What you need the next time you're making sushi for Rainbow Brite

It's been far too long since I've done regular posts. I've got an iPhone full of pictures that I'm dying to blog about, but by the end of the days recently, I've been a bit too pooped to post. Which is why I'm only now getting up this recap of the New York Mutual Trading Company Japanese Food and Restaurant Show that I attended a couple of weeks ago.

The show was fun; full of lots of restaurateurs checking out high tech rice cookers and plastic sushi trays and hundred dollar wasabi graters made of shark skin. I especially loved learning about all of the different kinds of knives - for fish, for sashimi, for veggies, etc. What I loved even more, however, was the food booths. A mix of the sublime (the richest, most umami miso ever) to the silly (you'll have to wait for the end of the post for the aforementioned Rainbow Brite sushi accessory.) Here were some of my favorite things:

Every kind of Tsukemono (Japanese pickle) you can imagine

A vegan sushi made of tofu, sesame, and loads of mayo (there was also a wasabi version which I liked better)

This was the miso stand. I've been all about fermentation recently, and miso goes through one of the most fascinating fermentation processes in the world. Soybeans ferment in enormous wooden casks topped with piles of stones for up to 30 months.

These mochi were so rich and delicious that the man handing them out had to cut them in quarters lest eager samplers devour all of his wares. I especially loved the mango.

This sucker was just for show, and I arrived too late to this booth to sample his buddies.

Joseph and his roe of many colors.

Shrimp ironed into sheets, used to wrap sushi. Twas not my thing.

Shrooms

Fake sample shrooms

And finally, day-glo nori for the Rainbow Brite roll. The orange kind looks like American cheese.