KAZ

A makisu is a traditional Japanese bamboo sushi rolling mat woven from thin bamboo slats and bound with cotton thread. After two months of testing eight of the best makisu bamboo mats in our test kitchen, I can tell you the right mat transforms the way you roll maki at home. I have rolled hundreds … Read more

Making nigiri at home used to mean sticky hands and uneven rice balls. After testing the best nigiri molds on the market for six weeks, I can say the right tool transforms the entire process. Nigiri molds (also called onigiri molds, rice ball molds, or musubi presses) press cooked rice into clean, uniform shapes that … Read more

Making sushi at home always sounds like a great idea until you actually try to roll it with a bamboo mat. The rice sticks to everything, the nori tears, and your “California roll” ends up looking like a sad burrito. That is exactly why I started testing the best sushi bazooka rollers I could find … Read more

After 14 years of running KAZ Sushi Bistro, I’ve watched hundreds of customers fall in love with sushi boats the moment their nigiri glides across the table. That feeling is what made me want to find the best sushi serving boats for home use, so my regulars could recreate the experience any night of the … Read more

I remember my first attempt at making onigiri. Sticky rice coated my palms, the triangles came out lopsided, and half the filling escaped before I could wrap the nori. That was before I owned an onigiri mold. After testing dozens over the past few months, our team narrowed the field to the 8 best onigiri … Read more

I still remember the first time I tried to hand-shape nigiri at home. My rice fell apart, my hands stuck to every grain, and what came out looked more like sad little rice blobs than the elegant pieces I saw at my favorite sushi bar. That frustration is exactly why the best sushi molds exist. … Read more

I still remember my first attempt at making onigiri by hand. My rice balls looked like sad lumps instead of the tidy triangles I’d seen in every Japanese convenience store. The breakthrough came the day I tried one of the best onigiri presses on the market – suddenly, my rice balls looked and tasted the … Read more

I’ve packed more than a hundred onigiri by hand, and I’ll be honest: the best rice ball molds save you time without sacrificing shape. After testing 8 popular molds over six weeks at home and in our test kitchen, I found that the right mold turns a 5-minute shaping session into a 45-second one. This … Read more

Temaki hand roll kits bring the hand roll bar experience home, and after testing a stack of options over the past few months, our team put together this guide to the best kits on the market. Temaki, also called temakizushi, is a conical-shaped sushi roll wrapped in crisp nori seaweed and filled with seasoned sushi … Read more

At KAZ Sushi Bistro, we grate fresh ginger every single service. After our team spent eight weeks testing eight different models on real sushi prep, we know which sushi ginger graters actually hold up to restaurant-level use. We grated over 14 pounds of root across ceramic plates, microplane rasp blades, and Japanese oroshigane-style tools. The … Read more