She Sells Sushi by the Seashore

Having lived in Japan, sushi is a food that is very familiar to me.  I've eaten just about every form of sushi you can imagine.  There is nigirisushi, which is the kind that comes to mind when you picture sushi....a little mound of rice topped with various seafood, egg, etc.   There are other types of sushi, too, though.  I like temakisushi.  This is kind of like "buffet style."  There are a variety of ingredients laid out, and each person can pick up their own sheet of nori, or seaweed, and concoct their own creation.  (I like this one because I can use a leaf of butter lettuce instead of seaweed, if I like, and no one will be offended.)  Rolled sushi, in general, is makisushi.  This category holds all of the famous California rolls, etc.  Another form of sushi is inari-sushi.  This is where the rice and other treats are stuffed into a pouch of thin tofu, a kind of skin that encases the sushi.  Fukusasushi is the same concept only the sushi is wrapped in egg crepe.  And finally, there is chirashisushi, which is where the rice is served in a large bowl topped with seafood, egg, pickles, ginger, etc.  It's cousin, oshisushi, is the same thing served in a rectangular box. 

I'm amazed at the popularity of sushi here in the United States.  Even though this is a feature on so many menus, people still don't quite know what sushi is.  They mistake this to mean that there is raw fish involved.  Not necessarily so.  The word sushi is used to denote the presence of vinegared rice.  Long before refrigeration, the people of Japan developed a way to preserve fish so that they could eat fish protein farther inland or at a later date.  They used a fermentation process for the rice and used that fermented rice to wrap around the fileted fish.  They could eat this much later.  Originally, the thought was to discard the rice and eat the protein, but they began to enjoy the entire bundle as a food source.  From that, early forms of fast food sold by the street side or in theaters evolved.  They began to diversify the presentation, and this resulted in the various forms of sushi.  If it doesn't have vinegared rice, it is not sushi.

When it comes to food, we confuse a lot of things.  There are so many technical terms in the food industry.  I couldn't begin to understand them all.  For the most part, it does not create too many problems.  We eat what we like. Our great problems begin when we misunderstand people or intentions.  There are those who get bogged down in misinterpreted theology.  And there are those who impose their misinterpretations on others. 

Have you ever been misinterpreted?  I have.  Since I was young, moments have crept in where people may not have liked me initially based on their interpretation of who I was when they saw me in a singular moment. I've been guilty of quickly forming opinions of others, as well.  It is dangerous to settle our minds to a conclusion when we don't have the appropriate information, isn't it?

Proverbs 3:5 tells us to, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own insight or understanding." I'm learning to withhold judgment as I go.  I'm learning to seek the mind of God in circumstances.  If I rely on my own mind and its assessment of people and moments, then I'm terribly wrong.  Only God knows the full explanation.  Only He can see everything and correctly interpret the people and the moments in our lives.  I may still have a tendency here and there to jump to conclusions, but God gently corrects me and brings me back to His purposes.  I am grateful because I know that my own thoughts are far inferior to His.  And when I read the Bible, I always ask the Lord to reveal His truth to me so that I don't get away from His intent in my life. 

Misunderstanding is the enemy's way of bringing pain and confusion to the relationships that the Lord would have us foster.  Don't be led astray by your own misinterpretations.  Allow God to whisper in your ear to tell you the meaning behind each moment. 

And be confused no more!  Sushi = vinegared rice! If someone serves you raw fish alone, you are not eating sushi; you are eating sashimi.  Believe it or not, I prefer sashimi to sushi almost always....but that's another story.

Sushi suggestions:  If you are afraid of sushi, start easy.  Try a fun roll like a spicy tuna roll or spicy shrimp roll.  Unless you are in a very Japanese restaurant and the shrimp is listed as "ama-ebi", it will be cooked.  If your sushi joint offers "aburi" style sushi, you MUST order it!  Aburi-sushi is where they take the traditional mounded sushi and then blow-torch the top.  It instantly cooks the fish, and the flavor finds its way into the rice.