Fruit, Nuts & Seeds Ryokan Do's & Don'ts Eating at a sushi bar in a traditional Japanese sushi establishment has a unique set of traditions and behaviors that are uncommon in the U.S. You can maximize your enjoyment while minimizing offending behavior by following these points: Some of the best sushi establishments are tiny places with one bar and perhaps a few tables. For the full experience, it’s best to sit at the bar so you can watch the chef at work. The general rule of thumb for behavior is, the more serious the sushi, the quieter you should be. While some places are relaxed and casual, famous sushi chefs have been known to frown upon boisterous customers, so it’s best to take your cues from the mood of the crowd. The joy of the sushi experience is in the quality and variety of the fresh neta (sushi topping). The best restaurants feature freshly caught seasonal fish, so unless you’re an expert, the recommended route is to simply say “omakase,” which means “I leave it to you.”

This allows the chef to serve what he considers to be the best neta in the order of maximum enjoyment. There are three levels of omakase sushi: nami (standard), jō (premium) and toku-jō, with ascending price levels. Toku-jō will include more extravagant ingredients such as toro, (fatty tuna), ikura (salmon roe) and uni (sea urchin). An omakase selection typically consists of 7-10 pieces, and you can always order seconds of a favorite, or any varieties that were missing. Sets usually include tamago (egg omelete), which sushi aficionados use to rate the quality of the restaurant. If you want to order a lá carte, it’s best to start with lighter toppings such as white fleshed hirame and tai, then move on to medium neta such as maguro (tuna), working your way up to the stronger and richer-tasting toppings, finally ending with ikura and uni. The classic way to serve sushi is on a fresh bamboo leaf. The chef places each nigiri as it is made onto the leaf, which is typically set on a raised shelf just above the counter.

It’s best to eat it promptly to both show respect to the chef and to savor the nigiri at its’ freshest. Do not sit idly, chatting away with your partner while the neta dries out and the rice loses the warmth of the chef’s hands. Omakase sets are either served one or two pieces at a time in this way, or arrive together on a wooden or ceramic platter. It’s perfectly polite to use your hands to eat sushi, which had its origins as a street food during the Edo era. Pinch the nigiri with your thumb and middle finger, while keeping the neta in place with your index finger. Then turn it upside down and dip the neta lightly in the soy sauce, turn it upright again and place the entire piece in your mouth. This might take some doing, and I admit that at times I’m not able to do so. But biting the nigiri causes it to crumble, so one option is to cut the rice into a manageable portion, eat it first, and then eat the neta with the rest of the rice. To Wasabi or not to Wasabi? I’ve seen Westerners place a huge amount of wasabi in their soy sauce, and then drench the nigiri in this mixture.

At a fine sushi establishment, this is seen as a waste, or even, crazy. How can you taste the subtleties of the neta with so much wasabi? youda sushi chef strategyAlso, a dab of wasabi is already placed on each piece of rice (while some fish, such as saba (mackerel) are served with grated ginger). where to buy sushi grade ahi tunaFine places also use freshly grated wasabi, which has a finer and brighter flavor than the imitation wasabi available in the West (which is actually horseradish), so a little goes a long way.food delivery london w6 Truthfully, living in the U.S., I fully understand why my friends have this habit. buy sushi grade fish washington dc

The neta is virtually tasteless, has little texture and at worst, is not even fresh. But at fine sushi-ya in Japan, there’s no need to cover up all that wonderful flavor. Like the rest of the world, Japan is changing, and these guildelines (which are for Tokyo-style nigiri zushi) are not set in stone. It is, after all, important to enjoy sushi the way YOU like it, and this article is not meant to make visitors uncomfortable or nervous. We just hope this information puts you at ease and contributes to your overall enjoyment.1. How to Eat Sushi 2. How to Use ChopsticksLike many aspects of Japanese culture, there's a certain etiquette to eating sushi. Take the time to peruse these helpful tips so you can make the best impression on your sushi chef or dining companions the next time you're downing some maki. Collaborative blog Clusterflock says good sushi etiquette dictates you should dip only the fish portion into soy sauce, never the rice, and take care to use the blunt end of the chopsticks to take food from a shared plate.

The post also asserts that sushi is meant to be eaten in a single bite, not in a succession of smaller ones.When you're dining on the fishy treats, make sure you always mind your chopsticks: Don't rub your chopsticks together to remove splinters. (It's rude; a good sushi bar would never offer chopsticks of such low quality.Clusterflock claims that stirring wasabi into your soy sauce for more flavorful dunking is likewise a faux pas. Some sushi aficionados say it's perfectly acceptable, however, so if you're concerned, the safest approach is to let your tablemates be your guide. If they're busy making wasabi soup in their individual bowls of soy sauce, feel free to whip up your own batch, too.Check out the post for more sushi etiquette dos and don'ts. What's missing from the list? Are you an outlaw that breaks these rules, or do you follow every one of them? Share your thoughts in the comments.Before I post more about my sushi experience in Tokyo, let’s explore the “etiquette” here for a moment.

