What sushi should you avoid? What popular drink should you stay away from when eating sushi?
What's something you should never say to a sushi chef?
Here are a few things you should know about before eating sushi again!
You probably didn't realize it, but wielding a pair of chopsticks in the
wrong way can be considered rude, unsanitary, or even invoke bad luck.
First, the worst offenders. Sticking your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is a
bad idea. According to FluentU, this is done at Japanese funerals as an offering to the dead,
and is said to bring bad luck. It's better to leave the chopsticks next to the bowl.
Second, passing food from chopstick to chopstick is also symbolic of a funeral ritual,
according to Japan Talk. To do so with food is considered a huge taboo.
To avoid appearing rude, you shouldn't spear food with a single chopstick,
use a chopstick as a knife, place your chopsticks across a bowl or
plate – unless you're finished eating – or gesture or point with your chopsticks.
For sanitary reasons, you'll also want to flip your chopsticks around to use
the ends that you haven't been eating with if you're taking food from a shared dish.
Most wasabi lovers are likely guilty of this one: To get an extra kick with your sushi,
you take that blob of wasabi and dump it directly into the soy sauce dish.
A few stirs of the chopstick, and you've got one potent mixture in that tiny bowl.
But you're actually doing your sushi a disservice with this move.
You don't have to take our word for it — famed chef Masaharu Morimoto
says this is a big sushi don't. He told Open Table:
"Do not put wasabi directly into your soy sauce.
The sushi chef has already placed the proper amount of wasabi for the fish in nigiri."
And spoiler alert: A lot of so-called wasabi
is really just a mixture of horseradish, mustard, and green food coloring,
so that should also make you think twice before overpowering your sauce with it.
It's no secret that we're completely addicted to salt, and it's a real problem in modern diets,
according to Healthline. Soy sauce, with all its glorious umami flavor,
is even tastier than plain ol' salt. So why wouldn't we want to drench our sushi in it?
As sushi chef Seki explained to Business Insider:
"The etiquette of using soy sauce is not to ruin the balance of flavors by
over dipping. Normally, chefs try to give you the perfect balance
to enhance the flavors of the fish and the texture of the rice, so trust them."
He advises that if you must dip a sushi roll in soy sauce,
do so by dipping the nori side instead of the cut end where the rice will act as a sponge.
When it comes to nigiri, the same rules apply. Sushi chef Naomichi Yasuda laid out the sushi
do's and don'ts, and he explained that to avoid oversaturation, you should always dip the nigiri
fish-side down into the soy sauce, which is the opposite of what this person is about to do.
He also has one more very important piece of advice:
Don't shake the soy sauce off your nigiri after dipping. Yasuda likened this to — how should we
put this delicately? — what a man does when he finishes his business in the men's room.
Probably not the image you want to invoke at the sushi bar. Um, yeah, definitely not.
Yes, that bright pink – sometimes yellowish – pickled ginger that's served alongside your
sushi is tasty, but please don't put it on your sushi. That's not what it's there for.
Aside from ruining the carefully crafted flavor profile of your meal, sushi chef Naomichi
Yasuda explained to Munchies that putting ginger on your sushi is also rude. He said:
"Sometimes [...] people pick up the ginger to put on the sushi to eat together,
but this is very much bad manners."
"You don't put ginger on the fish. It's to clear the palate between pieces. Not drown it out."
As good as it is, pickled ginger is meant to be a palate cleanser,
not a sushi garnish. It's meant to eat between bites of different fish. End of story.
We get it — cramming an entire piece of sushi into your mouth can prove to be a bit
challenging. But it's one of those sushi-eating
"do's" that you've just got to come to terms with, for a couple reasons.
According to chef Masaharu Morimoto, eating nigiri — a piece of fish pressed over a mound
of rice — should be done in one bite. He told OpenTable it's the only way to:
"Enjoy the perfect harmony of fish, rice, and wasabi.
If you bite halfway, the balance will be lost."
"Delicious." "You like it?"
"Very much."
"Thank you very much."
"Thank you."
That's because the cut of fish is actually portioned out for that particular piece of sushi,
and as Japan Today notes, it's important to experience
all of those carefully balanced portions and flavors together at once.
As with many sushi-eating etiquette tips,
the consequence of a wrong move isn't just a sacrifice in flavor. Often you're at risk
of insulting the chef, and that's the other reason you should eat your sushi in one bite.
You've got two options when it comes to handling sushi: chopsticks or fingers. But which do you
choose? While most of us might be inclined to go right for the chopsticks, Trevor Corson,
author of The Story of Sushi, explained why nigiri should be eaten with your hands. He said:
"[This] allows the chef to pack the pieces of sushi together more loosely."
If you're not adept at using chopsticks,
attempting to pick up a loosely packed rice ball will end in disaster.
Corson warns that chefs may overcorrect for this mess by overpacking the sushi.
But if a chef trusts that you will handle his creation with care, Corson said:
"Using your hands […] allows for an incredible experience where the rice falls apart
and sort of mixes with the fish in your mouth."
For what it's worth, Japan Today concedes that there is no "proper" way to eat sushi,
and says there isn't a clear winner between the two. So do what feels right for you,
but if you do use chopsticks for nigiri, proceed with caution.
