Les Petits Chefs make salmon, cucumber and oshinko (daikon radish) maki with Sang Kim

This week, Les Petits Chefs were fortunate enough to welcome Sang Kim of Sushi Making for the Soul back into the science lab for another lesson in sushi making. Sang first worked with the boys back in the spring (proving that kids can keep focussed right up to the last week of school if they have something they are excited about doing!).

Sang has worked in the Toronto restaurant scene for the past 27 years – the author of A Dream Called Laundry and Ballad Of A Karaoke Cowboy. His latest writing project, Woody Allen Ate My Kimchi, is a candid and hilarious look behind-the-scenes at some of the top restaurants in Toronto and is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2013.  He is co-organizer of Reel Eats a monthly gastronomic, film, and storytelling event in Toronto and  co-director of the Small Press of Toronto (SPoT), a bi-annual book fair in a variety of venues across the city of Toronto.  We were honoured to welcome him back into the lab!

As opposed to the last time Sang visited, we decided that “more was less” – even I was a little rushed last time to make all my rolls slowly and carefully so I asked Sang to keep it simple and focus on the techniques.  He chose spicy salmon, daikon radish and cucumber as the fillings for three rolls.

Sang demonstrated how to place the rice on the nori (not too much but not too little!) and roll it properly so that it stays shut. We focussed on making “clean seams”…

Look at how neat and tidy the boys are making this! I am so impressed!

I mean, I guess making sushi is like a really neat art project that you get to eat at the end of it (or, in some cases – not looking at anyone, Michael… 😉 – in the middle of it!).  Some of the boys were so focussed on getting the rice and rolling”just so” that they forgot to place the filling in before rolling it. So you know, then they just had “rice rolls”. And decided that they had to eat them because they really weren’t that interesting to take home 😉 Riiiight!

This was a lovely pleasant (and surprisingly calm) session. The boys were so concentrated on getting the sushi right that between that and sneaking tastes of the rice, there was not much time to be distracted even by the Lego robotics at the other end of the room 😉 Now that’s saying something!

And guess what – even MY rolls didn’t look too bad this time (last time, Neil did not enjoy my gigantic and poorly rolled rolls. This time, I did a much better job 🙂 )

Thanks Sang for giving us your afternoon. We all loved it. The boys are still talking about the “sushi that never made it home” (some of it barely made it out of the building, let alone in cars, on the subway etc… and even less of it made it to the boys’ homes 😉 ) I think we all need to make sushi everyday! Calming AND delicious.

For those of you interested in making sushi at home, Sang has a great section on his site showing sushi ingredients and where to buy them.  For those of you not quite so ambitious, he offers sushi making classes in Toronto as well.

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* Want to win a trip for two to Montreal to dine with ME during restaurant week in November? It’s easy – enter the Dine with a Blogger contest here! (US/Canadians only, sorry international friends!)

 

 

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19 thoughts on “Les Petits Chefs make salmon, cucumber and oshinko (daikon radish) maki with Sang Kim”

  1. I love that those chefs who visited your lab once are obviously happy to make a return visit (s). Their involvement with your Les Petits Chefs must certainly encourage and inspire the boys!

    So cute that some of them were so focused on getting their rice and rolling *just so* that they forgot the filling!

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  2. Fortunately, some of Russell’s sushi did make it home…and it was enjoyed by everyone, including his grandparents that evening! Thank you for making every week so fun and exciting.

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  3. I am really surprised that fidgety, boisterous boys of that age had sufficient “calm” to knuckle down to a fiddly job. Outcome looked really nice. Great effort LPCs.

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  4. I love this as an activity to do with kids. I have done it once myself with my 3 and you have reminded me I need to do it again. I hope to teach this myself one day, being a cookery tutor I think this could work for me too!

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  5. What a great story. And yes, it certainly says so much for your students and you that these busy chefs want to come back to work with you again. I also love hearing that they all love sushi. Veggies, raw fish: pretty great news that they have such adventurous palates now. And the chef’s newest book sounds like a must read. Got to love those funny kitchen confidentials.

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  6. Hi I have just reached here via pinterest, I always remain sceptical about making sushi at home, and this demo really looks so easy and doable. Thanks for sharing it and loved reading through your post.

    Sukanya

    Reply

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