Korean, American, and Japanese Sushi

Kimbap (or Gimbap) is a type of Korean food. The concept of this dish is in a way similar to American style sushi. This food is usually eaten at picnics with Kimchi, which is a type of Korean pickled cabbage. There are not very many restaurants that serve only Kimbap, as it’s seen more of as a sandwich or snack (similar to onigiri). Protein ingredients that are very often used with Gimbap are fish cakes, imitation crab meat, eggs and/or seasoned beef rib-eye. This is similar to American California rolls in that the imitation crab meat is often used. Vegetables in Kimbap often include cucumbers, spinach, carrots and pickled radish. The picture below shows an example of Kimbap. It looks very similar to sushi you can find in America, but the flavors are different because of the ingredients used.


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Japanese sushi is very different than Korean “sushi.” Japanese sushi is generally fish with a rice ball underneath. Most Japanese sushi shows off the fish more, and focuses on the cuts of meat. Rolls in Japan can be seen, but they are often used to combine flavors or textures of fish. The goal of Japanese sushi is not of the roll or what’s inside the roll. Japanese foods focus a lot on aesthetic (appearance, or outward beauty) and texture. If a food is bland or has a bad texture, many Japanese people won’t eat it. Even if the food is very flavorful, some Japanese people will not eat it if it has a bad texture. Americans eat more for flavor, and texture can vary. For example, many people eat at McDonald’s in America, and some of their menu items have the same texture or consistency. McDonald’s in Japan have varied menu items specific to Japan, such as the Tsukimi, or moon viewing burger, which has an egg on top to resemble the moon.


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In America, sushi is more similar to Kimbap in that it’s generally a roll. The rice in American sushi is on the outside. If an American goes to a sushi restaurant in America, most of the menu items are rolls. You can get traditional Japanese sushi by ordering each cut of fish separately. This is called “nigiri” (fish on rice) in America, but in Japan it’s just referred to as sushi. I showed my host family in Japan pictures of American sushi and they said they didn’t know what that was, but it wasn’t sushi. In America, sushi also has varied sauces on top of it. Many of the sauces or ingredients inside rolls can be sweet. This is interesting to me because both Japanese and Korean sushi are very savory. Japanese sushi is traditionally dipped in soy sauce before eating, it doesn’t generally come with a sauce already on it.


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