By DCist Contributor Josh Kramer

Who needs a cellphone camera when you have a pen and paper? Drawn to Flavor highlights local dishes and drinks in vivid watercolor. In these posts, Illustrator and journalist Josh Kramer tries to honor all the energy and creativity that goes into making food beautiful and delicious.

Sushi rolls are great. But can we make them bigger? The answer is the Japanese hand roll. Maki Shop (1533 14th Street NW) makes rolls that are four and a half inches long and two inches wide. Both Maki Shop and Buredo, a shop with larger rolls in McPherson Square, opened recently, seemingly out of nowhere. But as often the case with D.C. food trends, there are already shops like this in New York and L.A.

The shop itself is little more than a point of sale for these pre-made rolls wrapped in plastic. They come in a variety of styles, ranging from traditional, like tuna and yellowtail, to more “Asian fusion” types like pork shoulder and beef short rib. In order to eat one, you peel off the outer later, then unseal the seaweed nori and roll the thing back and forth to surround the sushi rice. It doesn’t have the perfectly cut face of a sushi roll; it looks more like an miniature sushi burrito that’s open on the top and bottom.

Surprisingly, the condiments are the stars here. The soy sauce comes in convenient (and, I daresay, cute) little plastic fish capsules with resealable caps. The sauces, including wasabi mayo, sriracha mayo and especially the ginger BBQ sauce, are interesting and flavorful.

I tried the veggie, yuzu zucchini, beef short rib, and spicy tuna rolls. They were all crunchy, balanced, and enjoyable. I would recommend getting two. The spicy tuna was the standout with tuna sashimi, cucumber, daikon radish, scallion, sesame seeds, and sriracha. When it comes to experimenting with sushi, I’m for it. On my wishlist for future trends to reach D.C.: micro sushi.

Illustration by Josh Kramer.