How to eat sushi

January 12, 2010 2:35 PM

An illustrated primer
posted by pollex (62 comments total)

"Don't: Rub your chopsticks together to remove splinters ( It's rude; a good sushi bar would never offer chopsticks of such low quality.)."

But what if I'm not at a good sushi bar? Is there a pretense I must keep up lest the insulted conveyor belt be rerouted to skip me?
posted by redsparkler at 2:42 PM on January 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

Except for not giving money directly to the chef virtually every person at every place I've ever eaten sushi regularly does most of the don'ts. I was part of a group of people who ate at a different sushi restaurant in Chicago every Friday for a couple years so I've got a pretty good size data sample.

I'm perfectly open to the idea that we were all uncouth barbarians. But I'm going to declare that if you do most of those don't at a Chicago sushi place no one will be horrified.
posted by Babblesort at 2:44 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

But what if I'm not at a good sushi bar?

The chopsticks are probably the least of your worries.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:45 PM on January 12, 2010 [9 favorites]

Domo arigato.
posted by bearwife at 2:49 PM on January 12, 2010

Unless I'm enjoying Sushi with the Imperial Family, I will continue to dip my sushi in that wasabi/soy sauce concoction I make. My favorite sushi place plays hits of the 70's overhead, and I'm pretty sure that the presence of Kiss, Carl Douglas and Terry Jacks negates some of the sushi formality.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 2:51 PM on January 12, 2010 [6 favorites]

I always thought that you were supposed to add the wasabi to the soy sauce. I'm pretty sure that's what my Japanese friend did. There is every possibility that he's an uncouth slob though. In any case, this practice has never got me into a fight and I will continue with my barbaric practice.
posted by jonesor at 2:56 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

My born-in-Japan Japanese friends do the wasabi/soy sauce thing. It can't be that big of a deal, right?
posted by naju at 2:56 PM on January 12, 2010

The thing is, I'm the one eating it. If I were to go to a very, very fine sushi establishment in Japan, I would certainly do my best to adhere to proper etiquette rules, the same way I play up the social table niceties when I'm dining at the Ritz in London. But if I'm eating sushi in the States? I'm gonna make myself a nice soy sauce and wasabi slurry and get the trademark running nose because I like me some HOT.
posted by Never teh Bride at 2:57 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not as informative as Sushi: The Japanese Tradition. But then, what is?
posted by darksasami at 2:59 PM on January 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

How To Eat Sushi (Japan Culture Lab, SLYT).
posted by Dipsomaniac at 3:00 PM on January 12, 2010

Oh, for Pete's sake.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 3:00 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

When I saw the url "swiss-miss.com", I momentarily hoped it would be an illustrated primer to drinking hot chocolate (especially the instant powdered stuff). Because we could really use one.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:02 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

The chef who taught the sushi-making course I took told us that eating sushi with chopsticks wasn't a capital crime, but it would be okay to lightly smack the offender with a fresh fish.

Putting wasabi in the soy sauce, however, meant execution. It's almost as bad as not using the gari properly.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 3:09 PM on January 12, 2010

Sushi with hands. Wasabi in sauce. Be polite.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:20 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's a cool illustration showing the basics of behaving well in a sushi place, but I saw it in a book 5-7 years ago actually at my local sushi place.

It's kind of a bummer the attribution was lost along the way, the whole book is comic book style like this and breaks each sort of "rule" down.
posted by mathowie at 3:21 PM on January 12, 2010

Poison, poison, poison, poison, poison... ahh, tasty fish.
posted by Ratio at 3:22 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Somebody really ought to buy Roger Ebert an account here. I've seen five or six things here on the blue that seem to spring directly from his tweets. (this is observation, not accusation)
posted by boo_radley at 3:24 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

What about asking for a fork and to have the fish a bit more well done?
posted by qvantamon at 3:24 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I adhere to all of these rules, though I don't mind when (not if) my dining companions don't. Except when my dad puts the ginger on the sushi *face fault*.
posted by cmoj at 3:25 PM on January 12, 2010

If you find yourself in Seattle and you like sushi, try to visit Mashiko. Their fish is super tasty, perhaps the best in the city, and they offer a special "real" wasabi that they remind you not to put into the soy. It's a wasabi with less heat and more flavor, and making a soup from it with soy would just overwhelm it. They're also friendly to the gluten-intolerant, carrying wheat-free tamari. It was the first sushi joint I've been to that serves sake in the square, wooden masu cups, with a little overflow poured into a dish underneath.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:26 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

