From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 05/16/00
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 13:25:30 -0700 From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Message-Id: <200005162025.NAA16476@bucky.sculptors.com> Subject: Origin of the word "sushi"
Stacie forwarded this one to me:
This from this week's Take Our Word For It: (Issue 86, p.1)
http://www.takeourword.com/
The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) explains that it is "A Japanese
dish consisting of small balls of cold boiled rice flavored with vinegar
and commonly garnished with slices of fish or cooked egg, or rolled
in a piece of laver". Not the most appetizing of descriptions, we must
admit, but it does get to the essence of the dish. Sushi
actually means "vinegar-cured rice" - the raw fish is just a bonus.
The word has been in English since at least 1893 when a traveler
recorded that he was "served... with tea and sushi or rice
sandwiches". The raw fish, when served by itself, is called sashimi
which means "pierced flesh" (sashi "pierce" + mi "flesh").
There are actually quite a few word derivations in this issue. Info
about "nori" is further down the page.
Pat