All You Need To Know About Sushi And Where You Can Get It

I recently attended a press conference to announce the launch of a new business venture in Delhi. After the press conference, there were cocktails with the usual snacks doing the rounds. Then suddenly, a large platter arrived, crammed with maki sushi. There was a mad dash and in about three seconds, the platter was empty.

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Of all the places on the planet where the popularity of sushi would seem to be a strict no-no , Delhi would once have been at the forefront. Indeed, in the era before sushi, the average Delhiite was never keen on seafood, even the cooked variety. Which is why it is surprising that sushi makes its way on to so many menus.

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The Sushi platter at Sakura, Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi

The floodgates opened when Three Sixty Degrees and Tiffin at The Oberoi, New Delhi and Mumbai respectively, sprang up five years ago. Both were all-day diners rather than Japanese restaurants. Chef Joy Bhattacharya, executive chef at The Oberoi Mumbai is of the opinion that having an international menu in an international setting, with authentic sushi as one element did the trick. Before that, Sakura at Hotel Metropolitan, New Delhi, had been serving sushi and sashimi as part of its kaiseki meal, but didn't make waves.

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Varun Tuli with an array of sushi that are served at his restaurant

That was five or six years ago. The popularity of sushi took even The Oberoi by surprise. Today, sushi and sashimi are ubiquitous. Not confined to five star dining any more, even caterers have begun to get into the act. Still need convincing ? Listen to Varun Tuli, owner of Yum Yum Tree: "My South-East Asian restaurant was conceptualised without sushi. But after customers strongly recommended that I serve it, I was forced to re-look at the menu." Today, Tuli is the proud owner of a sushi conveyor belt, of the type that every Japanese restaurant in a Bangkok mall has.
Delhi's sushi restaurants or, to be more accurate, those that also serve sushi, are clearly riven into two groups. One caters loud and clear to the Japanese population; the other to Indians, Europeans and other non-Japanese. Wasabi and Sakura are examples of the former. There are no limits to the pains that Wasabi takes to source the right ingredient. Most other restaurants make do with koshihikari rice; Wasabi has koshibuki in addition. The former is for nigiri sushi and the latter, being a premium quality, is for some maki rolls. Two chefs from Masaharu Morimoto's team - both Japanese - prepare sushi at the speed of light. You get blow-torched nigiri at Wasabi, the blowtorch being as indispensable a modern kitchen accessory as the two traditional knives that all sushi chefs work with.

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Chef Morimoto poses at Wasabi, Taj Mahal, New Delhi

Delhi has three restaurants, where the sushi counter is manned by Japanese nationals. Coincidentally, all three are as far as it is possible to get from the stereotyped traditional Japanese sushiya who follows in the footsteps of his forefathers . Hitoshi Shigaki of Sakura spent years working outside Japan, while trendy young Keisuke Uno of Ai actively seeks out innovative ingredients and combinations. Chef Uno's creations, including eel paired with Camembert, cater largely to a non-Japanese clientele. The chefs at Wasabi replicate well-known Japanese chef Morimoto's carefully cultivated philosophy of Japanese food with a Western twist.

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So, is the Delhi/Mumbai love affair with sushi part of a global trend? It probably is. Japanese food, with its accent on superior ingredients cooked minimally so as to retain freshness , has been at the forefront of international culinary interest. The Japanese themselves, among them Matsuhisa Nobu and Masaharu Morimoto, have moved away from the strictures of tradition, and brought Western influences into their sushi. What is fascinating is how the influences have percolated to India. Morimoto makes square maki rolls; in the cross-section , you can see rigidly drawn geometrical designs . Asparagus, lettuce leaves, cucumber and nori sheets counterpointed against rice can look poetically beautiful, as long as the hand that has created them is neat. In Ai, Chef Uno plays with nigiri, not maki, rolls. He inserts a sansho leaf under a translucent slice of eel. Three of the tiniest baby lotus stem slices are deep fried and used as a garnish while wasabi jelly gives it the characteristic punch.
It helps that Chef Uno is fanatical about rice quality. It just means that the rules of making sushi are still bound by age-old immutable rules. It makes the innovations more exciting against the backdrop of rigidity. The eel melts into the Camembert and the sansho leaf provides a peppery bite.

