The Seaweed Folding Hack For Effortless Homemade Sushi Wraps

While many people may love a night of all-you-can-eat sushi, making the dish at home can be a little tricky and daunting, especially for first-timers. Not only do you need to make sure you have safe, sushi-grade quality fish and get your sticky rice to a proper consistency, but, even if you managed to do all of that, you still have to figure out how to properly wrap the sushi.

Traditionally, sushi is wrapped in seaweed sheets called nori. And while sushi purists have a traditional way of preparing the meal, there is a simple hack making the rounds on TikTok that will let you roll up and chow down on your homemade sushi in a matter of moments (and it doesn't require a rolling mat).

Simply lay the piece of nori flat and make a vertical slice midway through the seaweed wrap, cutting halfway up the nori. (Another way to think of this is that you have four quadrants in your seaweed wrap. You're severing the bottom left and bottom right quadrants vertically while leaving the upper left and upper right quadrants intact.) 

From there, layer any sauces in the bottom left square, sticky rice in the upper left quadrant, sushi in the upper right section, and veggies like avocado in the lower right space. Then, simply fold your roll starting with the bottom left square in a clockwise fashion.

While this trick is a game changer for sushi, it's a variant of the viral tortilla hack. The latter functions in virtually the same as the sushi hack, except it swaps out nori for a tortilla and sushi ingredients for burrito add-ins. Online influencer @AlphaFoodie, whose real name is Samira Kazan, is the creator of the hack.

@cookingwithamyy

Forgot where I saw this version, but 🤯 #sushi #wrap #sushihacks #foodhacks #learnontiktok #tiktoktips #fyp #foryoupage #fy

♬ The ryujin hip trend – Alon ✯

If you're planning on using the sushi hack, then you should use plain seaweed as seasoned nori is more brittle and tears apart easier. However, not everyone is a fan of the hack. While many find the sushi hack to be convenient, some find it controversial. Responding in the comments on the TikTok video, some online users have called the hack offensive to Japanese culture since it doesn't follow the traditional ways of rolling. However, supporters have pointed out that there are several different ways of rolling sushi. One person commented, "I'm Japanese, born and raised in JP and it's not disrespectful I think it's smart! We have sushi called Temaki-zushi and very similar to this." While not exactly the same, Temaki-zushi does feature a larger piece of nori rolled over the ingredients like a cone.

If you would like to roll sushi the traditional way but don't want to splurge on a mat, then the dish towel hack is just as convenient. The dish towel works the same as a bamboo sushi mat. Layer the dish towel with plastic wrap for both sanitation and also ease of use. The fabric from your dish towel may stick to your seaweed wrap otherwise. Likewise, the plastic wrap helps keep the moisture of your sushi roll. 

From there, you would roll the sushi as you would with a traditional mat. However, since the dish towel is more flimsy, you'll have to be careful not to make your sushi roll too flimsy. You will want a tight roll that properly packs in the ingredients — otherwise, it will fall apart. Rolling sushi can be notoriously difficult though. As Japanese chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa told Food & Wine, "The first time will never be perfect, but try two or three times and it will get easier."

If you want to try a hack that's a little quicker, similar to the tortilla hack above, then break out the ice cube tray. Line the tray with plastic wrap. From there, layer in your rice, sushi, and other ingredients before topping with a piece of seaweed. The ice cube method will give you bite-size pieces of sushi that you can pop in your mouth.