Sushi Chef Sushi Making Kit

So, this review was actually planned but finding the time to get this up was a nightmare almost, but on a day off from work and home alone, I found the time to make this, which was actually 3 hours. This one i've really liked doing minus the fact that i nearly burnt my nose on Wasabi. But the long video review is below.

You can buy it HERE if you like. 

The outer Box. 

Now this has a sophisticated design which the box really does show off what is included as well as extras that would suit the kit very well. The back has tiny ingrediants sticker which makes all the difference with how presentable the thing is and it makes it look like its a need to ignore. Also the sides of the boxes are pretty basic minus a EAN code and Importer to join an oct 2017 expiring sticker. 

The top of the box

The sides of the box

The other side feat stickers

The bottom of the box has a ingredients list which is actually quite tiny

Unwrap a sushi kit

With that in mind, it was time to unbox the thing and see whats inside, which was a sealed range of bits that were ideal to make sushi such as:

• Bamboo Rolling Mat
• Rice Vinegar
• Rice Paddle
• Sushi Vinegar
• A cookbook 
• Wasabi Powder
• Ginger
• Nori Rolls
• Dark Soy Sauce

Which it was layed out in a nice position in the box, it worked in a nice way, which allowed me to get the items out in a neat way. Maybe the book was bent but it still was packaged nicely. 

Lift the box up and this appears 

Unpack it and this is the contents

for people that like the bright pics. 

Making the required rice

Now i browsed the cookbook and it was quite full of information that was nicely detailed as well as the fact that there were a nice variance of recipies from traditional sushi to Japanese omelettes. There was one recipe that most things referenced, Sushi Rice. Now this was not as easy as it says and i improvised which worked reasonably well. To be honest the steps were a bit confusing with the wash and mix the rice but i'll simplify the recipe. 

1. Pour rice into a bowl, about 2 cups full
2. Pour 2 cups full of water into same bowl
3. Mix the contents with your hands and 
4. when water is really cloud, empty bowl into a siv (i tried) or strainer and then drain the water out. 
5. Pour the rice into the bowl 
6. Pour water into bowl
7. Repeat steps 4 5 and 6 until there water is not cloudy or until you really cba to do it anymore. 
8. Put rice and water into saucepan that fits lit
9. Put cooker hob on mark 3 or 4 (a medium heat).
10. Let it boil for 10 minutes
11. Raise the heat to high for 2 minutes
12. Lower it back to med high for 10 minutes
13. Put off hob and let it cool down with lid in for 10 minutes
14. When cooler take lid off, get rice into a plastic container or bowl. plastic else the metal and vinegar make it dangerous to eat from the books hints. 
15. Use the paddle to ease the rice about until its smooth
16. Pour some Sushi Vinegar on and keep paddling
17. cover towel over it and let it cool.
18. Done

So thats the basic steps which kinda of seems easy but it can take its time. 

Step 3 mostly

whyen repeating step 3,4,5

Getting it steamed, before i realised i over did it

the finished result after paddling it and mixing the vinegar

To actually making a sushi Roll.

This was the fun bit, since its the part which is cool. Now this was the closest recipe i could find to a standard looking sushi meal in the book, the Cucumber roll. Which i changed cucumber to Salmon and didn't add the seeds since i didn't have any. Which this bit was quick and a simple way to sum it up was: 

1. Get a bowl
2. Put 6 tbsp of water and 2 tsp of rice vinegar in the bowl, this becomes the sushi glue.
3. get one nori roll, place it on the bamboo mat.
4. Cut that roll in half so it looks like a rectangle or strip.
5. Get your meat or cucumber.
6. Cut that up into lengths that are no longer than the length of the roll.
7. if you have more than the length, then that is used for repeated rolls.
8. Dip your hands in the vinegar mix
9. Get your hands in the rice bowl from earlier and make a tennis ball shape out of a handful
10. Then place that on the roll
11. flatten it out evenly, leave a gap near the edges
12. Make a flat groove/grove in the middle, i used a knife.
13. Get a bowl, put some wasabi power inside
14. Fill that bowl with a bit of water, not much
15. Mix the bowl until a paste appears
16. trace a finger and glide it on the paste, aka scoop it with a finger.
17. place the fingered paste onto the grove on the roll, this is like buttering a sandwich style thing. 
18. lay a strip of your chosen filler (salmon for me) in that grove, make sure its reasonably straight. 
19. Now start to bend the bamboo mat like a tidal wave to it makes it into a roll,
20. Squeeze each end and centre.
21. unwrap and all sorted. 

