Traditions For Eating Fish

There is no right or wrong way to eat sushi, however, certain customs will enhance your experience. Experience the following after cleaning your hands with the warm, moist oshiburi (hand towel). Start with sashimi (fish without rice) to awaken your palette to the pure flavors of the fish. Begin with a small shoyu (soy sauce) in your soy sauce plate. Dip a small amount of wasabi, the mountain-grown Japanese horseradish, between the tips of your chopsticks and pick up a single slice of fish between the tips. Dip only the edge of your fish into the shoyu and eat in one mouthful. As with sushi (fish with rice), more than a touch of shoyu overwhelms the pure flavor and upsets the delicate balance of tastes. The flavors may initially seem subtle, but they will soon emerge in the most pleasing ways.

Occasionally take a small piece of gari (pickled ginger) to refresh the palette and set up your tastebuds for the next kind of fish. The sharp, slightly sweet and sour ginger will overwhelm the tastes in your mouth, so take your time and enjoy the flavors of the fish. Use the gari sparingly and resist mixing it directly with our sushi or sashimi as it wipes out the flavor of the fish. Sushi will sometimes arrive ungarnished. For these pieces, dip the edge of the fish or roll into shoyu, again only applying a small amount as an accent. Don't let the rice become saturated with the shoyu and save the gari for between bites. Eat the entire piece of sushi at once. While it might initially seem awkward to take the entire piece of sushi into your mouth at once, remember that Sapporo structures our portions for your individual mouth. Taking the whole piece at once means the flavors, textures, and aromas intersect fully and at their best.