Sushi sets can be for serving or making sushi, with different utensils. A serving set includes plates, bowls, chopsticks, and finger bowls. A making set includes a rolling mat, rice shovel, chopsticks, and a special rice bowl. Prices range from $20 to over $400.
Sushi is a Japanese dish consisting of a special rice topped with vegetables, seafood or fish. In the West, sushi is usually associated with rolled sushi, using a seaweed wrap of some sort. A sushi set can be understood as a special set of dishes and utensils for serving and eating sushi or a set of tools to aid in the preparation of sushi rolls. Both are commonly referred to as sushi sets, and neither is considered more appropriate.
A sushi set intended for catering will usually contain at least two plates, two bowls, and two pairs of chopsticks. The dishes are usually square with rounded edges, slightly raised at the edges to hold any sauces or liquids that may be used. They’re almost always ceramic, though it’s not entirely unheard of to find sushi made of wood and plastic as well.
The finger bowls included in a sushi set are meant to hold soy sauce and occasionally to hold wasabi, pickled ginger, or other condiments. The chopsticks included in a sushi set are Japanese-style, with ends that taper to a point. They are often lacquered wooden chopsticks, although a low-end sushi set may include plastic chopsticks instead.
A sushi dinner set can also include a large rice bowl and can be bundled with a saki pitcher and a couple of saki glasses. Many sushi sets will also include small pieces of curved wood intended to rest the chopsticks on when not in use. A good sushi set for two will cost between $30 and US$60, with luxury sushi sets costing over $200.
A sushi set geared towards making sushi contains a completely different set of utensils than one intended for catering. A basic sushi set will contain at least a rolling mat and rice shovel, and may also include kitchen chopsticks, special sushi knives, a bowl used for making rice, and an omelette pan. The rolled mat included in a sushi set is known as a makisu and is made of bamboo tied together with string. Makisu is used to shape makizushi rolls and to drain particularly moist foods, such as tofu.
The sushi rice shovel, or shamoji, is an almost completely flat shovel used for preparing and serving rice. Shamoji are commonly made from wood or plastic, and good plastic plates have non-stick surfaces, so the cook doesn’t have to constantly tend to moisten the paddle to keep the rice from sticking to it. Cooking chopsticks can also be included in a larger sushi set. These chopsticks tend to be longer than traditional dinner chopsticks and are almost always made from wood, both to offer more grip and to prevent warping in high temperatures.
Hangiri is the special rice bowl used to make sushi rice. Few sushi sets include this item, but high-end ones often do. A good hangiri is made of cypress wood and bonded with copper. The rice is cooked in a different vessel and transferred to the hangar, where the salt, sugar and vinegar used to give the sushi rice its distinctive flavor are added, and the rice is left to cool.
There are nearly as many types of sushi knives in the world as there are types of fish, which means that no sushi set will include more than a small sampling, if they include a knife. Sushi sets most commonly provide a nakiri bocho, or small vegetable knife, which can also be used to cut the sushi. Finally, some sushi sets may include a makiyakinabe, a small rectangular pan used to make eggs into omelettes for use in sushi dishes. Due to the rolled shape of Japanese omelettes, the omelet must be rectangular, requiring a special pan. A kitchen sushi set can cost as little as $20 for a basic mat and paddle, or as much as $400 for a set that includes a decent knife, rice bowl, and skillet.
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