Ten Commandments of Sushi

[acavailhez]

I ate at this sushi-ya two days ago. The chef genuinely cares about his craft and will direct you on how to eat the sushi and when to drink sake. It was a great experience trying to speak to him in my broken Japanese with the help of his wife. I believe this place is quite unique, and not because of the food (which is incredible in itself). Most of the experience comes from the strong characters of the chef and his wife.

If you have the chance to visit Tokyo and happen to be in Shibuya around lunch I highly recommend this place.

Edit: I went there because a friend forwarded me the article and they were very interested in reading the article

[solarmist]

What's a sushi course like this cost?

[Niksko]

Have you got a Google Maps link to the place? I usually put stars on Google Maps on places I want to visit, and I definitely plan on visiting Japan in the next few years.

[rdtsc]

I highly recommend this movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Dreams_of_Sushi

Even if you don't like Sushi the documentary itself, the style, the characters, the subjects are just every well done.

[pmh]

I really liked Jiro and would also recommend Tampopo[1] if you like "foodie" films and/or enjoyed the characters/subject matter of Jiro.

[1]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/

[autoreverse]

I recommend this one as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDL8yu34fz0

[bojo]

This was the first thing that popped into my head as well. Fantastic story about dedicating oneself to their chosen profession.

[coldtea]

>He placed a slice of ika (squid) on the black marble surface in front of me. “One, two, three,” he counted. “Every second that passes, it declines. That’s why I want you to eat it immediately.”

This urgency to eat it fast in his shop doesn’t make much sense in with regards to the tradition of sushi he supposedly serves, considering he said that they were served from street stalls — which would have to wait for customers and would be out in the open sun with poor refrigeration (probably nothing besides some ice buckets)…

>The first time I was about to eat a piece of raw clam sushi after drinking some sake, Yajima said something to his wife in Japanese, so she could translate. “Chew it a bit but don’t swallow,” she said. I obeyed. “Now sake!” Yajima barked.

Yeah, so they were drinking sake while eating sushi from steet stalls?

[peterwwillis]

The modern form of sushi (edomae nigirizushi) is basically fast food made out of freshly caught fish, so you make it and serve it the same as any other street-vended food based on raw fresh meat. The carts also had a covering on them - nobody left their fish out in the hot sun.

Also, real wasabi acts as an antimicrobial agent, which is a historical precedent for modern sushi chefs pre-applying the proper amount of wasabi to each piece before giving it to you.

The taste does change after it's been prepared. They're being a little bit "soup nazi" with the whole counting of seconds bit, but it is better to taste it freshly made.

--

It actually makes zero sense to wash the sushi down immediately with sake as it changes the flavor of what you're eating, not to mention the varying flavors and mouthfeels of both sushi and sake. If you have to drink something, make it water - but don't drink a lot before or during the meal or you'll get too full to finish all the sushi.

Sake is considered a rice dish in Japan, and sushi (in this article) is nigiri and not sashimi, so sake would be like an extra rice dish, which is atypical for Japan. I don't see why you couldn't drink sake at a street stall, though, if in America you can drink liquor out of a brown paper bag.

[coldtea]

Sorry for the meta, but three downvotes?

Somehow making some orbservations about what an article says without attacking anyone in this dicussion is controversial?

[majormajor]

> Some were rudimentary and fairly common; others were unique to him; still others recalled sushi’s origins as Edo-era street food.

Not that it's productive to complain about a person's (possible) lack of internal consistency in a story like this anyway... This isn't an article, say, giving advice on building secure software where errors would be dangerous.

[lnlyplnt]

"presented by renaissance hotels" -- didn't know medium was already experimenting with revenue sources. I wonder how lucrative this type of native ad is for them.

[evansolomon]

Started last summer.

http://adage.com/article/digital/bmw-runs-ads-medium-twitter...

[iancarroll]

I think that's being done by the collection and not Medium.

[moonlighter]

If you appreciated this article, then you're probably also going to appreciate the movie "Jiro Dreams of Sushi". It's on iTunes and Netflix, and really awesome if you're into Sushi and craftsmanship.