I think it's safe to dismiss most Japanese etiquette touted by a "swiss designer gone nyc". The sushi chef at the very schmancy sushi restaurant I waited at regularly made "wasabi soup" and dipped his nigri rice-first. That being said, you'd get chopsticks rammed up your nose if you did the hungry-whitey-knife-sharpening thing with them, even if with the purest intentions. I always did it under the table.
posted by Juicy Avenger at 3:26 PM on January 12, 2010

Sushi fans may enjoy Nick Tosches' long article on the subject for Vanity Fair.
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:28 PM on January 12, 2010

I'm sorry but if I pay for the food, I'll dip it in whatever I want. And i always rub my chop sticks together, not because they have splinters, I'm just fidgety. If they want me to leave my utensils alone they can provide me with crayons or beer.
posted by doctor_negative at 3:31 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

doctor_negative: "And i always rub my chop sticks together, not because they have splinters, I'm just fidgety."

Same here. It's more of a ritual than anything else. I'm not concerned about splinters in the least.
posted by brundlefly at 3:34 PM on January 12, 2010

I like to put pickled ginger in with the green tea, always have. My wife thinks I'm crazy.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:40 PM on January 12, 2010

How to eat Mercury: An Annotated Primer
posted by xod at 3:44 PM on January 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

I never rubbed chopsticks together until I got a splinter from some cheap ones (at a not-terrible restaurant). If it's such bad manners, why not use plastic or lacquered chopsticks that don't make splinters? You can also wash them with the rest of the dishes and be a little greener.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:50 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Give me bamboo chopsticks and I won't rub them. Give me those cheap-ass balsa chopsticks, though, and I'm liable to start a fire.

And I never used to put wasabi in soy sauce, until I went to Japan and picked up the technique from observation.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:57 PM on January 12, 2010

There's a place in Honolulu run by a bona-fide sushi nazi. You don't order at the sushi bar -- you accept whatever is offered to you, generally accompanied by a short lecture on whichever subset of the sushi code of etiquette applies to the particular sample on your plate. Sometimes shoyu is appropriate, sometimes not. I was told, for example, "one dip in shoyu, then eat in one bite." I accepted the plate, dipped once and without even thinking about it, bit the thing in half.

From across the room I hear the chef yelling at me: "ONE BITE! ONE BITE!"

And yes, it is indeed fantastically good sushi.
posted by lex mercatoria at 4:02 PM on January 12, 2010 [5 favorites]

If you find yourself in Seattle and you like sushi, try to visit Mashiko.

Looks like a great steer. Thanks!
posted by bearwife at 4:04 PM on January 12, 2010

What's wrong with dipping rice-first?
posted by mullacc at 4:06 PM on January 12, 2010

What's wrong with dipping rice-first?

The rice soaks up so much soy flavor that you mask the delicate flavor of the fish.

This is less of a concern when the quality of sushi is poor.
posted by scrutiny at 4:11 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

25 years going to the same sushi bar. I watched the children of the chef/owner grow up. Matt Ito has chartered a limo and taken us to NYC to show his appreciation for our loyalty and business. I consider him my friend. It's omakase for us every time. When the Internet took off I'd see these never/always things, and one day I asked him. He was pretty 'meh' about the whole thing. He's exceedingly polite, and maybe he's not letting on, but I get the impression it does not bother him. The one thing that he did comment on was chopsticks left in a bowl, which apparently has something to do with Japanese funeral customs.
posted by fixedgear at 4:13 PM on January 12, 2010

"And i always rub my chop sticks together, not because they have splinters, I'm just fidgety."

I do it because Deckard did it, and I'm a shameless poseur.
posted by mikelieman at 4:16 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

But that was noodles, not sushi, IIRC. So there's probably another list somewhere for that.
posted by mikelieman at 4:17 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't understand the "eat it in one bite" rule. Most of the time when I've had sushi the pieces are too big for me to fit in my mouth without cramming it in, which is unpleasant at best. But I also do the wasabi / soy sauce mixture and I don't like raw fish and I've even enjoyed Philadelphia rolls, so I am a savage and should be ignored.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:26 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sushi etiquette belongs in the exact same place as french-fry/chips/pommes frites etiquette: Ketchup? Malt vinegar? Mayonaise? Curry sauce? Cheese? Chili? Truffle oil? Fingers? Forkfuls? Plates? Papers? Cones? Thin? Thick? Waffle? Steak?