I’m not going to tell you to follow this “sushi etiquette” for cultural reasons–these are ways to enhance the sushi eating experience. If you already love to eat sushi, you might not believe that there is a way to make sushi taste better. However, believe it or not I think you should try this at least once, just to make sure that you’re not missing anything. The sushi in discussion is edomae nigiri sushi (the one bite of rice in an oblong shape with a piece of fish on top) and gunkanmaki (the one bite of rice wrapped with a piece of seaweed and the top filled with seafood). 1) Do not put wasabi in the soy sauce (shoyu) but put it on the piece of fish itself or, the even better way, put it on the rice. 2) Dip the fish side of the sushi in to shoyu, if it hasn’t already been brushed on by the sushi chef. Do not let the rice touch the shoyu. (Especially do not soak the rice in shoyu like my husband does!) 3) Put the piece of sushi in your mouth with the fish side down so the fish touch your tongue first.

Or at the least put it in sideways, so the rice and sushi touch your tongue at the same time. Don’t put it in with rice side down on your tongue. I would recommend trying this technique at your favorite sushi restaurant. Set out 2 sauce dishes for soy sauce and try both pieces the different ways, the first one with this new way then follow with your own way. I started eating sushi for the first time in Thailand but I remember that I didn’t like it at all until I ate a cut roll. I think it was called a California roll with mayonnaise, some kind of fish roe, asparagus, cucumber and real crab inside but no avocado. I loved the rolls but I still didn’t like nigiri sushi. I also loved the sashimi. What I ate with these delicated raw goodies was a lot of shoyu mixed with wasabi. Then I went to Japan for the first time. There is no California roll served at any sushi place in Japan. I had nigiri sushi almost everyday but I can’t pick the top off the rice and eat only the raw fish, so I mixed wasabi in shoyu and shamelessly drenched my nigiri sushi with the mixture before I ate.

Then my friend took me to a fancy sushi joint in Ginza. I finally was educated by force. Once the sushi chef saw me pour shoyu in the little saucer before I was served any piece of sushi, he told the waitress to take the shoyu away. He also started to put nigiri sushi in front of us, one piece at a time and he watched. I don’t like to eat while being watched! He just stood there waiting for us to put his masterpieces in our mouths. His eyes darted across our faces. It was a power play…mannnnnn! After a long stare-down with his hand gesture he suggested that I should put the piece of sushi in my mouth. I caved in, did what I’ve been told. No, the miracle hadn’t happened yet. I was stressing out. It was white fish with slight hint of citrus and no wasabi or soy sauce. How can that be good without a lot of wasabi and shoyu? You know what I’m talking about. Soon as we put the sushi in our mouth, the chef stopped staring and went back to work. However, as soon as I finished chewing and swallowed, a new piece showed up in front of us of course together with the same pair of eyes that belonged to the same sushi chef.

He was worst than any boarding school teacher I ever known. It continued like that for the entire meal. If he wanted us to have shoyu or some other sauces, he would brushed the sauce on top of the fish pieces. He watch us to see how we reacted to the amount of wasabi he put underneath the piece of fish. I believe he adjusted them based on our reaction. We ended up eating several pieces of nigiri sushi. I have to admit that I like a lot of them, the typical stronger flavor fish, the yellowtail (buri), the toro, eel and saba, even though I missed my shoyu mixture. I thought some of them could have been better with my own shoyu mixture. That was my first step. I was back to Japan for the second time. This time it was properly explained why I should eat sushi this way. 1) The wasabi used in Japan, especially at the fancy sushi restaurants, is fresh grated from the wasabi root. It has its own distinct mustardy flavor that goes up your nose. This flavor would drastically lessen and lose its kick if the wasabi was mixed in anything else, let alone soy sauce.

2) The shoyu at a good sushi place normally was carefully seasoned by the chef. To mix the special shoyu with wasabi would have ruined the work of the chef. 3) The rice is already seasoned and doesn’t need to be re-seasoned by shoyu but the fish does. 4) The ball of rice has air around and in the middle. Yes, it does, so it will explode as soon as you put it in your mouth. Dipping the rice in shoyu would make the ball of rice fall apart. 5) Putting the fish side on your tongue gives the maximum exposure of the fish to the taste buds, then the rice comes in and makes the perfect blend. If the rice lands on the tongue first it would coat the taste buds with starch, preventing the taste buds from tasting the real flavor of fish. OK…enough of the science. I admit that it took quite a while before I detected the difference in tastes of the different fishes and appreciate the new way (or old way to the Japanese) a lot more. I’ve been eating nigiri sushi this way quite a long time now but I can go back to drench my sushi with mixed shoyu and wasabi if the sushi isn’t good enough, such as not so fresh fish or not so good sushi rice.