Silly me! I naively revealed my ignorance this weekend to a friend and sushi connoisseur who had just returned from a vacation in Hawaii. Talk about an encyclopedia! He apparently ate little else while visiting the islands. I learned from him that sushi is a whole category of food, one that includes not only raw fish on rice with seaweed (and it's not just any old rice, either, but specially prepared rice), but also cooked fish on rice with seaweed and vegetables on rice with seaweed.
And even, God help us, Spam on rice with seaweed. No kidding! The man was totally serious. He said he'd eaten Spam sushi for breakfast several times during his stay and enjoyed it immensely. There's even a special Hawaiian name for this delicacy, although I've forgotten what he called it. Boy, and I thought some weird stuff came out of MY kitchen . . .