Sushi Manners 101

Like most customers in a Japanese restaurant, the first thing I do after I have got a seat is to rub the chopsticks together in order to get rid of the splinters. Little did I know that is actually impolite since it seems to suggest the restaurant’s utensils are low quality.

My friend found this article on thestar.com regarding sushi etiquette. It has a neat video demonstrating how to do it right and there are some helpful diagrams to help you remember the simple steps.

In general, you should:

• Use pickled ginger between pieces of raw fish to cleanse the palate.
• Eat nigiri (bundle of rice topped with raw fish) with your fingers.
• Dip nigiri fish-side down into a small amount of soy sauce.
• Eat nigiri fish-side down so you can taste the flavours in the correct order.

And you should void doing the following:

• Don’t put a pile of pickled ginger on top of your sushi.
• Don’t use chopsticks while eating nigiri (but it is alright for maki and sashimi).
• Don’t dip the rice-side of the nigiri into the soy sauce.
• Don’t eat it rice-side down.
• Don’t rub chopsticks together. It is better to remove the splinters with your fingers).
• Don’t leave chopsticks standing straight up in a bowl of rice since it resembles incents that are burnt during funerals.

I am happy to follow most of the rules in order to get an authentic sushi experience but I think I will leave out eating nigiri with my hands. Sushi rice tends to be a bit sticky. Eating with my hands would mean spreading the stickiness to everything on the table. Definitely not a very pretty sight! The chopstick rubbing addiction is probably a bit difficult to kick as well. One of the commentators on the Star has mentioned, “Better to rub them than swallow a splinter”, and I totally agree with him. In order to get rid of the splinter problem, maybe it’s time for the Japanese restaurants to switch to reusable chopsticks. After all, it is a more environmentally friendly option and it will probably save money for the restaurants in the long run.