All "national cuisines" are in a constant state of flux, most "traditional" foods were invented or came into their current forms much more recently than you think, and the whole concept of "authenticity" is a trap https://twitter.com/jonbecker_/status/1196805486907052033

Like, fun fact, the word "sushi" originally refers to fish that was pickled for preservation (and was said to have a distinctive, very strong smell)

The original "zushi" from medieval times (narezushi) would be unrecognizable to you today and you'd probably find it really gross

Sushi is an "ancient tradition" but it's a tradition of *change*

It was mainly about people being like "Yeah the pickling process is gross and can we get away with doing it less"

The first steps toward modern sushi were literally called "half-finished sushi" in the 1600s

The story of sushi rapidly losing its original purpose, preservation, is the story of Japan becoming a modernized, interconnected economy

Naminare (half finished) sushi only lasts a week after preparation rather than months, but that's okay when the markets are always open

Sushi, fascinatingly, is one of those cuisines that's based on *referencing* its origins when they aren't practically relevant anymore

Like, it started as packing pieces of fish in barrels with rice so the rice would undergo lactic acid fermentation and pickle the fish

If this is done correctly, the rice is inedible by the time the pickling is finished and is thrown out

Half-finished sushi only pickled the fish long enough to get its distinctive flavor and you could still eat it packed in the rice

The next step, "quick sushi", involved just taking rice and fish and adding vinegar to it

In this context it's, essentially, fake sushi, it has that sour taste without ever having actually been aged at all

The rice and fish are "packed" as b aesthetic thing

And finally the invention of what we would recognize as sushi today, nigirizushi ("handrolled sushi"), didn't happen until the 1800s

And it's kind of like this parody of the original sushi process

A piece of fish is *placed on top* of rice that has been lightly vinegared

When you realize this is a way of making "pickled fish packed in rice" that reduces the pickling and packing to its absolute minimum it's hilarious

It's like the joke about how the ideal amount of vermouth in a gin martini is pouring a glass of gin and whispering "vermouth"

And I mean that's the thing

It's the exact opposite of sushi's original purpose of preserving fish for peasants

It's raw fish that's had no processing done to it at all that will go bad in a day if not eaten promptly

It requires a modern economy providing ice for refrigeration

And it went from being a prestige food to having a sushi bar on every corner only because of the 20th century invention of electric refrigeration

It's a story that can't be separated from the history of capitalism and of technology