The ‘right’ way to eat sushi: Tips from the experts on sushi rules to follow, With the recent spate of sushi pranks that have rocked Japanese society, we set the record straight on the “right way” to eat one of the world’s greatest food delights.
In February 2023, a video surfaced online showing a man licking a communal soy sauce bottle as it rolled by on a sushi conveyor belt. The man went on to tamper with other sushi dishes as well, to the dismay of restaurant onlookers. That should’ve been the end of the story, but like most viral trends (emphasis on virus), sushi-ruining copycats sprang up, showing videos of people licking chopsticks, rubbing saliva on sushi plus putting wasabi on other people’s orders.
Three of the perpetrators have been arrested by the Japanese police, hopefully putting a stop to the sushi-destroying shenanigans, but it still shocked a nation that’s known for its rules, regulations, cleanliness plus etiquette, especially with food. Additionally, sushi restaurants in Japan have begun to disable their conveyor belts or install sensors plus cameras to catch the “sushi terrorists” red-handed (or red-tongued as it were), possibly putting an end to one of the world’s great sushi eating experiences.
Obviously, the offense of licking conveyor-belt sushi, known as kaiten restaurants, is limited to extremists, but there are still a bevy of sushi rules to follow if you want to avoid any fishy faux pas.
On the fine-dining end of sushi consumption, there’s Sukiyabashi Jiro, the impossible-to-get-into restaurant made famous from the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. On their website, they have a list of 12 rules that range from how to use your chopsticks plus cleanse your palate to timing on when to eat the fish that’s splayed out in front of you. This writer has eaten there plus has been admonished for taking too much time between bites.