Sushi party

Our school holds parties as one of its fundraising projects. Families offer to host an event (called a party) for anyone who buys a ticket. Other families bid for the events they or their kids want to attend.

This afternoon we hosted 7 children age 6-8 years old (+ Frost for an 8th) for a sushi making party. I prepared the rice and cut the difficult vegetables while they peeled cucumber, washed rice, peeled, pitted (that was fun) and sliced avocado and made unagi dipping sauce. Eve and Megan (the only girls) were the most help with preparing the vegetables while Isaac was intent on making unagi dipping sauce and stirring in the sugar because "that sauce is always quite sweet."

Then we were ready to roll.

I had set out 8 mats within reach of all the fillings and condiments and plopped a lump of rice on each nori sheet. It was clear that some kids are sushi veterans while others were confused about whether to put down the nori first. Eve, Megan, August and Oliver were competing for the tobiko while others had eyes only for the carrot and cucumber. Isaac and Evan were very methodical and specific in their tastes and wanted to eat straight away. Megan made 3 rolls before others had done one.

The rice spreading was the hardest part. You have to brush the rice into place gently with slightly moist fingers. Kids decided to THUD it flat (that one was in the bin) or slosh on so much water the nori became elastic (that was was also compost) - rice was soon underfoot (it is not nice walking around with sushi rice on your feet) - and Frost said "this is IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Finally everyone had a good covering the fun began. The first ingredients to be finished off were the tobiko and unagi (flying fish roe and bbq eel). Who would have thought? The black sesame and sea salt seasoning was also hugely popular. Everyone used cucumber and carrot but avocado was less popular. Only the adults liked smoked salmon and cream cheese.

There was a bit of difficulty with how much to put in the rolls. Some kids put a huge pile of their favorite ingredients on the first roll. I caught Oliver with 4 slices of unagi and 5 carrots in his first while Eve used 4 teaspoons of tobiko leaving only half a jar for the rest of us. I actually scraped a bit off to avoid a riot among the other lovers-of-roe and rehabilitated some of Oliver's unagi into my own roll.

I think that 8 kids meant I had less chance to do my pedagogical piece and explain each ingredient. I'll try and do it again with fewer kids on a playdate.

After the rice was all used up (I cooked SIX CUPS and it was gone in moments, I cooked another TWO CUPS later and they ate that up as rice balls with black sesame seasoning on) they went outside to play with water guns and the party evolved into a super soaker fun fest the legacy of which is 7 soaking wet muddy towels in my laundry closet along with 5 pairs of wet muddy shorts which I leant to kids concerned about their clothes. They all clambered up into the fort and strung the hose up there and ran it down the slide to create a water slide. The lawn at the bottom became a mud wallow so they smeared mud all over themselves and then slide even faster. Evan and Frost were awfully totally soaked and looked as if they had plasted themselves into mud cannonballs.

It was super super fun apparently although there were some tumbles, lots of screaming when Frost flashed his bum and Wren chased the big boys with weapons and was taught to say "you suck" by Frost who is in the dog box over that. They also made 'sun tea' by mauling my herb garden and mixing the leaves with water in a big jug.

My kitchen floor is now a mixture of caked on squished rice and muddy footprints but all will be well after a mop tomorrow. So far, the coffee brown marmoleum is holding up well!

Wren also joined in the sushi party. He ate lots of sushi and made a roll with help from Joshua. For breakfast Wren ate smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and found it delicious. We have plenty left for that again tomorrow.