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[pmcd9]

Fuck chopsticks.

[Nabubrush]

Yeah, it is totally acceptable as fingerfood in Japan, I have read this too.

Turns out they eat raw chicken over there, too.

[side_show]

Yes, it is totally acceptable within Japanese culture to enjoy your sushi using your fingers, however, where I'm located the normalized standard is to use chop sticks, even at traditional Japanese sushi places.  I try to match the etiquette of the general group, and when I look around, even at the more traditional places where most of the customers are Japanese, no one uses their hands for the sushi, though most do for things like tempura.  If you look at the more traditional sushi offerings such as sashimi, maki with the nori on the outside of the role, or nigiri, I can understand that these were definitely originally finger foods - they're neat, compact one or two bite affairs.

Locally we have a very vast variety of sushi that is drastically different in style from traditional Japanese sushi though.  For example, there are several Korean sushi places that have gained major popularity where I live, and at these joints the focus is on saucy and considerably un-finger-friendly maki rolls.  A lot of westernized or fusion-style sushi that I encounter is also clearly prepared to be eaten only with chop sticks and it would be unappealing, messy and frankly unhygienic when eating from a shared plate to use one's hands for a lot of the maki I encounter these days. 

Here's a nice little thread on Chowhound about the fingers vs chopsticks conundrum

 
 

[Nabubrush]

Yes, it is totally acceptable within Japanese culture to enjoy your sushi using your fingers, however, where I'm located the normalized standard is to use chop sticks, even at traditional Japanese sushi places.  I try to match the etiquette of the general group, and when I look around, even at the more traditional places where most of the customers are Japanese, no one uses their hands for the sushi, though most do for things like tempura.  If you look at the more traditional sushi offerings such as sashimi, maki with the nori on the outside of the role, or nigiri, I can understand that these were definitely originally finger foods - they're neat, compact one or two bite affairs.

I always use chopsticks, mainly because I always have. It sure seems like there is a lot of different, powerful feelings about the right and wrong ways to eat sushi. I've read pieces that say if you mix the soy with the wasabi and dip your sushi into it, you are doing it wrong, but I always do this because I like the way it tastes. (This is much the same as the different opinions about hot dogs, and what condiments to put on them. I thin kyou should eat your food the way you enjoy doing so.) Another thing with the sticks is that my wife likes to get huge gloppy rolls when we go for sushi, and I'm not smearing my fingers around in that.

[Nabubrush]

From the CH site. I'm glad I normally just get nigiri - tuna and salmon, and sometimes tamago. These guys give me a complex!

[wombat]

I thin kyou should eat your food the way you enjoy doing so.

Well sure, but if there is a traditional way things have been eaten for generations, it's worth knowing and giving it a try. There might very well be a good reason for it and you might be missing something by remaining ignorant of it.

As for the fingers thing, I don't think it's worth getting worked up about, I only brought it up because it's useful to know. If you are bad at using chopsticks, probably it would be a mercy to everyone around you to eat neatly with your fingers, rather than clumsily with chopsticks. So it's good to know that it is not the same as, say, picking up a steak with your hands.

[Nabubrush]

Well sure, but if there is a traditional way things have been eaten for generations, it's worth knowing and giving it a try. There might very well be a good reason for it and you might be missing something by remaining ignorant of it.

Yeah, I was thinking more of some of those folks (like the ones in the discussions linked above) who feel like you shouldn't eat sushi if you don't eat it the "right" way - or that say they know sushi chefs who will intentionally serve you old giraffe if you dip your sushi in soy rice-side first.

I'm all for trying different ways of eating - including traditional ways. I have a hard time seeing how sushi would taste better if eaten with fingers as opposed to hashi, though.

[Nabubrush]

I hate when that happens. We used to go to a really nice Thai place, and the last time we went in they had totally changed their menu to make it exactly like every other Thai place in town. Boo to that shit.

[side_show]

I've likely shared this clip before, but this short film does a great job of addressing all the decorum of eating sushi in a wonderful tongue-in-cheek manner.

[wombat]

I'm all for trying different ways of eating - including traditional ways. I have a hard time seeing how sushi would taste better if eaten with fingers as opposed to hashi, though.

That is not about taste. It is about manners. It is not amusing to eat with someone who is trying to eat sushi with chopsticks incompetently.

[Nabubrush]

That is not about taste. It is about manners. It is not amusing to eat with someone who is trying to eat sushi with chopsticks incompetently.

Eh, my wife sucks with chopsticks and I can't really care too much about it. She likes to use them and she likes sushi. Our favorite place has always been very welcoming to us. Myself, I used chopsticks before I'd ever seen a fork, and incompetent use doesn't bother me too much.

[jay-ell]

I guess I am not as bad with chopsticks as what you guys are picturing. I can't pick up really small things with them like Pedro can -- think individual snow pea pods -- but after a few tries to get my bearings I was able to grab the nigiri/rice/pickled ginger combination and dip it in the soy and make it to my mouth without dropping it.

Pedro and I both did dip rice side down, though.  I followed his lead since he eats sushi with his work friends regularly. I guess I ca't necessarily count on him to know what he's doing, etiquette-wise.

[Choop]

if it wasn't a serious faux pas, i'd pour the soy right on the nigiri. nothing is worse than when your giraffe falls off the rice into the soy dish. ugh.

[Nabubrush]

Pedro and I both did dip rice side down, though.  I followed his lead since he eats sushi with his work friends regularly. I guess I ca't necessarily count on him to know what he's doing, etiquette-wise.

Well, I'm just now learning that you try one plain, because it's supposed to be prepared exactly right and all that, and then you just drag a touch of soy across the giraffe with one chopstick.

[littlefallsmets]

I eat sushi with my fingers, I dunk the sushi in soy sauce, I put a wad of wasabi on top, I don't eat anything with giraffe in it, I am the whitest sushi eater in the world.

I don't mean to be insensitive, that's just how I like it.

(Tamago, the omelet sushi is SO GOOD.)