How to eat sushi and other tips

Sushi, photo provided by Wikipedia

Sushi is the epitome of Japanese food, and almost everyone in the world knows about it, even if they have never tried it. My first experience with sushi was when I was about 16 years old, when I went to the local teriyaki shop in the mall and ordered it.¹ I tried kappa rolls (cucumber) and tekka rolls (bluefin tuna) first, but I had a really hard time eating them because of the big, thick braces on my teeth, which caught the seaweed and made a mess. However, I soon came back for more and more, and eat sushi on a regular basis.² Sushi is popular among many here in Seattle, but through my wife I learned a lot about sushi too. For example, contrary to popular belief, Japanese don’t eat sushi very often at all. It’s expensive, for one thing, but also usually reserved for special occasions. When we visit my wife’s relatives elsewhere in Japan, they never fail to order a huge platter to welcome us, but obviously this is not daily food. That’s another thing: in Japan, sushi is often delivered as pizza is done here. I wish we had that in Seattle!

Also, while re-reading my trusty old cultural guidebook, I stumbled upon some good tips to pass along. If you want to eat like a true Tokyo-ite or edokko (江戸っ子, “child of Edo [old name of Tokyo]“), follow these steps:

• To get a good sample of the chef’s skill, start with the fried egg sushi first (and end with it too). Move on to light fishes (white fish), before moving on to other dishes.
• Use hands, not chopsticks! That’s how it’s been traditionally eaten since the old days when it was a light snack for fishermen. That’s a mistake I have been making for years.
• Another mistake I’ve often made is to use lots of soy sauce. In fact, you shouldn’t use any, or very, very little. It masks the flavor of the sushi.
• Eat it in one bite. Don’t nibble.
• Sushi restaurants have special jargon that have evolved over the years, but the book warns that you’re not expected to understand it:
• Green tea, normally ocha (お茶), is called agari (あがり).
• Soy sauce, normally shōyu (醤油), is called murasaki (むらさき, purple?).
• Pickled ginger, or shōga (しょうが), is called gari (がり).
• Wasabi is just called “sabi” for short.
• Rice is called shari (しゃり), which sounds just like the term used to describe relics of the Buddha’s ashes in Japanese Buddhism (舎利), possibly due to their similar appearance. Thanks to reader “Johnl” for reminding me of this one!
• The check is often called o-aisō (お愛想), but you should not use this term yourself. It actually is a short-hand way of saying “compliments or graces”, as in “if you would do me the compliment of paying the bill…”. If you say it, it will sound really dumb, so beware. Also, it’s an example of humble speech (kenjōgo 謙譲語) in Japanese, so if you said it, it would sound doubly-weird.

Although I don’t want to act like some kind of pretentious “sushi guy” while at a Japanese restaurant, it’s good to at least get the basic customs right. My wife also warned me separately about the soy sauce in particular in order to enjoy the actual flavor of the sushi, but also to watch my heart too as I have had hypertension since I was in college.

As parents, we also let our little one eat sushi too, but only the safe, cooked ones such as boiled shrimp, avocado, or other veggie choices. She likes shrimp and inarizushi a lot, so we go to a nice sushi-go-round restaurant near our home in the Northgate area of Seattle named Tengu Sushi, which we like a lot. Kaiten zushi (回転寿し) or “sushi-go-round” type restaurants are nice because they’re less stuffy than high-end Japanese restaurants, and are more fun for the family. Plus there’s other food to order, such as tempura, for those who don’t want sushi. However, on the flip side, the quality is often lower, so you have to shop around a little. I am not a fan of Blue C sushi for example, which is very trendy, but a little too cheap and franchise-y. Tengu Sushi is surprisingly good and friendly, but costs less for us than another high-end restaurant we visit occasionally.

Speaking of places to eat, when we were living in Ireland, we were happy to find a good sushi-go-round (kaiten-zushi) place inside the Dundrum shopping centre called “Yo! Sushi“, which was much better than the Japanese restaurants in Dublin-proper. Even the ones near the Japanese embassy in Dublin 4 were not very good. The extra non-sushi food Yo! Sushi served was pretty diverse and good, including some sweets for our little girl. That was a nice touch. I think I even ate their for my birthday because I was craving Asian food at the time.³

While traveling in London, we liked one place right next to the Japan Centre in Picadilly Circus too, but the name escapes me (2nd floor I think). They had good natto sushi which Baby and I both liked. The Japan Centre itself is a great place to stop for Japanese goods in general, as is the Mitsukoshi store nearby (sadly no such store is in Seattle), so stop make sure at these places too.

So, that’s a brief look at sushi eating tips, and tips on places to eat in Ireland, the UK or Seattle. Hope this guide proves useful, and comments are always appreciated.

¹ Ironically I took a job there a year later in high school, and worked there for about 3 years until I started college. I was sad to hear the restaurant recently closed down after the owner and sushi chef passed away. He was always very nice to me, since I tried to learn a little Japanese, and never failed to give me a little food whenever I visited even after hours. R.I.P., “Papa-San”. This post is dedicated to you. 「パパさん」、本当にありがとうございました。

² As I’m gradually trying to reduce meat consumption, I often enjoy the veggie sushi dishes (inarizushi, avocado, cucumber, etc), which are often cheaper but good. At kaiten-zushi I often have a HUGE stack of the $1 plates, while my wife gets the nicer, meatier dishes that cost more in smaller numbers. It usually evens out.

³ The best place overall to get Asian goods in Ireland by far is still the good old Asia Market on Drury Street. Sometimes we even bought goods there we couldn’t get in the much larger markets in Seattle. It’s easy to pass by, but a great little shop.