[vacri]

>"#3 Sushi is not only about the taste, it's also about the smell"

This is true of food in general. There's a very common "kid's science" experiment involving slices of raw apple, onion, and potato. Block off your nose, and they all taste the same. You might be able to pick them from textural components, but for most people, there's little difference between the three with the nose shut off.

http://ipfactly.com/without-smell-apples-potatoes-and-onions...

[tracker1]

Despite all my physical shortcomings, my sense of smell and taste are close to super-human... I can actually tell when something is done by smell alone more often than not.. and can emphatically tell the difference between apple, potato and onion without smell even.

The down side of all of it is there are many smells which aren't so pleasant that are sometimes very hard to block out. I can usually smell when things are "off" well before they are no longer considered "safe" ... will usually dump out milk, meat, etc days before they're actually expired.

Some things I notice far more than others... I can taste the difference between grass fed, and grain fed beef, I can't tell the difference in bone stock, or in the milk. I can tell the difference in what chickens are fed via eggs (prefer corn fed), but not the meat (usually). I actually love trying just about anything and everything. For the most part the only things I don't care fore are more often about the texture than the taste. I don't care for the texture of raw meat, really fatty food, squash or avocados. I don't mind sushi that's cooked (americanized) or at least torched/seared slightly. But don't care for the really raw/fresh stuff (texture just doesn't appeal to me).

I started getting into cooking a few years ago, and it's amazing how different I feel when I can stick to the stuff I make (not all of it so great for me) vs. even a couple days of fast food or pizza. I wish I could impart what I know/understand now on my 18yo self.

[spiritplumber]

I like this guy. An old lady I know ran her little trattoria this way - you went in, paid 15 thousand lire ($8 or so), she gave you whatever she made that day, that was it.

She stopped working at age 98.

[davidw]

Many trattorias (not 'ristoranti') operate like that: they have one or, at most, a few things, that are almost always delicious.

[baby]

Like everything else, the more you get into something, the more serious and deep you think it is. But for most people it isn't deep. I'm a bit negative but sushi is something I enjoy standing, seating, at home, in a restaurant, with a fork, with chopsticks, with salty soy sauce, with sweet soy sauce, etc... Don't be a snob, just enjoy the food you like the way you like it.

[driverdan]

> Don't be a snob, just enjoy the food you like the way you like it.

Or be a snob, if that's the way you like it.

[nkurz]

This short subtitled ethnological documentary helps illustrate traditional Japanese sushi etiquette in a manner accessible to Westerners. While complex and at times daunting, proper study of these details (hand positions, head angles, intonation) will be repaid many-fold over a lifetime of increased sushi enjoyment.

Highly recommended, even for sushi "experts": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfMqN2vu2Hg

[IgorPartola]

So most of this is actually actionable advice. Things like use your hands, savor but don't get distracted, don't use sauce/wasabi all are easy. But what I want to know is how do I find good places that serve sushi quickly in the states. Every restaurants that I have been to takes forever and serves it on a huge platter all at once. Don't get me wrong, some of these places seem excellent to my unrefined pallet, but where should I look for a more authentic experience?

[peterwwillis]

The easiest way to get sushi quick is to order it a la carte, at the bar, when they're not busy.

Ever go to a place and see a little card and pencil with a column each for Nigiri and Maki, with individual fish listed and a quantity line next to it? There you mark down what you want and how many pieces each. Fill out like three of them and submit them to your server after you've got your drinks settled, and you should get them pretty quick. If they don't have these cards, you may not get your order quickly.

Sometimes it's hit or miss; check the reviews online first. Back where I grew up in Florida there was a place where you'd get your order in less than two minutes, but the quality wasn't very good.

For an 'authentic experience', you want a simple place with an old japanese guy or two behind a bar watching a baseball game on a tiny tube TV, possibly with some shouting going on. This is super rare in the US from my perspective, but I have found a few places like this in south florida, so you may have luck elsewhere too.

For just a 'good sushi' experience, you want either a japanese convenience store that makes sushi to order, a super pretentious expensive place pretending to be a high end sushi/sake bar, or a place that randomly has a really well trained chef that imports really quality ingredients [which is typically only pretentious expensive places]. Food blogs are a good resource, though they can often be more pretentious than the restaurants.

I like to try out new places and order either chirashi or whatever the chef's nigiri special is, maybe with tuna or beef tataki beforehand to see their prep skills. Most places that don't have japanese chefs fuck up the tataki, and you can usually predict the rest of the quality from there. If you don't get paper thin slices or they come back over-seared, your sushi is gonna be sub-par.

