Maki sushi is probably the most well known type of sushi in the U.S. It consists of a layer of nori surrounding a layer of rice surrounding the fillings in the middle, all rolled into a cylinder and then cut into several smaller slices. The most well known type of maki sushi is the California Roll.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about love, and dreams, and what it all means. Why do some people work their lives away in a job they hate, just to pay the rent, while others get to have the life of their dreams? Why do some marriages fail after only a few years, others go for decades then fall apart, and yet others can still be going strong after 70 years?

A week ago, Son and I went with my family to my great aunt and uncle’s 70th wedding anniversary and renewal of vows. You read that right – 70 years. And they’re still happy. The way they look at each other… it’s plain as day that they still love each other deeply. How can, after 70 years, two people still be so madly in love with each other? (To put that into perspective, that’s over three times my lifetime, or eighteen times as long as Son and I have been together.)

I may not know today what goes into a love story such as theirs, but it gives me a lot to think on and strive for in my own life.

This sushi? Bright, beautiful, and happy, just like my great aunt and uncle. Also, very delicious. Crunchy, smooth, cool, warm, salty, spicy, yum.

Harry and James, James and Harry. Our dear Men with Pens. Both are really amazing guys that I’m proud to call my friends, and both are sushi lovers one is a sushi lover. I’m still working on the other one.

Harry was the easy one. He loves sushi, especially salmon. Salmon, salmon, salmon… he apparently can’t get enough of it. (I’m pretty sure he’s actually a cat, though I’ve never actually met him offline, so I can’t say for sure.) It was ever so simple to figure out a sushi he would love, and whaddaya know? I made it, and it was pretty gosh darn delicious.

And then… there’s James. The difficult one. Turns his nose up at sashimi, won’t go within 100 yards of a fish egg, and generally refuses to try sushi. So troublesome, that one, when all I wanted to do was make sushi for him! But, as we all know, I certainly do love a challenge, and of course in the realm of sushi… I always prevail.

Thus the Gatekeeper Maki was born. A non-sashimi, not-a-fish-egg-to-be-seen sushi, suitable for The Gatekeeper himself. It’s a bit of an Italian-style sushi roll, what with the tomato, olives, and pesto… with the addition of smoked salmon (which we’ve discovered he will eat), it’s quite fantastic indeed. Now to get him to actually make and eat the roll…

Don’t forget to enter my contest to win a copy of the book, Sustainable Sushi, by Casson Trenor. You have until Saturday night to enter!

Recipe after the jump…

I love giving hugs, just as I love receiving them. The act of embrace is comforting, reassuring, and at times even protective. We all need hugs – hugs of joy when we see an old friend after a long time apart, hugs of comfort when a friend is going through hard times. But sometimes, one hug just isn’t enough.

Because of this, food bloggers all over the world are coming together to give one HUGE virtual hug (and many virtual flowers!) to Barbara, from Winos and Foodies. Bron and Ilva were the two masterminds between this weekend of hugs for Barbara, and of course, I wanted to join in.

I was first introduced to Barbara when I heard about her LiveSTRONG with a Taste of Yellow event earlier this year. She gave me a chance to share the struggles my family has gone through with cancer, and realize how supportive the online community can be.

So for you, Barbara, some beautiful flowers from Son’s dad’s garden, and a delicious, refreshing Seaweed Salmon Roll. Enjoy!

(Hopefully, chemotherapy won’t have the same effect on you as it does on my brother… he hasn’t been allowed to have sashimi or any type of uncooked fish since he relapsed just over a year ago, and it’s torture! He’s counting down the days until his hardcore chemotherapy is finished and he can eat sashimi again.)

Quite often readers email me with questions relating to sushi. Usually they’re easy to respond to, or if I don’t know the answer a quick search will help me out. But every once in a while, I’m completely stumped by a question. Such was the case with a recent email. A reader asked me five questions relating design to sushi, and since I’m at a loss for how to answer these questions really well, I’d like your help.

Here are the five questions. If you can answer even just one of them, I’d really appreciate it. Then later this week, I’ll combine all your thoughts to come up with a final list of answers that I can send back to the reader, and of course I’ll post them here for those who are interested. Thank you so much in advance!