Even though the roll didn't go around the full way, it was looking reasonably presentable which was nice, But for a beginner its a nice attempt. 

Preparing the mat for the food

After rolling it, it sticks together

Then you cut it and it looks legit like sushi

Then it was actually tasting like sushi, maybe i didn't add soy sauce the first time but it was nice minus the fact i added too much wasabi and my nose was on fire, so much so i had to walk.

that #feeling when you #add too much #wasabi in #sushi

A video posted by Mattie LT Marker (@omracerfaps) on Apr 11, 2016 at 12:43pm PDT

Then it was time to give it a rating. With that in mind

omracer's Rating: 6/10

The Good Points: 

• The presentation is john lewis style good
• You get plenty of things for the kit
• it does let you make sushi without buying much else as a whole
• The cookbook is detailed
• The value is pretty good

The Bad Points: 

• some of the recipes require things not listed.
• The instructions for the sushi rice can confuse.
• The time to do this isn't a quick meal style
• This can make a messy sink and kitchen

And there you have it, a review of a sushi making kit. More reviews coming soon.

omracer

Playstation Vita TV (Known as Playstation TV in US/EU)

Well as many of you might of known, I've mentioned that i had wanted a PS Vita TV since it was announced in September . Its now November and they have been released in Japan, I've been checking Play-Asia and eBay and found some offers. it turns out Otaku was listing one for $149.99 + $12 postage (tracked). Which comes to around £110. But i did make an offer for everything (The console + tracked delivery) for $160 which when paid with Paypal, came to about £102.44. So that was ordered Friday evening

I worked an extra day this week due to Dickensian Night happening this Friday, and since a customer wanted to have a lesson with me and was only in Tavi on the day, so i worked, i did finish at 6:30pm or so. But i found it had arrived withing 5 days, that's quick, even quicker than chinavasion with £12 delivery from DHL (That had customs, this didn't ?). So when i arrived home, i found it, looking at me, i undid the outer packaging and you can see the box below.

The box, sealed up, with the PSVita TV logo infront of me, i was excited but i had to pace myself.

So, after the evening was sorted, everyone else went to sleep and i started to get this review underway, It was quite cold in the kitchen, but i made sure to get what i needed before i started. With a Figure 8 cable, my fake DS3 and i did get the usb cable to pair it part way through, but i was ready. You can enjoy the review below, which includes what was in the box, setting it up and looking through the PS Store, but there are bits i have missed which i will cover in this, so do read on...

The Unboxing and setup 

Well Getting the seal off was quite tricky. But the box has a nice PS feel to it, advertised what was available, the interface and of course, parental control, trademarks and safety regulations. Have a look at the unboxing pictures below:

The top of the box, with the logo and some of the bubbles

The back of the box, with detailed descriptions as well as the Reigon, HDMI trademark, Parental controls and something that looks like a date on the right hand side

The Right side of the box, with the Mode numbers, POS Bar code, URL for more info and where it was made, well china for obvious reasons :D

The bottom of the Box, which has sony's trademarks and "FOR SALE IN JAPAN ONLY". But many have been lucky to import.

The Left hand side of the box, with the pictures of the interface, mentions the ability to play PS1 and PSP games (You'll See later). Also the sony icons as well as the GUI is shown.

So with the box shown, its time to look inside. Now there isn't much to show you inside but a list of what is actually included is as follows:

• The Console itself
• A HDMI Cable, 1.8m, standard V1.4
• An AC adapter, which can support 100-240V (So maybe its not just localized for Japan perhaps ?)  and the cable to plug it in to the mains, which is a figure 8 cable, so you can buy a local cable for your country, plug it in and not worry about using adapters. I was actually running around before i left work, looking for a 240V to 110V adapter aha. 
• A manual which folds out and is double sided, it even tells you how to replace a battery in a Dualshock 3, which isn't mentioned in a PS3 manual, funny that ???. 
• A warranty card/booklet. 
• Some notices on small sticker type labels

Now this is a nice amount, when you open the Box, the console is the first thing you see, which you have to take out before you can get to the other items. So i'm going to show you whats in the box:

The left side of the Console itself

The right side of the console, with the PSVita Logo on the slot where the games are inserted

The back of the console: with a power button, slot for PSVita Memory Cards, USB 2.0 Port, HDMI port, 10/100 Ethernet port and the power jack, supporting DC 5V

The bottom of the console, with the Sony logo and some of the detailed information

The front of the console, with the Sony logo and a tiny LED

The top of the comsole, with the PS logo, in a nice silver finish.

