Tag Archives: Foodie

What’s a Samurai Burrito?

What do you get when mix Mexican food with sushi? You get the Samurai Burrito a fun twist on the making of sushi. Basically you get a sushi roll with the seaweed paper on the outside and rice, sauce, your other fillings and then your protein.  Its conceptually similar to a hand roll except Having that cone shape it’s rolled like a burrito that is open on both ends.   

 They also do a sushi twist on nachos for there chip analog they fry wantons and cover them in imitation crab, spicy tuna and a sauce.  

 It pleased my inner foodie and my wallet, price wise it’s about the cost of traditional sushi and portion size is good. Heck two people could probably split the full order of the Samurai Nachos. It was a fun take on the more rigid art of sushi making. I hope I’m not overstepping boundaries here but this is a more relaxed or informal way to indulge in sushi.  
Now that I’m done gushing time to learn you some stuff. You see in Japanese culture, making sushi is regarded as an art. Why? Well because the sushi master’s “way” (Ryuugi) is as important as the resulting sushi’s appearance, presentation and of course its taste. The sushi master, as Frans de Wall suggests, “epitomizes human sophistication, artistry and know-how. We eat the fugu (the blowfish sushi) trusting the chef’s skills, which he learned from other chefs, and they in turn from those before them”.    But this food fusion bucks at all of and to me try’s to be tasty and fun and I feel like it accomplishes that mission.

In the tradition of Japanese Zen Masters, the sushi chef transfers the “way” to his student in a uniquely Japanese process. The student for his part dedicates about ten years of his life with unquestioned devotion to mastering the subtle skills. The young man cleans the dishes, mops the kitchen floor, bows to the clients, fetches the ingredients, and in the meantime follows from the corner of his eyes, without ever asking a question, everything the sushi masters are doing. For three years or more he watches them without being allowed to make the actual sushi for the patrons of the restaurant. Don’t believe me? Give Jiro Dreams of Sushi a watch sometime.