Note: the best sushi i've ever eaten in my life was last year at the now-closed Barracuda in the Castro, so don't overthink it, just order some nigiri and see what happens.

[cli]

Which city? In NYC, it should be easy to find some excellent places. The meal I had at Sushi Yasuda was one of the best I remember.

[pixelcort]

If the place has it, try sitting at the bar instead of a table.

[twoy]

I think you shouldn't take these specific rules as a general advise. Don't use your hands directly untill you are sure your hands clean. Even most Japanese don't do that. And a rules imposed by a restaurant may be acceptable but a rules imposed by you to your acompanies are often uncomfortable. Japanese calls such kind of people "x-bugyo(奉行)" (e.g. nabe-bugyo, sushi-bugyo) as irony. bugyo means a person in a high position in Japan's feudal period.

[bootload]

paid advert. when did medium start doing this? As soon as I know the article is placed, the value in reading it changes.

  'Of the stories you read in traditional media that 
  aren't about politics, crimes, or disasters, more 
  than half probably come from PR firms.'

The suit is back, indeed: ~ http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

[matthewmacleod]

I'm a bit confused about what you're objecting to. Isn't this just a standard sponsored article, the sponsoring having no relation to the content?

[qzw]

I often get strange looks when using my fingers to eat sushi, but it works so much better than chopsticks! I can usually convince whoever is eating with me to follow suit after their sushi crumbles into their soy sauce dish and creates the sad looking rice/soy soup.

[ekianjo]

Its really not that hard to use chopsticks and i have never seen anyone eat sushi with their hands in japan and i eat sushi often.

[failrate]

I enjoy eating sushi with my hands, because it adds another sensual dimension to the eating experience.

[brianbreslin]

maybe because we often assume our hands are dirty? that could be part of the reason for the hot warm/moist towels?

[draugadrotten]

This article touts Sake as the beverage of choice for Sushi.

While I was visiting Sweden I was treated to a local Birch Wine "Grythyttan Bjorkvin" that was amazing with sushi. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to have a crossover between Scandinavian and Asian cuisine.

http://www.grythyttanvin.se/grythyttan-bjorkvin/

I don't know where to get it here in California but I'm sure you guys can disrupt the market and bring it over.

[dgcoffman]

I prefer dipping my sushi in wasabi mixed with soy sauce and I don't care how anybody else things I should eat it.

[elmin]

There's a difference between sushi you get at whole foods and sushi prepared by a chef directly in front of you.

[mturmon]

Not a downvoter, but: the problem with that is that these two tastes are so strong. It tends to make all the rolls taste the same. I don't know why doing this is so popular.

[kwentine]

I would suspect that, as the article hints, the art of enjoying sushi varies to some extent depending on the chef. For example, I was once taught that you should dip your fish slice (and not the rice underneath) in the soy sauce, put it back, and then be careful about making the fish side landing on your tongue first when you put it to your mouth. A - litteraly- twisted exercise.

But maybe the chef was just having quite a bit of fun watching customers handle three dimensional rotations with chopsticks :)

[peterwwillis]

Use your fingers instead of sticks and use quick movements to prevent disaster. You can get good at it with sticks but it is totally okay to use fingers.

Other tips: never ever stick your sticks standing up in a bowl. Slurp your broth/noodles. And finish every grain of rice or noodle you order. (If you're in japan, anyway)

[joelhaasnoot]

This article finally convinced my wife to let me order in Sushi - she hates fish or anything like it. I've being trying to tell her she has fish trauma from having to eat nasty old white fish, but this article was convincing enough :)

[tiagocesar]

This is really interesting. Here in Brazil we have a strong "japanese food" industry, obviously inclined to our western way; it's always amusing to see how important it is for the people who created it in the first place.

[kzhahou]

Best tip I ever got was to not mix wasabi into your soy sauce.

Instead, dab a small amount of wasabi directly on the nigiri, then dip into clean soy sauce. You then enjoy the intense wasabi, and the flavor is separated from the soy.

[ekianjo]

Depending on the place, wasabi is already applied on the rice below the fish buy the time you are served.

[wyclif]

This was a fun read for a sushi fan; thanks to the OP!