Danny Bloom at Japundit links to an article by “Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers” entitled “So You Want To Be a Sushi Snob?” It could be funnier, but it is amusing. Also, I discovered that I’ve been eating sushi incorrectly. Here is the proper method, apparently:
No! No! No! What are you doing? You do not put the Wasabi (Wasabia japonica) directly into the small bowl of Shoyu (Soy sauce). No one wants to see your plate with some revolting muddy green sludge – a putrid floating pile of flotsam and jetsam – in it. Disgusting. Have you no class? Take your chopsticks and lift the raw fish off of the top of the Nigiri (raw fish on a small rice ball), turn it upside down. Place a small portion of Wasabi on the underside (now facing up) and dip the upper-side (now facing down) into the Shoyu. Do not touch the Wasabi into the Shoyu. Then replace the fish, right side up, back on top of the Nigiri and eat. Try not to get any Shoyu on the rice directly. Also, please, in-spite of yourself, don’t have little pieces of rice floating around in your Shoyu bowl either. What do you think this is, an Olympics swimming competition? Of course please refrain from using your unwashed fingers to touch your food – we’re trying to eat with adults who have some class and a proper upbringing. We’re not eating with a bunch of animals here. Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?
After eating each piece of Nigiri, take some Gari (Ginger) – and it had better not be red colored ginger, either – and chew it to clear your palate so that you may enjoy the fresh taste of the next piece of sushi. Repeat.
Rogers adds,
California Rolls and so-called Maki-Zushi (sushi that is rolled up in seaweed) is for kids and drunks who cannot hold their chopsticks.
So, there you have it.