Sushi is defined by the rice, not the fish. Any dish using vinegared sushi rice is sushi, with or without seafood. Maki is one form of it — rolled, usually in seaweed, then sliced. All maki is sushi; a great deal of sushi is not maki.
The core difference
- sushi — any dish built on vinegared rice. The rice is the definition.
- maki — sushi rolled into a cylinder and cut. From makizushi, rolled sushi.
The rice is the point
This is the most common misunderstanding: sushi does not mean raw fish. Raw fish served alone, without rice, is sashimi and is not sushi at all. A cucumber roll with no seafood in it is sushi. The word refers to the seasoned rice — su means vinegar.
The main forms
- Nigiri — a hand-pressed finger of rice with a topping laid over it.
- Maki — rolled and sliced. Subdivides further: hosomaki thin with one filling, futomaki thick with several, uramaki inside-out with the rice outside the seaweed.
- Temaki — a hand-rolled cone, eaten immediately before the seaweed softens.
- Chirashi — a bowl of rice scattered with toppings.
- Inari — rice stuffed into sweet fried tofu pouches.
The California roll is a real thing, just not Japanese
Uramaki — rice on the outside — was developed in North America, generally credited to chefs in Los Angeles or Vancouver in the 1960s and 1970s, partly because diners were unenthusiastic about a visible wrapper of seaweed. It then travelled back to Japan. It is a genuine style with a documented origin rather than a corruption.
Where sushi came from
The dish began as preservation. Narezushi packed fish in fermenting rice for months; the rice was discarded and the fish eaten. Vinegar later replaced fermentation, which cut the wait to hours, and in nineteenth-century Edo the modern fast-served nigiri appeared as street food.
The pronunciation of the endings
Sushi becomes zushi in compounds — makizushi, inarizushi — through a regular sound change in Japanese called rendaku, where the first consonant of a second element voices. It is the same process that gives hon plus tana the form hondana.
Frequently asked questions
Is maki the same as sushi?
Maki is one type of sushi — the rolled and sliced form. Sushi is any dish made with vinegared rice, so much of it is not maki.
Does sushi mean raw fish?
No. Sushi refers to the vinegared rice. Raw fish served without rice is sashimi, which is not sushi.
Is the California roll Japanese?
It was developed in North America in the 1960s or 1970s, with rice on the outside. The inside-out style then travelled back to Japan.