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A beginners guide to sushi: Part 4 (How to order and eat at a sushi bar)

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Now you know your maki from your chirashi, can read the list of ingredients like a true Japanese native and even remember that it’s bad form to mix wasabi and soy sauce. But there is still one level of intimidation left: sitting and ordering at the sushi bar. Here, you have none of the anonymity of hiding behind a menu. Decisions have to be taken quickly and dining becomes a public venture.

But it’s also a chance to watch sushi-making in motion (which is often a form of art!), interact with other connoisseurs get the top choices of the menu. And it’s really not that difficult – as long as you mind a few things.

The Sushi Bar at Nobu Hong Kong

The Sushi Bar at Nobu Hong Kong

1. Interact with the itamae (sushi chef): When sitting at the sushi bar, always order directly from the itamae. Ignoring him is considered disrespectful and the best way to strike up a rapport is by asking for a recommendation.

2. “Is the fish fresh?”: You can ask which fish is the freshest? But NEVER ask if any given fish is “fresh”, since this implies it might not be fresh. Which is rude.

3. Ask the itamae ONLY for sushi: And sashimi. Any other items and beverages, including soup, edamame or other side items, should be requested from a server.

4. Order carefully: And inform the itamae of any allergies or dislikes. It is impolite to leave food on your plate after a meal or turn up your nose if you don’t like a particular item.

5. Order one at a time: It’s polite to order only one sushi roll at a time. If the bar is busy, you can order up to three at one go but never more. When in a rush, order chirashi sushi – it’s faster to make and eat.

6. Don’t dawdle: Never let fresh sushi sit for too long as this will degrade the temperature, texture and moisture – all of which impact the taste.

7. Repeat, please: Feel free to ask for a repeat of anything you especially liked.

8. Rinse your fingers in the “canal”: Most sushi bars have a small stream of water running between the itamae and diners. This is to rinse your fingers when they become messy.

how to order at sushi bar9. Be gracious: It’s just good manners to thank the itamae. If you want to go the extra step, try some Japanese. Domo arigato means “thank you”, while oishikatta desu translates as “it was delicious”.

10. Time to tip: Many sushi bars have a tip jar as the itamae will never touch money (since he touches food). The wait staff would be tipped separately.

11. Try omakase dining: Finally, consider omakase on your next visit. In this, the itamae chooses dishes for the diner as well as the order in which these dishes will be served. It’s a way to compliment the chef AND ensure that you get the freshest, choicest sushi. So, this means a win-win for all. But remember, it also gives the itamae free reign to serve you anything, including strange items like live shrimp!

Also read:

The different kinds of sushi

Reading the sushi ingredients

How to eat sushi the correct way

A beginners guide to sushi: Part 3 (How to eat sushi the correct way)

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Now that you know your maki from your nigiri and aji from aayogi, it’s time to take a seat at the sushi table. But what’s the best way to eat this Japanese delicacy? Can you eat it with your fingers? Should wasabi be stirred into the soy sauce or spread directly on the roll? One mouthful or two?

Add to this the famed Japanese penchant for fusing form with function, which means the flavor and experience of sushi is influenced not only by how it’s prepared, but also by how you eat it.

Suitably challenged? These guidelines will help you thoroughly enjoy your next sushi adventure.

how to eat sushiHow to eat sushi

1. Clean your hands: You may be offered hot, wet towel (oshibori) before the meal. This is to clean your hands. NOT your face.

2. Use your hands: Sushi actually began as finger food. So yes, it’s PERFECTLY all right to eat it with your fingers. In fact, most sushi masters prefer using fingers as this allows you to experience the texture and helps keep everything together. Plus, it is hard to properly dip the fish using chopsticks.

3. Know your condiments: Typically, a plate of sushi includes some pungent wasabi – Japanese horseradish – which looks like green paste. Soy sauce is called murasaki, which means”purple” and comes in a shallow dish. Then there is pickled ginger (gari) placed in thin, pink slices on the side of the plate

4. Don’t mix the condiments: Aka, don’t pour wasabi into your soy sauce. Wasabi should always be spread directly on the fish.

5. Dip your sushi fish-side first: Turn your sushi upside down, then dip only the fish into your soy sauce – never the rice. Else the rice may soak up too much soy sauce, ruining the balance of flavours. Plus, the molded rice will disintegrate if it’s dipped directly into soy sauce.

