Sushi is like an art. In order to learn to make sushi at home, you should keep a few important things in mind. Great sushi is not possible to make on your first try, as a lot of learning and perfection is required along with practice to make good sushi. For instance, it may seem that rice is very easy to make, but as it is the main ingredient, it should be made so that the grains do not break and it has the right amount of stickiness to it. This can only be achieved with a lot of practice.

Mastering the art of making sushi rice is a major step in learning to make a good sushi. Japanese rice is blended with vinegar, while it is still hot, and should be made so the rice remains sticky. Although sushi would be terrible if the rice is too sticky. Therefore, one should learn to make sushi rice properly, as the rest would be simpler.

You should also remember that sushi made with raw fish cannot be made right away. Raw fish is usually checked and frozen, to kill germs, and make it safe for human consumption. Therefore, it is important that you learn how to handle raw fish and to freeze fish to make your sushi eating safe.

Sushi chefs in Japan spend years to master the handling of fish and to professionally make it safe and to recognize important attributes, including smell, color and firmness. So, it is better to make vegetarian sushi at home to start with.

After rice, the other common ingredient is Nori, which is a seaweed. The nori is used to wrap the sushi ingredients together, in a cylindrical shape. In Japan, nori may never be toasted before being used in food but many brands found in the U.S. dry and process nori to form thin sheets. Nori should be unflavored and of high quality to make good sushi.

If you use a flavored nori, you alter the taste of sushi itself. Nori can be used both inside or outside of sushi wrap, though traditionally nori is used just on the outside.

Futomaki is a type of traditional sushi usually made at home. It is made up of vegetables and is rolled up with the help of a bamboo sushi mat. Sushi mats made up of bamboo are popular to help roll out sushi who are beginners in sushi-making.

Sweet, pickled ginger is eaten with sushi to both cleanse the palate and aid in digestion. Sushi is traditionally eaten with the fingers since sushi rice is packed loosely so as to fall apart in one's mouth, and served with soy sauce and other dips. Sushi requires lots of practice but once practiced enough, it is very easy to make your perfect sushi.

Ingrid Preube
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