Have you ever sat in front of a plate of sushi and not known how to tell if the sushi is good or bad ? We do not always have an Internet connection at hand and it is not always possible to go to comerJapones.com to find out if what we are going to put in our mouths (don’t be a bad thinker) would pass a quality test Japanese restaurant. No problem! To resolve these doubts we have created a decalogue with 10 tricks to become a sushi expert.
Have we come to the right place?
The first thing we must ask ourselves is if the place we have entered is “really” a Japanese restaurant. I say this because it often happens that, since eating Japanese has become fashionable, many business owners take the opportunity to change the signage of their establishment and make us believe that what they serve there is “Japanese food”, when in reality they serve something very different. To avoid unpleasant scares, it is best to take a look at our article on how to distinguish a Japanese restaurant from a Chinese one . You can also look at the door and check if they have the distinctive seal of ” recommended by ComerJapones ” 😉
1) Types of sushi
In many letters they make an erroneous distinction between “sushi” and “makis”, as if they were two different things. As I already explained in my article about the different types of sushi , (sushi 寿司) is nothing more than the generic word that designates vinegared rice with another ingredient (even fish). But there are multiple variants of this dish, such as Edomae zushi or nigirizushi , with a shari ball covered with a neta or topping ; makizushi wrapped with nori seaweed: the thickest are futomaki ; the narrow one ingredient, hosomaki ; the inverted ones with rice on the outside and seaweed on the inside, uramaki ; the kazari zushior decorative sushi, cone-shaped temaki ; gunkanzushi shaped like an armored ship; inarizushi in a tofu bag; pressed sushi or oshizushi ; or even spread in a bowl like chirashizushi . If you have these basic concepts, you can pass yourself off as true experts.
2) The seasonality of the product
Before ordering your sushi, ask yourself this simple question: is it normal to have tuna in winter or sea urchin in summer? Keep in mind that, for example, the hedgehog season coincides with the coldest months of the year, from November to April. Therefore, if you happen to ask in the middle of August if they can serve you a uni gunkanzushi, you will be as portrayed as if you were ordering Polvorones at a beach bar in summer.
3) Cutting the fish
The shape of the fish cut ( kirikata切り方) is very important. Squid, for example, releases all its umami if it has thin cuts like corduroy or in the shape of a diamond, also called (megiri 目切り). White fish is usually cut on the bias ( sogizukuri削ぎ造り), with a characteristic wedge shape at the end of the cut. If you see filaments, serrated cuts or excessively straight cuts, it is likely that scissors were used instead of a knife. 😉
4) The shape of the shari or rice ball
Observe the appearance of the shari. It may have a completely cubic shape similar to a box ( ojûお重); oval shape like a straw sack ( tawara俵); elongated and boat-shaped ( funazoko舟底); rhomboid or fan shape ( suehiro末広) or paper arch shape of a fan ( jigami地紙). If it is shaped like a golf ball or a crushed churro, it would be better to leave it on the plate and order something else.
5) Size does matter
When we are not at a sushi bar with an itamae in front of us serving the pieces instantly, old-school sushimen prefer to shape the slice of fish so that it completely covers the small shari ball . In this way, the rice is preserved in optimal conditions and does not dry out while the waiter brings it to the table. If you see a large mass of rice and a tiny sheet of fish that doesn’t even cover it, it is possible that the restaurant owner is more concerned with saving on raw materials than serving top quality sushi.
6) The texture and temperature of the rice
The rice is aerated with a fan (uchiwa 団扇) until it reaches room temperature . It should not be too hot or cold from the refrigerator. In a nigirizushi, the shari or sushi rice ball must leave an internal cavityso that the rice is spongy and falls off on the tongue right when it enters the mouth. Likewise, the shari in a makizushi should also be spread gently so that it has that same texture and is easier to taste. If we find a compact ball or rice caked on the nori seaweed, it is likely that the sushiman has lost his anti-stress balls and has let off steam by squeezing our sushi rice. Many diners mistakenly think that nigiri should stay in one piece when chewing, but I’m afraid that only happens with poorly made sushi or plastic sushi .
7) What does rice taste like?
I’m not asking you what the clouds taste like, but what the sushi rice itself tastes like. Does it have a sweet taste ? Is it excessively salty ? Does it have a vinegary taste ? The next time you try a bite of sushi, pay attention to these details, because it is very important that you identify those three flavors. As is usually the case, each teacher has his own booklet and you will not find two sushi rice recipes the same. What is clear is that the dressing (awasezu 合わせ酢) should contain rice vinegar, sugar and salt (and in some cases, also mirin). The traditional taste of sushi rice should be reminiscent of the vinegared rice that was formerly used to make fish (narezushi なれ鮨) fermented in rice with vinegar. Some more classic restaurants prefer saltier flavors, while in the pseudo-Japanese restaurants converted into open buffets they go overboard with sugar and mirin to satisfy us in just a few bites.
8) Proportion of flavors
The balance of flavors between the sushi rice (sumeshi 酢飯) and the neta or topping of a nigiri should maintain a proportion of 60% and 40%. I mean that the characteristic flavor of the rice should stand out slightly above the flavor of the fish itself, without the latter masking the former. In some fusions and concessions to Western palates, sauces and spicy foods that mask the genuine flavor of each ingredient are often abused, so some purists could go so far as to affirm that if this point of the decalogue is not met, we would not be talking about authentic « sushi.
9) The presentation
The way you plate the sushi (moritsukekata 盛り付け方) is also very important. The arrangement and depth of the elements and even the chromaticism of the compositions and ingredients or the choice of tableware is an art that could be compared to scenography. In restaurants as renowned as Shikku I have seen such basic blunders as serving food on a beautiful plate with autumn leaf motifs… in the middle of July! In other places I have seen them place the nigiri facing the wrong way on the plate. What the canons command is to place them inclined zenithally to the left(this way \) to eat them comfortably with the right hand, starting on the right and ending at the left end of the plate. Although I imagine that 10% of the population, left-handed people, will prefer the opposite layout (//).
10) The way to eat it
I will never tire of saying that sushi can be eaten with hashi as well as with your hands . In fact, tuna hosomaki, popularly known as (tekkamaki 鉄火巻き) owe their name to the gaming halls or (tekkaba 鉄火場) where they were designed, covering them with nori seaweed, so that the players could not mark their cards with a granite. of rice when they ate nigirizushi with their hands between games. If you have any doubts about this last point, I recommend that you reread this other post about the etiquette rules for eating sushi.