Quick answer: Sushi began in Southeast Asia as a way to preserve fish in fermented rice, then spread to China and Japan. In Japan it changed over the centuries until vinegar replaced fermentation, and in the 1800s street stalls in Edo (now Tokyo) began selling nigiri, the fast, fresh style most people think of as sushi today. Sushi is hugely popular around the world today, and is usually associated with modern fine dining. Yet sushi’s earliest, extremely humble origins might