1. What are the basic principles of sushi?
2. What are the higher principles of sushi?
3. Where does inspiration come from?
4. How does one measure “balance” in sushi?
5. Is there such a thing as the perfect roll? If so, what makes it perfect?

As for this sushi roll, wouldn’t you agree that it’s designed quite beautifully? I’d say a nice balance is found between the ingredients – just try it, and you’ll see what I mean. For lovers of sashimi, it’s really fantastic.

P.S. Check out my awesome new RSS button, made for me by Harry of the Men with Pens. Isn’t it beautiful?

P.P.S. Sushi Day was the victim of a Drive-By Shooting! Hop on over there to see what they said about Sushi Day… but don’t worry, their critique is great, and any shooting, exploding, burning down, or otherwise murdering of my blog is all in good fun.

So what do you do if you run out of nori in the middle of making sushi? Well, after the initial “oh crud” moment, you find a way to replace it. Lucky for me, I have a TON of spring roll wrappers laying around, which turn out to be the perfect replacement for nori. Not only are they sturdy enough to roll sushi in without falling apart, they are also fairly bland, so they’re great for people who don’t like the taste of nori in the first place.

Since the name “sushi” refers to the seasoned rice that is used rather than the way the roll is made, these rolls that are reminiscent of spring rolls can still be considered sushi. But if you are making them at home, don’t feel like you have to eat them just like sushi. You’re free to skip slicing them into several pieces, and instead eat them with your hands and dip them into a sauce just like you might a spring roll.

Oh, and before I give you the recipe, I must say something about the sauce. This sauce is amazing. Sure the combination sounds a little weird – not often would you mix mayonnaise, shoyu, Sriracha sauce, and brown sugar – but the result is sweet, salty, creamy, and just a little spicy. It’s seriously addictive – not only did we drench this roll with it, but we ended up dipping several other rolls in the sauce as well.

Ever since I was very young, I have been an avid reader. In first grade, I began reading the Boxcar Children series (we must have at least 100 of those books!) and Little House on the Prairie. (Although my all-time favorite book when I was young was Norma Jean, Jumping Bean.) In middle school, I graduated to the Wheel of Time series, the Golden Compass trilogy, and Harry Potter. Later, it was the Sword of Truth series, and of course, Twilight.

I’ve always loved escaping into the worlds in my books, but what I didn’t know is that there was an even better way to get my, uh, “high”.

It’s been almost a year since I discovered two amazing men. Their blog has the most amazing community I’ve ever seen online, but they are so much more than just a blogging duo. For the longest time I was intimidated by both of them – James is super confident, and quite the go-getter; Harry is mysterious, but the kind of guy that everyone and their mother wants to be friends with. And me, well, I’m easily intimidated.

Just over five months ago, I began to get to know the both of them much better when I joined their RPG – Escaping Reality. Like I said before, it’s an even cooler way to get the escape I get from reading – I get to have my very own character who I get to write into the story. It’s very awesome.

So I’ve gotten to know these two men to the point where I would consider them to both be good friends. And, well, I’ve found out certain things about them. Like how James has never had sushi. And won’t eat raw fish. And for the longest time refused to even consider eating sushi, because he thought it was all raw fish. (But it definitely isn’t!) (Don’t worry, I’ll convert him someday. Somehow.) On the other hand, I’ve found out that Harry loves sushi. Specifically that of the salmon variety. If it includes some sort of roe… even better.

When I discover that someone I find incredibly awesome loves sushi, well, I like to create a sushi specifically for them. Thus I present you with the Refugee from Reality Roll. It involves not only salmon sashimi, but also smoked salmon, and obviously roe. Added to that is some cucumber and avocado, and a bit of spicy mayonnaise to add a little kick. I’ve got to say… my dear friend Harry is apparently a bit of a sushi genius, because this roll was amazingly good. I’m not kidding, you have to try it. (And if I can ever convince James to try sushi, don’t worry, I’ll make him a roll too!)

Every now and then, a reader emails me with an idea for a sushi recipe. I always do my best to respond to every email, and I’ll usually ask the reader if they mind if I make the sushi and post about it. Unfortunately, sometimes it can take a while for me to get to making the sushi, and then sometimes even longer for me to get around to posting about it. Such is the case with this roll.

