The Council of Ethnic Organizations, which sponsors various culture-awareness events throughout the school year, hosted an event that taught students how to decorate and roll sushi Thursday afternoon. | Alejandro Olivares/The Daily Cougar
The Council of Ethnic Organizations hosted a “Food from Japan” lesson Thursday afternoon at the Bluebonnet room in the University Center. The event attracted more than 100 students who learned how to make sushi rolls and enjoy them for free.
Jimmy Mai, a member of CEO, demonstrated the correct way to prepare a sushi roll.
He started out with a plate of sticky, white rice and then chose his protein: crab or shrimp.
Mai picked the rest ingredients that he wanted in his sushi: avocado, cream cheese and cucumber sticks. He spread the rice as evenly as possible over the seaweed paper and lined up his fillings on the edge closest to his body. Then, he tightly rolled his sushi using bamboo sticks. He sliced it up, dribbled some soy sauce on it and was ready to let everyone else give it a shot.
This event was different from others — there are usually tables where people would sit to begin their culinary adventure, but this time it was more of an assembly line, with one long table and all the ingredients lined up.
The CEO members were very helpful and engaged in the entire event. Each of them helped to make sure there was no line-cutting and that it kept moving smoothly. Rows of people were called to control the room’s occupancy.
There were still a lot of people to manage, and even with all of their efforts, a few people did cut in front of others and there were a couple of hiccups in the line.
Despite the wait, students stood around anxiously waiting for their turn to make their personal sushi roll.
Each participant was given a free pair of nice chopsticks after they were done so they could enjoy their creation with style.
Even as students left the room, there were still others coming in and the room was constantly full.
After an hour — even after many students had a chance to participate — there were still many more waiting to make their rolls. Sadly though, the rice ran out.
Although CEO had planned for a lot of students, they just did not know how popular this particular one was going to be.
Still optimistic, they continued to allow students to make sushi without rice, which many of them did.
CEO stayed as long for as people wanted to make sushi or until they ran out of more food.
With the popularity of this event, CEO will probably need a bigger room next year, as the universal allure of sushi grows.
