Unagi, or freshwater eel, is one of my favorite ingredients used in sushi, whether it's a western-style Dragon Roll, unagi nigiri or a simple eel makizushi. For a healthier version, you could also use brown rice instead of traditional Japanese sushi rice. Next, hold the two ends of the bamboo mat and roll it away from you. Soba noodles are not as sticky as sushi rice, so make a tight roll when rolling. Most of them are made as large thick rolls but the sushi rolls made at traditional sushi restaurants are thin, tiny rolls, just perfect as a finger food.

Smoked salmon and asparagus sushi rolls. Place one of the nori sheets on top http://takonori.com/ of the rolling mat, positioning it so that the edge of the nori sheet is at the edge of the rolling mat nearest you. Taking your fingers bring up the nori sheet, covering the ingredients.

To Serve: I refrigerate the sushi to let the rice and seaweed set for about 20 minutes or until needed. TO MAKE SUSHI ROLLS: Pat out some rice. For this recipe, 4 cups of cooked rice (2 cups of uncooked rice) will make 10 Hosomaki (thin sushi rolls). When you cut the sushi, wet the knife with a little water before every cut, and wipe with a damp cloth after every cut.

Here's my after-thought, How often is this wasp going to want to make sushi at home, the rice is a project to get right, I still have left over sushi stuff to make enough sushi for a month and am missing out the bar experience with the guys cutting and rolling and kibitzing.

If your cucumber is short, make more strips and connect them when assembling the sushi roll. If you choose to make your sushi rolls with raw fish, be sure to seek out sushi grade fish. Some people think sushi means RAW fish and sushi rice is a type of short-grain Japanese rice, but they're not.