Sushi Etiquette: DOs and DON'Ts | FoodbeastFoodbeast

Sushi Etiquette: DOs and DON’Ts

January 28, 2012 // 10:31 am // By: Lucia Phan

So I’ve been eating sushi wrong for years, and for the most part, I know I’m in the wrong. There’s lots of things that you shouldn’t do, but hey, who am I to break the cycle even though the “wrong” way of eating makes it taste better in my mind’s eye?

I mean I don’t want to look like a N00b, but I don’t want to sacrifice taste for acting kosher either. I eat my ginger with my sushi pieces and I stir wasabi in my soy sauce because I like to blend the flavors, and this is America, so I hope I don’t get the stink eye for it.

But if you desire to make the great leap to be “proper” please feel free to help yourself:

[via good.is]

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Lucia Phan has a Bachelors Degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Food & City Culture and Environmental Economics. She is the founder of Banana Slug Edibles, where she bakes specialty cakes and cupcakes for patients in Orange County & Los Angeles. In her free time she likes to collect recipes and will forever be searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe known to man.

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In this article: etiquette • Sushi

Ross

Eating sushi has as many rules as eating hamburgers, Americans are just obsessed with the idea of sushi rules.
Ross A Christensen Author of Sushi A to Z
http://www.bradyskorner.blogspot.com/ Ces

This was great. OOps to rubbing the sticks together AND mixing my wasabi.
http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

“but I don’t want to sacrifice taste for acting kosher either. I eat my
ginger with my sushi pieces and I stir wasabi in my soy sauce because I
like to blend the flavors” – key phrase being “blending flavors.” You are missing out on the wonderful subtle flavors of the fish by overwhelming them with cheap thrills.

Why bother eating sushi at all if you just want to taste ginger and horseradish?

Jesicarbt

Because that’s how they LIKE it? God I hate food snobs. I will enjoy my food however I enjoy it, and you do things your way, mmkay?
Blop

I would take great pleasure in cutting my spaghetti or biting my sushi in half right in front of you.
Jesicarbt said it all : food snob. Look at you plate and PLEASE shut it.

http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

Would you put ketchup on a perfectly-cooked steak without even trying the steak first?

Honestly, I don’t give a shit how anyone else eats their sushi. However, I believe that people who are doing these things haven’t tried it the way it was intended, and are missing out on the pleasure of how the food is supposed to taste as a result.

And honestly I don’t see what’s wrong with biting a piece of sushi in half, either, or cutting spaghetti or whatever.

I’m not a food snob, I just appreciate the work that goes into preparing food and wish that other people would at least try it the way it’s intended rather than doing things based on how they “like it.”

But hey, feel free to keep on putting words in other peoples’ mouths based on wanting to remain fucking ignorant.

Anonymous

It may not be proper etiquette, but I often bite my sushi in half. This is because despite the fact that my hubs often calls me a big-mouth, it is actually quite small, and stuffing the whole piece of sushi in at once will make me look like a chipmunk. I can’t chew that much without looking gross. I try to be as clean as possible about it, though.
babygirl

you know the funny thing about my rubbing my chopsticks together??? I have a Japanese friend, and I learned that from HER?!?!? yikes…and she told me not to lay my sticks on my plate as I eat, to place them across a little “rest” they provide at the restaurant we go to…she says that putting them on the plate has something to do with the dead (can’t remember exactly)….
SumAnon

Lived in Japan. Rubbed the splinters out of chopsticks all the time. It’s rude, but if you get poor quality chopsticks, whose fault is is?
http://twitter.com/harukaliza Lisa U

These rules are meant to be followed in nice sushi restaurants in Japan (think 5 star French restaurant). Sushi restaurants that give you cheap, splintery chopsticks aren’t the kind of restaurants that deserve that kind of respect. A nice sushi restaurant will give you nice chopsticks to use. Also, a nice sushi restaurant will pre-flavor the sushi with wasabi and soy sauce (unless you ask for it without wasabi).
Even in nice sushi places in Japan, most people won’t say anything if you don’t follow the rules, but you’d still look like a jerk. It’s analogous to chewing with your mouth open with elbows on the table.
rizraz

buy the sushi chef a beer…KAMPAI!!!….your food will surely be better