Sushi Eating Etiquette

Food is food is food - it's all the same when it gets into your stomach right? But according to sushi experts there is a proper way to eat sushi.

The sushi expert begins with gyoku, a small rice palmful of rice topped with fried egg, because this dish allows him to evaluate the sushi rice, which has to be cooked at a particular pressure to get the right consistency and properly seasoned with vinegar - this is the best indicator of the chef's skill. Next the expert order sushi in the following order: tuna, some kind of white-meat fish such as sea bream, yellowtail, etc., then luminous fish such as mackerel, and lastly eel, which happens to be the only fish served cook.

The expert picks up a sushi using the thumb and middle finger, only touching the rice portion. Then he places his forefinger on the fish to keep it balanced and dips one end of the fish into a small saucer of soy sauce. Next, he rotates the sushi around so that all the soy spreads evenly over the fish. Sushi should not be dipped in soy twice because it would mask rather than complement the flavor of the fish. Similarly, it is nearly unforgivable to dip the rice into the soy sauce, as that would soak up way too much flavor. Furthermore, it might soak up so much liquid as to undo the packed rice and leave clumps of rice in the saucer - this is rather unsightly. Most standard sized sushi should be eating in one bite. Larger ones may be consumed in two, but experts never dip the remaining half in soy sauce again.

Origin of Nigiri-Sushi (The most common type of sushi)? There are currently three competing theories:

1. In 1657, Edo, or modern day Tokyo suffered its worst fire in history. It was said that citizens who had lost their homes were provided with rice balls topped with various foods. Some argue that these were the precursor of modern day nigiri sushi.

2. Nigiri sushi originated out of a competition between two sushi shops to create the best sushi for politicians and government officials.

3. Nigiri sushi was invented by a man named Yohe (1799-1858), a proprietor of an sushi shop during the Edo period. Apparently it had existed in the same place until the early part of this century.

Sources: Sugawara, Makoto. "The Buddha and the Bento: Japanese Culture and Cuisine". The East Publications: Tokyo, 1994.