How to Eat Sushi in 6 Steps

Sushi is a collection of Japanese dishes featuring vinegared rice and ingredients like raw fish, vegetables, and cooked elements like tamagoyaki, a sweet rolled omelet. Sushi rolls come in all shapes and sizes, from large, multicolored futomaki to simple, elegant nigiri.

The seafood for sushi includes tuna, salmon, yellowtail, squid, or imitation crabmeat. Wasabi paste, soy sauce, and pickled ginger also accompany a sushi meal. Sushi is different from sashimi, which is thin slices of raw fish.

Use your hands or chopsticks to handle sushi. In Japan, diners often eat sushi with their hands rather than chopsticks, which is why sushi bars will offer patrons a hot, wet towel (“oshibori”) before a meal so that they can cleanse their hands.

Avoid rubbing your chopsticks together when using them for your sushi experience because this may signal to the wait staff that you think the utensils are of poor quality. Mind your chopstick placement at the end of the meal as well. Avoid crossing them vertically over your bowl, which is a Japanese funeral tradition. Instead, place your sticks together and lay them against one side of the bowl or dish to let the server know you’re done.

Eat sushi in whichever way makes you comfortable, but there is a proper technique for consuming the rolls. Following sushi dining etiquette can enhance your whole dining experience at sushi restaurants and at home. Here’s how to eat sushi the right way:

1. 1. Clean your hands. Whether or not you plan on eating sushi with your hands, make sure you wash or wipe them before your meal. Most servers at sushi restaurants provide patrons with a hot towel for hand cleansing.
2. 2. Use chopsticks, if necessary. Use a pair of chopsticks to eat your sushi meal if you prefer using utensils. Grab the top stick at about a third of the way down, sandwiching it between your thumb and index finger. The bottom stick should sit at the base of your thumb and index finger, resting naturally against the ring finger. Use your middle finger to help move the top chopstick while keeping the bottom chopstick still. Only the tips of the utensils should touch. Use your chopsticks to grab the sushi roll, applying just enough pressure to lift the food to your mouth.
3. 3. Eat one piece at a time. Eat one sushi piece at a time, in one or two bites. Avoid cutting your sushi into smaller pieces or separating the piece of fish from the other ingredients.
4. 4. Dab the fish in the soy sauce. Only dip the fish side of the sushi in your soy sauce, as the sushi rice can absorb too much, affecting the flavor of the fish. Dipping is easy to do with nigiri sushi, where the fish sits directly on top of the rice, but more challenging with maki sushi, because the fish and rice are rolled up together in a sheet of nori. Avoid placing the entire piece of sushi into the soy sauce dish, as this can cause the roll to fall apart. It is also against proper sushi etiquette to mix wasabi directly into your soy sauce. Instead, dab your roll into each condiment separately.
5. 5. Use minimal wasabi. Traditional sushi restaurants in Japan often serve true, authentic wasabi. Conversely, most American sushi bars use fake wasabi, a mixture of horseradish, mustard flour, cornstarch, and food coloring. Only use a small amount of wasabi to avoid overpowering the flavor of your rolls. At high-end restaurants, chefs often prepare rolls with wasabi.
6. 6. Use ginger as a palate cleanser. Some diners enjoy adding ginger (“gari”) to their sushi, but you should consume it as a palate cleanser between different types of sushi rolls.

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