How America Ruined Sushi

From the overloaded cones of a crunchy temaki roll, to the sparse and delicately sliced slabs of nigiri, sushi comes in a variety of forms. While these bite-sized bundles of rice have been saddled with fresh fish for over two thousand years, sushi’s popularity in the West is a relatively recent phenomenon. But like many Japanese art forms, the craft of sushi requires immense skill and comes with a long list of strict rules. And when Americans first started taking a dip in the soy sauce, everything went to hell in a handroll.