I don’t know about you, but with me – when I get hooked on something, I am kind of an equipment and gadget geek. I love technology, so it makes me get cool stuff. I love sushi and it has made me buy a lot of new stuff. And I love it.

It is expensive, especially since living in Norway, but I enjoy it so much. I don’t have THAT much, but I will get more – I am sure of that. I just have to get myself back to Japan…

Here is an ever growing list of stuff that is necessary. Well – at least for me.

Japanese Bamboo Sushi Mat
I am most of all fond of maki rolls, so this is where I start. I need my bamboo mat.

It is made of thin strips of bamboo held together with cotton strings. Some mats are flat and others are a bit rounder. I am not the expert to tell which is better. Mine is a bit round, and when I need to make ura makis, I put plastic wrapping around it. I always make sure it is properly dry before I roll it together after washing it. It is weird, but just playing around with my mat makes me feel good. It is as if I wanna get good at using it. It is hard and takes a lot of practice not to squeeze too much while using it!

Rice cooker
Most japanese use a rice cooker to make their sushi rice. Then you are supposed to get almost perfect sushi rice everytime.

I unfortunately I don’t have one, so I use just a regular pot with a lid to make it. It works fine as well, and it is not as hard to get good rice as I thought initially. Getting the mix of sushi vineagar (sugar, vinegar and salt) just right is a different story.

Read more in the recipe section for that.

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Cooking Chopsticks
Cooking chopsticks is something I am struggling to get used to using. Purely out of bad chopsticks skills. I do very much enjoy “the lack of taste” (or is it a taste, but a more welcome tast in food?) that chopsticks contribute with in cooking. Not until after having lived in Japan and eaten with chopsticks for half a year was I aware of how much tast our metal cutlery and cooking equipment actually add to the food.

Sushi and in general japanese food have a very gentle taste palette and I feel like that kind of food is even more sensitive to added taste than our normal everyday often very spiced up food. So – chopstick are important. In making eggs for instance. (mental note – practise chopstick skills!

Knives
Ah. Knives are important. And expensive if you want something that is good. I have now a boyfriend that buys me knives for Valentines day, and I find it terribly romantic… (Help – I am broken…) Traditional japanese knives were made from the same material as samurai swords. Don’t you just love it!? It is as being a part of history. I suddenly have a knife fetish. Well. By assosiation. But it does make me kind of superhero…ish… In my mind… (add Eddie Izzards voice there).

These knives come in different sizes and are used for different purposes. I have not gotten around to getting all the different ones yet, I am still struggling with not cutting me on my fish filleting kind, but we have been around looking. We actually found one that looked like a big sword! I was quite impressed with the fact that it is available here, downtown Oslo. It is one that is used for cutting up big tunas. The price was impressive too; around 25 000 NOK which is about $4,000. I don’t cut that many tunas… that big… so I don’t think I will need it. If you get yourself the long, pointy one for cutting up fish, sashimi and dividing the maki rolls, then you can get started at least.

Japanese Mandolin Slicer
Well, I thougt a slicer was a slicer I didn’t know that they also had to be made in Japan as well. I guess maybe they don’t, but the low tech “I cut very thin slices” versions they make there are so much better than the “whatever you want me to be” slicers that I first got me.

As noted earlier, I am a gadget freak, so I really believed that it would revolutionize my kitchen. This you need to cut up vegetables in different sized pieces and most importantly – make gari (pickled ginger). This one cuts the ginger into those super thin slices you get at the restaurants. Make gari at home! It is fun!

Hangiri - rice cooler

I finally got myself one of these, and they make a huge difference in making proper sushi rice. Where my previous preferred bowl for cooling off the rice almost added water, this bowl absorbs all unnecessary water and makes the rice nice and shiny. And it feels good. And looks good.

Ah. I love my Hangiri!