The bottom half of the rear of the manual, it even mentions how to replace a battery on a dualshock 3. Thats impressive

The top half of the rear of the manual, More safety notices

The bottom half of the front of the manual, which shows the UI, the dualshock 3 and how to use the sticks as the either the front or reach touchscreen

The back of the Warranty booklet

The inside of the Warranty booklet

The Front of the Warranty Booklet

The Figure 8 AC cable to plug into Japanese sockets

The actual AC adapter itself, which allows for 100 - 240V and steps it down to 5V

A bog standard HDMI V1.4 cable, Looks good for a added extra and helps you get started. 

So the unboxing was quite nice, with everything to get you started if you already own a PS3. After getting everything plugged in, turned on, i started to set the console up, it was quite simple, although i did forget that O is enter and X is back, unlike the Western settings, which is X for enter, O for back. But it was easy to navigate, even getting "Trial access to Playstation Network" was a unique idea, but it technically is on PS3 but i never used it.

After you set it up, or when its normally turned on, you see this. The home screen

Once it was set up, it was like a normal vita but there was a popup on how to use the home screen, well with the d-pad and analog sticks. there was 2 parts, since there was more features then what could of been fitted on one screen. You can even make folders by pressing /\ (That i didn't mention in the video). Afterwards, i went to the settings to get the wifi setup, this is quite simple, although my router always has to fuck me over, i'm going to cut to the chase, but after a few attempts, it worked fine. Then i checked the PS store after updating to 3.00 OFW. There were some good apps as you saw, some of the standard vita apps had been ported over, Torne, Livetweet, NicoNico, Youtube and others, all free too.

The testing. 

At this point, the video ends and i continues to do some extra tests. I did decide to start playing the one game i've always wanted to play on the Vita, which is of course Ridge Racer. I inserted it in the slot, which is tricky to comprehend if you have badly bitten fingernails, i even tried using the cable ties for the hdmi, which worked the first time, but not the second time, it exposed the wire inside lol. But once i got the cartridge in, i found it needs an update, it said ver 1.02, which i hoped would of allowed it for Vita TV compatibility, but alas it was an update in April 2012. Alas it didn't make the game compatible :(

The latest update for Ridge Racer on the Vita TV. 

Afterwards, i downloaded the games i have on my JAP PSN account, which were some free ones, very interesting that the PSP demos don't work, but the full games do. So i had the chance to play some LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, i didn't play much but it felt like it should be, as well as being able to download other conent while playing, which was nice, even the PS3 doesn't let that happen for some games. The upscaled quality is not too bad (Patapon 2 cutscenes are quite bad, but the tv was at 1080i) and also it allows you to add functionality to the right stick, which might be useful for some games.

Playing LocoRoco midnight Carnival and a notification that mentions i've download a PS1 game, in this case its a demo of Devil's Dice, which i still don't understand.

The Verdict:

Well with some things covered, its time to give you my opinions. I'm sort of glad i did get the console, the concept for what i've wanted to do for a while is there, yes i've been able to do it with my CFW PS3 but the emulator for the PSP remasters isn't as good as the vita's. But since there is no UK or even Western release planned, for now at least...The console is restricted if i wanted to buy a ramdom vita game from CEX, Game et, there is a chance that i might of not bought one of the 304 compatible games that is compatible with the Vita TV, i'm surprised Ridge Racer isn't compatible . But the UI is fluent and really easy to use, even if the X and O are swapped

omracer' Rating: 7/10

Pros:

• Looks beautiful and small
• Easy To use
• Has alot of potential, as a mini console and as a Smart TV box (Well for Japan currently anyway)

Cons:

• Linked to Japan only, so you need a JAP PSN to get around
• Not compatible with many vita games, especially EU and US games, PSP and PS1 games are mostly fine. 
• 1GB of storage is basic but a 4GB card is recommended. 

Well that sums this review up. This won't be the last time i mention about the Vita TV, but for now, expect some more reviews, maybe Christmas Present ones. 

omracer :)

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