How many types of Sushi are there?

Sushi is one of the most popular Japanese foods today. Main ingredients of Sushi are cooked vinegarized rice combining with raw fish. It’s also possible to find other seafood usage instead of Sushi. There’s also “Sashimi” and it’s sliced raw meats presentation without rice. It’s today known that Sushi is firstly found in China. Sushi is an old word and means “sour-tasting”. Sushi is accepting as first fast-food even publicized in the world. Today there are lots of Sushi types in the world. They have various differences. How many types of Sushi are there?

Today there are 7 main types of Sushi in the world. They are Chirashizushi, Inarizushi, Makizushi, Narezushi, Nigirizushi, Oshizushi and Western-style sushi. All kinds of sushi include sushi rice. Differences between Sushi types come from items like toppings, preparation, fillings and condiments. Today contemporary methods and traditional methods have big differences on preparation and taste.
Chirashizushi is one of the most popular Sushi types in the world. It’s mainly mixture of garnishes, toppings, rice and sashimi in a bowl. They can be cooked or uncooked. Chirashizushi’s preparation must be like an art style and must presented in a good shape. There’s no standard recipe of Chirashizushi and all chefs have different recipes. Japan people eat Chirashizushi in the Doll’s Day festival of Japan. It’s a common meal in Japan because easy to prepare and stylish to serve.
Inarizushi is fried tofus filled with rice. There are many variations of Inarizushi in the Japan regions. Western people mostly confuse it with inari maki but inari maki is making with flavored fried tofu. Also there’s a Hawaiian specialty Inarizushi making with green beans, gobo and carrots.

Makizushi is the most popular and most subtyped Sushi ever. It’s also known as Norimaki or Makimono. Traditionally Makizushi is preparing with a help of bamboo mat. Standard Makizushi is wrapping with seaweed but it’s also possible to see its wrapping with thin omelette. If customer gives single roll order, chef cut Makizushi to eight pieces. There are lots of subtypes of Makizushi like Futomaki, Hosomaki, Temaki and Uramaki. They mostly differ on size and ingredients. Temaki is the type that can be eaten by fingers and westerners mostly choose Temaki.

Narezushi is a traditional type of Sushi. It’s preparing by fermented sushi. Narezuhsi’s preparing steps are salting, placing in a wooden barrel, salting again then press with heavy stones. Narezushi needs at least 6 months to be ready for eating.
Nigirizushi type of sushi needs the Neta fish topping. Neta fish is a Japan originated fish similar to Salmon. There’s an order rule of Nigirizushi that if customer orders separately, restaurant mostly serves it in pairs. Also there are Gunkanmaki and Temarizushi subtypes of Nigirizushi.
Oshizushi is the popular Sushi type in Kansai Region, especially in Osaka. It’s block shaped with sushi rice and toppings. Chefs mostly serve it with cutting block into pieces.
Western-style sushi is prepared suiting to Westerner taste. Japans mostly don’t like it. It’s today popular in North America and Europe. Americans mostly know it with the name “California roll”.

Today there are lots of different Westerner style sushi types in the world. Most popular ones are Alaska roll, Dynamite roll, California Roll, Spider roll and Philadelphia roll. Westerner style Sushi is always a topic of jokes in Japan. Especially California roll preparing with avocado is a popular humor item. Most similar product to traditional sushi type is Rainbow roll. It’s containing items like yellowtail, white fish and salmon. British Columbia Roll or B.C roll is the most important Westerner Sushi possible to find in Canada.