We’ve Been Eating Sushi Wrong This Whole Time

Turns out we’re not as cultured as we thought. According to world-renowned sushi chef Naomichi Yasuda, there are rules when it comes to eating sushi that you probably didn’t know about and are probably breaking. Fun fact: Yasuda says the most important ingredient in sushi is actually rice, not fish.

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First, you’re supposed to eat sushi rolls with your fingers, holding the seaweed portion of the sushi roll and dipping it gingerly into the soy sauce. That means no chopsticks and no heavy dipping.

Also, you’re not supposed to put the ginger in the soy sauce or eat it with the sushi. Ginger should only be eaten by itself to cleanse your palate between rolls. Yasuda shares it’s actually considered bad manners to eat ginger with your sushi roll. Ginger is also supposed to be eaten with your fingers so stop reaching for those things already!

You can use chopsticks when eating sushi (different from sushi rolls), but there’s also a specific way to hold these pieces; one side of your chopsticks should be touching the piece of fish on top, while the other chopstick should be touching the rice on the bottom so it’s sandwiched between the two.

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Next thing you’ve been doing wrong: do not dip your sushi rice side-down into the soy sauce.

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The chef also says that you shouldn’t shake the soy sauce off of the sushi. Yasuda even laughs, making a joke that this practice should be left for the men’s room. He’s funny and he can cook. We can’t even eat sushi right.

The last thing you never knew about eating sushi: eating it “by the counter” or as soon as it’s been made will have a completely different taste than when it’s brought to your table. This is because the temperature of the ingredients actually has an effect on the taste. Do you still feel like a sushi expert now?

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