<p><a href="http://philangelus.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/trip-fail/" title="http://philangelus.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/trip-fail/">http://philangelus.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/trip-fail/</a></p><p>At 5:37AM, I awoke to a small voice beside me in the dark: "We need a sushi mat. You roll it away from you."</p><p>Thus began my day, although I guess Kiddo#4's day had begun a minute or two earlier with thoughts about the "how to make sushi" book given to us by my friend Sarah (she who also saved my geeky party.)</p><p>I've mentioned before that K4 loves sushi and even picked a sushi restaurant over Friendly's for his birthday. Thursday is (and quite possibly will be forever) "Sushi Day." During break week, Sarah had taken her daughters to Whole Foods for a class on how to make sushi, and not needing several sets of instruction booklets, gave one to K4.</p><p>Who had me read the instructions and recipes to him like a storybook. A wonderful, amazing, glorious storybook in which, at the climax, everyone eats sushi.</p><p>Five hours after today's story opens, I picked him up from preschool and said, "Let's go buy a sushi mat." Whole Foods is (guess?) ten miles away, so we hunted around the store until the nice guy behind the fish counter showed us where to find sushi mats. We bought Nori. We bought imitation crab. We bought avocados and cucumbers. We bought a bag of sushi rice.</p><p>K4 was so filled with delight that in the car on the way home, he fell asleep.</p><p>Never mind. At home, I hauled him and a grocery bag up the stairs...only to discover it takes about two hours to make sushi rice. (Soaking, cooking, steaming/cooling.) </p><p>After a brief pout of poutiness, K4 settled for leftover chicken wings, and I had a sandwich.</p><p>Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be sushi day. Will have to roll the mat away from me.</p>
At 5:37AM, I awoke to a small voice beside me in the dark: “We need a sushi mat. You roll it away from you.”
Thus began my day, although I guess Kiddo#4’s day had begun a minute or two earlier with thoughts about the “how to make sushi” book given to us by my friend Sarah (she who also saved my geeky party.)
I’ve mentioned before that K4 loves sushi and even picked a sushi restaurant over Friendly’s for his birthday. Thursday is (and quite possibly will be forever) “Sushi Day.” During break week, Sarah had taken her daughters to Whole Foods for a class on how to make sushi, and not needing several sets of instruction booklets, gave one to K4.
Who had me read the instructions and recipes to him like a storybook. A wonderful, amazing, glorious storybook in which, at the climax, everyone eats sushi.
Five hours after today’s story opens, I picked him up from preschool and said, “Let’s go buy a sushi mat.” Whole Foods is (guess?) ten miles away, so we hunted around the store until the nice guy behind the fish counter showed us where to find sushi mats. We bought Nori. We bought imitation crab. We bought avocados and cucumbers. We bought a bag of sushi rice.
K4 was so filled with delight that in the car on the way home, he fell asleep.
Never mind. At home, I hauled him and a grocery bag up the stairs…only to discover it takes about two hours to make sushi rice. (Soaking, cooking, steaming/cooling.)
After a brief pout of poutiness, K4 settled for leftover chicken wings, and I had a sandwich.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be sushi day. I’ll have to roll the mat away from me.
🙂
If the rolls don’t work, make balls. You can hide all sorts of leftovers in them.
He loves leftovers, so finishing those is never a problem.
I was saying — it’s hardly Japanese cuisine, but you could totally cook and slice up a hotdog (lengthwise) to put into a sushi roll for a kid who loathes fish. Or roll up roast beef slices. Or shredded chicken.
My other kids hate sushi, but I think it’s just the fish they hate. If it’s just rice and some meat they like, they might go for it.
This reminds me of my Kiddo3… At preschool one day he told his teacher: “You should not eat the chicken alive because it is TOO NOISY and would ANNOY THE CHICKEN!” My kids love sushi too. I’ve even made it for their school lunches. Sometimes we skip the nori because they aren’t real fans of seaweed and just use the rice, whatever protein we have on hand and roll up (away from you!). To say that their school mates think they are weird is an understatement. But my Kiddo2 just tells them “I feel sorry for you that you don’t like sushi. You are really missing out. More for me though!”
Reminds me of my oldest telling the cat “We don’t eat singing food.”
I think kids really gear in to the visual appeal of food, so if it looks a little strange, but it’s *pretty*, they’re really intrigued.
Our first attempt at sushi, btw, was not pretty. **snicker** Tasty, but not pretty.
Did you remember to buy rice vinegar? Very important ingredient.
The book told me all the things I needed to buy, so yes, but I wouldn’t have known to do that without The Book. 🙂
I LOVE kids and the way they see things! I love how you wrote about this. My husband used to tease our kids into eating cauliflower by calling it “lamb’s brain” of all things. I still don’t get why that worked, but it did. They loved it. Thanks for sharing!