Yes. Yes. Yes to all of these things. Wrapping "etiquette" around this stuff is for people who suck at eating but who are very good at being dicks about rules.

(Fingers, tiny dab of wasabi depending on the fish, a touch in the soy sauce rice-first - and I love the adventure of omakase and cleanse after wasabi with the ginger.)
posted by abulafa at 4:29 PM on January 12, 2010 [5 favorites]

for kicks I checked out the yelp page for the place I mentioned upthread, and I see I'm not the only one to get the "sushi nazi" treatment.
posted by lex mercatoria at 4:30 PM on January 12, 2010

what if the fish is on the inside. How do you avoid the rice when adding soy sauce?!

[or does this only apply for coastally-hip, severe definitions of "sushi"? we're a little liberal with the term here in land-lockedia]
posted by rubah at 4:37 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I call bullshit on this list.

Generally.
posted by jabberjaw at 4:41 PM on January 12, 2010

I'll stop biting my sushi in half when the pieces become small enough for me to eat whole without rice spewing from my little mouth.
posted by _paegan_ at 5:04 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

What's wrong with dipping rice-first?

In my experience, soy drenched rice starts making the piece fall apart before I can get it into my mouth (then again, I'm two-biting it anyway).
posted by _paegan_ at 5:06 PM on January 12, 2010

Um. I too call bullshit. This is another one of those half-assed attempts at meme starting.

I was just ate sushi last Thursday in San Francisco with about two dozen native Japanese people and they all pretty much did every one of these "OMFG DON'T DO THIS!" stuff.
posted by tkchrist at 5:29 PM on January 12, 2010

I worked in a sushi bar for 3 years. I'm sitting here in front of my computer trying to re-enact what I do with the wasabi and I am pretty sure I put it in the soya but it has been 18 years since I've had sushi...so maybe I've forgotten. I can still taste the wasabi to this day, however.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:48 PM on January 12, 2010

In other words... this form of eating is akin to the formal dining rules exist for a given culture:

Depending on the restaurant, certain etiquette may be requested. The basic one we all know is "No shirt, no shoes, no service." As the place gets fancier, so do the rules.

In other words, this is a guide on how to eat sushi if you are at a place that has a chef that insists on those rules.

Considering this the only correct way to eat sushi is bullshit.
posted by linux at 5:51 PM on January 12, 2010

If you find yourself in Seattle and you like sushi, try to visit Mashiko.

Looks like a great steer. Thanks!
posted by bearwife at 4:04 PM on January 12 [+] [!]

I'm not sure I'd trust a sushi restaurant shaped like a cow, to be honest.
posted by ooga_booga at 6:02 PM on January 12, 2010

I don't personally like to mix wasabi with the soy sauce because it overwhelms the taste of the fish, like drowning the flavor of good pasta in marinara. A little dab here and there is plenty for my taste. Also, dunking sushi into soy sauce rice-down usually results in the rice disintegrating into many tiny little starch pellets, and trying to fish those things out individually with chopsticks is no fun at all.

Of course, I rarely eat sushi (a habit I wish to change) and the closest I get to Japanese culture is through their video games.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 6:35 PM on January 12, 2010

My husband works for a Japanese-owned company, with many native Japanese workers, and they showed him the wasabi-in-the-soy trick, and he showed me, and we've both done it ever since. Was this a cruel joke, or are things maybe not as cut and dried as this illustration makes them out to be?
posted by TochterAusElysium at 6:37 PM on January 12, 2010

P.S. Kisaku for best omakase in Seattle.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 6:38 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

What the hell is with the veritable bowl of soy sauce in that picture? You don't want to drown your nigiri, for crying out loud. As a general rule you want to have enough soy sauce in the dish to barely cover the bottom, and it doesn't matter whether you apply it to the fish or the rice. You only want enough to have the flavor of the soy sauce combine with the fish and the sushi rice.

