We ended our looOOooOOoong and busy week with a sushi making night! It was a much needed and much deserved (IOHO) dose of fun!

The night was hosted by Jake’s friends from his PhD program. We learned the process from the wife of Jake’s PhD classmate (who is from Japan). Jake sheepishly admitted that he has had zero exposure to the art of sushi making, despite the fact that he is 50% Japanese.

Making sushi was so much fun and also surprisingly easy! Keep in mind, we made simple rolls and didn’t do anything too elaborate. We each made one roll and filled it with whatever ingredients we wanted. We had salmon, egg strips, fish eggs (Tobiko), cucumber, tuna, and shrimp. The “hardest” part was the self-imposed pressure of thinking the seaweed was going to rip from spreading the rice. But we’re pretty sure the seaweed is pretty sturdy and doesn’t rip easily…

We ate the sushi the Japanese way– with our hands! Jake’s friends from Japan shared that most people in Japan eat sushi that way. We paired the sushi with sides of seaweed salad and edamame. It was so delicious and satisfying– we can’t wait to add this to our recipe box and replicate the meal at home!

After dinner, we played a couple rounds of Telestrations. This is probably our favorite dinner party game. We’re not sure if it’s the cultural differences or maybe just the personalities of the group, but this was the most fun game of Telestrations we played. Basically, the game is a pictorial version of Telephone. We laughed so much and so hard seeing how many of the ideas became something completely unrelated by the end.

Overall, the night was a great time with great friends, with the added bonus of being a great mix of different cultures!