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Re: sushi and sashimi
Mirin is also an ingredient in ponzu sauce and teriyaki. So you have to watch out for those foods at a Japanese restaurant. I thought Japanese food was "safe" in terms of added sugars, until I read several Japanese cookbooks and the cuisine is about as "safe" as the other Asian cuisines. In general, Asian cuisines rely on balancing salty, sweet, sour and bitter in one dish, as opposed to Western cuisines where one or two of the tastes are more predominate than the others. So in order to balance those flavors, they need to add things. And that's also why they add sugar, salt, etc. to "master sauces"----to balance it out. So be careful with Japanese food---unless you make it yourself, there's no telling what they've added to it.
sushi rice just contains rice wine vinegar, salt and sugar. Apparently, it originated as a food preservation means---raw fish was packed in a vinegary-sugary-salty rice mixture. Eventually they figured out that the food preservation method was tasty on it's own.
Mirin is also an ingredient in ponzu sauce and teriyaki. So you have to watch out for those foods at a Japanese restaurant. I thought Japanese food was "safe" in terms of added sugars, until I read several Japanese cookbooks and the cuisine is about as "safe" as the other Asian cuisines. In general, Asian cuisines rely on balancing salty, sweet, sour and bitter in one dish, as opposed to Western cuisines where one or two of the tastes are more predominate than the others. So in order to balance those flavors, they need to add things. And that's also why they add sugar, salt, etc. to "master sauces"----to balance it out. So be careful with Japanese food---unless you make it yourself, there's no telling what they've added to it.
sushi rice just contains rice wine vinegar, salt and sugar. Apparently, it originated as a food preservation means---raw fish was packed in a vinegary-sugary-salty rice mixture. Eventually they figured out that the food preservation method was tasty on it's own.
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