Sushi- Japanese Dish

Sushi- Japanese Dish
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Historical Origins
Sushi is one of the most overwhelming yet scrumptious meals in the world. Sushi is today recognized as one of the traditional Japanese cuisines and has founded its position through Japan’s long history.1 However, the earliest record mentioning “sushi” first appears in a written record from the Nara era (8C). It is inferred to be invented in Southeast Asia and introduced to Japan from China through the Korean peninsula. People, especially in remote areas of the seashore in the early times, had invented technology to preserve seafood. During the 10th century, people began fermenting fish by mixing it with cereal for about a year, which is now considered the first form of sushi.2 During this time, sushi was a luxury item, only available to the aristocrats and high priests. Since this process took a long period, and the cereal got fully broken down when fish taste matured, impatient people began eating half-fermented fish. In contrast, the cereal remained in an edible form closer to today's sushi-style. In some areas of western Japan, people pickled fish and rice in a wooden container to speed up fermentation, which is the genesis of oshi-zushi or hako-zushi. During the 16th-19th century, along with the invention of vinegar, the acid fermentation process began.1(p209) During this time, people started loving fish with vinegar placed on top of rice. The dish founded its status as a fast-food meal with street vendors catering to the lower class people who opened their business on food carts. The Japanese preserved fish in salt or soaked it in soy sauce to strengthen the preservation quality, as refrigeration technology had not yet been invented. Sushi chefs had also enhanced their skills in creating nigari sushi, and people enjoyed watching their skills.
During and after world wars, the scarcity and firm regulation of food by the Japanese authorities banned sushi carts from conducting their business until they began trading one cup of rice with ten pieces of sushi with the processing license in1947.1(p210) Duri...