how to eat sushi

[miyakoji]

Here's an interesting video hosted by a sushi chef who speaks English. After living in Japan for a while, I picked up some of the finer points about chopstick usage (for example), and didn't worry too much about manners. But, there were some kinds of restaurants I never visited, like an upscale sushi shop, and I would be unsure of how to do things in such a situation.

 

Interesting stuff here, particularly about ginger in the context of a sushi shop, and flipping the nigirizushi with chopsticks.  Quite a colorful joke at 4:20.

 

Found this here: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/08/29/do-you-really-know-how-to-eat-sushi-probably-not/

restaurant is: http://www.sushibaryasuda.com/

 

Of course there's this alternate tutorial:

 

 

[cteno4]

Sorry I've eaten sushi since I was maybe 3 years old (like 50 years now) and I have always liked my ginger with a touch of soy sauce. I hate it when chefs have to have you only enjoy their dish the way they think it should be enjoyed. Guess I'll spend the rest of my life insulting Japan a few times a week... ;-p

 

Wish real wasabi was more affordable. Is getting better here with culturing in the pacific north west.

 

Jeff

[Matteo_IT]

How to eat sushi? 

Simple...

With your mouth!     

[E6系]

Hello Mr Jeff,

 

Perhaps your palette is not sophisticated enough to appreciate the story Chef is telling with his food ....

 

I only insult Americans when they leave themselves open for it .... ;)

[cteno4]

E6

 

Well I grew up eating very good Japanese food very early in life (probably the first food I really have any memory of) as my parents had several Japanese friends. Sushi at the time was pretty unheard of by 99.99% of Americans. Also our next door neighbor (from 10 years old on) to an excellent Japanese chef who owned a very authentic Japanese restaurant ( he was Japanese), so lots and lots of very traditional food form there, so for an American I have had a very good palette training for Japanese food, presentation, and culture. I understand the chef has a story it's just that chefs world wide get caught up in saying at times you can't eat x with y, it offends them. Well I enjoy my ginger with a tad of soy, so sorry if it offends. Just think it silly when they get to the point of saying that it's insulting to put any soy on the ginger, just getting a tad to far up into ones self there...

 

Jeff

Edited September 28, 2014 by cteno4

[JR 500系]

LOL at the second video! 'Are you still open?"

 

It also reeks heavily of old samurai tradition in a rather modern world... Lady must pour drinks for men and men must act like a samurai without saying thanks?

 

Taisho also looks abit... Stuck up? I mean the customers are always right, no?

 

Quite a little bit of a cultural difference, which kinda makes a layman like myself fearful of eating in a traditional sushi-ya in fear of offending someone.... 

Edited September 28, 2014 by JR500 のぞみ

[mrp]

Reminds me of this one - a bit dated now:

 

[E6系]

Hello Mr Jeff,

 

So sorry, I was joking ... ;)

 

Actually, I like ginger flavour Soy sauce.  I put ginger in.  I take ginger out.  It leaves a nice flavour to the sauce, don't you think?  I don't usually eat the ginger.

 

Now I want to add Sake too !!!  :D

[cteno4]

E6

 

Sorry it's just a pet peve of mine when chefs tend to think the know the tastes of everyone and say it has to be this way. I was joking as well about insulting Japan by having some soy sauce with my ginger.

 

In deed I regularly use a brand of soy sauce that has ginger already in it! Quite tasty, something about the ginger snap with the salt, hence why I like a tad of soy sauce with my sushi ginger.

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I has some sushi yesterday, at some asian restaurant (pretty decent, even though the choice of sushi was rather limited) .. Obviously I used chopsticks, which meant pretty much the entire restaurant was staring at me, staff included... Apparently, a white man using chopsticks isn't common at that restaurant ;)

[E6系]

One chopstick in each hand, Martijn?  .... :P

[Martijn Meerts]

That's the correct way to use them right? :)

[cteno4]

One chopstick, one hand and stab, that's how I was taught!

 

For years growing up everyone would stare at me as a kid in Asian restaurants when I would ask for and use chopsticks. Even in California... Good friends from when I was very little were Chinese and Japanese chef so to eat their food I had to learn correct chopstick use very very early and no rubber bands! Funny thing was the Chinese chef's wife was Scottish and she taught me to use a knife and fork British style which got me stared at in all the other kinds of restaurants using knifes and forks.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited September 29, 2014 by cteno4

[E6系]

That's the correct way to use them right? :)

 

When playing the drums, yes, you are perfectly correct!  :D

[railsquid]

Funny thing was the Chinese chef's wife was Scottish and she taught me to use a knife and fork British style which got me stared at in all the other kinds of restaurants using knifes and forks.

 

Umm, I'm confused now. What's "British-style"? I'm British and am well-acquainted with the usual way to use a knife and fork in many countries and have never come across a situation where I've said to myself, "railsquid - that's an unusual way to use cutlery".

 

Meanwhile I've finally trained the new guy at my local convenience store that when I say "お箸はいらないです" ("no, I don't need a free pair of disposable wooden chopsticks, I have a drawer of them at home already") I don't mean "please give me a plastic fork".

Edited October 1, 2014 by railsquid

[lurkingknight]

that second video is tongue in cheek... I can't imagine it's entirely serious. It's sort of making fun of how japanese always seem to follow a set procedure and tradition.

 

Anyways, the usage of chopsticks has exploded in the west in the last 10 years or so I feel. Even in the early 2000s it was uncommon to see many westerners properly use them. I have a white friend who nearly gave an old chinese lady a heart attack when she commented on our predominately white group's use of chopsticks when he replied to her in fluent mandarin. This was maybe 2003 or so. Now you see a lot of people just learning mandarin as something to do.

 

One that still gets me is westerners speaking fluent cantonese. It's a very hard language to learn based on the different intonations a single phonetic can have. Not a language for the tone deaf. :P 

[cteno4]

squid,

 

with the fork used flipped over and you use the knife to push stuff onto the back of the fork, not the american use the fork as a big spoon all the time to scoop stuff up and many times grab it with your full fist, not gingerly in the fingers.. plus just using the knife at all in the us outside of cutting something is seen as odd. one other influence when i was very young was an old brittish sea salt captain friend of my father who could pick up peas on the back of the fork w/o mashing them flat to stick. it marveled me when i was really young and he would always help try to train me to do it. he claimed he could do it so well as he had spent so many years eating on rolling ships and you had to have total control over the food on your fork or it would be in the guys lap next to you, made a big impression on a 5 year old!

 

yeah chopsticks in the 60s was practically no one in the us outside of a few metro areas with heavy asian influence and even then it was the real diehards! kids that were not asian who used chopsticks you just did not see. last decade or so its been much better seeing more and more folks in asian restaurants using chopsticks and many times pretty proficiently and correctly!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[lurkingknight]

the gusto in which westerners use chopsticks is a bit over the top though.

 

Here's a tip from an asian... if you're served on a plate, it's ok to use a fork or a spoon depending on consistency of the food... asians do it all the time. If you're eating from a bowl, use chopsticks. 

 

Rice, especially long grain on a plate is a disaster if you are using chopsticks. The bowl and chopsticks means you can lift the bowl and use the sticks to shovel/stir into your face. You can't really do this with a plate. :P