Sushi chef Jesse Ito told Billy Penn that diners who leave their nigiri to
sit for any length of time are one of his biggest pet peeves. He said:
"Temperature control is very important."
That's because the made-to-order rice is served at different temperatures for different menu items,
and once that temperature — and therefore texture — is out of whack, all bets are off.
MasterChef finalist chef Andrew Kojima echoed the same sentiment to The Independent,
saying the temperature of the rice is important to the overall flavor of the bite. He said:
"Sushi rice is meant to be warm and soft when it is freshly prepared,
not cold and hard. It's warmth takes the edge off the fish (which
should be in the fridge!) so that you can detect the flavor of the fish."
In other words, if you want to linger, do it in the bar
before you sit down for dinner. Sushi deserves your immediate attention.
Using the word "fishy" to describe the fish is also a surefire way to insult the chef.
Even if you don't mean it negatively, it's still a nonstarter,
as no chef wants to hear that particular adjective uttered in their sushi bar.
"What's the problem?"
"Smells like fish in here."
Chef Jesse Ito explains why it's such a derogatory term:
"I know what people mean. A stronger flavor, or more gamey. Everyone uses it for mackerel.
But the word has a very negative connotation to it, for fish that's rotten or bad.
My fish is as fresh as it can be. It's a huge insult."
Important reminder for your next sushi experience: Skip the mackerel!
It's no secret that brown rice is better for you than white rice.
It's a whole grain with more nutrients, fiber and antioxidants.
However, according to NPR, there are two reasons
why the whole grain just doesn't work as a sushi ingredient. For one thing — and
this is a big factor — the flavor isn't compatible with other sushi ingredients.
The hearty taste of brown rice can overpower the more subtle taste of the fish. Given that sushi
is all about a just-right balance of flavors, you can see how earthy rice would throw things off.
Second — and this is just as important as flavor — the texture is all wrong. Ole Mouritsen,
biophysicist and co-author of "Mouthfeel," told NPR:
"Brown and long-grain rice are a disaster for sushi.
Rice and fish are supposed to melt [in your mouth] together.
If you're using brown rice, the fish is gone and the brown rice is still chew, chew, chew."
If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that sushi should definitely not be chewy.
"What's that?"
"Sushi."
"Sushi?"
You belly up to the sushi bar and it's obviously time for sake bombs, right? Wrong.
Although you probably see plenty of diners sipping on sake while noshing on nigiri,
it's not keeping in line with Japanese tradition. Joshua Rolnick,
beverage director at NYC sushi spot Neta, told VinePair:
"Traditionally in Japan, sake wasn't paired with any rice dishes.
Once the rice dish hit the table, the sake went away."
The reason for skipping the sake with sushi makes a lot of sense.
Rolnick says it's simply a case of it being too much of a good thing.
That's because sake is brewed from rice, and if you're drinking rice
and eating rice, you're going to fill up too fast.
So, what kind of booze is okay to drink with sushi? Beer and
wine – the type of wine made of grapes, not rice.
When a sushi craving strikes, it's hard to ignore.
The thought of that fresh, perfectly cut fish, the still-warm rice that's been seasoned just right,
and the nori that crackles just slightly as you bite into it? There's nothing better.
However, if you think you're going to come
anywhere close to that nirvana with grocery store sushi, you've got another thing coming.
Buzzfeed asked sushi chef Yoya Takahashi to taste grocery and convenience store sushi to
see how it stacked up against the real deal. Let's just say there were no rave reviews.
7-Eleven's California roll was "too mushy."
Trader Joe's offering had a "bad shrimp smell" and Takahashi could only manage to utter:
"Wow ... I literally can't say anything."
Whole Foods sushi fared a bit better. Though he did liken the wasabi to Play-Doh,
he said the sushi was "kinda pretty nice" and "kinda fresh."
After noticing the pink juice running out of Walgreen's fish,
a sign it had been frozen, Takahashi was reluctant to try its sushi,
but conceded that it was "kinda nice quality frozen tuna."
Who better to get sushi-eating advice from than Anthony Bourdain, the authority on all things
food, drink, and culture? It's safe to say he picked up a few etiquette tips in his travels.
Of course, as with any advice Bourdain ever dished out, it comes with some color.
According to the notoriously salty chef, there are six rules to abide by, noted by Food & Wine.
First, thou shalt not make slurry of your wasabi and soy,
or dip your sushi rice side down into that soy sauce. He said:
"Unless you want to watch your rice [to] crumble and disintegrate into an
unholy mess in the wasabi slurry that you probably already made."
"Oh sushi? I practically live off the stuff."
Sushi with mayo as an ingredient? Don't even think about it. Bourdain told Food & Wine:
"Don't get me wrong, I love mayo. Tuna salad on white bread is our version of Edo-style sushi.
But it belongs nowhere near raw fish."
Also off the table? California rolls.
Lastly, pay attention to the atmosphere if you're looking for a great sushi experience. Uh,
yeah, we're pretty sure he wasn't talking about this.
And collaboration is key, too. Bourdain said:
"A great sushi bar is like the perfect Irish pub. You make decisions with your sushi chef,
with your bartender, over the course of the night, and you leave feeling extremely well cared for."
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