THE SPLENDID TABLE: sushi etiquette

[shain from kane]

(Who knew there was etiquette involved in eating raw fish?)


By LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER
Scripps Howard News Service


Dear Lynne: Sushi etiquette -- chopsticks are it, right? My chopsticks make a mess of the whole deal. Do hands mean you'll be expelled from the sushi bar? One other thing: Do you pour the soy sauce over the sushi, or what? (Confession: All my sushi eating has been alone with supermarket takeout.) -- James from Tacoma



Dear James: Breathe deeply and know all is well. Hands are good manners in sushi bars. In fact, they are preferred because even practiced chopstick users can mess up the rice with the sticks, and in sushi, expertly done rice is everything.

Soy sauce goes into the small dish that is often set out at the side of your plate. Never stir wasabi into it. This is an American quirk; never done in Japan. Dip just the tip of the sushi in the soy so you can taste that rice and the quality of the fish, or roll. The ginger is used to cleanse the palate before you go on to a different type of fish or roll. It's safe to go out now.

[LSK]

1. chop sticks and handrolls?

:shrug:

[Phillycat]

2. Whatever, wasabi soy sauce is AWESOME.

[madinmaryland]

3. Hmm. I always mix the wasabi into the soy sauce.

Though I will put some additional wasabi onto the sushi itself (I love wasabi!!)

[TommyO]

4. Great, now I want sushi for dinner!

American quirk or not, I frequently (not always) put some extra wasabi in my soy - why would they put it on my platter if it wasn't there to be used?