When it comes to sushi, you either love it or you don’t. Sure it’s an acquired taste, but at least we all know what sushi is. Well apparently this Chinese student didn’t, and when she and her friends visited a rather famous sushi house while studying in Japan, she ended up pissing off the owners and went online to rant on Weibo (the Chinese Facebook) to bad mouth the sushi masters thinking that her friends would back her up. Instead, she was met with a backlash of public shame and many called her a disgrace to her country. If this story doesn’t make your Monday just a little more tolerable, it’ll at least put you in the mood for sushi. Chinese student Chuhan Lin was studying in Japan when she and four friends decided to try sushi at a branch of the famous Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Roppongi, Japan, made famous from the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The restaurant was managed by one of Jiro’s sons and is known the world over for pretty much the best sushi ever.

To eat at this restaurant, you have to make a reservation and pick what you eat before you get there so that they make sure they prepare all the items you order as fresh as possible. Well Lin and her four friends, all Chinese students, showed up 40 minutes late and never even apologized. In the restaurant they have a common locker where patrons can store all their things while they eat. One of Lin’s friends wanted to get her wallet from the locker, but didn’t bother to ask the staff to assist her like any normal person would. When someone did find her trying to break in to the communal locker, she was told off, and we are sure the language barrier didn’t help much either. It turned out that two of Lin’s friends didn’t actually even like raw fish. Why the hell would they go to sushi then, right? Her two friends ended up bailing to eat deep-fried pork somewhere else down the street- how classy. With only three friends left and a pre-ordered meal waiting for them, they cancelled everything and asked the sushi chef to just cook all the raw fish and package it- to go.

That was strike three. The sushi master, probably pissed at these unappreciative kids, asked, “Is sushi served cooked in your country? If you can’t handle raw food, you should have informed us when you made the reservation!” So Lin replied, “Who knew!? I didn’t make the reservation!” In her post, she ranted about their poor treatment saying, “If we were Abe! If we were Obama! Would he dare to show such an attitude?” She posted her entire experience on Weibo, thinking that her Chinese friends would agree that the restaurant treated her badly. Instead, her rant turned into a public shaming with many netizens calling her a “national disgrace,” probably for her embarrassing amount of cultural unawareness. She eventually took down her post, saying that, “the whole world is scolding me.” It was reported afterwards she went back to the sushi restaurant and apologized to them to which they responded she is always welcome back when she develops a taste for sushi.

So if you are going to try something new today, maybe look it up a little and ask about it beforehand so you don’t get caught in any sticky situations. menu sushi club los cabosAnd please, always remember to be respectful of other people’s cultural differences- or don’t, because we all love to crucify stupidity on social media.bamboo sushi onlineYou know sushi is popular in America when your local grocery store has their own chef. sushi to go crThere’s no denying it has become more popular in recent years with sushi popping up in more places every day. jiro dreams of sushi imagesThe fantastic Jiro Dreams of Sushi documentary certainly helped create awareness of the art of sushi making and now we have a pocket guide from Jiro himself to understand his techniques even better.

We got a copy and decided to peruse its pages and see if it can make you look like a master. So what’s it about? The Viz summary reads: Why does this book matter? Though the documentary had plenty of food porn to tide most over there wasn’t an in depth look at each piece of fish nor great detail in every type Jiro serves. It’s also a pocket guide, which is a nice format to carry around so everyone thinks you’re a sushi master! Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it? First off, the book is made with really nice materials. The plastic cover keeps it safe and secure, with two inside textured pages to make it feel expensive. The book itself is made of glossy paper that feels durable and expensive. For a tiny book it has a nice value in its materials, that’s for sure. The book itself is broken up into three chapters opening with a foreword from Jiro himself. The first chapter is what Jiro serves at his restaurant with about a paragraph on each piece of fish.

Each piece of fish has a beautiful photograph taken on the left with information on the right. The information contains details on what season it’s eaten, what it’s called in Japanese (phonetically) and how it’s written in Japanese too. The paragraph on each discusses the taste of the fish as well as what type of fish it is and even includes a quote from Jiro on why it is used or what it’s like. For such a small book it feels quite robust when it comes to this chapter. The second chapter details how to eat sushi with the “Do’s” on the left and “Don’ts” on the right. It’s a handy guide for beginners and anyone not familiar with traditional eating of sushi. The third and final chapter is the shortest and focuses on the dining experience and particulars of Jiro’s restaurant. That includes what the experience is like, how to make a reservation for instance, and even the dress code. Considering how famous the sushi restaurant is now it should be quite helpful to many that this chapter delves into this.