Precision, patience and an appreciation of quality ingredients and fine flavours – making sushi is a true art. We spent a fun afternoon learning to craft our own sushi at Sunsets and Mermaids in Umhlanga.
Set amid the buzz of Umhlanga Village, Sunsets and Mermaids is one of those places that’s designed for a good time. With its eclectic décor, fun cocktails, tasty food and friendly staff, it’s a great spot for after-work drinks or an evening meal. We were invited to attend a sushi-making workshop with the restaurant’s sushi chefs, Nandi Mngenge and Londi Ndlela, who taught us four different rolling styles and shared their expert tips and tricks along the way.
With aprons on and ready with rolling mats, knives and all the ingredients we needed, we started the workshop off by making our own salmon roses. This popular style of sushi is made with thinly sliced tuna, which is wrapped around a ball of rice and topped with some Kewpie mayo, avocado and caviar. Londi and Nandi showed us how to slice the salmon as thinly as possible – a skill that definitely takes some practice – before rolling the rice into a perfectly-shaped cylinder and wrapping it up in the fish.
Next up was the prawn maki. ‘Maki’ refers to rolled sushi rice, which is rolled in ‘nori’, a dry sheet of seaweed. To create our own maki, we pressed rice onto the seaweed, loaded it with cooked and peeled prawns, and rolled it up with the help of our bamboo mats. Our expert chefs explained the importance of keeping our hands damp to avoid unwanted stickiness, and showed us how much of each ingredient would be just right.
By this stage, we were getting the hang of our new skills, and were ready to make tuna nigiri. Nigiri is characterised by a small ball of rice, which is topped with raw fish. It’s a simple, bite-size dish that is elevated by using super-fresh fish. The team at Sunsets and Mermaids sources seafood locally every day, and never uses fish that has been frozen – our tuna, which had been caught that morning, had a deep, red colour and a rich, meaty flavour.
Last on our sushi-making line-up was the California roll. This dish is slightly more complex to roll, and is essentially an inverted maki with the rice on the outside. First, we placed our rice onto a sheet of nori before turning it over and placing thinly sliced avocado and salmon. After rolling it, we sprinkled it with sesame seeds and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
After slicing, rolling and carefully assembling our sushi, we’d worked up an appetite and it was time to taste the fruits of our labour. Served with wasabi, soya and ginger, our creations didn’t disappoint. Londi and Nandi made the art of sushi-making look easy, and although we definitely need a bit more practice, we had a wonderful afternoon learning this meticulous craft.
Details: Sunsets and Mermaids; 3 Chartwell Drive, Umhlanga Rocks; 031 943 3044; IG: @sunsets_mermaids
Text: Jennifer Campbell Photographs: Jessmica Depalal & Tayla Jade Photography
