Setting the table
Japanese cooking is very visual. At certain imperial Japanese banquets, court etiquette demands that guests be content to merely look at their food. It’s doubtful this etiquette will ever take off in the West.
A sushi chef is regarded as an artist and cooking is a highly regarded profession in Japan. Your sushi must look good. In Japan it’s not sufficient for food to simply satisfy your appetite. Texture and appearance are just as important. Things to look for are balance and harmony in size, shape and colour between the topping and rick of nigiri-sushi and the filling, rice and seaweed of maki-sushi.
When setting the table for your meal, never lay the choptsticks flat on the table. Chopsticks are meant to rest on special chopstick rest, made of porcelain, pottery or bamboo. Place the chopsticks in front you’re your guest, side by side, with both points on the rest and facing to the left. Chopsticks that point to the right are a symbol of bad luck for the Japanese. Between courses, chopsticks are always placed on the rest and it is consider ill-mannered to leave them on the plate or in your bowl.
Because tea plays such a large part in Japanese cuisine, teacups should play a large part on our table. Distinct teacups (yuno-mi) are custom-made for sushi shops in Japan. They often carry the name of the shop and are given as present to regular patrons.
Enjoying your sushi
Eating with chopsticks
Chopsticks range in size and quality and are generally made of bamboo, willow, Hokkaido chestnut or cypress. Although the finest are made from cedar, grown in Yoshino. Japanese chopsticks have pointed ends (unlike the blunt-ended Chinese variety) so that the beautifully presented cuisines can be enjoyed with delicate precision. Eight billion sets of disposable chopsticks are used in Japan every year. Sashimi, maki and even sushi can be eaten with chopsticks.
Order of eating and portions
Sashimi, simple slices of raw fish with no rice or seaweed, is often offered as an appetizer. Place on a small board (with a dab of wasabi, a small mound of gari and of course an offering of soy sauce, ) sashimi gives your guest and idea of the quality of your fish. Using chopsticks, dip only the edge of your sashimi into the soy sauce so as not to mask the flavour of the fish. Sushi can either be served as individual portion (enough for one person) or as a large platter from which all your guests can help themselves.
Individual portions
For one serving, arrange nigiri-sushi closer to your and thin rolls (hosomaki) horizontally further away from you. Separate nigiri-sushi that has cooked toppings (omelette) from those that have raw toppings. Add one Battleship Wrap (gunkanmaki) Position the thin rolls so that the seam of the seaweek faces the back. Garnish with gari and decorate with a bamboo leaf.
Serving a platter for a party
It is considered ill-mannered to cram a platter with sushi, so rather use a few platters and arrange nigiri-sushi and rolls tastefully, with colour and shape in mind. Arrange each piece of sushi in a radial pattern from the centre of the platter, so guests can take pieces from any direction.
Order of eating
There is no set order in which they various kinds of nigiri-sushi should be enjoyed. However, in Japan, many people prefer to start off with tuna (maguro) and then whatever strikes their fancy. When a combination sushi plate is served, the pieces wrapped in seaweed (nori) should be eaten first because the crispiness of nori doesn’t last long after it has come into contact with the damp rice.