I thought I had posted this, but it looks like I didn’t. I almost never order sushi in a restaurant. I’m not a fan of Monster Truck Rolls (I don’t remember who shared that term at CH, but I’ve adopted it as my own), and prefer nigiri or even a nice chirashi. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a restaurant/sushi bar that seasons their shari enough. It seems like some places season the rice by opening a bottle of vinegar near the rice and call it good. It had gotten to the point that I thought that maybe my taste buds and memory were bad, because no restaurant shari was seasoned like my grandmother’s. Recently, though, I made some sushi for a friend who is a fairly recent immigrant from Japan, and she said my shari tasted like ‘back home’, and lamented that shari in the US was bland and flavorless.
Are the sushi restaurants in your area only offering monster truck rolls? No decent nigiri or sashimi selection (I prefer the latter)?
I don’t care for overloaded rolls with a myriad of ingredients and sauces, either. It’s just one big mush of random flavors.
Where are you located? There’s not a single decent sushi place around?
The vast majority of sushi joints near me cater to the Monster Truck Roll crowd. Deep fried, inside out, slathered in mayo and sriracha with avocado and fried who knows what. The kinds of people who make a thick slurry with shoyu and wasabi, or even trowel the wasabi directly on the sushi. The quality of the neta is lost on them, and may very well be second rate. Who can tell?
I’m very suspect of sushi where the owners or itamae are not Japanese, because IME the Koreans, Vietnamese, and Chinese-run sushi restaurants don’t make good shari. And there’s only one Japanese restaurant in my area run by Japanese.
The last really good sushi I had in a restaurant was several years ago in Costa Mesa (I think). It wasn’t cheap, but it was good. IIRC, I was there on either a Tuesday or Wednesday, and it was just a server, the itamae, and me for a good part of the evening. Then there’s the AYCE place a friend took me to in Sacramento, where the rice was unseasoned (bleah), but the fish was really high quality, so as long as I thought of it as sashimi on a rice ball, it was a pretty good experience.
Yeah, even I ain’t that picky. I even sometimes get Wegmans’ sushi IYCBI, bc I can’t afford to dine at high-end sushi temples often, and there are none in my vicinity. When I do, I appreciate everything about it, and it takes some time to go back to lowlier versions to be sure.
I’ve certainly had better shari than what is available to me here, but the fish quality is good, so - like you, I mostly order sashimi.
And I have zero qualms admitting that I joyfully engage in slushing up my tamari, unless I’m at a high-end sushi place. I also know it’s not actual wasabi that is served in most places 
Have you thought about making your own rolls? It’s actually quite easy and you can load as much or as little as you want.
Sunshine likes her California rolls with more crab (imitation crab) and less cucumber, so that is how I make them. I like more avocado in mine, so I adjust accordingly.
For Wasabi, I purchase it in powder form and just mix up what I need. Pour some into a small bowl, mix with a little water and enjoy!
I luv California rolls and used to get them with wasabi and pickled ginger at the Safeway deli. Sadly, they don’t sell it anymore.
What do you use for rice?
Nah. I have access to pretty decent sushi, and can get a much greater variety of fish for sashimi, nigiri and rolls if I get takeout 
Nishiki Rice… I purchase it off of ebay in 15 pound bags.
After I make the rice (while it is hot) I add a rice vinegar, sugar and salt mixture and distribute it evenly (really mix it in). Once cool, I’ll refrigerate it a little just to lower the temperature, then its ready to make sushi rolls…
My rice vinegar mixture recipe is…
1/2 cup of rice vinegar
3 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
I (carefully) heat it in the microwave and stir with an oven mitt on. I’ve been burned when it flared up, once… lesson learned
This amount is for a full batch in my rice cooker. Uncooked rice is about 2.5 cups. I don’t really know how much rice there is in the rice cooker after it is cooked.
I have a bunch of other tips and tricks I have learned from trial and error, let me know if you would like to hear them.
So does my girlfriend…
Looks good. It appears your nori is on the inside… how come?
That’s pretty common nowadays. I want to say they are futomaki but my ignorance may be revealing itself.
I see both outside and inside Nori California rolls around here. I think it’s just a preference. I suspect biting into a roll with the Nori on the inside is easier for people with caps or other dental issues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/s/fyJfaGKm0Z
@christinam, I wasn’t familiar with the term uramaki for this type.
Uramaki- invented in Vancouver, not the USA 
Futomaki are the big rolls with many ingredients inside, usually including egg, spinach, carrot, mushrooms, etc.
Yes, you are correct the nori is on the inside and rice and white sesame seeds on the outside.
For my girlfriend, it is personal preference… that example is an “Outside Roll” which is Sunshine’s favorite for California rolls. It is a bit easier (for me) to make.
I will make ahi tuna sushi as an inside roll.
Which, I believe, goes by “hosomaki” (thin roll), as opposed to “futomaki” (fat roll).
Ho, so that’s how you maki them! 
I’ll see myself out now…
It sounds like you’re in something of a sushi desert.
For good sushi, yes. Then again, IMO, good sushi is pretty hard to come by anywhere in the US, at least relative to the places that do the mega roll thing.
I’m in Manhattan, so there’s no shortage of sushi at all levels, from supermarket to Masa.
Ura maki were thought by early sushi bars (ca. 1980s) to be more acceptable to non-Japanese clientele who might balk at seeing food wrapped in seaweed, so they started hiding it on the inside. It’s a parlor trick.