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If the US has evolved its own styles of sushi that cover the whole spectrum between traditional and funky, the same has happened here. Dahlia in Chennai is a tiny Japanese owned eatery inside a housing colony. You only visit if you know somebody who knows somebody who has been there. The sushiya/owner is a Japanese national who would not know how to create new-fangled sushi even if he tried. The same clubby atmosphere exists in Harima, Bangalore, where two Japanese partners have trained local chefs to make traditional sushi.
Sandeep Bansal of Sushi King bent the rules because he was running a home-delivery service for sushi and wanted to increase his client base. In inland Delhi, the incidence of seafood allergy is notoriously high. So, he invented sushi with shredded chicken and pepper, as well as ham and asparagus. That puts him in the same league as Nikhil Chib of Busaba, Mumbai, who combines Korean bulgogi with Japanese sushi.
However, the real thing (smoked, steamed or uncooked fish and seafood) outsells every variation in the Indian market. From butter chicken, our palates can be said to have come a long way.
SUSHI 101
Nigiri
Finger of rice with a piece of (mostly raw) fish/prawn/squid atop it

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Temari
Small ball-shaped lump of rice, almost covered with seafood

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Hosomaki
A roll where a sheet of black seaweed (nori) and rice is wrapped around a filling of (mostly cooked) seafood and/or vegetables.

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Uramaki

Inside out maki roll, with rice outside and the nori sheet inside.

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Futomaki
Thick maki roll, too undignified to eat on a first date.

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Gunkan maki
Battleship-shaped sushi, most often topped with salmon roe (you do have to have an imagination to see the similarity)

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Chirashi

Bowl of 'landscaped' sushi - a bed of rice and decorations of edible flowers, seafood, roe and vegetables.

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Mushi-zushi
Steamed bowl of sushi using (mostly) meats.

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Gari
Pickled Japanese ginger cut in paper-thin slices.

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Wasabi
pungent horseradish mustard, usually available in tubes (If a sushi restaurant serves you freshly grated horseradish, take notice. It doesn't come cheap)

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IT'S IN THE RICE
It's not fish that is the vital part of sushi, it's actually the rice.

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It's not enough to use Japanese rice; it has to be koshihikari rice that is specially meant for sushi. Although it is now grown outside Japan, the starch structure is not the same. When you cook koshihikari rice that is grown in Japan, the starch forms a layer on the rice surface, which is why it is firm yet soft, bursting on your palate in a soft explosion. Rice grown in other countries has a starch structure that breaks on the surface, so that the rice is fluffy and too soft. Mushy rice is an abomination in a sushi restaurant. Then again, just using koshihikari rice from Japan doesn't guarantee good results. It has to be washed several times, cooked carefully, cooled optimally and then mixed with the right amount of vinegar and salt, so as to complement, not overpower, the fish.
WHERE TO GET IT
Just after the fish market shuts for the day In Delhi, the major sushi outlets are Wasabi, Taj Mahal Hotel; Sakura, Hotel Metropolitan & Time Tower Gurgaon; Ai, Metropolitan Mall, Saket; Three Sixty Degrees, The Oberoi; Konomi, The Trident, Gurgaon ; Yum Yum Tree, New Friends Colony; Kylin, Basant Lok; Sushiya, Select Citywalk & M G Road; Sushi King, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon; Spectra, The Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon; Zest, DLF Emporio, Vasant Kunj and 19 Oriental Avenue, Shangri-La , Ashok Road.

In Mumbai, some sushi places are India Jones, The Oberoi; Rooftop Rendezvous, Taj Mahal Palace & Towers (until Wasabi is restored); Busaba, Colaba; Joss, Kala Ghoda; Tetsuma, Colaba; Panasia and ITC Grand Maratha.

In Chennai, try Hip Asia at Taj Connemara and Aka Saka, Thiruvanmiyur.

In Bangalore, Harima, Residency Road; Zen, The Leela Palace Kempinski and OKO on the Rooftop, The Lalit Hotel.

In Pune, go to Harajuku at O Hotel