Norway sets the Sushi Way in China

Sushi may be a Japanese dish, but that didn’t stop a team of Norwegian chefs from creating the world’s largest sushi mosaic, at their country’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. As China celebrated its ten millionth imported Norwegian salmon, last week, Norway decided the creation of a giant sushi mosaic would be a great way to recognize the milestone. In  celebration  of having  set  such a high benchmark  the Norwegian Seafood Export Council  gathered 8,374 pieces of Sushi  which included  sea foods like cod ,mackerel, prawns and primarily salmon . The pieces were arranged to depict  the intertwined  Norwegian and Chinese flags.

The mosaic  used 120 Kg of rice and 65 Kilos of Norwegian Salmon  to arrange the depiction.  The mosaic covered20.13 m² . The entire task took  6 hours and 15 minutes to get completed.

Relations between China and Norway have been a bit tense since a Norwegian committee  awarded  the Nobel peace  Prize 2010 to Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, on October 8. By emphasizing on the importance of   salmon   in the diplomatic relations between the two nations, Norway hopes to come to better terms with  China. It was a big day for both Norway and China. This meant to improve ties between the two   nations  and a lot depended on the  salmon  trade.

In China, most Norwegian Salmon is eaten as sushi or sashimi, so creating a record-breaking sushi mosaic accords with Chinese consumers’ favorite way of enjoying Norwegian Salmon. The bilateral relationship was also prominently displayed in the sushi mosaic, which integrated the national flags of Norway and China in a creative design. The World Expo in Shanghai is the largest Expo ever held. As a sponsor of the Norwegian Pavilion, the NSEC came up with the idea of setting a new world record for the world’s largest sushi mosaic as a way of celebrating the arrival of Norwegian Salmon no. 10,000,000 to China. The successful setting of the new Guinness World Record for the world’s largest sushi mosaic represents a new milestone for the NSEC since its establishment in China in 1998.

The  Largest sushi mosaic measured an area of  20.13 square meters and  consisted of 8374 pieces of Sushi was set by Norwegian Seafood Export Council at the Shanghai Expo, Shanghai, China on October 23, 2010.