I love raw fish! I lived in both New York and the Bahamas as a child and when in New York, my mother would take me to raw clam bars where we would both eat raw clams until we were giddy with happiness. When in the Bahamas, my father would take me to the docks for a Bahamian delicacy, raw conch. The conch would be diced and eaten raw or quickly marinated in lime and served in a salad with diced onion, bell pepper, tomato and hot peppers.
So, when I went to university and was first introduced to sushi, I fell in love with it. I loved the variety of raw fish, the beautiful presentation, the textures and the heat of the wasabi along with the cooling pickled ginger. At one point in my life, I owned a sushi mat and attempted to make sushi rolls but I could never get them right, so it is a type of food I now always eat in a restaurant. As @gomezadams is not a huge fan of sushi, I just don’t get as much of it as I would like. So when I was invited to a sushi masterclass for International Sushi Day, I jumped at the chance to learn.
Believe it or not, my Sushi Masterclass was held at Red Hot World Buffet in Cardiff; not a restaurant I would normally associate with Sushi. Red Hot World Buffet though does indeed have Sushi section and some highly experienced chefs as well. Our tutors for the day were Head Chef Uttam Kamoka who has been a chef for over 18 years and has worked in the restaurants of some of the world’s top hotels, including the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Ably assisting him were Red Hot World Buffets Sushi chefs Arvind Rawat and Dinningson Poththmi. They both have years of experience working in Japanese restaurants in Dubai before joining the team in Cardiff where they make between 800 to 1,000 pieces of sushi every day!
Everything was ready for us when we arrived, in order to make sushi which consisted of some of the ingredients they use daily. Each day on the buffet, they offer six different sushi rolls (mango & avocado, cucumber flying fish roe & crab, avocado & cucumber, salmon & cucumber, tuna & avocado, and prawn, cucumber & avocado) and three nigiri (salmon, tuna, prawn). Already prepared as well was the Japanese sushi rice which was boiled in water with rice vinegar, sugar and salt and allowed to cool to room temperature
Making a beautifully presented sushi roll is not as easy as it looks. Here at my station you can already see some of my 1st rolls falling apart!
Making a stunning ngiri (raw fish on top of rice) takes precise finger placement as Chef Arvind tries to show us.
I must say, making sushi is not as easy as it looks! Thanks to the chefs, at the end of the day, I finally managed to make a presentable sushi roll and ngiri (raw fish on top of rice).
You may not think of Red Hot World Buffet as the place to go for sushi. Although it does not offer the variety of a specialist restaurant, it does offer a huge buffet which includes sushi as well Indian, Chinese, Italian, Tex Mex, Cajun, Thai, Mediterranean and British cuisine. So if your friends are not fans of sushi or you do not want a whole meal of just Japanese food, this family friendly and economical restaurant may be the place for you. One thing I can assure you is that the sushi ingredients are fresh and are expertly prepared by a team of very patient chefs.
[…] Red Hot World Buffet Cake-Off Added Oct 14, 2012, Under: Babette's Ffest,Events FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(response) { _gaq.push(['_trackEvent','SocialSharing','Facebook – like button',unescape(String(response).replace(/+/g, " "))]); }); (function() { var po = document.createElement("script"); po.type = "text/javascript"; po.async = true; po.src = "https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); To launch their new cake venture, Red Hot World Buffet in Cardiff invited me and a few other food bloggers to a ‘Red Hot Cake Off’. If you have never been to a Red Hot World Buffet, check out our previous write ups here and here. […]