Over a year ago, reader John Dearden emailed me to describe a roll that he makes quite often. Avocado, cream cheese, red onion, and smoked salmon – sounds quite delicious, right? (Also, sound familiar? To his credit, he did email me a whole six months before I wrote that post. ) I didn’t make the roll until the beginning of July, and finally I’m getting around to posting it! (What? I’ve been busy. *hides*)

The verdict? This was delicious. The flavors all meld together incredibly well, and the sharpness of the onion is gently softened by the smoothness of the avocado, cream cheese, and smoked salmon. I love this medley of ingredients in this Salmon Summer Sushi, just as I loved this combination of flavors in the Salmon Summer Rolls.

And the name? Well, I couldn’t help but steal the name from the summer rolls, since not only do they have the same ingredients, but they just taste so summery! (Besides, with the way temperatures have been in Southern California the past few days, it certainly feels like summer. *melts* )

P.S. I have an awesome contest going on over at Fridgg, where you can win some delicious garlic sauce! So head on over there and be sure to enter!

Bacon. Anyone who knows me even the least bit knows that I adore bacon. Sometimes, a little too much. So why not put it in sushi? Seriously… bacon in sushi is amazing. My family knows that if there’s bacon in something, there’s a good chance I’ll eat it. (Gah! So bad for me, I know. Honestly, I’m working on the whole healthy thing. Slowly, very slowly, but I am.)

Obviously, if I find a sushi roll involving bacon, I’m going to try to replicate it. Such was the case with the “Hog Tied King” roll from Tex Wasabi’s. The cool cream cheese cut through the saltiness of the bacon and salmon, and the Sriracha gave it just the right kick. To top it off, the fried and green onions over the sweet chili sauce gave it an unexpected sort of Vietnamese twist – very delicious. Perhaps not the most traditional roll, (but really, it’s not like many of the ones I make are) but certainly a scrumptious combination.

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In other news, I’m excited. Excited, excited, excited. Have I mentioned I’m excited? Want to know why? Hop on over to my latest post on Fridgg, and you’ll see why!

Not long ago I was, quite frankly, an internet noob. Sure, I’ve used the internet for email and instant messaging since the ’90s, but aside from researching for school papers, my internet use rarely went beyond that. Of course I was on MySpace and Facebook in high school and college – everyone was on such social networking sites, and that was often the best way to stay in touch with my friends after we graduated.

Little did I know, there was an entire world I was unaware of.

On November 1st, 2006, I entered the world of blogging. Up until then, I had never subscribed to or commented on a blog – I didn’t even know what an RSS feed was. The internet was a scary place – who knew what sort of people were behind the avitars and screennames… for all I knew, these were weirdos trying to decieve us all into thinking they were really the people they pretended to be online.

Little by little, I learned that this was rarely the case. Ralph Whitbeck and Yvo were two commenters who have been with Sushi Day from the beginning. They started as complete strangers, but slowly I have gotten to know the real people behind the blogs.

This was just the start to a wonderful community of real people I have gotten to know over the internet. There are some I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person, and so many more I hope to be lucky enough to meet someday.

However, the food blogging world was just the start. Although vast and full of amazing people, some of my closest online friends have come from blogs completely unrelated to the food blogging world. There are so many fantastic bloggers I want to tell you about, but for now I’ll limit myself to introducing you to Karen Swim. One of the strongest women I know, she writes inspirational posts that help you live your life to it’s fullest, and always make you think.

Not to long ago, she was lucky enough to work with Harry and James from Men with Pens, who made her a beautiful new design for her website. You really should go check it out… it’s incredibly elegant, and suits her perfectly. In celebration, I promised her I’d make a new roll, just for her. (Because really, what’s more awesome than having your own roll, made just for you? ) I used all my favorite ingredients – green onion, scallops, tuna, avocado, tempura shrimp, and spicy mayonnaise – and combined it all to make one of the prettiest rolls I have ever made. The ingredients all meld together to create a delicious explosion of sashimi flavors in your mouth, accented perfectly by the avocado, green onion, and spicy mayonnaise. Truly amazing – enjoy!