6. Do not dip elaborate sushi: If the sushi has a glaze or sauce on top (usually the case with nigiri), do not dip it in the soy sauce, as this will mess up the flavours.

7. Be careful with the wasabi: Dab just a small bit onto your sushi, so you don’t overpower all other flavours. If you are eating nigiri, the chef may have added wasabi between the fish and the rice, so try a piece before adding more.

8. Eat from lightest to darkest: Start with the mildest fish (like flounder) and work towards the heavier tuna. If it’s a platter of different kinds of sushi, begin with nigiri and maki, followed by more elaborate rolls or temaki. The milder flavors come first, so they are not overpowered by the bold flavors.

9. Rice follows fish: Sushi pieces should be placed in the mouth upside down so that the fish lies against your tongue. This allows you to taste the fish more than you taste the rice.

10. Eat the sushi in one bite: Traditionally, each piece of sushi should be eaten in one bite. If you really can’t eat the piece in one bite, hold it with your fingers until you are ready to finish. It is poor etiquette to return a half-eaten piece to the plate.

11. Cleanse your palette with ginger: The ginger is never meant to be eaten in the same bite as the sushi. Instead, use it refresh your mouth between bites, especially between different types of sushi. Think of it as a taste bud reboot!

Plus, how to pair your sushi

Just a roll of sushi does not a meal make. So, here’s how to pair it with the right beverages and other dishes to create the perfect menu.

1. Starters: Popular pre-sushi starters include miso soup, suimono (clear broth), a mixed salad and edamame (boiled soy beans).

2. Beverages: Typically, experts avoid drinking sake with sushi, since they are both rice-based and may interfere with each other. Green tea, water and a mild beer make the best pairing, while wines and soft drinks will overpower the subtle flavors of sushi. However, this is really a matter of personal taste.

3. Rounding it off: Many sushi restaurants serve agari – green or brown roasted tea – at the end of a meal. Or you could opt for miso soup, which is traditionally enjoyed at the very end of the dining experience.

Also read:

The different kinds of sushi

Reading the sushi ingredients

How to order and eat at a sushi bar

A beginners guide to sushi: Part 2 (Reading the ingredients)

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At its most basic, sushi is usually made up of 2 elements: vinegared rice and nori (seaweed). Should be simple enough, right? Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. Because what defines one maki roll from another are the toppings and fillings. Those tiny little bit of fish, vegetables and other knickknacks that are rolled into a maki or layered upon the nigiri to add the special punch of flavour.

And with an increasing number of restaurants digging deep into the Japanese culture to create their menus, getting a simple salmon or cucumber topped sushi can be an exercise in intimidation. And no, knowing Japanese doesn’t help: kappa, sushi-language for cucumber, comes from the name of a monster who loves cucumbers. So, voila! This easy-to-read (and print or download on your phone!) list will help you figure out the akami from the awabi.

Think of me when you take that next bite of wasabi-laden goodness.

sushi ingredients 1

sushi ingredients 2

sushi ingredients 3

Coming up next: How to eat sushi!

Also read: The different kinds of sushi

A beginners guide to eating sushi: Part 1 (The different kinds of sushi)

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Sushi menus are laden with complications. First, you need to pick the kind of sushi you want to eat: would you prefer a Maki or Nigiri? Oshi or Inari? The choices are endless. Then come the fillings. And the condiments. And just what does one do with that sliced ginger (hint: you NEVER put it on the sushi!) And woe betide if you are supposed to customise your own platter. With the server and your fellow diners watching. Time to bring in the experts.

Let’s begin with the kinds of sushi. While we usually think of this Japanese dish as a simple of vinegared rice wrapped up in a strip of seaweed, sushi actually takes several forms. Some kinds of sushi don’t even have a smidgen of seaweed. Let’s take a look.

Maki Sushi

Also known as makizushi, norimaki or ‘sushi roll’, this is the most popular form of sushi. In most cases, Maki has vinegared rice and other ingredients (like octopus, tuna, cucumber or asparagus) tightly rolled in a sheet of nori (seaweed). These are the easiest to eat, sans spillage.

