Fake It and You’ll Make It
October 2022
(Reading Time: 2 min)
(Reading Time: 2 min)
The California Roll is everywhere. The name of the dish is extremely vague yet specific. We don’t know where in California the dish comes from (assuming it is from California). We don’t know what ingredients are in the roll. We don’t know whether “California” will be delicious. But we know that the California Roll is Japanese because it is categorized under “Sushi.”
Several chefs and restaurants have claimed that the California Roll was their creation since the roll’s astronomical popularity in the 1980s. We have myriads of candidates from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Some attest that the name “California” came from the initials of crab and avocado—CA, and that it just happens to be the abbreviation for the state of California. Others argue that the moniker “California Roll” was coined by the Japanese media, who generalized this Western sushi creation to simply—California.
Despite the California Roll’s debatable origin for its name, its ingredients have a rather clear narrative. It is basically a bastardized variety of authentic Japanese sushi. The roll is composed of cooked ingredients such as imitation crab, avocado, and cucumber. All these ingredients are wrapped in seaweed paper, then rolled with an outer layer of medium-grain rice mixed with sesame seeds. To ingratiate the American appetite, the very nature of the California Roll is sacrilegious to authentic Japanese sushi. Rather than the seaweed paper wrapping the sushi rice, it is the other way around. It is rolled inside-out because seeing a black sheet of unknown food paper made authentic sushi unpopular when it was introduced to America. Additionally, imitation crab was used to replace the actual king crab meat, and avocado was chosen to replace fatty tuna. Cucumber was the only one which remained the same. At this point, we’re wondering if the California Roll is still “sushi” because it has lost all its pedigree.
If sushi signifies Japan, then what does the California Roll represent? We sense that it may suffer from an identity crisis. There is no bona-fide seafood in the roll. It is not from California (or maybe it is). It is not Japanese. It is not “sushi”. Perhaps the roll is discombobulated because it carries simultaneous and contradictory meanings. It is both avocado and tuna. It is crab meat, and it is not. It is Japan, and it is not. It is counterculture and affordable. It is popular and accessible.
Due to its bewildering identity, the California Roll does not make it to the hall of fame for food. We blame it for its inauthenticity. It misrepresents the Japanese tradition that authentic sushi carries. Its existence is based on popularity and quasi-fake ingredients. Its name might just be a happy coincident. Nonetheless, when we take our first bite out of the roll, it is delicious. The richness and fattiness of avocado do resemble fatty tuna. The imitation crab allows us to imagine what the actual crab meat would taste like. The exposed ring of rice sprinkled with sesame seeds is a visual candy. Perhaps all the above is sufficient to uncover the California Roll’s identity. It even made its way back onto restaurant menus in Japan.
The California Roll is the epitome of Californication. It is when the beacon of Hollywood and the dissemination of popular culture are at their best. California is a place where we can be anyone, reinvent our identities, and where dreams are a commodity. Maybe inauthenticity is not so bad. Maybe the synergy of contradictory meanings in all objects is more intriguing than purity. In the end, it is these conflicts of ideas that ignite the best debates and the most unexpected humor.
Without the California Roll, we wouldn’t have had the courage to try raw fish or appreciate Japanese cuisine. Sometimes, the texture-camouflaging avocado and the faux crab sticks are enough when the great wheel of culture is at work.