Japanese language students can learn the centuries-old art of sushi-making while at Dickinson.

Divided into stations, the students learned how to create maki by topping seasoned sticky rice with fish, vegetables and other ingredients and then rolling it all up in sheets of dried and pressed seaweed or collard greens.

“It’s harder than it looks,” says Chloe Mandell ’09, an East Asian studies major who says she made and ate a fair amount of sushi while studying in Japan. “But I love it.”

Trout Gallery attendant Satsuki Swisher (left) demonstrates the art of sushi-making.

The class has been taught by Satsuki Swisher, a retired library cataloging coordinator and Japanese language professor who now works in The Trout Gallery and who learned to create sushi as a youngster. The secret to perfect sushi, Swisher advised, lies in the rice, which must be cooked properly and seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and salt.

As the students sampled the sushi they’d made, Swisher smiled in approval.

“I think the students are doing wonderfully,” she said.

Trout Gallery attendant Satsuki Swisher demonstrates the art of sushi-making.