Sushi Modoki

September 16, 2019
In this concise manual, iina, who hosts cooking classes in Tokyo, instructs readers in the craft of vegan sushi, leaning on various vegetable preparations to visually evoke a variety of sliced fish. Skinned boiled pepper stands in for rich tuna, while steamed, seasoned eggplant takes the place of eel. Her recipes are clever, but often the sleight of hand falters: konnyaku, a firm, flavorless jelly, plays the roles of both squid and shrimp to ill effect. A wan impression of uni, the roe of sea urchin, reveals the limits of pure imitation, as a mixture of kabocha squash, carrot, and sake lees (the leftover from sake fermentation) can deceive the eyes but not the palate. While iina finds her footing in commonplace vegan recipes like inarizushi, bundles of rice in a sweet fried tofu skin, she often stumbles when she strays too far from tradition. One recipe needlessly replaces rice with cauliflower, and another marries kiwi, asparagus, and tofu cream cheese in a rice paper wrap. Beyond the delight of visually appealing dishes, home cooks will likely find little satisfaction here.

December 1, 2019

Most people think of raw fish when thinking about sushi, but sushi is about the rice, and there are many options for adorning it beyond seafood. Chef and author Iina offers a delightful book that is built on the concept of modoki, or mimicry. Using carrot to create the look of salmon, amaranth to emulate roe, or tomato to trick the eye into seeing a piece of fatty tuna, she conjures up an array of sushi treats that will at least look familiar to many. The catch is that every recipe is vegan. Not everything in the book is meant to mimic non-vegan fare either: readers will encounter outright celebrations of vegetables as in the cauliflower roll or the green vegetable chirashi. Still, with vegetable products standing in for abalone or eel or omelet, the book offers a range of surprises for all cooks to have fun with and explore. VERDICT A welcome title for those with even a passing interest in plant-based culinary options.--Peter Hepburn, Coll. of the Canyons Lib., Santa Clarita, CA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.