Eating sushi is not about filling yourself with raw fish. Eating sushi is an experience--some say a ritual--that involves all your senses. Serious sushi can only be eaten at the bar because that's the only place where you'll see the colors, inhale the aromas, share the laughter, and taste the food fully immersed in the environment. Plan on a one and a half to two hour meal.
1. Eat at the sushi bar.
2. Greet the other people at the bar and start conversation with them; sushi is about community.
3. If you cannot eat at the bar, walk to it and check the quality of the fish before ordering.
4. Greet the itamae (sushi chef) even if you don't eat at the bar. He'll recommend special stuff if he recognizes you as a regular and/or someone who truly knows how to eat sushi.
5. Remember that itamae are not just "cooks". They have traditions dating back to the time of the samurai. These same guys fed the meanest leanest macho hombre warriors of Japan. Be respectful and you shall enjoy the best sushi.
6. Order all sushi items from the itamae, everything else from the food servers.
7. Order sashimi (selection of fresh fish slices) first; ask the sushi chef for his choice of fish. He knows what's fresh today better than you. "Please prepare what you think is freshest," is the best way to order. Let him be creative.
8. Order one kind of sushi at a time, maximum three if the bar is busy. That could be nigiri, maki or temaki. Big plates are for the table only.
9. If you are a regular, let the itamae decide what you're having and at what pace it is served.
10. Don't rush through your meal. Eat at McDonald's if you want to eat fast.
11. If you're at the bar and in a bit of a hurry (i.e. have a half hour to eat or so), order a chirashi, a small lacquered box with a bed of sushi rice, a bit of sugar, some pickled veggies and a chef's selection of fish and mollusks. This way you'll get all your sushi at once in a single serving and then leave. Eat it with chopsticks.
12. Pickled vegetables, sprouts, and some things like ankimo (monkfish liver) are OK to order from the sushi chef if you see them advertised at the bar.
13. Don't be afraid to ask for things not listed in the menu. Chances are the chef has them under the counter for those people (like you) who truly know what they're doing. Kazunoko, inago, hebo and idtakko fall in this category.
14. If the bar is busy and you feel like you can't wait, order some edamame (boiled soy beans), suimono(clear broth) or chawanmushi (egg custard with shiitake, ginko nuts, and seafood) to keep you busy until the sushi chef can take care of you.
15. Eat sushi with moderation. More than 10 kinds of fish, crab, and clams is too much because your palate numbs.
16. Drink green tea, beer, or sake with your sushi. Soft drinks spoil the taste and white wine is for tourists. Remember there are more than 300 kinds of sake, so at least one will be better than the cheap Chardonnay they offer by the glass.
17. If you're drinking sake, keep in mind that not all sake is heated for consumption. Nigori (unfiltered) sake looks like milk; drink it cold. For hot sake, ask for Sho Chiku Bai. Ask the itamae for more exotic drinks like gold sake (with real gold flakes in it!)
18. If the sushi is excellent and you're having a good time, offer to buy a drink for the itamae and his assistants. You will discover that most Japanese itamae drink Budweiser (as observed in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, New York, and Moscow). Don't offer to buy drinks during lunch; this is an evening tradition.
19. Don't be surprised if your itamae pours you a glass of the special reserve sake he keeps under the bar if he realizes that you know your sushi and how to order it. Thank him, raise your glass and toast by saying "kampai!".
20. Tips: The itamae and rest of the staff are tipped separately unless you pay the bill with a credit card. The bulk of the tip must go to the itamae. Note that this applies only in the US! There is no tipping in Japan. Adhere to local customs in other countries. (eugeneciurana)
See also : soto, dim sum
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