Hana Sushi: Colorful & Fun Sushi for Parties

I have this book, and I love it. I'm surprised so few people know it's in print, yet everyone who sees my copy instantly says 'I have to have that!' If you're trying to get a child to eat a homemade lunch, this book will help. Although some of the ingredients sound a little strange to Westerners, if you just ask your child to try the creation many of them will happily snatch it up and munch away. Cuteness counts with kids. The directions were clear to me; I can only guess the reviewer had never made sushi before. If you have, this book will pose no problem. Once you figure out the fiddly details of how much rice goes in each portion of the designs, they go together quickly. One caveat: if you are shopping for some items in the book, and don't have a dedicated Japanese grocery in your city, take the book with you to the Asian store you end up at. You might be able to get the items under another name/language. Failing that, you can always cheat and use a drop of food coloring to tint your rice vinegar, but the flavor will not be as good. These designs work for adults as well as children - don't think only kids like these. When I unwrap my lunch it always gets noticed when one of these sushi creations is inside. This book is well worth the price.

This really is a must by if you like making Japanese bentos. About half the book were sushi made in the fashion of the sushi on the cover, which were all very cute, but the second half of the book is my favorite. The book had many easy recipes on small bento dishes and light Japanese style soups. The sushi also gets more creative in the second half. There are recipes on beautifully put together rice balls and sushi that looked like small little cakes. My favorite was the kitty rice balls. The book teaches you to get creative with inari, cut designs with fish cake, and make little food decorations for bento (such as cauliflower sheep). If you find the hana sushi to hard to make, you should at least manage to make the other types of sushi in the book. They're pretty easy, and in my opinion, more beautiful.

In Japan, regarding Japanese food, there is a saying that you "eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth." Nowhere is this more evident than in the fabulous and sometimes bizarre "Hana Sushi," where chefs Akiko Namiki and Eriko Teranishi have designed an astounding variety of decorative sushi sure to liven up any party or occasion. Provided, of course, you can actually make them. "Hana Sushi" is not for beginning sushi chefs. This is an intermediate/advanced book that assumes some previous familiarity with making sushi rolls. There is some guidance as to making the individual designs, but the fundamentals of rolling sushi should be mastered before you tackle these more-intricate creations. Fortunately, there are many sushi fundamental guides out there, so no one should be completely lost. When you feel confident, there is a roll in here for pretty much every occasion. For Christmas, there are snowmen and Christmas trees, for Easter a bunny. The majority does not fit such a festive theme, but rather individual motifs such as animals (panda, kitten, chick, butterfly, piglet, etc...) fruit (grapes, apple, cherries, etc...,) vehicles (balloons, cars, trains, etc...) and the very Japanese motif of flowers (dandelion, tulip, peach blossoms, cherry blossoms, etc...) On top of this, there are even more adventurous creations such as a sushi cake and a pair of really lovely edible dolls. There are enough tacklable designs in "Hana Sushi" to make it practical as well as fun to look at. While I don't think I will be serving up anyone a "princess sushi cake" anytime soon, I will put some simple snowmen on the table at Christmas time, and probably a smoked salmon roll or two done uramaki style with the salmon on the outside. A good cook book overall (well, not really a cook book as there isn't much cooking going on!) and one that I am glad to have in my library.