Dinesh's photos with the keyword: Sushi

The concept of sushi was likely introduced to Japan in the ninth century, and became popular there as Buddhism spread. The Buddhist dietary practice of abstaining from meat meant that many Japanese people turned to fish as a dietary staple. The Japanese are credited with first preparing sushi as a complete dish, eating the fermented rice together with the preserved fish. This combination of rice and fish is known as nare-zushi, or aged sushi. Funa-zushi, the earliest known form of nare-zushi, originated more than 1,000 years ago near Lake Biwa, Japans largest freshwater lake. Golden carp known as funa was caught from the lake, packed in salted rice, and compacted under weights to speed up the fermentation. This process took at least half a year to complete, and was only available to the wealthy upper class in Japan from the ninth to 14th centuries. At the turn of the 15th century, Japan found itself in the midst of a civil war. During this time, cooks found that adding more weight to the rice and fish reduced the fermentation time to about one month. They also discovered that the pickled fish didnt need to reach full decomposition in order to taste great. This new sushi preparation was called mama-nare zushi, or raw nare-zushi. www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-of-sushi Eating - Wendel Berry www.ecoliteracy.org/article/wendell-berry-pleasures-eating Sushi originated in Japan in the 8th century, but its origins can be traced back to China between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. The original form of sushi, called narezushi, involved preserving fish in salt and fermented rice. The rice was eventually discarded, and only the fish was eaten.