Celebrate Pokémon Day with a Pokéball sushi bowl

All more than 800 Pokémon have a birthday on February 27, and enthusiasts celebrate this day all over the world. That's not surprising, because you can hardly ignore these Pocket Monsters. There are games, TV series and trading cards in which these figures play the leading role. Join the Pokémon party and make a delicious Pokéball sushi bowl.

7 Pokémon facts

The Pokémon have been through a lot over the past 26 years, these are seven fun facts for you.

Did you know:

1. Satoshi Taijiri, the creator of Pokémon, started his career in 1982 as publisher of Game Freak magazine? All that writing about games turned out not to be enough and he soon started making games such as Yoshi and Mario & Wario.

2. Pokémon are based on insects and tadpoles that Satoshi used to look for in the Japanese forests as a child?

3. Nintendo wasn't immediately enthusiastic about Satoshi's Pokémon? Fortunately, he stood his ground, the company changed tack and the Pocket Monsters game was released on February 27, 1996 in a red and green version.

4. Pikachu gets his/her name from 'pika', the sound of an electric spark and 'chu' the sound of a mouse?

5. On October 20, 1996 the first set of cards was released? It contained no fewer than 102 cards with which you can play the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Some cards are now worth a fortune!

6. A Pokémon cartoon series was made in 1997? It stars a boy named Satoshi (named after Satoshi Tajiri himself), now shortened to Ash.

7. The first feature film was released in Japan in 1998? This was followed by Pokémon Go in 2016 and the live action film “Detective Pikachu” starring Ryan Reynolds in 2019.

Festive Pokéball sushi bowl recipe

Pokéballs are indispensable in the game, because you catch Pokémon with them. If you want to let the captured animal fight, let it out again.

I have a Pokéball sushi bowl recipe for you for the most famous red-white ball with a dark belt around it: sushi rice topped with spicy marinated slices of fresh tuna. This is how you celebrate this Poké Day with a lunch or dinner in Poké style!

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 600 grams of Japanese rice
• 7.5 dl water
• 65 ml rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 400 grams of fresh tuna
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)
• 0.5 tsp wasabi or chili oil
• 1 sheet of nori

Preparation method

Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Place this in a pan with water and let it stand for 1 hour. Bring the rice to the boil and turn the heat source to the lowest setting. Let it simmer gently for 20 minutes with the lid on the pan. Remove the pan from the heat source and let it stand, covered, for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the rice vinegar with the sugar and salt until everything is dissolved. Place the rice in a wooden or glass bowl and stir in the vinegar mixture.

While the rice is soaking for an hour, cut the tuna into thin slices of about 0.5 cm thick. Mix the soy sauce with the mirin and the wasabi or chili oil, add the tuna and let this mixture marinate covered in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Cut a Pokéball strap from the nori.

Divide the rice among 4 bowls, for example the Japanese bowl of nippon blue wave as shown in the photos. place the tuna slices on the top half of the rice and the belt in the middle on top. Make a ball of rice and place it on the “knot” in the middle of the belt and your Pokéball sushi bowl is ready.

いただきます

(let's eat)

🚨 Only click play if you don't want the song stuck in your head for a week

Sources: The Sushi Times , bbc.co.uk

The author: Ingrid Beyer

Ingrid from Happlify crew member Roppongi is a far too modest Japan expert who can tell you all the ins and outs. Roppongi is the webshop for lovers of Japan, design, good food, tea and DIY. Visit Roppongi and the blog regularly for the quickest trip to Japan. Ingrid's blog posts >