Pickled ginger is called gari in Japanese. Gari is always served with your sushi, and it is yummy, refreshing and cleans out your mouth between the pieces. You should try to eat pieces of pickled ginger between different kinds of sushi to enhance the flavors.

Gari is sold in most supermarkets around, and come in glass jars or big and small plastic bags. I prefer the ones in plastic bags that you get at japanese supermarkets, but you really also should try and make it yourself. It is not very hard, and here is one recipe to start out with.

Ingredients

• 2 large ginger roots
• 1 cup rice wine vinegar
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sake
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp salt

Peel, cut and grate your ginger. Bring a saucepan with water to a boil, and boil your pieces of ginger for a minute or two. Remove it from the saucepan to cool.

Combine your other ingredients and bring to boil.

Meanwhile while doing this, you slice your ginger as thinly as possible.

Put your thin slices of ginger in a glass jar of some sort with a tight lid on it. The liquid from the other ingredients are then poured over the ginger slices.

Let it cool and allow the ginger to pickle away in your refrigerator for a few days.

For addicts: It is important to have a quality assurance tasting whenever you need to… I go by my ginger every other day… Well. It’s healthy!

Your gari should last a month if refrigerated.