BERKELEY, Calif. (Nov. 8) -- It was the roll of a lifetime.
Hundreds of amateur sushi chefs at the University of California, Berkeley, got their hands fishy Sunday as they assembled a 330-foot California roll. Consul-General of Japan Yasumasa Nagamine proclaimed the roll a world record.
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D. Ross Cameron, Contra Costa Times/MCT
Amy Yee, left, and Andrew Wilson wet down seaweed as they work to construct a 330-foot-long California sushi roll Sunday in Berkeley, Calif.
Organizers lined up dozens of 6-foot tables that were manned by volunteer students and campus employees and created 330 feet of California roll, complete with avocado, cucumber and imitationcrab meat.
At the end of the roll, in a nod to the school's scores of vegetarians, an additional 15 feet of vegetarian California roll substituted tofu for the meat.
University spokeswoman Kathleen Maclay said Sunday's rice-and-seaweed monstrosity is the largest of its kind ever rolled, surpassing a 300-foot California roll made in Hawaii in 2001.
Two hundred pounds of rice, 80 pounds of avocado, 80 pounds of cucumber and 180 pounds of fish were used.
The first table to begin rolling all the ingredients together was staffed by members of the Japanese Graduate & Researchers Society, who dressed in ninja costumes largely assembled from thrift stores.
"Ninja mask: a dollar fifty. Plastic ninja sword: a dollar fifty. Making the world's longest California roll: priceless," Ph.D. graduate Eri Takahashi told the Oakland Tribune.
The stunt was part of a series of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the school's Center for Japanese Studies.
The Oakland Tribune contributed to this story.
