Friday, April 21, 2023

"Foodie" culture - sushi edition

 

I've always enjoyed the clash of "foodie" cultures, and the topics about which argument rages.

  • Who invented pizza, and where, and when?
  • Should hot dogs have mustard and ketchup and onions and sauerkraut, or only one or two of them - and which ones?  Why?
  • Should jambalaya and gumbo use tomatoes, or not (i.e. river vs. upland Cajun recipes)?

The list is probably endless.

Nevertheless, I was a bit mindblown by this BBC article about sushi and its accompanying rituals.  Here's an excerpt.


On the fine-dining end of sushi consumption, there's Sukiyabashi Jiro, the impossible-to-get-into restaurant made famous from the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. On their website, they have a list of 12 rules that range from how to use your chopsticks and cleanse your palate to timing on when to eat the fish that's splayed out in front of you. This writer has eaten there and has been admonished for taking too much time between bites.

According to Kazunori Nozawa, the co-founder of the famed SUGARFISH sushi restaurants and veritable Sushi Shokunin (Master), there are a handful of dos and don'ts in the world of sushi. First, Nozawa says, "Don't rub your chopsticks together after you split them apart, that is seen as inconsiderate." He continues with a surprising note that, "eating with your chopsticks is preferred, but eating with your hands is also acceptable. If you need a fork, it's ok, just ask for one."

Additional etiquette rules from Nozawa include:

"Eat your sushi when it arrives, it's best right away. This is especially true so the nori does not lose its texture for hand rolls or gunkan style (gunkan means "battleship" in English and is similar to a handroll that's shaped more like a boat and usually topped with roe)."

"Eat nigiri in one bite."

"If you are adding wasabi, it's okay to add it to your soy sauce, but you should have another soy sauce that does not have wasabi. Not all dishes are best with wasabi."

"Don't add ginger on top of your sushi. It's meant as palate cleanser between dishes."

"If sushi is sauced, don't dip it in soy sauce. When dipping nigiri in soy sauce, I believe you should lightly dip the rice side, not the fish side, although many others believe differently. Try it and you will taste a difference."

"Not an etiquette rule, but when eating a hand roll, take a bite, flip the hand roll, and take a bite from the other side. This helps keep the hand roll intact."

Nozawa and Jiro would probably have a very long conversation about whether to dip the rice in soy sauce or not, as it's number six on Jiro's "don't" list.

But continuing in the world of super fine-dining sushi, unspoken rules abound. Andrea Fazzari, the James Beard Award-winning photographer and author of Sushi Shokunin as well as an upcoming book on Japanese culture, says, "when dining at a fine sushiya (sushi restaurant), it is essential to respect the sushi master, the ingredients and everything about where you are. If you are dining with someone else, conversation should be muted and hushed; the sushi master and what you are eating should be the focus."

She also explains that you "do not ask for extra anything: shoyu (soy sauce), wasabi, ginger. You will not be given a small saucer for extra shoyu in which to submerge your nigiri. The nigiri are already perfect as they are, prepared the way the master intends."


There's more at the link.

I like sushi, but I've never heard of most of those rituals, and I don't think I'll bother to follow them.  Not only am I unlikely to ever end up in a true Japanese sushi master's domain, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it if I did!  (Although it's a tempting thought . . . I have a yen to try it!)

I guess I'll carry on enjoying my gaijin-oriented sushi at local restaurants, and dispense with the cultural formalities.  Hmmm . . . we have a rather good sushi restaurant near us.  I must ask the chef whether he thinks adding mustard, ketchup, onions and sauerkraut to sushi would make it more American!



Peter


25 comments:

  1. "Should hot dogs have mustard and ketchup and onions and sauerkraut, or only one or two of them - and which ones? Why?"

    The Science is settled - Mustard and cheese always, onion and/or green bell pepper on occasion, bacon strip if you have it. Enhancement is good.

    Ketchup - Blasphemer !! Baliff - take him away and have a ankle unit strapped on !! On fries, ketchup is okay but on a hot dog.

    :^)

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  2. Should hot dogs have mustard and ketchup and onions and sauerkraut, or only one or two of them - and which ones?

    Children eat hotdogs with ketchup. Adults use mustard, preferably on a brat. Sauerkraut is acceptable. Onions are acceptable, but only with coney sauce or relish. Cheese is acceptable. Bacon is acceptable. Jalapenos or banana peppers are acceptable. Coleslaw is acceptable in some areas.

