Boy I hate typing really vague posts like this, but I’m stumped, so here goes.
For those of you that eat sushi, when you get served at a sushi restaurant, and they bring out your foot on those little wood platters that are probably about 6″ x 10″ and about an inch thick, and they rest on two little 1″ x 1″ blocks that run across the grain of the platter.
I wish I could even find a picture on the internet as an example, but no luck. I don’t know the Japanese name for them. Sometimes the two bottom blocks are joined with a through dovetail on the good ones.
Anyone know what they make these out of, and what they use to finish them? They never get cut on directly, and the ones I see a lot look like they have a film-type finish.
Maybe if I’m lucky, Norm in Fujino will see this post…
Thanks,
Kevin
Edited 6/27/2003 5:11:30 PM ET by KevinLBS
Replies
s a follow up, I finally found a piture of one, but from an American manufacturer who said they were made of either maple, ash, or cherry. Personally I've never seen one made of cherry or ash, and I've always figured it was maple. They just said it had a "food-safe finish".
Hi Kevin,
I'm not Norm, but I'll give it a shot since I'm in Japan as well. My guess, from what I've seen here in my local sushi-ya-san, is that their's is made from hinoki, Japanese cypress. Hinoki is not as hard as maple, but holds up with washing.
...Back again from a brief web cruise of Japanese sites. I sedarched for cutting boards. Of course, the use of the board seems to dictate the wood used. One site showed three cutting boards. The three woods were hoo, ichoo, and nekoyanagi. I'm sure that is no help. Let me do a bit more research and get back to you on this.
Norm?
Scott
The platters aren't something I've paid much attention to, but like Scott, I think most of them I've seen are made of hinoki or maybe even sugi (cryptomeria). I'll check around and see what I can find.". . .and only the stump or fishy part of him remained."
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
I saw several just the other day at an asian market here in Oregon that sells a lot of japanese-made stuff. My oldest daughter is taking japanese in school so... she pesters me to take her to this one store because it's huge and also because they sell japanese rock band's CDs and DVDs, which she's into. Anyway, all the ones that I saw were made of bamboo. It's interesting that you ask this because when I was there the other day I stopped and spent some time examining the construction of the sushi platter. You described it to a "T". I saw chop sticks made of various woods and plastic. But, I didn't see any of those sushi platters made out of anything other than the bamboo.
Regards,
Kevin
Here are a few examples made of hinoki. Another close-grained cedar/cypress could also be used. No finish is generally applied to these things, since they like the natural shiraki sensation. But you could equally use maple or whatever; there's no real rules involved, SFAIK.
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These particular photos have dimensions described HERE, though you won't be able to view the Japanese characters without the appropriate browser.
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
Norm, Rev, & Kevin-
Hey thanks guys. I was gone for the weekend and haven't been able to follow my own thread.
Go figure that I even had sushi last night at a new place I hadn't been to before. Perfect rice, melt-in-your mouth Toro, and amazingly fresh sea urchin (can't remember Japanese word for urchin...). There I was closely examining my plate. I hope the chef didn't think I was a freak :)
Anyway, cypress hadn't even occurred to me, as I was looking at my plate last night and thinking it kind of looked like pine... Duh! Just as Norm said, it didn't look like it had any sort of finish on it and the whole board (including bottom) was mildly damp as if recently washed.
I'm wondering how similar Hinoki is to cypress found in the Southern U.S. I'm actually near Houston in Texas, and cypress (aka bald cypress? swamp cypress?) is easy to get here. Maybe I should post another thread about cypress vs. hinoki in hopes some of our resident wood experts will chime in.
Again, thanks you guys. I love the fact that I can just fire off a quick note to a woodworker in Japan about something so specific. Talk about cool...
Thanks,
Kevin
You might try working with several woods and see how the prototypes come out.
(can't remember Japanese word for urchin...)
Try uni.
". . .and only the stump or fishy part of him remained."
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
They bring out your foot on a little wooden platter? Your foot? Why isn't it attached to your leg? Did they cut it off or did you? That's sick man!
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