How do you eat sushi? The definitive answer:
Bummer: apparently, eating sushi three times a week still doesn’t make you an expert. It turns out that I (and probably you too) have been doing it completely wrong. Because how are you actually supposed to use your wasabi? And what should you do with the ginger you always get with it?
Whether you eat your sushi with or without chopsticks, at the table or preferably upside down, ultimately it’s up to you. But for everyone who wants to take their “sushi career” to a new level: here’s the sushi etiquette.
Dipping
Perhaps the most common “mistake”: dipping your sushi in soy sauce. In principle, sushi is already ready-to-eat. But if you do want to dip it, you have to do it the other way around. With nigiri, you only lightly dip the fish (or other topping) in the soy sauce. So you’re not supposed to drown your sushi in soy sauce and refill your sauce every two pieces (oops, guilty). And you’re definitely not supposed to drain your dish of soy sauce after eating (hello, FavorFlav editor-in-chief!).
One bite and done
In the US, I ate a so-called firecracker roll: shrimp tempura, crab stick, white fish, salmon, spicy mayo, masago, tobiko, avocado, spring onion with ponzu sauce. This sushi roll was so big. Delicious, but a total no-go if you ask a real sushi chef. Sushi is a one-bite dish, after all. Believe me: there was no way I could manage that with this firecracker roll. Instead of the big, beautiful sushi rolls with sometimes as many as ten ingredients, we should actually keep sushi pure and simple.
Sake
Sake is obviously part of the experience. In Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown Tokyo, the bad boy of food learned the etiquette of sake. Lesson 1: before taking a sip of your sake or beer, always say kanpai. That’s Japanese for cheers. Lesson 2: first make sure everyone has a full glass, then wait for one of your drinking companions to pour your drink. And while we’re on the subject of sake: in Japanese sushi restaurants, you’re not supposed to tip the sushi chef. Instead, you can treat him to a glass of sake.
Wasabi and ginger—where do they go?
Mixing your wasabi with soy sauce until it turns green is not the way to do it. If you really want to do it properly, place a small dab of wasabi on each piece of sushi. If you ask me, this is one rule that can be broken. Fiddly work, right? And by the time we’ve painstakingly added wasabi to our sushi piece by piece, we could have eaten three already. Dipped in soy sauce with wasabi, that is. With ginger, you’re specifically not supposed to pile it on top of your sushi. Ginger is meant to neutralize your palate. So you eat it between two different types of sushi.
With or without chopsticks?
This is good news for anyone who’s always struggling with chopsticks or shamelessly orders those kiddie chopsticks every time. You don’t have to. Traditionally, you eat sushi with your (clean!) hands. Pick up the sushi from the side, just as you would with chopsticks. But the risk of accidentally dropping it again is much smaller. Itadakimasu!
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