Sushi: Food for body, soul

Eleven years on since the first opening in 1999, founder and artistic director Manuel Bagorro is as handsome as ever, and winsome Maria Wilson, executive director, continues against all odds, to get the show on the road.
 For six days last week, George and I mingled with throngs of Zimbos, Diasporans and foreign visitors in the Harare Gardens, enjoying a feast of song, dance, music,    theatre and the visual    arts.
All this was hungry work and the numerous food outlets on Coca Cola Green and elsewhere had brisk business.
 Within the elite tented oasis of the Green Room, Hifa Amigos and Troubadours could breakfast on Veldemeer’s $4 breakfast special of a coffee and muffin.
The adjoining Shop Café served salads, subs, five star steak rolls and carrot cake, from dawn until long after dusk.
Although Kerry Wallace was researching smorrebrod (Danish open sandwiches) and frikadeller (meat balls) in Copenhagen over the Hifa period, the Shop Café, manned by loyal staff, continued to run at full throttle, serving scores of happy customers.
 Outside on the Green, Fusion could barely keep up with the demand for sushi to take away, a healthy and delicious Japanese food, served with soy sauce, pickled ginger and fiery wasabi sauce. George and I shared a box of sushi with smoked salmon ($10), attractively presented between slices of cucumber, with disposable chopsticks.
While traditionally sushi is made with raw tuna and seafood, this would be impractical in landlocked Zimbabwe.
A special white short-grained rice, mixed with rice vinegar, salt and sugar, is used to make sushi. Seaweed wrappers known as nori are rolled around the rice and filling.
A variety of fresh and pickled vegetables are used as fillings and toppings, with wasabi, sometimes called Japanese horseradish, and sweet pickled ginger being favourite condiments.
Both these clear the palate and reduce any chance of food poisoning.
Soy sauce remains a popular dipping sauce.
 Japanese sushi is generally low in fat and high in proteins, vitamins and minerals, although some Western-style sushi with avocado, cream cheese or mayonnaise fillings would not be particularly healthy. Sushi should be eaten in one mouthful: trying to break it in two usually results in the whole thing falling apart.
It is permissible to eat sushi with your fingers, although most people prefer to use chopsticks.
 Sushi from Fusion is minimalist, beautifully made and looks appetising.
 A few metres away and just      outside the National Gallery, an attractive stand entitled Discover Japan, offered insights into the Japanese way of life. Demonstrations on how to conduct a tea ceremony, rice pounding and origami, the traditional folk art of paper folding, were staged at different times of the day.
Friendly staff, with the aid of realistic plastic models, described favourite Japanese dishes such as Soba (thin noodles served chilled with a dipping sauce), Sukiyaki (Japanese beef hotpot) and Tempura (seafood or vegetables deep fried in batter).
 The lack of a Japanese restaurant in Harare will disappoint many visitors to Hifa, after hearing about the health giving properties of delicious sushi and soy sauce.
But should the number of Japanese nationals here increase from fifty-five to a substantial number, a restaurant might become a reality.
Enthusiastic cooks can buy a sushi making kit from some local supermarkets: if your best attempts at this skilled art fail, make your way to Fusion at Borrowdale Racecourse.
 
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