Fun for the Whole Family: Sushi Party 101

I love having sushi parties. When my friend Yumi first initiated me into the secrets of sushi, I didn't believe her. I felt as though I was trespassing in a forbidden world and couldn't believe how easy it was. The wow and fun factors are high, but the effort and cost are low. All you really need, for a successful sushi party, is a high quality Japanese supermarket. The rest is easy.

As soon as we landed in Columbus, I started searching for a Japanese supermarket. I asked everyone I encountered about Asian supermarkets, and whenever I met a Japanese person, I got right down to business, asking them where they shop. The supermarket is key because it's the only place I would trust to buy sushi grade fish. Some regular supermarkets advertise sushi-quality tuna, but that makes me a little nervous. There are no standards for these things, and we all know where a bad piece of sushi can send us. So I prefer to buy my sushi fish from a Japanese supermarket, a busy one packed with customers, with gorgeous fish that looks like candy.

In New Jersey, I loved my trips to Mitsuwa, a huge Japanese supermarket in Edgewater. Here in Columbus, I discovered Tensuke Market (1167 Old Henderson Road 614.451.6002), thanks to The Restaurant Widow blog. Although Tensuke is much smaller than Mitsuwa, I found all of the ingredients I needed, including beautiful fish. As there's little I love more than stepping through the doors of a store and being transported to another continent, I'll continue exploring the other Asian markets in the area.

Other than gorgeous fish, you'll just need a few other items. You can easily walk out with all you need for a sushi feast for under $30. You'll need:

• some short grain sushi rice,
  
• a couple of packets of sushi rice seasoning to make it sticky and sweet (see above for picture),
  
• some wasabi paste, a little pickled ginger,
  
• and a package of seaweed sheets.

Now if you want to get a little fancier, you can also get:

• A couple of bamboo mats to roll up your sushi.
  
• Some veggies: avocado, cucumber, carrots.
• Some fruits: mango, peach, and pineapple.
• Fun Japanese salads like seaweed salad.
• Wild Japanese desserts and candy to entertain the kids.
• Sake and Japanese beer.
  

And as far as the fish goes, I usually go with tuna (toro and regular), salmon, yellowtail, and barbecued eel that I find in the freezer.


Once you have all your ingredients, it's time to put all of your guests to work, creating their own sushi creations. I set out to steaming bowls of sushi rice in the middle of the table, lay the fish, fruit and veggies on platters all around, and let everyone channel their own sushi chef. People can choose to make rolls with bamboo mats or plastic wrap, or stay conservative with sushi pieces of rice mounds topped with fish. At times, I have even been known to just go with sashimi and have a few bites of rice in between. Amy is pictured above. She had never tried to make sushi before, but she was turning out better looking rolls than anyone at the table within minutes.

My kids love these sushi parties. I don't really encourage them to go with the raw fish though, providing them with lots of veggies and some chicken fingers to roll up in the rice. For our last dinner, Bella stuck to her favorite, the chicken nugget roll, but her friend surprised me by making a gorgeous tuna and avocado roll.

Everyone had a blast, and everyone walked away very full.