The History of Sushi Is Shrouded in Ancient Legend
Sushi is the quintessentially Japanese dish. So much so that sushi immediately comes to mind when most people think of Japanese cuisine. It may be surprising, then, to learn that the origins of sushi lie outside Japan. The ancient culinary ancestor of sushi most likely came from the banks of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, originating to keep fish from spoiling in the heat by packing the meat with rice and salt.
In modern times, sushi is a beloved part of Japanese cuisine and culture. Sushi is as much an art as a meal, and chefs famously take years of training to master their practice. As such, sushi chefs are greatly respected in Japan for their skills. Each step in sushi making is its distinct art, and the essential part is knowing how to properly prepare the rice with the perfect combination of texture and seasoning. Just the right combination of vinegar, sugar, and salt gives sushi rice its distinctive flavor, lightly tangy but mild enough to complement the taste of the fish without overpowering it. However, modern-day sushi vastly differs from the sushi eaten in ancient times, and rice has not always been such a vital part of the finished dish.
As with many of the world's oldest foods, particularly in East Asia, sushi has been eaten long enough to have a legend about its origins. As with all legends, though, there are at least a couple of different versions of the story, but they all revolve around an osprey, a bird of prey specialized in catching fish. In one story, an elderly couple left rice in an osprey's nest as an offering. When they went back later to check, they found a fish left in the rice, which the bird had seemingly placed there for them as a thank you. When they later ate the fish, they found that the fermented rice gave it a distinctive flavor.
In a slightly different version of the story, an older woman was worried that thieves might steal her rice — in the past, rice was so important in Japan that it was sometimes used as currency. So to keep her rice safe from thieves, the woman hid pots in osprey nests. When she went to recover the rice, though, she found that some of it had fermented and had scraps of fish mixed into it, dropped by the ospreys. Instead of throwing it out, she found that the mixture had stopped the fish from going rancid and tasted surprisingly good.
Despite the legends, sushi seemingly did not come from Japan at all. The Mekong River in Southeast Asia has historically been a food source for fishing communities on its banks. In the hot, humid climate, however, keeping fish from spoiling was vital for communities, helping to keep a food supply for times of less abundance. So people developed a way to preserve fish by packing it in salted rice to keep fish from rotting. Since ancient times, cultures around the world have used lacto-fermentation to preserve food, and the cultures of Southeast Asia are no exception. The rice and fish would ferment together, and the added salt prevented any harmful bacteria from causing it to spoil — the exact reason why salt is used when making soy sauce.
Some argue that preserving fish this way originated in Southern China, now Yunnan's southernmost Chinese province. Either way, preserving fish with salted rice likely arrived on the Japanese mainland via Ancient China. In Southeast Asia, though, fermented fish flavor is still a common addition to cuisine. One well-known example is nam pla, the fermented fish sauce often used in Thai cuisine. The scent is overpowering on its own, but a dash of it is a vital ingredient in many Thai curries.