Oh, and mixing wasabi with soy sauce is perfectly acceptable, but in general most sushi places put the wasabi between the fish and the rice so there's no need to add it yourself. If you're at a place (especially a kaitenzushi restaurant) that only serves nigiri without wasabi, then knock yourself out.

For places that serve large pieces of fish, I usually can't get the whole thing in my mouth at once, so eating half is unavoidable.

Otherwise, it's more-or-less correct. (Removing splinters from chopsticks is a bit gauche, but only the cheapest kaitenzushi places give you the low-quality ones.) But sushi is, in Japan anyways, something that anyone can have at a reasonable price, so the "rules" are slowly falling by the wayside.

The one thing that he did comment on was chopsticks left in a bowl, which apparently has something to do with Japanese funeral customs.

That's correct.
posted by armage at 7:17 PM on January 12, 2010

I don't eat sushi. One reason is that I don't like raw fish and cold rice. The other is this sanctimonious baloney etiquette lecture that I've heard a hundred times, never once from a Japanese person.
posted by mmoncur at 8:10 PM on January 12, 2010

Generally, if you're eating sushi at a place where the pieces are too big to put into your mouth whole, you're not eating at an excellent sushi restaurant. Places like Masa, Sushi Yasuda, and Kuruma Zushi in NY, along with Urasawa, Matsuhisa, and Sushi Nozawa in LA typically have well proportioned pieces. Large pieces are to satiate the demand of consumers who equate quantity with value.
posted by shen1138 at 9:06 PM on January 12, 2010

When I first ate sushi it was exotic and expensive. I religiously did the "whole sushi at a bite" thing.

Then I started eating it every three days, and now I'll bite my sushi in half if I want to. But I always did the wasabi slurry thing.
posted by jrochest at 9:34 PM on January 12, 2010

Me: "I'm surprised they didn't include something about how it's rude to dismantle the sushi to eat the components or leave things you don't like out."
Friend: "That's because you're the only idiot on Earth who does that."
posted by emilyd22222 at 9:51 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

You don't need to put the chopsticks on your bowl or plate because you can make one of these while you're eating your edamame and waiting for your fish, assuming you've gotten the kind of chopsticks you've got to pull out of the paper wrapper and break apart and then, obviously, rub against one another to de-splinter them.
posted by padraigin at 10:55 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Generally, if you're eating sushi at a place where the pieces are too big to put into your mouth whole, you're not eating at an excellent sushi restaurant.

True, perhaps, in the US. But in Japan, size doesn't really correlate as closely with cost or quality.
posted by armage at 11:20 PM on January 12, 2010

Related. Sort of.
posted by wittgenstein at 10:41 AM on January 13, 2010

padraigin, thanks for that. I ate sushi with a friend the other day when he made one of those. He was across the table and it wasn't a casual lunch so I didn't want to have him demonstrate it to me then, and of course I forget about it everytime until I'm at the restaurant thinking, "Damn, I wish I'd figured out how to make that chopstick rest."

So yeah, thanks.
posted by scrutiny at 3:32 PM on January 13, 2010

Generally, if you're eating sushi at a place where the pieces are too big to put into your mouth whole, you're not eating at an excellent sushi restaurant.

You are more than welcome to take me to an excellent sushi restaurant.
posted by _paegan_ at 4:18 PM on January 13, 2010

Oh fuck off with the "this is the right way to eat" shit. Please.

I just have to say that every time I scan my recent activity and see this comment, I momentarily scan the quotation mark in the wrong place, then reread.
posted by qvantamon at 6:35 PM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

mathowie: "It's a cool illustration showing the basics of behaving well in a sushi place, but I saw it in a book 5-7 years ago actually at my local sushi place.

It's kind of a bummer the attribution was lost along the way, the whole book is comic book style like this and breaks each sort of "rule" down."

You don't happen to remember the name of the book do you?

scrutiny: "What's wrong with dipping rice-first?

The rice soaks up so much soy flavor that you mask the delicate flavor of the fish.

This is less of a concern when the quality of sushi is poor."

I thought it was because the rice would de-clump and it would fall apart.
posted by IndigoRain at 10:34 PM on January 14, 2010

It's from Food and Wine magazine, and is by Peter Arkle. This website says it was the September 2005 issue.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:15 AM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]