Sushi used to be salted fish with fermented rice, mainly as a way to preserve the fish. Sushi similar to today's form only became popular in the Edo period (1603 - 1868). It was in that period that sushi became a popular food in Japan. A short history of sushi can be found in Wikipedia.It is inaccurate to say that sushi became gourmet food. Rather, sushi just became popular, for all social classes in Japan. Of course there would be high class restaurants serving sushi, but for every place serving sushi as gourmet food, there are probably hundreds of shops selling them as day-to-day ordinary food. Not only you can find sushi as sort of "fast food" in Japan, but also in nearby countries like Taiwan. In where I live (Hong Kong), there is a chain store selling sushi at HKD3 (~0.4USD) each.As many answers have said, there is a wide range of sushi from cheap to expensive. The thing of note is that Japan has raised what was mainly a street food to a kind of art form. Another example is tempura where the very best tempura restaurants command high prices as well.

Certainly the quality of ingredients (shari and neta), the care and techniques used to prepare them, and the setting at top end sushiyas have gone way beyond street food. It is an intrinsically simple food (evidenced by humble beginnings) that has depth that captures the imagination (gourmet dining). The evolution occurred mainly after World War 2. sushi zushi onlineKey dimensions of sushi quality include the rice (shari), the fish (neta), the preparation of both rice and fish, the pairing of rice, fish, wasabi, and sauce, and the progression of sushi served. sushi to go acapulco telefonoA careful examination of these factors will make it clear why some sushi is cheap and some expensive. sushi cat 4 jugar

If you're talking about the internationally popular Edomae style of sushi, I'm not sure it's accurate to say it was ever a poor man's food so much as it was a working man's food. Going as far back as many decades ago, it was already expensive enough that it wasn't an everyday food, which it actually is now. genki sushi menu great killsYou can get cheap Edomae sushi easily, especially in Japan.I suspect there are three fundamental reasons you see very expensive sushi these days. jiro dreams of sushi orange county1) Now that people have been crafting it for centuries, the level of expertise is much higher than in the early days. youda sushi chef free online gameEach generation learns from and improves upon the previous one. sushi grade salmon in london

The same is true of any craft that a lot of people partake in. Many more people doing it = much more competition = much more refinement required to stand out. 2) Demand has dramatically increased. When Edomae sushi took hold outside of Japan, people all over the world (but mainly in the US, Europe, and China) wanted what Japan had to offer. 3) Supply has decreased even more dramatically, especially when you focus on the quality of ingredients. Cheap sushi is still plentiful, but it doesn't rely on quality produce.That's not the whole picture, though. As a result of the above factors, generally only the most skilled and distinguished craftsmen are drawn to the highest-quality produce still available (and the most talented procurers are actually biased toward supplying the most skilled and distinguished craftsmen), and the demand for meals made by top craftsmen using top produce is higher than ever, due to the proliferation of "foodie culture." On top of that, to keep the quality high they keep their operations manageable, some of the best places seat only a few people.

It's rare for a top sushi establishment to seat more than about a dozen. There is no way these places can serve all the people who want to eat at them, so they can set their prices high enough that only the most motivated diners (as established by international pricing for fine cuisine) are willing to pay them.Well, as said on Wikipedia, Japanese in 8th century were preserving fish in fermented rice, to eat it later. And they started to eat those preserved with their rice as well.You know that Japanese sea is way too long, and every Japanese could get fish and eat them. Yeah, it was cheap back days and not well known in other countries where they ate fish (but not as fresh and not with sea weeds).And when the world is now like a small village (as Globalization people like to say it), many cultures and many cuisines become international, like French, Indies, Lebanese, Mexican, and Japanese as well. And the fresh sea food isn't available too all. And some ingredient needs to be imported from other countries and need to get them in small amount of time, to use them as fresh.

Plus, some of sushi ingredients are expensive before sushi even globalized. Like Eel, caviar,  shrimp egg (ROE), salmon (200g of fresh salmon in my country is about 25$), tuna, mango (remember mango is not expensive, but is only available in africa, australia and some other countries and should be harvested when it is still under - ripen, so it will be good when it is delivered to your country) the same for avocado.All of those, and you should know that the chefs should be very skilled (about 3 to 5 years of experience) to give a well-made, tasty piece of sushi, and those should paid enough.Dining at Jiro - すきやばし次郎 SUKIYABASHI JIRO is a 3 Michelin starred restaurant, where they developed a technique about how eating sushi. Plus a great way to make and present your sushi, and what you should eat after a good meal of it (like ginger and green team to clean the fatty taste in your mouth).Here is Obama eating their.And here is some of their meals:And You can watch a documentary about them as well:I think it depends on which country are you in?