2 temaki and 3 beers

Last night I was feeling like some fish. I was expecting the pairing to be quite difficult, envisioning my dinning parter saying "やっぱりお寿司には日本酒だね”　or some thing to that effect. But in actually the paring was much easier for a couple of reasons. First temaki, unlike sushi is wrapped in seaweed, and I used brown rice, as opposed to the sickly looking white variety. Both of these factors added some robustness to the dish. For the fillings we had two kinds, one with Tuna and wasabi, and one with Katsuo, negi, and ginger. So in hind sight temaki was a great choice because it is more complex in flavor and because its less fussy, more fun than regular sushi,

The surprising winner pairing of the night was the Anchor Steam Beer. None of the pairings were bad but the Weihenstephan (A german weissbier) added some sweetness to the dish that seemed out of place, and the Yona Yona was delicious but to heavy for the dish. The steam beer was light enough to match the impact of the temaki, had some of the same nutty, earthy flavors present in the temakis rice and seaweed, and a low bitterness to cut through its slight fat and spiciness. All and all a thoroughly satisfying dinner. Next time Id like to try some different combinations of fish and topics paired with some of the good Japanese rice beers, such as Miyama blond.

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Temaki Sushi ( for 2)

1. Make rice ( 1 cup of brown rice with 2 cups of water worked for me)

2. Cut up fillings ( Look to classic sushi combinations for inspiration, or go with what looks freshest at the store)

3. Mix rice with vinegar mixture (Roughly 1 cup vinegar 1/4 cup sugar or honey or something sweet)

3. Spread rice on seaweed (best place to put it is in the section which will become the innermost section when rolled up, easier tried then explained)

4. Add other ingredients on top of rice

5. Wrap up into a cone and eat (mmmm)

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