maki vs. sushi

maki vs. sushi: What's the difference?

Sushi refers to food made with cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar and shaped into bite-sized portions. Maki is a type of sushi that is made by rolling the rice around strips of vegetables or raw fish and then slicing the resulting tube into bite-sized pieces. It comes from the Japanese word maku "to roll up."

maki

noun

Japanese Cooking.

  1. cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, formed around strips of vegetable or raw fish into a cylindrical seaweed-wrapped roll that is sliced into bite-size pieces.

sushi

noun

Japanese Cooking.

  1. cold boiled rice moistened with rice vinegar, usually shaped into bite-size pieces and topped with raw seafood (nigiri ), formed around strips of vegetable or raw fish into a cylindrical seaweed-wrapped roll that is sliced into bite-size pieces (maki ), or wrapped together with strips of vegetable or raw fish in a sheet of dried seaweed and rolled into a cone shape (temaki ).