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Avocado is a common ingredient in American supermarket sushi. Do Japanese people eat avocado in their sushi? “Avocado in sushi was the idea of a Japanese chef in Los Angeles about 40 years ago who used it as a replacement for toro because it offered a similar ‘melty’ mouth feel,” says Silverjay. “It was subsequently used in California rolls. It’s a Japanese invention, but unique to the U.S.” ShelleyCT, however, says it’s not necessarily unique to the United States: “here in South Africa the avocado/sushi combo is very popular, and in the UK.”
“If you went to Japan, you’d find everything in sushi from top-quality absolutely-fresh delicate fish, down to hot dogs and spam,” says wayne keyser. “There’s no law restricting sushi to certain traditions or ingredients, though of course you wouldn’t find really weird downscale ingredients used in ‘fine sushi dining’ establishments.” While traditional Japanese culture doesn’t change much over time, Japanese popular culture borrows avidly from other cultures. “If you think ‘pop’ sushi is odd, you should see Japanese pizza,” says wayne keyser.
Board Link: Sushi and Avocado
This is an old post but the comments require correction.
Pop culture? There's been a lot written using this recent bit of revisionist history that sushi is a post wwII invention, brought back by Japanese soldiers serving in China/SE Asia. I don't know what started this fairy tale - perhaps Issenberg's book, The Sushi Economy, which maps the rebirth and growth of sushi since the war - but then...+READ
This is an old post but the comments require correction.
Pop culture? There's been a lot written using this recent bit of revisionist history that sushi is a post wwII invention, brought back by Japanese soldiers serving in China/SE Asia. I don't know what started this fairy tale - perhaps Issenberg's book, The Sushi Economy, which maps the rebirth and growth of sushi since the war - but then everything else was reborn in Japan since that time. That doesn't mean that traditions (in food and otherwise) don't predate that period. Lots of documentation exists placing sushi, in its modern Edomae form (nigirizushi) in the 19th century. Older forms, still using vinegar, existed for centuries before then, and pre-vinegar rice/fish preservation goes back more than a thousand years in Japan, although that would not be called sushi.
If vinegar is not included, it would be called something else besides su - shi, which translates as "vinegar rice". The term obviously didn't come into existence until vinegar began to be used.
Here's a concise post from Big Tuna's excellent thread:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/574740#4200064
Here's a specific set of documents showing the existence of nigiri sushi in the 1800's:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/maryy/eng/yohei.htm-COLLAPSE
addendum: One could even go so far as to say vinegar in sushi is not authentic!
It's true that Japanese pop culture borrows from other cultures, especially since sushi (in its original form) was borrowed from China! In China, salt and rice were fermented along with fish in order to preserve the fish; Japanese soldiers took the idea home with them, and over time it morphed into sushi-as-we-know-it.