hand roll. You hold the Nori and you spread the rice on one end, cover about a third of it. And then you put your toppings diagonally. You're going to fold your bottom corner up over the toppings and then roll it in the same direction. And just picture a waffle cone and that's what you're trying to emulate. Yeah. And stick some soft shell crab in that mug and chow down. Nice.

And I want some sushi so bad. Do you like soft shell crab? You ever had that? I don't think so. I like crab. I mean, that's when it's the whole crab is just fried, shell and all. Oh, no, I've not had that.

Yeah, it's good. In fact, when I was in D.C., I went to that farmer's market at 8th and 9th. They'll still tell you about. Yeah. And they had this place that was selling crab cakes and soft shell crabs, which is so good. Is it crab season now? I don't know. It's crab season that day for me.

I got one more thing from the book, The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson. Just some surprising sushi facts. Oh, yeah. I think most of these we actually covered. They said in Japan they eat miso at the end of the meal to aid digestion, save an appetizer. The soup. Yeah, I never knew that.

I like the miso soup though. Yeah, it's good stuff. And it says American chefs have probably never eaten a proper nigiri because sushi chefs pack it too tightly on purpose because Americans like it that way. Apparently it's looser in Japan. It's not enough rice. Have you ever, did you experience that? Was it looser in Japan?

Um, I've had it looser here. Oh, yeah. It's like the nice places. I mean, you can tell us by look. It's not, you would never point to it and be like, that's a dense lump of rice. Right. Like you can see like a few of the individual grain. You can see the detail in the rice a little more.

You can find it here. Yeah. Yeah. And his final little fact, he said that the knives used by sushi chefs are direct descendants of samurai swords, aka katana. Did not know that. I didn't know that either. There's one more fact in there I thought was interesting.

80% of all of the bluefin tuna caught in the world is used for sushi. Oh, really? Yes. And the other is grilled rare and put on a salad. I don't know what they do with the other 20% is going for $2 million per man. That's a lot per pound. Yeah. Was it the, it had to have been the size of the fish and the quality of that fish too?

I would guess. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, the guys at the Tokyo fish market know what they're doing when it comes to fish, you know? I would imagine. They don't just look at some aged rickety tuna and say like, how much do you want for that? Right.

You know what I mean? Yeah. So let's figure this out real quick, Chuck. You dividing it? Yeah. So $1.8 million, yeah. Yeah. Divided by 490 pounds.

Is that what you said? I don't remember. That's $3,673 and rounding up $0.47 a pound. Wow. That must have been one special tuna. Yeah. Man. At the very least, it felt special when they cut them up.

I got nothing else. Well, we could probably sit here for five, six hours and talk about this, but we're not going to instead, if you want to learn more about sushi, you can type that into the search bar at howstuffworks.com. And I said, search bar means it's time for listener mail. I'm going to call this amputation feedback. Hey guys, I was interested in how amputation works, and I thought I'd share an offshoot topic.

And one of my classes, we studied a procedure called rotation plasty, which is an infrequent operation occurs when only part of the limb requires amputation, like a bone tumor in the lower part of the femur or upper tibia. Tibia, excuse me. Traditionally, it's done on lower extremities, although a few upper extremity cases exist. The operation consists of removing a portion of the leg, ranging anywhere along the femur into the tibia fibula region, ultimately removing the knee.

The ankle joint is still functional, so the surgeon removes all the muscle and bone, keeping the nerves that connect the two regions intact. The foot and ankle are then turned around to face backwards and reattached along the femur. I feel like we talked about that. I do too. Yeah. It may not have been in that one,

or maybe it was. But the reason the foot's placed backwards is because it doesn't have the stability for it to be. It adds more stability now. Is that what it is? Yeah. She said the ankle becomes the new knee joint and results in a high range of movement,

which helps many patients continue active lifestyles. Yeah, we definitely talked about that. Well, this isn't news to us, then. The end result is it looks really strange, but gives a huge opportunity for the patient. At least check out some of the crazy images. So, Kelly Kravitz of the Colorado School of Mines. Go 49ers.

Apparently, we discussed that. But at any rate, it's still interesting. Yeah, thanks a lot. Kelly? Yeah, Kelly. Thanks, Kelly. If you want to describe in greater detail something we mentioned briefly,

we are always happy for that kind of thing. Indeed. You can tweet to us at SYSKpodcast. You can join us on facebook.com. You should know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com and join us at our beautiful home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com.

For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Hey, guys. It's Cheekies from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience,

were there any red flags that you think you missed? What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was, whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like, I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself?

No. Listen to Cheekies and Chill on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces.

We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.