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  3. Green chile and cheese (in New Mexico).

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  4. I ate at a lot of small, local sushi places when I was working in Japan. I never saw any of the sushi chefs complain about a customer eating the sushi/roll/nigiri wrong. I think a lot of this is people trying to make their restaurant more "exclusive" through forced behavior than anything else.

    That said, I do agree that you don't put wasabi on everything.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. I think these "masters" protest too much - and by the way, where did the designation come from? Is it self bestowed?
      P.S. did you know there has been a huge rise in intestinal parasites in the US in recent years, probably due to the popularity of sushi and poor storage/ preparation or use of low quality fish?

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  5. That sushi stall (it's meant to be like an Edo period sushi stall apparently) costs $412 for one meal. Yep. And the "rules" actually state that if the chef forgot to brush soy sauce on, you can use some ginger as a brush to do it. So iow Jiro agrees with Nozawa, the exception being that he states that dipping the rice instead of brushing will alter the flavor and (due to the fluffier way he forms the sushi) cause the sushi to fall apart.

    Oh, they say to eat quickly, and all in one bite, but they emphasize that Jiro generously makes the rolls smaller for women so they can manage. Doubt they charge less though!

    Lol I love sushi but good lord. $412? No. Not even a little bit.

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  6. Tomatoes in Gumbo is nothing short of apostacy.

    I love sushi, but the whole ruleset at a high end place is BS. It's fish on rice. From what I read, it started as a street food, eaten with your hands.

    There are too many decent sushi places around here (and I'm in North Dallas) there's no point for me to go endure a snooty eating experience.

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  7. Hotdogs should be red, and have ketchup, mustard, and a slice of dill pickle on it.

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  8. Egg dipped cornmeal dredged blue gills.

    A Country boy delight.

    Nuff said.

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  9. If I might ask, which is the decent sushi place here in WF? The Taste of China stuff is quite good, but definitely not the more traditional Japanese style...

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  10. Sushi? No thanks I don't eat raw fish from oceans that are little more than large toilet bowls due to pollution.

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  11. "I have a yen to try it!"

    I see what you did there...... ;-)

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  12. Easy Carolina ordEred Carolina BBQ?
    Uh oh. Here comes Texas ... that ain't BBQ.

    How about Texas chili vs ... there ain't no other chili. Cubed meats, no tomatoes and NO beans.

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  13. Techie. Yep. But that is what Creole is for.

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  14. Hot dogs should have both ketchup and chili WITH beans just so you can make both New Yorkers and Texans whine.

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  15. The Sushi Nazi..........No Sushi for you!

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  16. Y'all are barbarians! Except Michael at 0819.

    Myself, I'm washing down my spaghetti squash with copious tequila.

    After SHTF, we may be eating sushi/ceviche/whatever due to lack of cooking fuel. I keep planning on using my sun oven but the clouds have other ideas. Sigh.

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  17. Sushi, you mean bait to catch food.

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  18. Well that kind of pretentious crap is designed by sushi chefs to separate wannabe snobs from their generally unearned cash in as large an amount as possible. The pretentiousness also aids in disguising any potential lack of quality of the raw ingredients because you can convince the mark that his dissatisfaction was caused by him not following the ritual right rather than that the fish was too old. It is also worth noting that sushi rice is vinegared traditionally because it acted as a preservative. It also has the ability to disguise some of the flavors of less than perfectly fresh fish.

    The fundamental rule of sushi is - the fresher the fish the better, though flash frozen fish (e.g. tuna) carefully defrosted is about as good as non-frozen. The key is that the fish not degrade. Followed by, if it is properly fresh you don't need to drown it in wasabi and soy.

    Some of my most memorable sashimi (raw fish, no rice) and sushi dishes have cost tens of dollars total including booze but were in drinking and dining establishments a mile or two from the port that the fish was landed at that morning. In Japan I find the quality of fish I get locally (dozens of fishing ports in the vicinity) is far superior to the stuff I have got in Tokyo (tuna being an exception - see frozen up above) and as a result the taste of the sashimi or sushi better here than in Tokyo. Other than uni in San Diego I have yet to find really fresh fish of any sort in the US and the sushi tends, as a result, to be even poorer.

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