Secret of sushi's success, from a Southern California farm

Los Angeles Times photo

A little meme said, "It's not all about avocado toast anymore; it's all about protein bowls and sushi; sushi is always in." But why? It's the rice, reports Daniel Miller of the Los Angeles Times: "Koda Farms played a key role in the spread of sushi in Los Angeles in the 1960s, said Atsuko Kanai, daughter of Noritoshi Kanai, who helped popularize the cuisine in the Southland. Without Kokuho Rose, the farm's special strain of medium-grain rice, his sushi gambit might have failed. Atsuko, whose father visited Koda Farms in 1963 and struck a distribution deal to wholesale the Kokuho Rose rice to L.A. restaurants, told Miller, "There were a few things that made sushi possible — No. 1 and most pivotal was the rice Koda Farms … [made. It was] a more palatable rice that could be served in sushi."

"Launched in 1962, Kokuho Rose was developed by Koda Farms in conjunction with rice breeder Arthur Hughes Williams. The heirloom variety, Koda said, crossed a California medium-grain rice with a Middle Eastern long-grain to create a new, higher-quality medium-grain offering," Miller explains. "The rice was a revelation: Until the invention of this medium-grain strain, what had been available to make sushi in California was 'tasteless, couldn't retain moisture, and would get brittle as it cooled down,' said Anthony Al-Jamie, editor in chief of the Japanese culture magazine Tokyo Journal."

One might not have happened without the other. "It isn't just Atsuko Kanai who has touted the significance of Koda Farms' contribution to L.A.'s sushi supply chain. Al-Jamie said that the creation of Kokuho Rose was 'essential' to the spread of sushi across the region," Miller reports. "Without the heirloom rice, Al-Jamie said, 'I don't think [sushi] would have taken off' when it did. . . . In more recent years, Koda Farms' rice has won acclaim from chefs and food publications. In 2020, Sunset magazine dubbed it the 'Holy Grail of California Rice.'. . . But, in a twist, Kokuho Rose is no longer a sushi bar staple, with chefs now preferring short-grain rice. In the 1980s, Koda said, more Japanese short-grain rice became available in the U.S. market, which may explain the change. That rice, she said, is 'more sticky' than Kokuho Rose, and 'it seems to be a preference' among sushi chefs."