In a fusion restaurant, the nori may be replaced by a fried egg, cucumber slices, shsiso (perilla) leaves or soy paper.

maki sushi

Maki sushi – specifically, this could be hosomaki, chukka or futomaki, all of which differ only in terms of width and number of toppings

More authentic Japanese restaurants may use a further subdivision of maki, which includes:

  • Hosomaki: A thin roll, with rice on the inside and nori on the outside; served cut into 7-8 pieces
  • Chumaki: A medium-width roll, with rice on the inside and nori on the outside; served cut into 7-8 pieces
  • Futomaki: A thick, fat roll of sushi (about 2 inches in diameter) that has two or more types of fillings, with rice on the inside and nori on the outside; served cut into 7-8 pieces
  • Uramaki: An inside-out sushi roll, with rice on the outside and nori on the inside; usually comes with two or more fillings in every piece. This one is essentially an American invention, for people who don’t like seeing the seaweed up-front. The rice may be studded with a variety of seeds or other flaky toppings.
  • Temaki: Also known as a ‘hand roll’, this is a cone-shaped roll wrapped in nori, with one end sealed off and the other one open. Warning: this is the messiest kind of maki.
sushi-kinds

Temaki (left). Uramaki (right)

Nigiri Sushi

Also known as nigirizushi, which translates as “hand pressed sushi”, this contains a small, oblong mound of vinegar rice topped with a slice of fish (called the neta) or vegetables. Salmon, tuna, cooked shrimp, mackerel and eel are the most common toppings.

Sometimes, when the toppings are super-slippery, a strip of nori is wrapped around the nigiri.

This is usually the most expensive form of sushi and also the messiest to get from plate to mouth.

Nigiri gunkan. Nigiri

Nigiri with nori (left). Nigiri without nori (right)

Gunkan-maki

Directly translating as “battleship roll”, gunkan-maki has a clump of vinegared rice surrounded by a strip of nori, so that toppings (usually fish roe) can be placed on top without falling off. The end result is said to resemble a battleship but I think it looks more like a cup.

Gunkan-maki

Gunkan-maki

Oshi Sushi

Also called oshizushi or hako-sushi, this “pressed sushi” comes from Osaka in south-central Japan. It is made with a sushi press – a wooden, box-shaped mold known as oshibako. The toppings are laid at the bottom of the mold and then covered with sushi rice. Finally, the lid is pressed down to create a firm, rectangular block of sushi that’s cut into pieces before serving.

oshi sushi

Oshi

Chirashi Sushi

Also called chirashizushi, bara sushi or gomoku sushi – all of which loosely translate as “scattered sushi” – this sushi is served as a bowl of rice topped with seafood, mushroom and vegetables. Chirashi is extremely popular in Japanese homes as it forms a perfect vehicle for leftovers and doesn’t require any sushi-pressing skills.

Chirashi can be further sub-divided into:

  • Edomae chirashizushi: Topped with uncooked ingredients arranged artfully on top of the sushi rice
  • Gomokuzushi: Cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed into the rice
  • Sake-zushi: The rice is mixed with rice wine rather than rice vinegar, then topped with seafood, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and shredded omelette
Chirashi sushi

Chirashi sushi – specifically edomae chirashi

Inari Sushi

Called inarizushi in Japan, this “stuffed sushi” consists of vinegared rice stuffed into a pouch of deep fried tofu (abura-age). It’s usually sweet-tasting and is one of the most inexpensive forms of sushi.

Bonus trivia: Inari is the fox God of Japan’s Shinto religion and because foxes are traditionally believed to like abura-age, he lends his name to this sushi.

inari sushi

Inari sushi

Onigiri Sushi

Also called omusubi or “rice ball” sushi, onigiri is basically 2-3 fillings rolled up into a ball of regular steamed rice. Sometimes the ball is wrapped with nori. Debates rage on whether this is a type of sushi at all, given the absence of vinegared rice.

Onigiri sushi with nori (left). Onigiri sushi without nori (right)

Onigiri sushi with nori (left). Onigiri sushi without nori (right)

Sushi vs Sashimi

Sushi and sashimi are NOT interchangeable. And sashimi is NOT a form of sushi. In fact, sashimi means “thinly sliced protein” and refers to thinly sliced pieces of raw fish. It does not contain any rice, which is an essential ingredient of sushi.

Sashimi

Sashimi

Also read:

Reading the sushi ingredients

How to eat sushi the correct way

How to order and eat at a sushi bar