I believe that you must be very curious about how Chinese people think of sushi because, if you compare sushi with traditional Chinese food, it’s quite an exotic type and style for the Chinese. So Is sushi originally Chinese?
The answer is no, sushi is not entirely originally Chinese. Although sushi is not entirely originating from China, China is playing a significant role in the development of sushi in history.
The very original type of sushi, also known as narezushi, was first developed in paddy fields along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. and then spread to South China before being introduced to Japan. Narezushi, made by lacto-fermenting fish with salt and rice in order to control putrefaction, appears in the Chinese dictionary in the 2nd century CE as the character “sa” (鲊), which was during a period in which the Han Chinese were expanding south of the Yangtze river, adopting the food from the non-Han peoples.
Part of the reason that narezushi hadn’t been widely spread in China is because of Chinese traditional diet habits. From ancient times, the Chinese particularly prefer warm stomachs and avoiding consuming cold food, so Chinese people weren’t very fond of narezushi at the time. Ancient Chinese ate narezushi only because it was very convenient for people to eat during the war periods.
Later on, the narezushi concept was introduced to Japan and the first Sushi came into existence in Japan around the 8th century which consisted of gutted salted fish stored in fermented rice. After years of development, people started pickling the rice, which drastically shortened the required fermentation time, making the rice smell like fish and vinegar and much more palatable, so people start eating the rice alongside the fish.
Sheet seaweed was also invented around 1750 which allowed the contemporary sushi roll to take form around this time. Tossing in a couple of vegetables, you’ve got something much more resemblance to today’s sushi.
Is Sushi Popular In China?
The answer is yes, sushi is very popular in China nowadays. Sushi restaurants are everywhere, you can easily find them not only in those famous shopping malls but also on the street, which is very surprised me because sushi was a kind of luxury dish in China in the past, but now it’s more like a street snack that can be accessible by ordinary people.
However, the real question is how sushi, a kind of food that is totally against the Chinese traditional diet, become so popular in China. Is it because of the salmon fish? Is it because of its exotic flavor? Or just because it is delicious?
Why do the Chinese love sushi?
There are lots of reasons but I think the following points might be the most essential.
The health-conscious Chinese
Chinese are more health conscious than before, more and more people are nature lovers and seek out natural products. Food safety has been one of the major concerns to people in China for years and processed foods were no longer trusted by people.
Rarely using oil and adding other ingredients, sushi is considered fairly healthy food by the Chinese. Steamed rice and fresh, raw seafood are sushi’s main ingredients and there is no greasy or oily.
Admittedly, sushi contains certain amounts of calories and fat and should be eaten with a dose of balance.
Sushi becomes cheaper
As logistics technology is developing significantly fast in China, obtaining fresh ingredients is no longer a big problem, which is largely lowering the entry barrier of the sushi business in China.
New sushi restaurants are opening every day and as the competitiveness is getting more intensive, the price of sushi is gradually becoming cheaper. Now sushi is a more accessible food in China and people are willing to try this exotic Japanese food.
You know what? Although it’s totally different from those Chinese traditional cuisines, sushi actually is welcome by Chinese people.
Foods made with rice can be more acceptable to Chinese
China is the world’s largest rice producer and one of the earliest centers of rice cultivation. Rice is a major staple food for people in China and is used in many other Chinese dishes. Although rice of sushi is made with vinegar, which tastes greatly different from Chinese ordinary steam rice, it still can be accepted more easily by the Chinese because of Chinese diet habits.
Its convenience
It’s small, comfortable, and problem-free food to eat. In the modern society of China, people’s life pace has become faster and faster so how to make things be done quickly and efficiently is what modern Chinese are seeking, things including those three meals a day.
For this reason, sushi is well appreciated by the Chinese. It doesn’t matter if you are eating them in a restaurant or at home, sushi requires no equipment, no tool, and there won’t be any dishes for it.
Japanese culture is prevailing in China
Over the past few ten years, Japanese popular culture products have been massively exported to China, strongly influencing Chinese daily life and preference. Those cultural products are including comics, movies, TV shows, pop music, diets, etc. In some big cities in China, Japanese popular culture products fill local stores, opening doors into the country’s expanding cultural market.
Japanese TV shows, such as “The Solitary Gourmet”, and “The Midnight Diner”, are extremely hot in China, making Chinese people go try Japanese foods. Because Japanese cuisine is also broad and profound, Chinese people normally will choose sushi as the entry, seeing if they really like Japanese types of food.
Localization of Sushi
To attract more customers, sushi restaurant owners have also been spending lots of time on meeting customers’ expectations for better satisfying Chinese appetites. Constantly re-designing and re-building their sushi products based on the food trends in China.
For example, there was a period of time when the Chinese were crazy about the mango. So if you went to the sushi restaurant at the time, you would find some new sushi dishes containing fresh mango. Actually, it’s not bad because the sweetness of the mango is perfectly matching with the sushi’s sour taste, well balancing the flavors.
Do Chinese make sushi?
I don’t think so because sushi is still an utterly different cuisine for Chinese, especially the rice made with vinegar which I think not many people will make at home. In fact, unlike Japanese and Korean, Chinese people are not even used to making any roll type of food with rice, so most all of those rice-related roll snacks are from Japan and Korea. Next time, if you’re invited to have dinner with your Chinese friends, don’t expect there will be any sushi dishes because the Chinese don’t really make it.
Popular sushi restaurants in China
Sushi Express
It’s definitely one of the most popular sushi brands in China. Not only because of its affordable price, which merely takes 6 RMB per plate of sushi but also because of its localized sushi products. Sushi Express has been expanding very quickly in China in recent years and although the sushi quality of Sushi Express is not very solid, it’s still attracting numerous Chinese people to visit it because of its pricing advantage.
Genki Sushi
Genki Sushi, at the very beginning, was considered a high-quality sushi brand, being so popular among the Chinese young generation. Unfortunately, its strength has been demolished bit by bit because of the intensive competition in the Chinese sushi market. Chinese customers are no longer satisfied with the quality of Genki Sushi and start believing it’s not worthy to be visited.
But if this is your first time visiting China and you’re looking for a sushi restaurant, Genki Sushi will be recommended I think because it’s still one of the leading sushi brands in China nowadays.
He Lu Sushi
Originating from Shenzhen city, He Lu Sushi was being extremely popular in many years ago. At the time, there were not many sushi restaurants in China. Even in some Tier 1 cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou, you still couldn’t find one until the He Lu Sushi was founded.
People were crazy about this sushi restaurant, not just because sushi was an exotic food at that time, but also because of the concept of conveyor belt sushi. People were so excited to see this type of food delivery. But now, He Lu Sushi can never regain that great moment again, which is positioning lower than mediocre level.
Wan Sui Sushi
Chinese founded sushi brand, famous for its cheap price and ok quality foods. Also, not just sushi, you can also find many other Chinese foods in Wan Sui Sushi restaurant, which is able to provide more choices for some traditional Chinese customers who are not really adapted to the sushi flavor.
Sea Roll Sushi
It’s a new brand in the Chinese sushi market but Sea Roll Sushi is growing fast because of its good reputation. The foods there are delicious, fresh, and affordable. You can find lots of special sushi dishes with various ingredients that you seldom see in traditional sushi, such as cheese. What’s surprising is that there is no conveyor belt sushi, so you can only order sushi from waiters there, which I think it’s not a big deal because that means all the sushi dishes are going to be freshly made in real time.
INFOGRAPHICS – Feel free to check out more from my Pinterest
