What the fuck is “Anari”?

After moving up to “Daytime sushi chef” I took it upon myself to start embracing the Japanese culture more. I began eating at all the local sushi bars and developing a pretty well rounded pallete for the different components that made up Japanese cuisine. Some restaurants had better fish then others and some you could tell put a lot more effort into trying to keep a more traditional atmosphere. I still preferred my place the most. Not because I worked there but because I knew the efforts that went on behind the scenes. I bought myself a nice knife and a book about Japanese cuisine. I wanted to know everything there was to know. I even took home atleast a dozen pairs of chopsticks and began to perfect the art of using them properly.

Things went smoothly for about a month without even a minor hiccup. One day I was working the sushi bar by myself at lunch when I lady came in that everyone seemed to be familiar with. She shook the hands of the chefs and owners and sat down right in front of me. She said “you’re new” and the server brought her a Kirin Ichiban and one of our more expensive bottles of sake. She then began shouting to me what she wanted to eat which I usually am very good at remembering however this lady was ordering in Japanese. I remember when the chef who mentored me had told me the names of everything in Japanese so I kept up pretty well but I don’t remember all of them, luckily she was pointing at the fish as well so I was able to figure it out for the most part. She kept shouting “Anari” “Anari” and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what that was. I wasn’t going to let her know that though, I proceeded to make the rest of her ordered and just nodded like I knew what she was talking about. As I was wrapping up her order I walked back into the kitchen where we kept handmade plates from Japan we used for special parties or our VIP customers and looked over at the cook, “the wok guy” as I called him and shouted “what the fuck is Anari and he started laughing. He stood up and said one minute. I stood there for what felt like a century and he handed me a little plate of some fried tree bark looking stuff.

With no time left for an explanation I walked back to the sushi bar and dropped the stuff on my cutting board. The lady saw me doing this and said “I’ll take it just like that” so I fanned it out and plated it like I would sashimi and handed her the platter. She bowed her head and said thank you. A sigh of relief came over me as she started indulging in her food and I proceeded to begin on the next order. When I finished the next dish I didn’t have any tickets to make so I went to the kitchen to begin making some more sushi rice. When I walked back into the kitchen the owner stopped me and said “Anari” translates to “Fried Tofu Skin”. “They soak it in sugar water and fry it and it is supposed to be somewhat of a dessert sushi. Almost nobody orders that here that’s why it is by request only but this lady she loves it”. It all made sense now. He only told me what the fish we had on the line were called. Not off menu items. I wonder how many things there were that I didn’t know? I guess I’d find out sooner or later.