Sushi Bonanza

Last night I had my last class of the semester at Schoolcraft (last class coz I can't afford any more this semester...!) I've been taking some continuing education culinary classes there since fall... my folks paid for the tuition for the first class as a birthday present to kickstart my "I've always wanted to do that..." drive :o)

Last night was my sushi class.... and I cannot even begin to describe how incredible it was! I had sooooo much fun...! First, Chef Gabriel showed us how to make "perfect" sushi rice, along with the seasoning and everything (and he gave us recipes for all of it), then he demonstrated how to make about a dozen different kinds of sushi. After the demonstration, each of us were given a plate of garnishes, and a plate with probably $30 worth of sushi fishes (tuna, yellowtail, eel, crab salad, spicy tuna...) We were in groups of 3 making the rice, and then we were told to just have fun and make whatever we wanted! We were to "roll until all of the rice and fish is gone, then take anything that's leftover home too"... I was in HEAVEN!!! My group was fun... Jim was this all spunky retired guy, and Shirley was this tiny round mostly deaf grandma lady, but we had a blast together...

I was a little disappointed because we were supposed to also learn how to make tempura, but Chef said we wouldn't have time, so he skipped it, but then we ended up being done an hour early, so we really could have learned how to make it! He did give us the recipe, so we can try it on our own, but I was still bummed, I was looking forward to that part as well. At the end of the night I had 3 carry out boxes filled with the sushi I had made, I had even more fun than in my knife skills class, and I'm starting to get to know some of the other students and instructors (actual students, the ones who assist Chef in class, not the others in my class, I didn't see any overlap in people from the last class to this one)

After class I went stright to Austin's, where he was waiting with a special surprise to make the night even better... he drove all the way down to Mexican Town to buy us two glass bottles of coke. He and I have a sushi tradition of always having coke, and we like glass bottle coke way better than canned coke, and non-american coke tastes way better (because they use sugar cane instead of corn syrup)... we ate to our hearts' content, and still ended up with enough leftovers for Austin to take for lunch to work with him today.

All in all it was a super successful class and I had a real blast... plus I know what I'm doing now when it comes to sushi making!!! :o)