The basic idea behind the preparation of sushi, a well-known Japanese dish, is the practice of preserving fish with salt and fermenting with rice, a process that can be traced back to seafood-preserving methods used in Southeast Asia, where countries have a long history of rice cultivation. It originated during the Tang Dynasty in China, though modern Japanese sushi evolved to have little resemblance to this original Chinese food. Today's dish internationally known as "sushi" is a fast food invented by Hanaya Yohei (1799 - 1858) at the end of Edo period in today's Tokyo. People in Tokyo were living in haste even over one hundred years ago. The sushi invented by Hanaya was not fermented and could be eaten by hands (or using a bamboo toothpick). It was an early form of fast food that could be eaten at a road side or in a theater.
