Serving Sushi in Hotel / ホテルで巻寿司

About ten years ago, my travel-loving partner organized a tour to Japan for a group of German friends. Since I'm Japanese, I tagged along, and we all enjoyed a two-week adventure together.

We're still in touch with the guests from that trip, and one of them recently passed through our region during his travels. So, we've been spending the last few days together.

We decided to stay at our usual hotel, where they were running a 2-for-1 promotion—two rooms for the price of one (something my partner says happens from time to time). We took advantage of this deal and booked a room for ourselves as well, to relax and enjoy some downtime.

When it came to dinner, our friend asked, "Is there anywhere we can get some real Japanese food? It's hard to find it, you know." Unfortunately, my friend’s restaurant was closed, and while I knew of a good bento shop by friends of mine, it didn’t have seating and we dont have choice to warm a bento up.

After some thought, I decided to make some makizushi (rolled sushi) at home and bring it to the hotel lounge for dinner. I filled the rolls with cucumber, summer purslane, stir-fried carrots and shiitake mushrooms, tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet), smoked tofu, and shiso leaves.

I rolled up the sushi using a bamboo mat, placed them on a tray, and wrapped the whole thing in a furoshiki (a traditional Japanese cloth). The skills I honed back when I couldn't drive, making minimal catering easy to transport, really came in handy. And I must say, furoshiki are incredibly useful!

Before dinner, I cut the sushi in our hotel room, and everything came together perfectly.

We had a great time reminiscing about our Japan tour while enjoying the sushi. The wasabi gave us a good kick, leading to some funny faces all around. I'm glad our friend enjoyed it.