One of the most well-known types of sushi out there is the California Roll. This bit of sushi is often the first one westerners are willing to try, because it is made with cooked fish. Once that first delicious bite is in your mouth, it’s a lot easier to branch out into other types of sushi as well.
The California Roll is also unique because it is inside out. The seaweed which normally wraps up the outside of the roll to hold it together, is on the inside, and the rice is on the outside.
If you find it easier to try a California Roll than it is to try other types, it’s likely because this was the whole idea behind it. The California Roll is a beautiful blend of American ingredients and Japanese cuisine, starting in the 1970s.
The First Sushi Shops
The first successful sushi shops were in California, as you can probably guess from the name of these rolls. Los Angeles had a fairly large Japanese-American population, with restaurants catering to them in the Little Tokyo area.
Although these shops were popular with Japanese immigrants who were familiar with the food, they were less popular with people who were used to western foods. Another problem that made things difficult for Japanese restaurants was that there wasn’t always a great supply of fresh fish available. Many of the ingredients common to Japan weren’t always available in America.
Ichiro Mashita, struggling to find ingredients that worked well with sushi in an area that didn’t get regular shipments of fatty toro or nori. He swapped out the fatty toro for avocado, and the nori for rice, creating a Maki Roll that appealed to Americans.
Americans, relieved to see ingredients they recognized, such as familiar rice and creamy avocado, were willing to give it a try. The result was a highly popular meal that showed off both the versatility of Japanese cuisine, and the beauty of the new flavors he created.
It helped that avocado’s creamy fattiness was a perfect replacement for fatty toro, and offered an incredible level of flavor and texture to those brave enough to try something new.
The result was a wave of popularity for Japanese foods, and the spread of sushi restaurants from one small place in Los Angeles, to the rest of the entire world.
The Start of a New Cuisine
The California Roll didn’t just get Americans hooked on sushi, it became a global sensation. It encouraged other people around the world to look at the foods they loved and see if they could make it with different ingredients.
Thanks to the humble California Roll, fusion cuisines, where two cuisines are blended into something new, became more popular. This one idea spurred an entire culinary revolution across the world, including culinary fusions such as taco pizzas or curry mac and cheese.
These dishes may have never come to be if someone had not first tried to blend two cuisines together.
