Rice is to sushi as cheese is to pizza. While you can have one without the other, it just doesn’t make sense. Yet strangely enough, the original version of sushi did not include rice as a part of the main meal. Sour fermented rice was wrapped around the aged fish only to aid in creating umami-- that unique sour taste that only Sushi can boast. Once the fermentation process came to a close, the rice was taken off the fish and discarded. Only the fish itself was consumed, sans any rice. The fermenting rice also helped to protect the fish from flies and other pests, while keeping it fresh.

Today, vinegared rice is used for sushi and is seen as being as important as the fish itself. It isn’t common to find sushi without rice in some capacity. Whether the rice is rolled up with the fish or used as a base on which the fish or seafood lies, rice is almost always involved in a modern sushi meal. It is amazing how cuisine can change so much over time yet remain so similar to what it once was. Sushi has origins that date way back, yet so much of the concept remains the same in our modern day.