The California Roll

When Hidekazu Tojo emigrated from Japan to Vancouver in 1971, sushi was not on the menu. Most people didn't eat raw fish and thought seaweed belonged in the ocean. In 1974, determined to make sushi appealing to the locals, the chef opted for more palatable fillers, such as cooked crabmeat and avocado. To conceal the offending dried seaweed, he rolled the sushi so the rice was on the outside. Calling it the Inside-Out Roll.

California Rolls
By Alessandro Scotti - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5764637

Tojo's creation became a great success and was eventually dubbed the "California roll." Tojo is still working as a chef and owns his own restaurant, Tojo's, in downtown Vancouver.

Hidekazu Tojo at his restaurant in Vancouver
photo from VancouverSun.com

What are 150 of our favourite Canadian things? Read about it here

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This Week in Beer – Ale-Induced Anecdotals Part Deux

A post by Scott F

People do crazy things with beer: they put strange things in it, consume nothing but it, put it in things where it normally isn't, and regularly drink far too much of it in too short of time – with varied results. Ale-induced anecdotals captures the weird and wacky from the world of beer and distills it for the Real Man Travels faithful.

Let’s play a good ol’ game of hide the beer.

Some dude (or dudette) is going around hiding beer in Vancouver and tweeting about it. This is on the heels of other similar accounts that have hidden money or “other intoxicants.” I hereby grant this individual the title: Sudsy Games Master of the Thirsty Games!

Rebuilding bones... with beer!

Some sophisticated Spaniards realized that brewing waste is made up of the same chemical components found in bone, like, calcium and stuff. So they decided to go ahead and make bones out of it (well, kind of). Read more.

Check out that fancy picture of beer bone goodness.

Japanese Bee Yeast.

The good folks that bring you Sapporo (actually in Japan, not Guelph, ON) discovered a yeast that appears on bees as they do bee stuff. Evidently Sapporo is a huge supporter of bees and bee culture in Japan. They say the yeast imparts a unique cinnamon flavour and they've managed to harvest enough of the stuff to make beer. Joke for this section: “where does a bee hang out it Japan? At the clubzzzzzzz.” Boom! 

Dill Pickle Beer.

Canadians do crazy stuff with beer too! Ben Johnson, of the exceptional Ben’s Beer Blog, teamed up with Great Lakes Brewery to create Dill Hole IPA. Who needs a bag of chips with your beer when you can have it all-in-one? Convenience. Value. Taste. Fierce. 

And to wrap things up, this guy.

Drink safe, friends. 

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