Serving your sushi is an art – Maki Clack

As I was preparing to write this week’s Maki Clack, I realized that I’ve done you wrong, and for that, I apologize. How, oh how, could I have harassed you into embracing maki, making it at home, the easy way, with delightful and daring combinations, and not ever discussed how to serve it?

My bad.

If you put sushi, maki or any of the like onto a regular, round dinner plate, it’s your bad. We even have plastic square plates to serve the kid, and we have since he was about a year old and embraced the sushi way of life. So if my four-year-old knows you need a special plate for sushi, then you ought to know too. Again, sorry for the oversight.

So today, I offer you five choices of sushi dinnerware: the traditional, the green, the cheap, the romantic and the disposable.

All the traditional sushi restaurants serve their sushi on bamboo plates. OK, maybe not all of them. Rectangular ceramic plates are the new avant garde choice, and somewhat tacky places will give you your enormous order in a boat. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you obviously haven’t ordered enough sushi. Eat more!

Amazon offers a traditional bamboo sushi plate for $29.99, which could get pricey if you used one for each diner, but consider using it instead for your serving platter. Or, you could always get the Totally Bamboo Sushi Plate, Small for $12.99 each, one for each diner.

Yes, I suppose you could argue that bamboo plates are a green choice, since bamboo is such a quickly renewable resource. How about some sushi plates that don’t use any new resources? This hammered sushi plate ($12.99 each) is made from recycled glass and is simply gorgeous. They even offer a matching tray.

What? You want something cheap? This neutral-colored ceramic sushi plate is only 6.19, or you can order 10 plates at a discounted rate.

To a couple like Keith and I, sushi says romance (although Scott’s experience watching the awkward couple on a sushi first date says otherwise). More specificallly, it says, “Put Owen to bed and eat dinner on the family room floor in front of the fireplace on your gorgeous sushi-for-two dinnerware set.” My pick, which totally rebels against any color scheme found in our house, yet calls to me anyway, is this brilliant blue sushi set, rustic and striking.

Now, for the lazy sushi dinnnerware. You can’t be bothered to hand wash some of the artsy stuff I’ve highlighted above, and I know you wouldn’t dream of putting hand-glazed ceramics in your dishwasher. You’ll love these square disposable plates — they come in white or black — that are stylish, yet completely tossable.

There! I’ve corrected my bad and made it a good. You’ll now be serving your delicious homemade (or takeout) sushi in style. You’re welcome.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Apr 30, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT