Solo California Roll

    Hey guys! Today marked my first attempt at making the California roll by myself (without the help of my Kampai friends). 

    I would say that this was a pretty successful session. One of the key reasons for this is that I discovered how relaxing and enjoyable it is to make sushi. I find that the many steps involved in the preparation each come with their own sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, which is pretty cool since I was first a little overwhelmed and impatient with all the steps a couple months ago. 

    So I guess you could say I was a bit spoiled at Kampai with all the accomodations of a fully functional sushi bar, but I found a way to make it work in my (small) kitchen. Here's my little setup, complete with rice cooker, cooked rice, prepped veggies, crab sticks, a bowl of water (for wetting hands when needed), and some other stuff (vinegar, soy sauce, knife) that aren't in the picture.

As you can see, I did a pretty okay job of spreading the rice onto a sheet of nori (seaweed), but I'll admit that it took me forever! Dealing with rice in general is still one of the trickier parts of sushi-making to me, and I'm still trying to figure out a good sushi-to-vinegar ratio.

    Well, here is the finished product (contains crab stick, avocado, and cucumber):

Spoiler: It never made it to an actual plate because I'm kind of lazy. There are also a few technical things that I still need to perfect such as rolling and cutting. It was, however, pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. My Mom and sister also enjoyed it a lot which made me happy! I will definitely make a lot more rice next time, as I could only make 2 rolls with the amount I prepared. 

    All in all, this was a fun and delicious experience and I can't wait to make more next week and experiment with more ingredient combinations. I'd love to get my hands on some shiitake mushrooms! 

    A couple of side notes: 

1.) If anyone knows of a pandora station that plays relaxing, traditional japanese music, let me know in school because the station I found has a wierd mixture of soothing, tradional music and J-pop. It was a musical (and emotional) roller coaster. 

2.) Kim's Oriental shop on the vestal parkway is an awesome place to stop for indian and asian ingredients, they have all kinds of cool foods/spices. I got my crab sticks, nori, and toasted sesame seeds there.