OneBiteWonder - Various Kinds of Sushi

Chirashi-zushi does not involve any "shaping" or "rolling". It is a bowl of Sushi rice covered with toppings. There are 2 kinds of toppings- one is raw fish slices, which restaurants often use, and the other is cooked fish, along wiht vegetables (including shiitake mushroom and a noodle-shape egg crape), which is typically used in home cooking. Chirashi-zushi at home is often served at festive occasions such as Girl's Festival Day [hina matsuri] on March 3rd. Chirashi-zushi is known as one of those mom's dishes. Each region has its own style of Chirashi.

Inari is fried bean curd, also know as abura-age. The word inari is associated with foxes or the god of foxes in Japanese folk tales. There was a myth from the old days that foxes used to turn into humans at night and enjoyed fooling people. But they had one weakness - they could not resist fried bean curd! Anyway, inari-zushi is made of Sushi rice wrapped in a juicy fried bean curd pocket. It is usually the size of two bites. The bean curd is washed once in hot water to get rid of excess grease, and then stewed in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and Japanese cooking wine. Inari-zushi is popular at picnics and is known as a dish "mom" would make.

Different from nigiri, makimono, or maki-zushii is shaped by a bamboo mat. There are at least 2 kinds - one is thick, and the other is thin. The thick one tends to taste sweeter since it usually comes with an omelette and cooked vegetables. It is said that tuna roll [tekka maki] was first invented at a casino when gamblers wanted to eat Sushi, yet wanted not to make their hands dirty from eating it. They wanted to keep bidding while filling their stomachs. So they rolled up sushi rice with nori [seaweed]. Just like the story of the Duke of Sandwich. Rolls are usually an assortment of nigiri sets at a Sushi restaurant. Typical roll ingredients are tuna, cucumbers and gourds.

Nigiri is equivalent to Edomae-zushi [Edo style Sushi]. The word nigiri comes from nigiru [grab or grip] because nigiri-zushi is made by grabbing vinegar-mixed rice in one hand, and shaping it into a bite size piece, placing a slice of fish on top. Traditional Edomae-zushi requires extra steps of preparation, such as marinating the fish filet in vinegar or soy sauce for a certain period. On the other hand, current nigiri mainly uses raw fish for toppings.
Nigiri is not home cooking. It is normally served at Sushi restaurants or by delivery. The main ingredients are a variety of raw or marinated fish. Among them, the most popular item is tuna.

Oshi-zushi is pressed Sushi in a square container topped with layers of cooked or vinegared fish slices. This is know as Osaka style Sushi (versus nigiri-zushi which is Tokyo style). Since a Sushi lunch box franchise started serving oshi-zushi, it has become popular all over Japan.

Temaki means hand-rolled. This is an "accidental" Sushi. According to the book "Suskibayahi Jiro - Shun wo Nigiru [hand shaping seasons]" by Shinzo Satomi, one day a head chef at "Yoshino" Sushi restaurant in Kyobashi, Tokyo secretly wrapped Sushi rice with nori instead of rolling it normally to munch on while busily working at the counter. A customer spotted it and asked him for the same thing. Since then, temaki Sushi has been on the menu, and it has gradually become popular. Making temaki is less labor intensive compared to making nigiri, so some people prepare it at their home parties or dinners. You might find Japanese grocery stores selling a temaki-set, an assortment of temaki-zushi ingredients cut into right sizes for making hand rolls.