I think we need to have a conversation about sushi. It’s well and truly mainstream now in the United States, with some 17,000 restaurants dedicated entirely to this particular type of Japanese food, according to IBISworld. That doesn’t count Asian fusion places, more generalized Japanese restaurants with sushi sections on their menus, or all of the grab-and-go sushi available at supermarkets and convenience stores. Sushi is everywhere, and it’s well past time we learned how to eat it properly.
The lack of sushi knowledge was brought to my attention during a preview of the newest location of Sushi by Bou, which, as my colleague Lisa Jennings recently reported, operates more than 20 of those 17,000 restaurants, mostly in hotels.
The preview was at the FiDi Hotel in New York City, where you’d think the food writers and influencers would know how to act around sushi, but apparently not.
Sushi by Bou is not an extravagant place, nor is the sushi pretentious. In fact, you only get to reserve your space at the sushi bar for an hour, and you get a 12-course — really 12-bite — omakase menu, starting at $70 with the option to add more items, like premium hand rolls priced between $18 and $32, seasonal market-priced sea urchin, cocktails, sake and, for dessert, spiked ice cream (called “Bouzy” to fit the restaurant’s name).
The food’s not extravagant, but it’s high-quality, with each piece made to order, brushed with soy sauce and otherwise dressed (chives on the yellowtail, ginger on the lean tuna) by the sushi chef, and placed in front of the diner — including top-notch stuff such as spot prawns, Hokkaido scallops, fatty tuna, and wagyu beef, as well as more run-of-the-mill selections, mostly nigiri, the type comprised of an oblong lozenge of sushi rice with a piece of fish on top.
The fact that the chefs dressed the fish for us eliminated one common no-no when it comes to sushi:
Don’t dip the rice in the soy sauce.
Good sushi is usually already dressed with wasabi, soy sauce, and whatever else the chef thinks should go on it, but if you’re going to dip your nigiri in soy sauce, flip it over so you dip the fish, otherwise the rice will soak up all the soy sauce and that’s all you taste.
Is flipping a piece of sushi challenging when you’re eating with chopsticks? That’s okay, because sushi is eaten by hand.
It’s finger food.
Many sushi restaurants will provide a little moist towel, placed to your right, that’s meant to be used to wipe your fingers between courses. That’s different from the moist towelette you’ll likely be given at the start of the meal to wipe your hands because, again, sushi is finger food.
Use this moist towelette to wipe your fingers | Photo by Bret Thorn
Also, maki, or sushi rolls, are typically already seasoned and don’t need any additional soy sauce.
Eat your sushi the moment it’s placed in front of you.
Sushi is similar to pasta, or other noodles, in that it starts to deteriorate as soon as it’s prepared. Eat it as fresh as possible and don’t let it linger.
This is also true for burgers, by the way. I think that’s probably why fried chicken sandwich sales took off during the pandemic — fried chicken is one of the only fried foods that travel well, certainly better than burgers.
Seriously, try to eat a 30-minute-old Big Mac.
Of course, sushi etiquette varies depending on where you’re eating. Feel free to drench that $7 spicy tuna roll you picked up at 7-Eleven in whatever sauce you want.
And of course, all of these rules are overridden by the broader rule: Don’t be a jerk.
Did I want to tell the diners seated next to me at Sushi by Bou to eat their food for crying out loud and not let it linger on the plate? Of course I did. But they didn’t seek my advice and it would have been rude to offer it. As a restaurant operator, a brief primer on how to act might be appropriate if your customers are open to it, but manners always apply, no matter where you’re eating.